“So hot,” Lucy said, fanning herself. “Lucky you! Does he have a brother?”
“No, luckily for me, there’s only one of him.” One with many furry faces.
“Shame,” she said with a sigh. “I would’ve asked you to set me up.”
“No boyfriend, huh?”
She shook her head.
Thinking about last night’s lamb sandwich, I curled my lip. It wasn’t happily ever after once people got together, that was for sure. After the kiss and the declaration of feelings and all that soppy shite was when the real work began.
We were so engrossed in boy talk that when the bell above the door rang, we both jumped a mile. Turning, all the blood drained from my face when I saw who it was.
He was shorter than Boone by a head, his skin bronzed from years playing Aussie Rules football out in the Australian sun. His hair was lightened to a mousy blond, his muscles giving away his penchant for athletics…on the field and off. Alex Rosedale, my Australian ex-boyfriend, was standing in my shop in Ireland. Once, I would’ve said I loved him, but now I wanted to asphyxiate on my own vomit at the sight of him.
“What the…cac,” I swore using the Irish word for shit. Was this the Three of Swords manifesting? Had to be.
“Skye,” he said, his accent sounding strange to my ears after months of living among the thick Irish spoken in Derrydun.
“How…”
“An old lady over in that pink cafe told me I would find you here,” he said.
“Mary,” I said, narrowing my eyes. “Her name is Mary.”
He shrugged. “Uh, can we talk?”
I glanced at Lucy, who was watching our exchange with curiosity.
“Can you hold the fort for a sec?” I asked. “I won’t be long.”
When she nodded, I grabbed Alex’s arm and practically dragged him out onto the street.
“Ow,” he complained as I pulled him away from the shop and down the footpath. “Skye, you’re worse than a ruckman with that grip.”
“What are you doing here?” I demanded, letting him go.
“Good to see you, too.” He rubbed his arm and looked back at the shop. “Do you work there?”
“I own it,” I retorted. “How did you even know I was here?”
“You changed your hometown on your social media profile.”
I rolled my eyes. Moron.
“Skye, you just disappeared and never came back. Everyone was worried about you.”
“Yeah, right.” I couldn’t believe that. All my friends had been his first, and when people broke up, they usually stuck with what they knew. Which meant I was ejected from the circle.
“I’m sorry about your mum,” he went on, scratching his head nervously.
“Shit happens.”
“Can we go somewhere and have lunch or something? So we can talk.”
“I can’t leave the shop,” I replied. “It’s Lucy’s first day.”
He glanced over my shoulder at Irish Moon and didn’t mask his disappointment.
“You never really talked about your mum before,” he said. “And now you’re living in her house and running her business.”
“So?” It came out a little short, but I didn’t need to justify myself to him. He was the one who’d dumped me, magical conspiracy or not.
“So?” His eyebrows rose. “It’s a little left of center for you.”
“I needed a fresh start,” I replied with a sullen shrug. “After being handed a redundancy and dumped, the last thing I needed was to rot in Melbourne.”
“Ouch.”
“You’re hurt?” I raised my eyebrows. “Sheesh.”
Not able to look at him anymore, I turned my gaze to Molly McCreedy’s where I saw Maggie out the front. She waved when she saw me and began to walk toward us. Great.
I was usually glad to see the Irish bartender, we’d become great friends, but having Alex standing here being argumentative about our breakup—and why was he here, anyway?—wasn’t good for my psyche. I would have to explain who he was, and I didn’t want to do that, not with the way the Derrydun gossip mill operated.
“Hey,” she said, standing beside us. “I just wanted to know if you and Boone…” She trailed off and stared at Alex. “Who’s this?”
“This is Alex,” I said, glaring at my stupid ex-boyfriend. “He’s a…um…friend from home.”
“Friend?” His lip curled.
Like a beacon of hope, a giant gold coach appeared around the corner, passed us, and began navigating around the hawthorn. Forget saved by the bell, I was saved from further awkwardness by the bus.
