Water & Flame (Witches of the Elements Series Book 1)

by Alejandra Vega

  Benjamin opened the door and entered. He looked around to see if Margaret was alone and when he saw that she was, he nodded while closing the door behind him. “Mother.”

  “Benjamin, what a pleasant surprise. Come in, sit down. Would you like something to drink?” She lifted her cup as if to show it to him. “This tea has the most delightful hint of mint in it.”

  “No,” he said. “Thank you. I was wondering if I could talk to you.”

  “Of course. What is it?”

  “I’ll get right to the point. I will not marry Penelope. I don’t like her, and I can’t even think of spending my life with her.”

  “Benjamin,” Margaret said, “we have discussed this before. You don’t have to like her. You don’t even have to lie down with her. Well, not more than once or twice, hopefully, just enough to make some heirs. If she is too repulsive for that, there are ways, artificial insemination and such, that can accomplish the same thing.”

  “No, you don’t understand. We are not in the thirteenth century. We are not going to negotiate my freedom and my marriage like it is some commodity. When I get married, I want it to be to someone I love. I want it to mean something. Why can’t you understand that?”

  “I understand much more than you know,” Margaret said, beginning to feel the anger being stoked within her. “I understand your childish need for romance and to feel like you belong somewhere. You want to be the protector, the hero, for your damsel in distress. For your maid in distress, as it were.”

  “What?” Benjamin’s eyes snapped to hers and in them, she saw a fire she had not seen but once or twice in his life. If she could harness that passion, he would be a fine ally in all she did, a fine heir to take over when she decided to step down. “What did you do to Abigail?”

  “Me?” she said. “I didn’t do anything to your little playmate. She decided to leave—without giving proper notice, I might add—and those who spoke with her could not convince her to stay. From what I understand, she was adequate at her meaningless and menial job but she was easily replaced. Perhaps something you did to chase her away? Maybe your little wedding plans were not suitable for her?”

  She felt the tingle of victory when his face went from anger to shock and then to suspicion. It was so easy to manipulate people. Dangle what they desired in front of them and then withhold it and you controlled them and their world.

  “How did you chase her away? Did you threaten her, bribe her, tell her lies to make her hate me? What?”

  Margaret leaned back in her chair and steepled her fingers. “Benjamin, she didn’t confide in anyone here, so there is no telling, but she obviously is running from something. From her work history, leaving without giving notice is not something she usually did, so it must have been something serious to cause her to leave like that. My advice is to forget about her as she has no doubt forgotten about you already. Move on. You have a wedding soon. To Penelope. Focus on that.”

  By the look on his face, that was a minor mistake. She should not have mentioned it so blatantly, so soon. His jaw clenched, the muscles twitching on the side of his face, and his mouth became a tight, straight line.

  “I’m serious,” he said. “I will not marry Penelope. I’m done with this farce. Find another way to make your alliances.”

  This was not going at all how it should be. Margaret sighed. She had no choice but to give him a little nudge in the direction she needed him to go. While pausing in her speech and reaching for her cup of tea, she called forth her magic.

  She had learned when still young how to use the magic to manipulate people. She developed the ability over years of practice, sometimes accidentally harming her subjects. She had learned to be very careful when touching magical energies to someone’s mind. One little slip here or there and, as she told Helen, she could cause irreparable damage. All her experimentation had taught her to use the power with a light touch. Therein lay the problem. When she wanted to use her abilities to cause someone to think or act in a certain way, patience and care were the last things she wanted to deal with.

  She had never heard of another witch with her abilities and had kept them secret her entire life. No one but Helen knew what she could do, and even her friend did not know it all. Still, there were limits. There were definitely limits.

  She sipped her tea while watching Ben’s face, a thunderhead. She laid the magic lightly on him, suffusing his skull, going straight to his mind. His resolve seemed to slip, just a little. That would be the effect of her suggestion taking hold. One of his eyebrows raised slightly, but that was all. She tightened her control, fine-tuning the thread of magic she was using. He was hers now.

  “So, Benjamin,” she said, calmly and conversationally, “what will you do? Are we agreed that you will be getting married as soon as I can arrange the wedding?” She would have to give him “refresher” doses of the magic over the next few weeks to make sure the suggestion took hold firmly. He had proven to be more resilient lately, for some reason.

  “No.”

  Margaret almost dropped her cup halfway to the saucer on her desk. “What?”

  “No,” he repeated. “I told you, I will not marry Penelope. I’m serious, Mother, I am done with this. I won’t play this game any longer.”

  It must be his heightened emotional state. Yes, that was it. The mind was powerful and mysterious. Perhaps his strong feelings on the matter were helping him resist her manipulations. No matter. She would increase the power by a hair. His resistance would surely buffer him from harm with a little more magic. She looked into his eyes and willed the fire energy to increase in strength.

  “There is simply no way you can make me marry that woman,” Benjamin continued, as if nothing was happening, as if she wasn’t flooding his mind with magic.

  It was unthinkable. She dare not use any more of the magic. She was already using more than she had ever used with any other subject, even those whose minds she had burned out so completely as to render them a shell of a person. If she was going to kill him, she would kill him more cleanly, not in that way. Never in that way. She did have her limits.

