Levi nodded. “I want to see the view.”
“And you will. Come on.”
They all got out of the car, and Evan opened the trunk so Levi could get out the bags of belongings Zoe and her mother had put together for him — toiletries, and changes of clothes, and a few more necessities. Then they headed into the building through the back entrance. Immediately inside the door was a staircase, and Evan took them up two flights until they emerged at a landing on the top floor. From his pocket, he produced a tooled leather fob with one key attached.
“Here,” he said, handing it to Levi. “You should do the honors.”
Levi took it and turned it over in his hand.
“You put the key in the lock,” Zoe began, pointing, but he cut her off gently.
“I know how to use a key. I’ve been learning a great many things during my time here.”
So he had. She was still startled by how much he’d been able to assimilate of how modern American society worked, although of course there were still many gaps in his knowledge. Even so, she thought he’d be able to manage well enough.
He unlocked the door and went inside, Zoe and Evan following a few paces behind. This had all sounded like a great plan, but inwardly she couldn’t help worrying. What if the flat really wasn’t that great, was too small or smelled weird or something like that?
When she looked around, though, she saw her fears had been for nothing. Yes, it wasn’t all that big, but the living room area was large enough for a smallish couch and a coffee table, and a bookshelf filled with books stood against one wall. Off to one side was the kitchen area, with new-looking stainless appliances and a little table for two placed up against the window. In the other direction was a short hallway, with a bedroom on either side and the bathroom at the end of the hall. The whole apartment was decorated in simple dark oak furniture, with an antique rug under the couch and coffee table combo, and plain, sheer white drapes at the windows.
Overall, the flat had a feeling of peace and serenity she really hadn’t been expecting, and she looked over at Evan and gave him a grateful smile.
Levi went at once to the window and opened it, letting in a fresh, wild breeze that sent the draperies fluttering. He stood there for a long moment, taking in the view of Sedona’s red rocks off in the distance, the slanting afternoon light that painted the landscape in shades of gold. Did it match his expectations?
Apparently so, because he breathed in deeply, then nodded. “Yes. I like this. It’s clean here, not like the city.”
Zoe opened her mouth to argue that particular point, then shut it just as quickly. Wasn’t it better for everyone involved if he did think that Jerome was better than Phoenix? He needed to be happy here. She wanted desperately for him to be happy.
There was a soft knock at the open door, and Zoe turned around to see a pretty woman with graying auburn hair, probably in her early fifties, standing there. “Hi, Evan,” she said. “Just wanted to check in.”
“Hi, Rachel,” he responded. “Levi, Zoe, this is my cousin, Rachel McAllister. Or wait — I guess it’s Rachel Miller now, isn’t it?”
She shook her head. “I didn’t bother with all that nonsense. Tobias doesn’t care, and it’s not like we’re going to be starting a family.” Smiling, she stepped forward and extended a hand to Levi. “Hello, Levi. I’m in the apartment just a few doors down, above the old mercantile, so if you need anything, you just come find me.”
“Of course,” he said, looking both confused and relieved.
“And Zoe,” Rachel went on, surprising Zoe by taking her in her arms and giving her a quick hug. “I suppose I should be angry with you for taking Evan away from us, but frankly, I think a change of scenery will do him good.”
“Rachel,” he said in pained tones, while Zoe smothered a smile.
“Well, I promise to let him come up and visit,” she said. “Actually, we’ll both come up and visit. Jerome is adorable — I wish we had more time to stay, but we’ve got a million things to do back in Phoenix.”
“I can imagine. Wedding and house shopping, in that order?”
“Something like that.” The de la Paz clan had several real estate agents among its members, and they were already hot on the hunt, looking for the best house for the family’s prima-in-waiting and her new consort. And her mother had started getting the wedding organized, but Zoe knew she needed to get back and pitch in.