“I’ve got to get back to work,” I said, pointing at the coach.
Alex scowled, clearly aware I was pushing him away. “Well, can we talk later?”
“Sure, whatever.”
Thankfully, he chose to walk away, and Maggie and I watched him move down the footpath and cross the street before he disappeared behind Mary’s Teahouse where the car park was.
Thoroughly annoyed, anxious, and on tenterhooks with my temper, I turned to storm back into Irish Moon, but Maggie caught my arm before I escaped inside.
“That’s your ex? What’s he doin’ here of all places?”
“Hell if I know,” I muttered, desperate to get away.
“Does Boone know?”
“No! Alex just showed up now. I didn’t know he was coming. I’d forgotten all about him, like an epic bitch.”
Maggie gave me a pointed look that said everything. Men didn’t usually show up in tiny villages in foreign countries on the other side of the world looking for their ex-girlfriends unless they wanted something. Like getting back together.
“No!” I exclaimed. “No way.”
“Just watch out, is all I’m sayin’.” Maggie shrugged and started to walk away as the bus began to offload its cargo of cashed-up tourists. “Who ended it?”
“He did!” I wanted to stamp my foot like a pouty toddler who wasn’t allowed any more chocolate.
Maggie let out a slow whistle.
Rolling my eyes, I bolted back into the shop where Lucy was readying herself for her first wave of tourists to hit the floorboards.
Alex, here in Derrydun? He couldn’t have shown up at a worse time. Things were awkward with Boone and me, I had a business to run, and that wasn’t even mentioning the whole witch destiny thing. Alex just didn’t fit in my life anymore. My feelings had changed…hadn’t they?
Ugh, Maggie was right. Boone was going to hit the roof.
This was trouble. Big trouble.
Chapter 4
The Three of Swords was haunting my every step.
From morning to lunch, I sweated it out, knowing it was only a matter of time before Maggie said something to someone, and then that someone said something to someone else… Soon, the entire village would know my ex-boyfriend had turned up, long before I had a chance to tell Boone.
Who needed the Internet when Derrydun had a perfectly adequate phone tree.
By mid-afternoon, there were rustlings on the grapevine, and by close of business, word on the street was things were rocky between Boone and I. At some point, there’d be a fight to the death between the two men. Pistols at thirty paces down the main road.
The only thing that had gone well today was Lucy. She’d taken to selling crystals and souvenirs to tourists like a duck to water. At least I didn’t have to worry about the shop. When closing came, I sent her off home and locked up Irish Moon, not knowing what I would find when I went back to the cottage. Happy Boone or mad Boone.
Shuffling around the corner, I took my time, trying to think of a way to let him know he shouldn’t be threatened.
There was one thing I didn’t understand. If part of my legacy calling me home was dismantling my life so I was free to return, then why was Alex showing up now? It was all a little convenient if you asked me. I’d unlocked my true powers when I’d fought the craglorn and released a golden light that blinded even me, and now here was Alex, bright-eyed a
nd bushy-tailed, wanting who knew what.
Boone was waiting for me when I got home. He was sitting at the kitchen table, leafing through the newspaper like he wasn’t a shapeshifter, and I wasn’t a witch. It was a picture of normalcy that was odd to my eyes. I almost wished he was still hanging around as Buddy the tabby cat rather than sitting in my house as a man I was about to piss off.
As I walked into the kitchen, he stood and pulled me in for a hug, burying his nose into my hair.
“Hey,” he whispered, clearly worked up about something. “Listen, about last night…”
Oh, God, he was going to get all sickly sweet and deep and meaningful about that lamb sandwich before I had the chance to tell him about Alex. Not good.
Boone was so sweet, hot, and my one and only confidant in this crazy new world, and now I had to tell him Alex had made some kind of grand gesture and was sniffing around. Alex, the man I almost fell in love with before my Crescent legacy had conspired to break us apart.