  “Benjamin,” she said, trying to act as if nothing was amiss. “Think about what you are saying, what you are doing. You cannot defy me. I am your mother. And I am the one who holds the purse. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

  “Oh, I understand you perfectly,” he said. “If I don’t go along, you will cut me off, stop the flow of money. I understand and I don’t care. Take my money away. I can work for a living. I am not like all your society friends. I’m not afraid to get a job and pay my own way.”

  “Pay your own way?” she laughed. “You have no idea what the world is like for someone without money. You don’t know how it is to live not knowing if you will be able to eat the next day or whether you will have a home next week. Do you think it’s so easy? If so, go into any city and look at the homeless, the destitute. Talk to them—heaven forbid—and see how easy it is.”

  “I would rather live like that than to have all the money in the world and be trapped in a marriage with someone I don’t care for. I won’t do it. Do your worst.”

  “I am warning you, Benjamin,” she said. Anger built in her, not only because of his rebellion but from the failure of her magic. “Do not push me on this.”

  “This conversation is over. Do what you will. I am no longer your little pawn.” He turned on his heels, left the room, and slammed the door behind him. Margaret could not recall when anyone had ever stormed out of her presence in that way. Not even her ex-husband.

  A soft click and a draft from her right let her know that Helen did stay to listen and was now coming back into the room.

  “I told you,” she said. “Why didn’t you control his mind? Still afraid to fry his little brain?”

  “No,” Margaret said. Should she tell Helen? She did not like to admit weakness or failure of any kind. She would tell her part of the truth. “His emotional state makes it difficult to use the magic on him.
When he calms down, I will use it and things will be fine.”

  “So, you’re going to just let him get away with telling you to your face that he will not do what you want?”

  “Yes.”

  Helen looked at her, silent. The woman had never seen her defeated. In anything.

  “But to help him decide,” Margaret said, “I’m going to cut off his money, freeze his credit cards, the whole thing. It will make him see how much he relies on it.”

  Helen smiled at that. “It will be interesting to see how the little boy handles life without Mommy’s money. He’ll be begging you to let him marry that snooty girl.”

  Margaret Huntsman nodded. She hoped so. There was more than one way to change a person’s attitude. She sincerely hoped this would work. In the back of her mind, she considered what had happened, how he had withstood her magic. She didn’t like that. If she couldn’t convince him in more conventional ways to join her, she might just have to eliminate him after all.

  Chapter 29

  Ben had spent the rest of the day after the conversation with his mother trying to forget all about it. He went to the fitness room and worked out, he spent some time in his recreation room, he took a nap. Through it all, her words kept echoing in his head. “I’ll cut you off,” they said in her voice.

  Surely she was joking. Well, no, his mother didn’t joke. Bluffing, maybe. Yes, bluffing. She was angry at him, but it would pass. He would not relent, though. He simply couldn’t see spending the rest of his life—or even a few years—with Penelope. He had no respect for her. Respect was important, and required, in any serious relationship, as far as he was concerned.

  The next day was clear and warm, and Ben decided to take a drive to clear his head. On his way through Cody, going out toward the national park, he pulled into a drive-through to get some coffee.

  “I’m afraid your credit card has been declined, sir,” the barista told him.

  “What? That’s ridiculous. Run it again.”

  “I did, sir, three times. It has been declined.”

  Ben scratched his head. Was this a mistake? Could his mother have actually cut him off? “Try this one,” he said, handing over another credit card.

  The man returned. “Nope.”

  “Oh, fine,” Ben hissed. “Here.” He handed over a twenty dollar bill. He seethed while waiting for his change. Did she really, actually cut him off?

  After tipping the barista—it wasn’t his fault, after all—he drove off. Right to the bank. A quick check with his ATM card gave evidence that Margaret had not been joking. His account was frozen. There was money in there still, he thought, but he was unable to get at it. He was in a lot of trouble.

  Ben scrapped his plans for the day and went back home. He needed to find out how complete his mother’s plans were. The kitchen was his first destination. He waved to the cook as he opened the door to one of the refrigerators, poking around for some kind of snack. He felt his shoulder blades itch, waiting for the cook, Evelyn, to tell him he couldn’t have any food. She didn’t.

  “How are you this morning, Master Mason?” she said cheerily.

  “Oh, I’ve been better,” he answered, trying to be upbeat, “but I’ve been worse, too.” He continued looking for something that looked appetizing, but didn’t really feel hungry.

  “Can I make you a sandwich or get you something else?” the cook asked, eyeing him with what he thought might be suspicion.

  He began to tell her no but then changed his mind. “Yes, that would be fantastic, thank you.”

  She set about whipping up a sandwich to his specifications—a simple turkey and ham on rye would do—and was done in no time. He took the offered sandwich from her and headed out the door. “I think I’ll eat this in my room. Thank you, Evelyn.”

  The cook smiled at him. “It was my pleasure, Master Mason. Always a pleasure.”

  He mechanically chewed the sandwich as he went to his rec room. He was allowed to eat, so that was good. He assumed he’d be allowed to stay in the house, though he half expected his rooms would be empty. They were not. So, he had at least a little time. Good.

