Illicit Magic (Stella Mayweather Paranormal Series #1)

by Camilla Chafer

  Just when I was beginning to wonder if his lessons were not going much further than household products and science experiments, David made it rain. In the kitchen. Then he produced a rainbow that splintered into glorious stars, which danced across the ceiling. I didn’t know what the point of it was, but it was pretty and I gazed at the display in awestruck wonder.

  After the demonstration (that had served to intrigue me), David moved on to spells.

  “Will I have to rhyme?” I asked as we sat around the table, pencils and paper in front of us. Kitty winked at me. She realised I knew the answer to that one.

  “Of course not. This isn’t English literature,” David sniffed and I wondered just how many times he had been asked that same question. “Spells are just words. Simple. It’s the magic in you that transforms them into power and action. They need to be heartfelt and they need to be indicative of what it is that you want to do.

  “Sometimes a spell is accompanied by a potion to give it more power. The potions are like baking a cake. You mix together the right stuff, and the right thing happens. You get a cake. Forget an ingredient and it just won’t work. The cake won’t rise properly or it won’t taste right.” He looked at each of us to see if we understood his analogy and we nodded in turn. “Good. Here’s your task.”

  David spelled out to us – puns aside – what he wanted us to do and instructed us to make a simple spell that would illuminate our surroundings. I guessed it would come in handy if a fuse blew, at least.

  Christy and Clara were naturals, racing to raise their hands at almost the exact same time before I even put pencil to paper. Kitty rolled her eyes and I guessed this happened almost every lesson. While they proudly said their spells and lit up the space around them with a strange glow, I leaned into Kitty.

  “Why are you here?”

  “Same as you. Need to learn about this stuff until I can manage my magic properly.”

  “How come you haven’t learned all this stuff already?”

  “Magic skipped a generation with me. By the time my family realised what I could do, the grandparents, who everyone thought were just crazy had passed. There was no one to teach me,” she whispered.

  Jared was next to perform his spell. I hoped he couldn’t see David wince as the last line came to a close, then sigh with relief as nothing broke. Three orbs of light hovered in front of Jared’s head and he dismissed them with a click of his fingers.

  “Kitty?”

  Kitty shrugged her shoulders and focused. Even with my limited knowledge, I realised she had redirected sunlight with her mind, rather than create a light from incanted magic. Still, she said she could manipulate the weather, perhaps the sunlight counted as part of that.

  “Not quite. Stella?”

  I thought for a moment and ignored the doodles I had scrawled on my paper, then said, while trying not to feel completely ridiculous, “I want to see what I cannot see. I want the light to find itself from my bright mind.” And I was rewarded with a faint orb of light, which made up for feeling like a complete idiot.

  David smiled with pleasure. “And not even written down. A good first attempt, Stella.”

  When we broke for lunch, I was glad to sit next to Étoile, eating grilled cheese sandwiches as the conversation reached a heavy hubbub. Evan was the only one missing and I wondered where he was, before wondering why I was wondering.

  “How do you like your lessons?” Étoile asked, conversationally.

  “So-so,” I replied, noncommittally. It was my first day, after all, and I needed to think it through.

  Étoile placed her manicured hand over mine and I felt a surge of contentment. “It will get easier.”

  I nodded. If she said it would, it would.

  The next two hours were apparently earmarked as free time, which allowed me to lounge in my room before taking a walk. Instead of staying in the gardens, I passed through them to the steps that led down to the beach. On the bottom step, I held onto the railing so I could slide off my shoes with one hand. I tied the laces together and hung them over my shoulder.

  I walked across the sand, pale golden and a little gritty, and down by the shore so I could wiggle my toes in the soft swirls of surf rolling in. The water stretched to infinity beyond me; to the left it curled around a promontory and I lost sight of the sand. The hillside swept up further down. I could see birds swooping into the trees some distance away, their calls echoing on the wind.