“Then you do what you need to do, and we’ll take care of Levi.” Something about the appreciative glance Rachel gave him made Zoe think that Levi was going to do just fine here in Jerome. The girls here were probably starving for some new blood, and open-minded McAllister witches most likely wouldn’t have too much trouble with Levi’s unorthodox origins. “In fact,” Rachel added, “Angela and Connor are driving down tonight so we can all have dinner together. Does that sound okay to you, Levi?”
He nodded. “Thank you. I feel very welcome.”
She beamed. “Well, then, I’ll let you get back to it. And I’ll be back to fetch you in a few hours for dinner, Levi.”
After that, she disappeared into the hallway, and a moment later Zoe could hear her footsteps on the stairs.
An awkward silence fell. She knew she and Evan should get going, because it was a long drive back to Phoenix, but something in her quailed at the thought of leaving Levi alone here, even though it seemed clear enough that he wasn’t going to want for company.
Apparently sensing her unease, he came forward and laid a hand on her arm. “Zoe. It is going to be fine. I like this place very much.”
“You’re going to like it even better after you’ve had dinner at Rachel’s,” Evan put in. “She’s got to be the best cook in Yavapai County.”
“You see?” Levi offered Zoe a reassuring smile. “Go back to Phoenix. You gave me this life — now it is up to me to do something with it.”
Tears started to her eyes, but she resolutely blinked them away. “You’re a much better person than I made you, Levi.”
He put his arms around her and gave her a quick, fierce hug, then let go just as swiftly. “And you’re a better person than you believe yourself to be, Zoe Sandoval.”
After that, she really couldn’t manage to say anything, because her throat was too tight, and she knew she was going to start bawling like a baby if she didn’t get out of there right away. She hurried to the stairwell, heard Evan murmur a few words to Levi, and then he was there next to her, his arm around her waist as he helped guide her down the stairs.
They were quiet as he pulled out of the alley, then made a treacherous left turn onto Main Street so they could head down the hill. It wasn’t until they were almost at the bottom that Evan spoke.
“You okay?”
She nodded. Her tears had begun to subside almost as soon as they left Jerome’s town limits, and now she thought she could speak without bursting into sobs. “I — I think so. It was just…leaving him there like that….”
“I know. But he needs the opportunity to make his own way in the world, and he has a much better chance here in Jerome. Everyone will look out for him. We’re like that.”
It was on her lips to say that all witch clans were like that, but she had to admit that the McAllisters were closer-knit than most, probably because they were so few of them. The de la Paz clan did what it could to keep in touch with one another, but there were so many members of the family scattered over such a large area that the task felt downright impossible sometimes.
So she only said, “Good,” and fell silent again as he cut off the highway into a neighborhood of smaller but well-kept homes, all with a gorgeous backdrop of high mountains looming in the near distance.
They’d already planned to stop in at Evan’s house in Cottonwood so he could gather up more of his belongings. Eventually he’d have to come up here and empty out the house for good — or pass it on to one of his cousins, he hadn’t decided which yet — but for now this was just a brief stop.
Zoe looked
around in curiosity as they stepped inside. Pale tile covered the entryway, but other than that the house had wall-to-wall cream-colored carpet. She wondered how he kept it so clean-looking when he was working on his car all the time. And it didn’t feel much like him, with the modern, square-looking red couches in the living room and the other pieces of steel and glass. Vertical blinds covered the windows.
It wasn’t that the decor wasn’t masculine; it just didn’t feel like Evan’s brand of masculine. The clean, simple pieces of age-warmed wood in the flat up in Jerome seemed much more his style.
“I didn’t choose any of this stuff,” he said, and Zoe started.
“What?”
“Kelly picked it all out. She wanted it to look like something out of a magazine. Which I guess would have been okay if she was decorating a condo in New York or something, but it really doesn’t work with a ranch-style house in Cottonwood, you know?”
“I guess you’re right,” Zoe admitted. “I promise — no red leather couches.”
He grinned, then bent down to kiss her on the cheek. “Like I was worried. Let me just go get my stuff. Could you do me a favor, though? I didn’t have much in the fridge, but what’s in there probably needs to be tossed. It’s not like I’m coming back. But it would speed things up if you could take care of it while I’m packing.”
