Ink Witch

by Lindsey Fairleigh

  “Can I help you, Miss?” a woman asked, her voice husky.

  I nearly dropped the statuette I’d picked up—a beautiful, carved representation of Thora’s namesake, the powerful Egyptian goddess, Hathor. “Um, yes,” I said, gently placing the pale, beautiful woman back on her pedestal.

  “Are you a practitioner?” the shopkeeper asked as I turned to face her. She fit the shop perfectly with her flowy, ankle-length skirt, layers of clattering gold bracelets, and wavy, black hair that nearly reached her waist. She wasn’t overtly attractive, but her curves in all the right places paired with her rich voice and graceful movements gave her an air of sensuality and mystery.

  Am I a practitioner? Of what? Witchcraft? “Not exactly. I’m here on research . . . for a graduate project. I’m a PhD student in the archaeology department over at the U.”

  She studied me with eyes so dark they were nearly black before saying, “Mostly true, but I don’t think you’re here for a project.”

  I frowned, wondering how she had guessed that.

  “Many people come here under the guise of some other purpose,” she said, seeming to answer my thoughts. “I’ll answer your questions to the best of my ability if you tell me why you’re really in my shop.”

  I weighed my options and decided it wouldn’t hurt me to divulge my story. Or at least some of my story. After all, it was the reason I’d entered in the first place. With a heavy sigh, I nodded.

  “Alright,” she purred. “Follow me.”

  Swaying, she led me through a curtain of multi-hued glass beads and into a cramped back room that had clearly been decorated with fortune-telling in mind; there was a small, square table of polished oak, several dim antique lamps, and a short bookshelf filled with tarot cards, leather-bound books, and other tools of the trade. A teenage version of the shop owner was sitting at the table, rapt attention on her phone. She cocked her head inquisitively at our arrival but didn’t look up.

  “Kat, go watch the counter. I have some business with this customer.”

  The teenager—Kat—rolled her eyes before standing and exiting the room with a huff.

  “Your daughter?” I asked, amused.

  “Do you have children?”

  I shook my head, surprised by her question.

  “I’d advise that you spend some time remembering your teenage self before reproducing. If you can’t stand the idea of being around that version of yourself for more than a few hours, you’re not ready,” the shopkeeper replied.

  “I heard that, Mom!” Kat called from the front of the store.

  My hostess pointedly raised one artful eyebrow. “Please, have a seat.” She took her daughter’s place while I sat in the wooden chair opposite her.

  “Thanks for agreeing to speak with me,” I said after a long silent moment. It wasn’t much of a conversation starter, but it was the best I could come up with under pressure.

  With a knowing smile, she said, “I’m sure it will be enlightening for us both. Now, what brought you here?”

  I pursed my lips, considering the best way to start. “I guess you could say I’m looking for answers . . . or an explanation. You see, I’ve been experiencing something sort of . . . odd.”

  “Odd how?” she asked, resting her clasped hands on the table.

  “Well . . . it’s these dreams I’ve been having. Except, I just had one and I was awake, which doesn’t really make sense, does it? And they’re not dreams exactly, but more like visions. I mean, some are things I’ve witnessed in my life, but some happened before I was born, and—this is going to sound totally nuts—some haven’t even happened yet. But they’re all real.”

  As I spoke, my companion sat up straighter, evidently intrigued. “What makes you think it’s anything beyond an active imagination? What makes it ‘real’?”

  I leaned forward, intent on making the woman—a stranger—believe me. If she believed me without thinking I was crazy, maybe I could too. “Because I know things.” I said. “Things I shouldn’t know . . . things I couldn’t know. I dreamed something bad would happen to me, and it happened exactly as I saw it.”

  “If you knew it would happen, why didn’t you try to change it?”

  I laughed bitterly. “I thought I was just anxious. It didn’t seem possible that I could see the future in my dreams.”

  “You said it’s not always a dream, that you’ve been awake for these ‘visions’?”

  “Yeah . . . just once, about fifteen minutes ago.”

  She leaned back in her chair, studying me, her generous lips pressed together in a flat line. After a protracted silence, she asked, “You want to know what’s happening to you, correct?”

  “Yes.” Eager, I licked my lips. She knows something . . . she has to.

  “I’ve heard of people with abilities like this. Usually it’s genetic.” She paused. “Have you spoken with your parents about it?”

  Frustrated, I shook my head. “My mom doesn’t know about any of it. She’d tell me if she did. And . . . I don’t know who my father is.”

  “Mom!” Kat called from the front of the shop.