“Uh…” I pulled back nervously. “There’s something I have to tell you…”
His eyes narrowed, and his grip loosened. “What did you do?”
“What did I do?” I scoffed. “Pfft.” I extracted myself from his arms. “I didn’t do anything, just so you know.”
“Then what’s happened?”
I wasn’t sure there was an easy way of telling him another man was trying to cut his grass, because what other reason was that Australian buffoon here for?
“Alex showed up today.”
Boone tensed. “Alex, as in…”
“My ex-boyfriend.” I winced, waiting for the explosion.
“Your…” Boone’s face began to redden, and I wondered if I should dive under the table for some cover. “What is he doin’ here?”
“I don’t know!” I pouted, crossing my arms over my chest. “I was busy… I…” I was being totally lame.
Boone wasn’t convinced I didn’t have anything to do with it, though. “Why does any man cross the world to look up their ex-girlfriend?”
“Well, he came a long way for nothing!”
“Are you sure?”
“What do you mean by that?!” I cried, my voice becoming shriller by the second.
“I know things have been—”
A knock at the door silenced out argument but not for long. Boone glanced in the direction of the sound, his lip curling. Uh, oh. I began to mull over the shapes I knew he could form—fox, gyrfalcon, tabby cat, horse—and an image of Alex being mauled by a house cat came to mind. It wasn’t quite as hilarious as it sounded.
“Is that him?” Boone demanded.
“I…” It probably was, which wasn’t going to help anything.
His scowl deepened, and he strode toward the front door.
“Boone!”
He wrenched it open, revealing a startled Alex on the other side.
“Are you him?” he demanded. “Are you Alex?”
“Yeah…”
“If you’ve come here to win Skye back, you can forget about it,” Boone practically roared. “She’s with me now.”
The fan was spinning at high velocity, and the cac was being readied for a full force splatter.
“Boone,” I said, pulling at his shirt sleeve. I could feel a crackle in the air that had everything to do with his shapeshifter power. “Calm down.”
“Gabh suas ort féin!” he exclaimed in Irish. I didn’t know what it meant, but it didn’t sound good.
“Well, this escalated quickly,” I drawled.
Stepping in front of Boone, who was a hairsbreadth from changing into a fearsome beast and eating Alex for dinner, I smiled sweetly at my ex. “Will you just give us a moment?”
Alex shrugged and backed away. “Uh, sure?”
Slamming the door closed, I turned on Boone and slapped him on the arm, adding a little Crescent whoop-ass for good measure. My palm connected, and my magic zapped, causing him to flinch in pain.
“Ow!” he exclaimed.
“What’s gotten into you?” I demanded.
“What can I say? I’m an animal.”
“Boone, I’m with you, okay? What you and I have is nothing like the relationship Alex and I had. It has nothing to do with magic and everything to do with who you are. And this moody moron isn’t you!”
He pouted—which was a rather sexy look on him—and ran his hands through my hair.
“What’s happening to us?” I whispered. “It wasn’t supposed to be like this.”
“Aye…” His grip tightened, and he went in for a chaste kiss.
“Let me talk to Alex, okay? He might be a dolt, but he’s a decent guy.”
“Even though he broke up with you?”
“I don’t even know how much of it was voluntary,” I mused. “I mean, my life fell apart for a reason…”
Boone’s expression darkened, and I realized I’d voiced the wrong concern. He probably thought this was my chance to run off and pick up where I left off. I never expected to be a witch, after all.
“Seriously? Cúl tóna,” I exclaimed, much to his horror. “Yeah. I learned a few swear words from Maggie.”
“Skye…”
“Don’t Skye me!”
Wrenching open the door, I stormed outside. Boone was being a complete ass by jumping to the worst possible conclusion. Even if Alex wanted to win me back, it didn’t mean I was going to fall for it. Life had changed irrevocably, and I couldn’t go back even if I wanted to. The point was, I didn’t want to go back.