  To my right, the sand stretched on for a few miles. The hillside was lower here and grassy, rather than tree-lined. I wondered why no one had built out here. Surely this land, with its far-reaching views, would be a prime development zone. There wasn’t much to explore so after a while of gazing out to sea, wondering how many thousands of miles away my former home was, and if I was even looking in the right direction, I turned back and went to sit on the steps.

  When Étoile landed next to me in a flash of electricity, I leapt from my perch and had to stoop to pick up my shoes, which had fallen to the sand.

  “Sorry,” she said, but the sentiment didn’t quite carry to her face. “I’m sent to bring you in.”

  “Should you be using magic outdoors?” I grimaced in case she thought I was chastising her since I had no place to do that.

  “Generally speaking, no, but who’s to see here?” Without taking offence, Étoile swept her arms to the uninhabited land to the left and right of us.

  “How come this is the only house out here?”

  Étoile shrugged. “I wouldn’t know.” She reached for my hands and held them in her own. “Ready?”

  I nodded. The air crackled and I just remembered to draw a breath as the gritty sand was replaced by the feeling of soft carpet. She winked at me like we had shared some little secret before walking out of the library.

  Evan had been working on a laptop but pulled the lid closed when we appeared.

  “Same again?” I asked, not exactly thrilled at the prospect of failure again. I wasn’t even buoyed by Étoile’s teleportation. That had been her, not me, I reminded myself.

  “Let’s try telekinesis this time. Take a seat.” Evan tucked his laptop into his bag, then stood and walked the few paces to the bookshelves. He plucked a book off the middle shelf and tossed it on the table in front of us where it landed with a thud. I took a seat and bent to pull on my shoes and tie up the laces as I waited.

  “You’re going to try and move it,” he said, nodding at the book, after contemplating me for a moment. I tried not to shrivel into a ball under his scrutiny.

  “I don’t think I can.”

  “I think you can.”

  “I really don’t think I can.”

  “Try and see. Look at the book.”

  I sighed. There was clearly no point in arguing. I looked at the book. It was a slim hardback and appeared to be a novel, though I couldn’t make out the print upside down. “How do I do this?”

  “You have to tap into the magic inside you.” Evan placed a hand over his heart and tapped his fingers. “You have to believe that you can do it.”

  “I still don’t understand.”

  “You don’t have to, Stella. Just try. Focus on the book. Feel it, feel your mind reach for it.”

  I stared at it for long minutes that stretched on. I felt like the weight of the task was pressing down on me. It was hardly the carefree, blink-of-an-eye magic that Étoile had demonstrated to me several times. I wondered if I would ever have such control or if I was just a one-stunt dud. A depressing thought. Maybe they wouldn’t want me if I couldn’t stump up the goods. Where would that leave me? I sighed. I seemed to be spending a lot of time sighing lately. It wasn’t healthy.

  “What are you thinking about, Stella? It doesn’t seem like the task.” Evan sounded frustrated. Like I wasn’t!

  I surprised myself by answering coherently. “I’m wondering if I’m a dud.”

  It was Evan’s turn to surprise me and his face cracked into an effortless smile as he chuckled over my conc
erns. His eyes wrinkled at the edges with laughter lines and his mouth was broad with perfectly pink lips. He really did have a lovely face when he smiled. What was I thinking?

  He said slowly, “You are, categorically, not a dud. You just need to learn.”

  “Not a dud,” I repeated like a moron. My eyes settled on the book again and I felt myself fix on it with a strange sort of longing as I tuned in to the rise and fall of my lungs. Hell, I wanted the damn thing to move and, at last, it did, wriggling just a few short millimetres to the left.

  I looked up at Evan with the most enormous smile on my face and then bewilderment as I realised the natural light had dimmed. I must have focused on the book for much longer than I thought. But I had done it.

  “So, not a dud.” Evan smiled at me, an easy smile this time, but not one of a proud teacher. He seemed to be assessing me and I returned his gaze without a quiver. A shudder ran through me and I was the first to turn away even though I would have been quite content to continue appraising him. On the sly, anyway.