  “Just a minute!” the woman across the table from me yelled back. To me, she said, “Your situation is odd, like you said, but there are others like you out there. It’s standard for your kind to learn about such things from their families. I’m amazed you’ve slipped through the cracks for so long.”

  “My kind? What are you talking about?” My hands gripped the edge of the table so firmly that my nail beds were turning white.

  The muffled sound of Kat’s voice, along with a deeper, male voice, grew louder from beyond the beaded curtain.

  “Yes, your kind.” The woman seemed to be struggling with something as she stared into my eyes. Her head turned toward the doorway, and almost inaudibly, she whispered, “I’m truly sorry, but I can’t tell you more. Just know there are others like you and they will find you.”

  “But you—”

  Kat’s pleading whine sounded from just outside the back room. “But she’s busy right now!”

  “My dear girl, your mother is never too busy for me. You know that. I must see her immediately,” a familiar, faintly-accented voice said. Oh, you have got to be kidding me!

  “Hey!” Kat’s outraged admonition came just before a well-dressed man walked through the beaded curtain, making the pieces of glass clack excitedly. His eyes widened when they met mine, then narrowed slightly as he turned to my hostess.

  “Marcus?” I asked, stunned. He was the last person I would’ve expected to run into at a quirky magic shop, and seeing him triggered a deluge of the images from the previous night’s dreams. Oh God . . . those were just dreams, right? I shook my head, suddenly afraid I would start to suspect all of my dreams were visions. I cleared my throat. “What are you doing here?”

  Kat and her mother wore identical expressions of surprise.

  “I could ask you the same thing.” The corner of Marcus’s mouth quirked slightly. “Is Genevieve reading your cards . . . or perhaps your palm? She’s earned quite the reputation as a reader of fortunes. She specializes in past lives, you know.”

  Irked that he’d avoided my question, I responded in kind. “Is that why you’re here? Want to peek into a crystal ball?”

  Marcus laughed out loud, finding unexpected humor in the question. “No, definitely not. Genevieve, here, is quite skilled at acquiring certain rare, moderately illicit antiquities.”

  Slowly, I stood and backed into a corner, looking from Marcus to Genevieve and back. “You deal in black-market artifacts? Both of you? That’s . . . that’s . . .” I couldn’t finish the statement, my mind reeling at the implications. Over the past two millennia, innumerable pieces of archaeological evidence had been destroyed or stolen as a result of the antiquities black market. So much of the ancient world had been lost because of it—because of people like Marcus and Genevieve. “I don’t think I can . . . can do . . .”

  Marcus strode around the table, stopped an ar
m’s length away from me, and placed his hands on my upper arms. I didn’t know when we’d become touching friends, and I wasn’t sure how I felt about the new development. In his present, looming state, I was leaning toward not-so-great. The memories of Mike attempting to force himself on me were still too fresh.

  Marcus leaned down so his eyes were closer to my level, and his expression changed from haughtiness to concern. “Lex, the black market is a necessary evil. You have to understand that if you want to make it in our field. It already exists, and the only way to save bits and pieces of the artifacts floating around in its torrent is to join in. I promise you, I only rescue artifacts from greedy hands—I never give them any.”

  The intensity of his words chipped away at my anger and fear. “And her,” I whispered, flicking my eyes to the woman still sitting at the small table. “What does she do?”

  He smiled wolfishly, but his tone matched mine in softness. “She’s like me, rescuing the most important pieces.” Shaking his head, he added, “The disparity between value and importance has always amused me.”

  “What do you—”

  “Later,” he interrupted and dropped his hands, turning to face Genevieve and Kat. “I need to take care of some quick business with Gen, then I’ll explain everything.”

  Genevieve raised her delicate eyebrows.

  “Well, maybe not everything,” Marcus corrected, smirking. Unintentionally, I wondered if Marcus and Genevieve were more than business acquaintances. If he felt comfortable enough to barge in on one of her private meetings with a customer and she could ask him a question by simply raising her eyebrows, surely there was something else between them. The thought caused an unexpected vise to squeeze my heart, making it throb with an emotion I wasn’t used to: jealousy. Where did that come from?

  Looking at the floor, I said, “I’ll wait out front,” and rushed out of the room.

  Kat followed me, retreating to a stool behind the checkout counter. As I perused the shop, I could practically feel her laser-like glare piercing my skin.

  “Something wrong?” I asked pointedly. I found the small, grayish-white Hathor carving again and held it up, examining its exquisite detail. I would’ve guessed it really was over four thousand years old, if any Old Kingdom Egyptian alabaster pieces had ever been carved with so much detail. The goddess’s lithe, feminine body, carved so she was eternally standing with one foot stepping forward, fit perfectly in the palm of my hand. Her exquisite face stared back at me with such determination, I almost expected her to open her mouth and make some godly demand.