  As he ate the rest of his sandwich, Ben thought about what he would do. His mother would expect him to relent, to agree to go along with the marriage to Penelope. If he continued to refuse, she would tighten the screws. He would be expelled or not be allowed to eat, probably both. She would take his cars…

  Thinking about cars, he realized that he hadn’t seen Lucas. The man was his manservant and driver. He was always around. Where was he this morning?

  Ben picked up his phone and called his friend.

  “Hey, Ben,” Lucas said. “What’s up?”

  “Where are you? Did you take the day off?”

  “Well, sort of. Today, tomorrow, and every day after that.”

  “What?”

  “Your mom fired me yesterday,” Lucas said, “told me that ‘my services would no longer be required.’ She paid me for the next month so I wouldn’t make a big deal about it but told me not to say anything to you until you asked or I’d forfeit that extra pay.”

  “Oh, Lucas, man, I’m sorry. I told her yesterday I wouldn’t marry Penelope and she said she’d cut me off. I didn’t think about it affecting you.”

  “You know what?” Lucas said, “It’s not a big deal. I’m crashing at my parents’ house until I figure something out. If you had asked me before you talked to her and told me what the consequences would be, I would have still told you to go ahead and tell her to go to hell.”

  “Thank you,” Ben said. “I’ll try to figure something out to help you. Just as soon as I figure out how I can help myself. I’ll get back to you.”

  “Sure, no problem. You know where I’ll be.” His friend paused for a moment, and then continued. “And Ben?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Good luck. Your mother has a lot of influence and power. If you have really pissed her off, you might have a hard road ahead.”

  “I know. Thanks, Lucas. We’ll talk soon.”

  Ben thought of confronting his mother, but that would do no good. It might actually irritate her enough to cause her to do even worse things to him, like kicking him out of the house. He had to think this through and do things logically. Besides, he thought he remembered her saying she’d be out of town on business for a few days.

  He sat there, tapping his cell phone against his bottom lip as he thought. Letting his hand drop, he dialed and put the phone to his ear.

  “Yes, Dr. Weitz, this is Benjamin Mason. I was wondering if that job we spoke about was still available. My circumstances have changed, and I would very much like to take your offer.”

  He listened to the man on the other side of the line. “Okay. Yes, I understand. I’m happy you were able to fill it with someone else. I appreciate your time. Yes, please do let me know if you need help in the future. Thank you. Goodbye.”

  Damn. Well, he would just have to do things the old-fashioned way and go job hunting. It was obvious she wouldn’t let him stay in the estate for long unless he gave in. He had that house he rented for himself and Abbie, paid up for almost the next year, so at least he would have a place to live, but he needed to eat and pay for utilities and all the other stuff he had never had to deal with.

  A job first, those other things after. He could move out of the house in a few days and be out of his mother’s control.

  Things did not turn out to be as easy as Ben thought they would be. He wasn’t used to the process of going out and trying to sell himself to employers for jobs that he—honestly, in the back of his mind—felt he was too good for. It wasn’t that snob mentality he had been accused of in the past. He had thought what with his degree and how well he got along with people, he would be able to obtain a position within the first few hours.

  It didn’t happen that way.

  The problem was that forces seemed to be working against him. And when “forces” came to mind, a picture of his mother appeared in his head. He ha
d a feeling that there was something going on when a number of businessmen refused to see him at all. Even people he knew, ones he had met several times and knew were friends of his father were “too busy” to see him. It wasn’t until one particularly honest individual told him straight out, though, that he was sure.

  “I’m sorry, Ben,” one of the business owners he’d seen a few times at his mother’s parties said. “I can’t go against your mother on this. She has told the entire community that you are not to be given a job or to be helped in any way. Defying her would be suicide for most businesses. She just has too many connections, too much power. I hope you understand.”

  He did. He understood that his mother had him over a barrel and he was powerless to do anything except complain about it. He had to hand it to her, she was effective. She wouldn’t make him change his mind, though.

  He kept trying. There had to be at least one person in Cody, or even in the outlying areas, who would stand up for what was right. Ben just wasn’t sure how to find that person.

  After that first day, it became clear he would not be able to get a job in the conventional way, so he went to an employment agency. Maybe he could get temporary work, something to get started.

  “I know who you are, Benjamin Mason,” the smartly dressed woman said to him. She was one of the agency reps. “I’ll be honest with you. No agency within a hundred miles will have anything to do with you. Your mother has too much influence. Even the mayor wouldn’t go against her.”

  Ben looked at her blankly, quite a feat considering the disgust he felt. “Thank you for being honest. I knew it was a long shot, but I wanted to try, anyway.”

  “A little bit of advice,” she said. Her name tag read Adrian Rowley. “If you still don’t want to do whatever it is that she wants you to do, you might want to try getting a job out of state, or at least far enough away that her influence isn’t so great. I can’t blatantly help you by referring you to anyone or anything like that…” she looked around to make sure she wouldn’t be overheard, “…but that’s my suggestion, for what it’s worth. Look for something away from here. You’re wasting your time trying to get employment locally.”