by M. L. Briers
The thing about magic was that so many spells involved a name. If you knew someone’s name, then you were able to direct that spell right at the heart of them. So witches were usually reluctant to offer up their name to another witch.
Having said that; it was also the way that one witch knew that another could be trusted, sort of a show of faith. Of course, it didn’t always work out that way, but still…
“Nena,” she offered back without hesitation. Now, call me a trusting soul, but that didn’t have to be her real name.
“And you say you were called here by something?” Gran asked in her suspicious tone. The elder really should have been an interrogator for our security services because I doubt many people would have stood up to her scrutiny.
“I was telling…” She motioned toward me.
“Maggie,” I offered back. I’m sure if she had nefarious reasons for being here then she would already have known my name.
“Maggie, earlier that it was like an itch that needed scratching, pulling me toward the island, and I don’t know why” Nena said.
“Convenient,” Gran muttered, but she muttered it so loudly that we all heard her.
Now that was convenient.
“Gran,” I groaned. She held her hands to her chest in surrender.
“Don’t mind me. A new witch appears on the Isle just as trouble is brewing, but don’t read anything into that. I mean, why would you?” Gran rolled her eyes to the ceiling, and I had the urge to join her in that sentiment.
“I think we all know that trouble’s been brewing for a while,” I offered back.
“Good point,” Malachi said, and Gran offered him a steely glare of disapproval.
“Perhaps she’s been here longer than she says,” Gran offered back. Yep, Gran was like a dog with a bone, and she wasn’t about to let go.
Now, I admit that when I first met the witch, I had my suspicions about her as well. I suppose that; just because she claimed to have run into the dark magic that she was tracking I shouldn’t so easily believe her, but I did.
On the other hand, maybe Gran was right. But even if she was; then keeping your enemy close was a good thing — no?
But it was little wonder that Gran’s favourite song was Suspicious Minds by Elvis Presley, go figure.
“I found some mutilated sheep over the back of the hills…” Nena said, and I groaned. I really was starting to feel sorry for those woolly jumpers.
“Coincidence, Gran?” I put her on the spot.
“Actually, if someone is feeding the dark magic then yes, could be,” Gran said.
“What does that mean?” Eileen asked, and I was glad that she did if little Miss Bookworm didn’t understand then that was a good thing, because I’d thought that I might have been the only one that didn’t understand.
“To invoke dark magic, you need dark spells, for dark spells you need the blood of a living organism…” Gran said with a small shrug.
“I need the blood of the living organism, but I’m not a dark spell,” Malachi said. Everybody turned to glare at him. “I’m just trying to keep the conversation light,” he said holding up his hands.
“You are a dark something…” Moira grumbled.
“Nightmare,” I agreed.
“So, is somebody trying to use the dark magic in a spell, or is somebody using spells to raise the dark magic?” Moira asked with a side glare towards Malachi in case he was about to offer another stupid remark.
“You never can tell unless you catch them in the act and see the kind of spell that they are using,” Gran said. That sounded plausible enough.
“Okay, I have a question,” Malachi said.
“No!” Moira and I snapped together.
“But how do you see the kind of spell they are using?” he asked, ignoring our protests.
“You look at the ingredients that went into making it,” Gran answered, and that was spellcrafting 101, you weren’t going to use Sage when you needed Belladonna. Obviously, Malachi wasn’t around witches a lot, or he would have known that.
“But how do we catch them in the act? It might be a small island, but not if you’re trying to cover it all at once,” I offered.
“We can do a location spell,” Nena offered with a look at Gran. “Not on the person, but on the magic itself.”
“Anyone using magic when we cast our net would be drawn into,” Gran agreed. She had a small smile on her face that said she approved of the idea. “Who are your people?” she asked Nena.
“I don’t have people; I’m a solitary.”
“You don’t work well with others?” Gran said, putting her interrogator’s hat on again.
“Where are you from?” Moira asked.
“The mainland.” I liked her style, evasive with just the right amount of sarcasm.
“But, why would someone try to raise the dark magic?” Ross asked. “They have to know how dangerous it is.”
“Powerful spells,” Moira offered him in a patient tone.
“To use against us?” I shrugged. After all, it did seem to like coming after me.
“Because they can,” Malachi offered, and I shot him another glare.
“Six witches and a warlock,” Gran announced, rubbing her hands together with glee. “We should be able to cast the net all the way across the Isle, especially tomorrow night — it’s a full moon.”
“Full moon, you say — hey, Ross, are you getting a little twitchy?” Malachi asked.
“Sometimes, you can be real as…” Ross sneered, and Moira chipped in before he got in Gran’s bad books for swearing.
“I second that emotion,” she said, folding her arms and sneering at the vampire.
“So, how come the witches get to play tomorrow night and not the vampires?” Malachi asked.
“You do,” Gran said. “We do the fishing — you do the catching…”
“Can I kill what I catch or do I have to throw it back?” Malachi asked, tossing me a poignant little glare, and I groaned.
“Could you just stop killing things?” I grumbled.
“One little thing…” Malachi tossed up his hands.
“Big thing,” I shot back.