  Still glaring, Kat grumbled, “Are you, like, going out with him or something?”

  It took me a few seconds to shift all of my attention to her. “Am I dating Marcus?” I asked, incredulous.

  “Yeah,” Kat said, rolling her eyes and sighing dramatically.

  I snorted. “Definitely not. We work together.”

  “Oh.” She brightened noticeably, straightening from her slouched position.

  I hesitated, worried I wouldn’t be able to conceal my unreasonable jealousy if I asked the question I wanted to ask, but I couldn’t resist. “Your mom seems to have a, uh, connection with him. Is there something between them?”

  Giggling, Kat hopped off her stool and skipped around the counter to join me. She was built like her mom—curves everywhere they should be—just not quite so filled out. If it weren’t for her outfit, she easily could have passed as an undergrad. As it was, her white, neon-splashed t-shirt, black skinny jeans, and bright green Chucks placed her in high school, maybe as a junior or senior. Her long, nearly black hair was twisted up into a high, messy bun, and the multiple piercings in her ears were filled with a variety of gemstone studs.

  “No,” she whispered, “but Mom totally wishes there was. I mean, damn, who wouldn’t? He’s totally, like, the hottest guy I’ve ever seen . . . ever. It doesn’t even matter that he’s so old.”

  I laughed—I couldn’t help it. There was no way Marcus was beyond his mid-thirties, but to a teen, I knew that could seem ancient.

  “How much is this?” I asked, holding up the carving. I’d come to the highly improbable conclusion that the little goddess wasn’t a reproduction, but was actually the real deal. What she was doing in the shop, on a table of artful junk, was beyond me.

  Kat bit her glossed lip. “Um . . . that’s one of the special items. I have to ask my mom.” So it really is authentic . . . I knew it!

  “Ask me what?” Genevieve asked, her rich voice startling us both as she walked through the beaded curtain and joined us in the front of the shop. I was surprised Marcus hadn’t followed her out. Maybe he’s busy buttoning his pants, I thought snidely. And then I mentally slapped myself. Not mine . . . off-limits . . . get a goddamn grip!

  “The cost of this statuette,” I explained, holding up the small carving for her to see.

  Genevieve pursed her lips and squinted before coming to a decision. “Take it, no cost.”

  Kat’s mouth fell open. “But . . . Mom—”

  A firm hand gesture from her mother quieted the teenager. “Consider it an apology gift, since I can’t give you the information you seek. It seems to want to be with you anyway. It’s fitting.”

  By the time Marcus emerged from the back room, my newly acquired artifact was wrapped in a soft, pale green cloth, fitted into a gift box, and tucked into a small, dark purple bag.

  “Thank you,” I said to Kat and Genevieve, briefly raising the little paper sack.

  “Of course,” the mother replied while her daughter ogled Marcus.

  He approached me, amusement tugging at the corners of his mouth. “Did you purchase something? Perhaps a good luck charm . . . or a love potion?”

  “Not exactly,” I replied coyly. “I’ll show you later . . . maybe.” My nonchalance was all a bluff—there was no way I could withstand bragging about my little Hathor carving, but I could drag it out for a little while . . . make him wait.

  What had been only a hint of a smile turned into a full-blown grin. “Ah, Lex, I am so looking forward to the coming year.”

  I blinked. That most certainly had not been the reaction I’d expected.

  Before I could respond, Marcus turned to Genevieve and her daughter. “A pleasure, as always. Genevieve, Katarina.” He gave each a slight nod and placed his hand against the small of my back, ushering me toward the door. Even through my pea coat and sweater, the contact felt extremely intimate.

  “Goodbye! It was nice to meet you both!” I called over my shoulder.

  “And you,” Genevieve said. Oddly, she sounded relieved.

  ***

  I hope you enjoyed this excerpt from Echo in Time (Echo Trilogy, #1). The full book is available on Amazon, as are the other novels and novellas in the Echo Trilogy.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Lindsey Fairleigh lives her life with one foot in a book--as long as that book transports her to a magical world or bends the rules of science. Her novels, from post-apocalyptic to time travel and historical fantasy, always offer up a hearty dose of unreality, along with plenty of adventure and romance. When she's not working on her next novel, Lindsey spends her time reading, planning her farm, and trying out new recipes in the kitchen. She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her rather confused cats.

  www.lindseyfairleigh.com