Alex was waiting in the garden, scuffing his toe around the edges of the garden bed. I was getting better at sensing magic, and when I looked at him, I couldn’t feel anything. Not even a twang in my heart or my nether regions. Whatever feelings I’d had for him had disappeared in the wake of meeting Boone.
“Hey,” he said as I approached.
“Sorry about that,” I replied. “I didn’t realize he was such a jealous guy.”
“Be careful with him, Skye. You know what they say about guys like that.”
I resisted the urge to roll my eyes because Boone wasn’t like that. Was he? I began to doubt because his behavior was completely out of character, and I hated myself for it. He was the last person I should be worried about even with his amnesia and unknown past.
“Let’s walk,” I said, leading him away from the cottage and along the path through the edges of the forest.
The little woodland area ran all the way up the hill to the tower house and then fanned out to a full-on thicket that stretched for miles. Also within was the ancient hawthorn tree that was the home of the Crescent Witches for centuries. When I first walked here, I used to be afraid of eyes watching from the darkness, and I would jump a mile at the unknown sounds, but now I didn’t fear this place. Not one bit.
The sun was beginning to lower, the sky darkening into twilight. Summer was over, so the days were much shorter, and the temperature was plummeting. In a few months, I was sure I would have my first taste of snow. I was kind of looking forward to building a snowman like they did in Christmas movies. With a carrot nose and everything.
“You’ve changed,” Alex said as we wandered along the path.
“I have?”
“Yeah, you’re more… Confident. Older.”
I snorted. “Thanks a lot. I’m not even thirty, you know.”
“That’s not what I meant,” he said with a chuckle.
“Hashtag adulting.”
“Yeah, exactly.”
We fell into an uneasy silence, which was unusual for us. We’d always been best of friends, in the way friends went out and had a blast together. We would go out three nights a week, seeing live music, going to the movies, a show, the pub, festivals—you name it. We were that social couple who spent more time with other people than alone with each other. I was more likely to pinpoint our relationship ending because of that than any magical meddling.
But in saying that, I’d gotten over our split quickly. I’d had Aileen’s death to w
orry about and everything else, so realistically, I hadn’t had time to wallow.
“Alex?”
“Yeah?”
“Why are you here? Really?” I glanced at him expectantly.
He grimaced and shrugged. “I’m not sure anymore.”
“Huh?”
“I mean, seeing that guy… I didn’t know you’d moved on let alone moved to Ireland.”
“We broke up, Alex.”
“It’s just… You never talked about your family. I didn’t know your dad or that your mum was Irish.”
“I never knew Aileen,” I countered. “She left when I was two, and I don’t even remember what she looked like. And my dad, well, you can’t help cancer.”
“But you still decided to pick up her life and live it,” he said, sounding rather annoyed.
“So?” I spat. “It’s my choice. I came here not knowing what I would find…”
“You found that guy.”
“Oh, no, you don’t,” I exclaimed, turning to face him. “Don’t blame me for our break up. You’re forgetting something really important. You’re the one who ended it.” I wasn’t sure I could blame him for that, knowing what I knew now, but there was no way I was letting him turn me into the bad guy. “What I chose to do after is my, and no one else’s, business.”
“Skye, it’s just completely out of character. You up and left with zero notice and never came back.”
“So you said.”
I was beginning to wonder if his arrival was yet another magical conspiracy in play. A trick conceived by Carman to sow the seeds of doubt between Boone and me to undermine my strength. I’d hardly begun to explore my magic, so I wasn’t sure I was that much of a threat to a thousand-year-old witch. Pfft, I didn’t even know what she looked like let alone how to battle her. Maybe I could strike her down with my sass.
“Is this where you want to be now?”
I glanced at Alex and shrugged. “I kinda like it. At first, I didn’t want to be here because of my mum. She’d dropped me into it, you know? A house and a business on the ass cheek of Ireland, but the people here are really nice, and the shop brings in good money. In Australia… My dad has been gone a long time now, I was handed a redundancy and couldn’t find another job, and… Everything fell apart. It’s just…”
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