“Sure,” she said. Not that she really looked forward to the task, but its very nature proved that he didn’t have any plans to change his mind, to say that he knew he was her consort, but he just couldn’t leave his home here in the Verde Valley. She didn’t even know why she should be worried about such a thing, although she supposed her grandmother’s sad example had proved that not all consort-prima pairings ended in bliss.
But she was not going to think about that now. Evan was nothing like her grandfather. Jaw set, Zoe went into the kitchen, saw that it was very neat and clean, no dishes on the counter or anything like that, even though she knew Evan had to have departed for Scottsdale in something of a hurry.
He’d been right about one thing — there really wasn’t much in the refrigerator except a container of leftover Chinese and a pizza box with a couple of forlorn pieces of pepperoni lingering inside. Well, and a six-pack of Kilt Lifter ale with four bottles remaining. That should be safe enough to leave behind, maybe a little present for the next person to live in the house.
She found the trash bags under the sink and disposed of the leftovers, then took them outside to the garbage cans. As she came back into the kitchen, she saw Evan waiting for her, a beat-up-looking duffle bag that was a match to the one he’d left in the hotel lying on the floor next to him.
“There was beer in the fridge,” she said. “Do you want to bring it?”
He shook his head. “No, don’t worry about it.” Then he paused and looked around, as if trying to commit one last image of the house to memory.
“Sad?”
“No,” he replied with some vehemence. “No, just…sort of saying goodbye, I guess. I actually kind of always hated this house. It was what Kelly wanted, not me. But still…Jerome…Cottonwood…it’s all I’ve ever known.”
She went to him then and put her arms around his waist, hugged him tight. His lips brushed the top of her head, and just that light touch was enough to awaken the bond between them, strong and shining and sure as the sun gleaming outside the windows, fresh as spring, and just as brimming with promise.
“And we’ll make a new home of our own in Fountain Hills,” she said. Then she looked up at him, and couldn’t help smiling, just a little bit. “I promise I’ll let you help pick out the furniture.”
“Promise?”
She nodded, still smiling, and he bent down and kissed her, mouth warm and wonderful, and promising her far more to come when they got back to Phoenix. And then they would make their home together, but the important thing — the really important one — was that no matter where they ended up, he was home, the match to her soul, the missing piece of her heart.
The prima energy glowed within her, and was content.
The End
The Witches of Cleopatra Hill series will continue with Defender, due out in Spring 2017. Also, look for a new novella featuring Jeremiah Wilcox in early January 2017!
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The Arizona Witch Clans
This list does contain some minor spoilers for earlier books in the series. Married names are indicated with parentheses.
The McAllisters (Jerome, Arizona, and the Verde Valley)
Angela McAllister (Wilcox) – prima, or head witch, of the McAllister clan
Rachel McAllister – Angela’s aunt
Bryce McAllister – one of the McAllister clan’s elders
Allegra Moss – one of the McAllister clan’s elders
Margot Emory (Wilcox) – formerly one of the McAllister clan’s elders, now married to Lucas Wilcox
Sylvia Emory – Margot’s mother
Ruby Lynch – former prima of the McAllister clan
Henry Lynch – son of Ruby McAllister and Patrick Lynch
Tobias Miller – fiancé of Rachel McAllister
Sonya McAllister – Angela’s mother, deceased
Boyd Willis – a McAllister warlock
Micah Landon -- an absentminded artist