“Come on, it was a shark, you wouldn’t let me have the whale,” Malachi offered back.
“I despair,” I said with a shake of my head as I turned on my heels and walked out of the room.
“Despair wasn’t what I was going for, but I’ll take anything I can get,” Malachi called after me.
“How about vomit?” I heard Moira say. “Because you’re making me feel sick.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
~
I had a plan, and I was going to stick to it. Mrs D, Mrs M, and Isla were standing on the corner outside the bistro doing what they did best, gossiping, and I wasn’t about to get caught in their evil trap. Isla and I were still frosty after our last encounter over Ross, and I wasn’t about to air our dirty laundry in public in front of Mrs M and Mrs D either.
I waited patiently for three o’clock when I knew that Angela would be getting off work, and they were all waiting for their conspirator in crime to show up. As soon as their heads turned in Angela’s direction, I yanked open the front door, shot out on fast feet, and immediately turned left to avoid them.
I squealed a little in the back of my throat in shock, as I almost ran headfirst into Aunt Kenzie. It was a case of out of the frying pan and into the blooming fire.
“Maggie McFae, would you kindly watch where you’re going?” Aunt Kenzie bit out as she rolled her eyes, offered me a sour look, and berated me with a click of her tongue.
Awkward.
I hadn’t seen Aunt Kenzie since we’d had the disagreement over Ross and the vampires either. I hadn’t even bothered to ask Gran if she’d made peace with my aunt yet.
So, I guess I was going to have to feel my way around this awkward conversation. I mean, what was I going to say? Sorry — I was trying to escape you daughter? I think that would have gone down like a bridegroo
m vomiting all over his bride’s dress.
“Late for the bank,” I spat out. It was only half a lie as I was going to the bank.
“And I have an appointment to get my hair done, but you don’t see me mowing down pedestrians, do you?” Aunt Kenzie berated me.
“You’re right,” I said. Why shouldn’t I give her this victory? After all, I’d won the Ross one, and that was what counted. “Again, sorry.”
“I’m sure we’ll all be sorry when Ross goes on a murderous rampage,” she muttered, but I caught her words.
I had been in the process of sidestepping her to let her pass, that didn’t happen. I folded my arms, tipped my head to the right, and I eyeballed her. Now, I could have been the bigger person, considering she was my elder, and let that slide.
Nope.
“Now, here’s the thing; I thought Ross was supposed to be the mutt in this scenario, but you’re like a dog with a bone, and that bone is shoved up your backside.” She might have been my elder, my aunt, my family, but some things you just didn’t let slide.
I have to admit the look of shock on her face was more than satisfying; it was long overdue. Well, what did she expect? Ross was going to be my brother-in-law and that trumped aunt in my book.
“Somebody is getting too big for their britches, Maggie McFae.” She offered me what I suppose passed for a steely glare, and she might have been Gran’s daughter, but she wasn’t a patch on Gran.
“And somebody needs to remember that family is family…”
“Exactly, I’m your…”
“Moira is my sister, and Ross is going to be family.” She pulled her head back on her neck, and the sight of her extra chins warmed my heart. I believe she got the message.
“I have a hair appointment,” she said in a hissy fit, raising all of her chins and her nose in the air, as she sidestepped me and carried on going.
Good riddance.
I mumbled a couple of curses under my breath as I watched her go, set one foot in front of the other, and almost jumped out of my skin as Billy started to blow his bagpipes right in front of me.
I had the urge to zap him. I mean, who comes around a corner and starts shrilling the dead cat under his arm without thought or consequence?
“Seriously!” I spat out. Billy stopped playing, and the pipes gave a sorrowful couple of death groans.
“Come on, Maggie, ways your sense of heritage?” Billy demanded, and the man was too cheerful by half. He did look fitting in his kilt though; I’ll give him that.
I cupped my ears and narrowed my eyes at the man. “What’s that you say?” I offered back, mimicking Gran when she was having one of her hard to hear moments of convenience.
“I said, Scottish pride, Maggie!” Billy chuckled with a wide grin on his face as he fisted his hand and punched the air.
Oh, I suppose I was going to have to go in for one. “Freedom!” I shouted at the top of my lungs as I punched the air and made his day. There were also a couple of cheers from across the street. On a small Isle like this, we all knew who the independence voters were among us.
I also noted a horrified look from a tourist. Bless her; she looked as if she was waiting for my head to explode.
“I’d say that one’s English,” Billy leaned in and whispered.
“That’s not her fault; someone has to be,” I whispered back, joining in the Jacobite spirit of things.
Personally, I couldn’t care less, but it was always nice to tease the English, they kind of expected it.
~
Tourist time was the only time of year when you had to wait to cross the road in Portree unless you were unlucky that is. I stood at the kerb opposite the bakery and waited while the line of cars passed by.
As usual, the queue from the bakery was winding outside onto the street, and a few lucky people were sitting on the carved wooden bench. Oh, to be that carefree. I could definitely do with a holiday.
Out of the corner of my eye, I noted the small sightseeing coach coming down the road, and behind it were two 4X4’s, but after that, the road seemed clear. That didn’t mean that a car wasn’t going to come whizzing around the corner, so I knew I had to be quick on my feet.