  “We’ll start again tomorrow.”

  And just like that, Evan was gone, before I even remembered that I still wanted to ask the question of what he was.

  ~

  The week progressed in the same way. I took a lesson with Evan first, my frustration rising as the time passed without event; then a lesson with David which was more enjoyable because I could make little things happen. Following the little orb of light I created from my first spell, there was a protection spell and other little things that were enjoyable to do. Then it was lunch and free time. Once I went back to the beach and walked out my frustration of simply not knowing anything - the council, what I had to learn, my future - they were all enigmas to me. Another time, I snoozed on my bed. A couple of times I unwrapped the headphones of my MP3 player and listened to music as I curled on the window seat, my head leant against the pane.

  The evenings were spent in a cycle of the same things; cards in the kitchen after dinner or watching a movie in the living room. Sometimes I let Kitty braid my hair and we talked about girly things that were as far removed from our life of magic as could be.

  Some evenings I spent in the library, curled up with Marc talking about books we’d read and our lives. It was pleasant and relaxing and I could feel myself growing attached to both of them in a way that I had never felt attached to anyone before.

  Maybe it was because we weren’t part of a ready-made group like Étoile and Seren, or Christy and Clara who kept largely to themselves. Kitty and Marc seemed so open and lively that I enjoyed being around them no end. I still noticed that Kitty and Marc were scrupulously polite around each other and thought that one day I would have to ask what their deal was.

  Even David and Jared seemed to have teamed up, somewhat incongruously. Once, during one of our evenings crowded around a film, I snuck glances at Evan like I could figure him out if I got just one more look. Sometimes I felt his eyes on me too but only once or twice did our eyes meet, making me colour under his gaze.

  By the end of the second week, I was fed up and my nerves were frayed. I hadn’t teleported even an inch – not even accidentally – and the objects Evan set before me stayed just where they were, despite the minor triumph I’d had on my first day.

  So I was grumpy and fed up when it was suggested that afternoon that we go out to a local bar for dinner. If I could have worked out who came up with the original suggestion, I would have gladly hugged them for giving me something fun to look forward too.

  Evan had even waved me away that morning, brushing off the thought of a Friday afternoon lesson in favour of reading in the big sitting room, rather than putting up with another fruitless lesson with yours truly, not that he said that in so many words.

  By early evening, we had all gravitated towards the living room and I found myself perched on the furthest sofa from the door, half turned away from Evan, with Étoile between us and Kitty crouched on the floor, painting her toenails a bronze shade. My feelings of frustration seemed to be having company. Everyone had the dull expressions of the overworked and underplayed.

  Even David, normally so enthusiastic and chilled, was flagging and had snapped at everyone in today’s lesson. He kept rubbing the long scar across his face like it was bothering him and I wondered why he didn’t just ask Étoile to heal him. Clara and Christy were still ignoring him after the lesson in which he had been brusque and short. Marc had been flicking through the DVDs without much interest while Jared undertook some kind of monologue at him that seemed to include a lot of enthusiastic waving of his hands and the occasional nod from Marc.

  According to Kitty, who was chattering as she swept the brush over her toes, the bar had a real live band playing that night and served the best steak in town. I wondered if she had ever been there, before my arrival, of course, and guessed she must have; but I didn’t ask as the idea would have laid upon eagerly by our little group of civilization-starved people.

  “What should I wear?” I asked Kitty quietly. She had tucked away her nail polish in a little bag and grasped my hands to pull me upstairs in a playful way that made me laugh. She was bubbling over with enthusiasm at the idea of going out.

  As she pulled me along behind her, I glanced over my shoulder and caught not Marc’s eyes but Evan’s. He had remained on the sofa, his big arm resting on the side, a thumb marking the page of his book. He smiled at me and my heart did that stupid flutter thing. A smile crept onto my face before Kitty swept me away again, bounding up the stairs two at a time, so fast I could barely keep up.