Floyd Barnett – lives above the store next to Rachel’s
Rosemary McAllister – lives on the other side of Rachel’s store above the tea shop
Susan Callery -- an artist with a studio in the same building as Tobias’ flat
Efraim Willendale -- runs the post office
Wyatt McAllister -- owns a B&B on Paradise Street
Dora McAllister – Great-Aunt Ruby’s caretaker
Jocelyn Riggs -- the clan’s strongest medium
Kirby McAllister – a cousin of Angela’s and one of her “caretakers”
Tricia McAllister -- the new clan elder after Margot Emory steps down
Richard McAllister – Tricia’s husband
Caitlin McAllister (Trujillo) – daughter of Tricia and Richard; a seer
Michael McAllister – Caitlin’s older brother, a chef
Roslyn McAllister -- Caitlin’s first cousin; youngest sister of Jenny and Adam
Marcus McAllister -- Tricia McAllister’s older brother, father of Jenny, Adam, and Roslyn
Lysette McAllister – Marcus’ wife and mother of Jenny, Adam, and Roslyn; a civilian (non-witch)
Jenny McAllister – eldest daughter of Marcus and Lysette McAllister
Adam McAllister – only son of Marcus and Lysette McAllister
Roslyn McAllister – youngest daughter of Marcus and Lysette McAllister
Evan McAllister — a distant cousin of Angela’s; the clan’s “fixer”
The Wilcox Clan (Flagstaff, Arizona, and the northern third of the state)
Connor Wilcox – primus (head warlock) of the Wilcox clan
Damon Wilcox – former primus of the Wilcoxes, now deceased
Lucas Wilcox – a cousin of Connor’s, now married to Margot Emory
Mason Wilcox (McAllister) – Connor’s cousin and a friend of Angela’s; now married to Adam McAllister
Danica Wilcox – Mason’s younger sister
Joseph Wilcox – Mason and Danica’s father
Olivia Wilcox – Mason and Danica’s mother
Andre Begonie – Angela McAllister’s father
Marie Wilcox (Begonie) – a cousin of Connor’s, the Wilcox clan’s seer
Eleanor Garnett – the clan’s healer
Darrell Wilcox – a Wilcox warlock gifted with heating the area around him
In the 1880s:
Jeremiah Wilcox – the Wilcox clan’s primus
Nizhoni – Jeremiah’s second wife, a woman of the Navajo
Jacob Wilcox – Jeremiah and Nizhoni’s son
Samuel Wilcox – Jeremiah’s brother
Edmund Wilcox – Jeremiah’s brother
Na
than Wilcox – Jeremiah’s brother
Emma Garnett – Jeremiah’s only sister; children are Louis, Susan, Marcus, and Jeffrey
Aaron Garnett – Emma’s husband
Grace Wilcox – Samuel’s wife; five children are Benjamin, Addie, Esther, Clay, and Dorothy
Lida Wilcox – Edmund’s wife; their three children are Kathleen, Annabelle, and Wyatt
Jennie Wilcox – Nathan’s wife; their four children are Oliver, Calvin, Levi, and Victor
The de la Paz clan (Phoenix, Arizona; Tucson, Arizona; and the southern third of the state)
Maya de la Paz -- prima of the de la Paz clan up through Protector
Alex Trujillo -- Maya’s grandson
Diego Trujillo -- Alex’s older brother
Alicia Trujillo – Alex and Diego’s little sister
Letty Trujillo – Diego’s wife
Luz Trujillo – Alex and Diego’s mother and Maya’s daughter; prima of the de la Paz clan after the end of Protector
David Trujillo – Luz’s husband and father of Alex, Diego, and Alicia
Valentina de la Paz – the de la Paz clan’s healer in the Tucson area
Alba de la Paz -- the healer in the Phoenix area
Zoe Sandoval – the de la Paz clan’s prima-in-waiting
Zander Sandoval – Zoe’s little brother
Luis Sandoval – father of Zoe and Zander
Andrea Sandoval – mother of Zoe and Zander, Alex Trujillo’s aunt (Luz and Andrea are sisters)
Luis de la Paz – Alex’s cousin; works at the family’s store
Jack Sandoval -- Luis Sandoval’s youngest brother; a detective with the Scottsdale P.D.
Miguel de la Paz -- a private detective
Oscar de la Paz -- with the Tucson P.D.
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Strange Magic (The Witches of Cleopatra Hill Book 9) Page 25