I made ready to push off right after the last car went by me. I’m not sure what it was, but something made me look at the occupants in that first 4x4, and I froze in place while my brain farted because I found myself locking eyes with the behemoth in the front passenger seat.
It didn’t take a genius to figure out what he was. The dark glare of his eyes, the hard set of his face, and the slight sneer on his lips told me that he knew who I was as well.
That car slowed for what felt like an eternity as it drove by. Then I caught sight of the passenger in the second car, and my heart jumped into my throat. Malachi had been right — damn it.
Mr Muscles from Lachlan’s pack lifted his hand and kindly sliced his index finger across his throat to make sure I got the message, well, that told me, I guess. I groaned inwardly, not because of the threat that he’d made, but because now I had to tell Malachi that he’d been right.
Timing was everything, and their timing was very bad. Tonight, we were supposed to do the spell to cast a net and see what we could find on the dar magic front. But the really bad timing was the fact that it was a full moon — Kudo’s to muscles — as I’m sure the fact that the full moon would make the werewolves more powerful hadn’t been lost on the man.
That thought certainly wasn’t lost on me, the sneaky little eejit. I needed to talk to Gran, and that didn’t feel like a conversation that I wanted to have any time soon, but then neither was the Malachi one.
Did my life really have to be this complicated?
Fate was starting to miff me off.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
~
The moment that I set foot back in the bistro Malachi was in front of me. Talk about fate and bad timing.
He narrowed his eyes on me, twisted his head just a little, and then he wrapped his hand around my wrist and yanked me toward the stockroom. I dragged my feet, because there was that conversation that I really didn’t want to have with him staring me in the face, and so soon.
It just didn’t seem fair. I hadn’t even practised how to turn the facts around and make it, so he was wrong.
“I’m not that kind of girl,” I offered, trying to keep conversation lively and deflect from what I was really thinking.
“I noticed,” Malachi tossed back over his shoulder as he yanked me into the stockroom and tossed the door closed behind us. “Unfortunately.” He offered me a small cocky grin.
“I’d say bite me, but it’s you,” I offered back. Anything not to have that conversation, the one that went; hey, cocky, smug, peacock guy, you were right — Pah!
“I’d say I accept,” Malachi offered back. I liked that he’d gotten distracted, I just didn’t like what he was thinking.
“Like I said, it’s you,” I offered back.
“What’s with the face?” He asked, folding his arms across his chest, and giving me a look like he could actually read my mind. Scary thought.
“I don’t know, but I’ve had it all my life,” I tossed back. I even offered him a small shrug to go with it.
“Deflecting.” He’d called it.
“Because it’s you,” I said again.
I thought I was doing rather well with the deflecting until he looked at me like a five-year-old that had just knocked over a priceless vase.
“Maggie…” I waited, but he said no more. He just gave me a look that was full of disappointment, and I had to wonder how that could elicit a feeling of guilt inside of me.
“I don’t want to,” I whined just a little, and I would have kicked a tuft of grass if we hadn’t of been inside.
“But you have to.” He offered me a look of expectation since when did Malachi act like a grown-up?
“But, I don’t want to,” I said, a little more firmly this time.
“We all have to do things we don�
��t want to do, now don’t we?”
I grunted in annoyance, sighed, and tossed a hand up in the air before letting it fall down to my side once more. This was going to hurt.
“Fine,” I bit out. “You were…” I couldn’t bring myself to say the word. Malachi narrowed his eyes on me and waited. “Nope.” I took a step toward the door, but there he was in front of it, speedy little vampire.
“Come on, spit it out,” he teased me with a look. If I’d had gum, then I would have spat it at him.
“Right,” I said, and he raised his eyebrows in expectation and waited for more.
“Go ahead,” he urged when I didn’t say anything else.
“No, that’s it.”
“What’s it?”
“Right.”
“Left.” He tossed up a hand and gave a small shake of his head, not following me. I sighed again.
“No, you were…” I groaned, “right.”
“I know,” he chuckled, “but I got you to say it three times.”
“Oh!” I lifted my hands and zapped him. It wasn’t a huge zap, it wasn’t like his hair was smoking or anything, and fried just a little wasn’t going to damage him in the long run. But it did make me feel better.
“It’s getting to the point where I think you really enjoy doing that, Tell me I’m wrong.”
“No, you’re right.” The words were out of my mouth before I even considered them.
“That’s four times, shall we go for a fifth before you tell me what I was right about?” Malachi chuckled, and I wanted to zap him again, and again, and again.
“Muscles is back,” I said, folding my arms across my chest, and waited to be toasted for my choices.
“And I bet he’s got company.”
“Well, it surprised the Hades out of me that he even has seven friends, but yes, company.”
“Oh, what were the odds?”
“Go ahead, rub it in.” I guess he deserved his moment of victory and I didn’t deserve to make holes in him with a fork for my own amusement.
“I’m a bigger man than that.” Malachi offered me a suggestive wiggle of his eyebrows, and Goddess help me, but I looked.