  “Jeans,” she pronounced, flicking through the hangers in my closet, a pout forming on her Cupid’s mouth. “And more jeans. And, ooh, t-shirts. Sexy.” The last word came out with a little snort.

  “It’s not like I’ve had much time for shopping,” I replied with a shrug. Truth be told, my wardrobe was not exactly exciting to me either. Thanks to my parents, I had a nice stash of cash that had been squirreled away for years accruing interest but I’d had no time to spend any. Plus, as I reminded myself, the money should be spent on something useful and there might come a day when I really needed it. I wasn’t a particularly frivolous person and had never really indulged myself. I bought serviceable all-weather clothes, not going out stuff.

  “Wait here. You can wear something of mine.” Kitty darted out of the room and across the landing to hers. I could hear her footsteps padding none too delicately around her room and then back again. She held up three hangers. There was a slinky, blue jersey with a v-neck, a strappy, green top with a crystal motif and a white Grecian top with one sleeve and a gathered bodice. “Try them on,” Kitty urged and she looked so excited about the idea of dressing me that I could hardly say no.

  I slipped out of my shirt so I stood in my jeans and bra and shrugged on the blue, catching sight of the plunging neckline in the mirror and whipping it off, just as fast. “Not me,” I pronounced, shaking my head at the strappy, green top next. I pulled on the white top and Kitty reached forward to arrange the hem.

  “You could wear it with your skinny jeans and those cute flats of yours and it will look pretty, but not dressy.” She spun me around so I was in front of the long mirror. Behind me, she tugged my hair out of its ponytail and ran her fingers through it so it fanned over my shoulders in waves. She had trimmed the singed ends for me and it looked healthy again. “We could curl it just a little, so it looks natural, you know. Or maybe put in a couple of plaits, hippy style.” Kitty twisted my hair in her hands so it curled slightly. “I can do your makeup. What do you think?”

  “I think where were you when I was a teenager and needed someone to sort me out?” I laughed but I couldn’t take my eyes off myself. I looked tall and strong and the top made me want to stand a little straighter. I had firm breasts and a slim waist and arms that were toned but not frighteningly muscular and hair (a true golden brown) that framed cream skin. I looked pretty, I relished with pride and wondered if I was about to shed a tear. Get a grip. It w
as like I had never seen myself look halfway decent before.

  “Well, now,” said Kitty, slipping her arm about my waist and giving me a squeeze. “You would think you’d never put on something pretty before.”

  “I haven’t,” I admitted. “I’m a jeans and tee girl. I wore regular, dowdy, boring things to my regular, dowdy, boring jobs. I don’t... I didn’t... go out much.” It surprised me a bit how ready I was to talk about my life in the past tense and I was chagrined to admit just how uninteresting it had been. Maybe that would change. I hoped it would. Everyone deserved a fresh start, especially when someone was trying to kill them. I shook the thought from my head. I didn’t want to be reminded of that now.

  “Life is one hundred percent different for you,” replied Kitty, her hands on my shoulders as she spoke to my reflection. “Why don’t you let yourself be a few percent different too? Try out something different.”

  “Will you take me shopping?” I asked, surprising myself.

  “Thought you’d never ask. Tomorrow?” Kitty was clapping her hands together and I laughed.

  “I don’t think I’ll be able to get out of lessons. Evan is a task master.”

  “We could get him incredibly drunk tonight,” Kitty suggested, “then maybe he’ll just sleep through and forget all about classes.”

  I gasped in feigned outrage and went to wriggle out of Kitty’s white top, tying a bathrobe about me instead as I pulled off my jeans and tossed them in the basket. “I can’t believe you would suggest such a thing. Besides,” I shrugged as I knotted the belt. “I do need the lessons.” And I kind of liked being around Evan but I didn’t say that out loud.