Be Careful What You Wish For (The Swann Sisters Chronicles Book 2)

by Evangeline Anderson

  At that moment, Nana walked into the room, followed by a man with iron gray hair and not a stitch of clothing on. It hardly mattered though because he had so much body hair it looked like he was wearing a furry gray jacket and trousers.

  “No, Sir Percy,” Nana was saying firmly, a grim look on her face. “I will not remove my clothing on our first date—or our second or our third, or for any date for that matter! You never told me you went around all day with your, er, dangly bits hanging out! Aren’t you cold?”

  “The fire of justice keeps me warm!” The gray-haired man lifted his shaggy head proudly. He had a walrus mustache as iron gray as the hair on his head and body. “I reject the dysfunction of our culture of body shaming and lies!” he boomed.

  “Sir Percy is right!” someone in the crowd shouted. “Nudity and justice for all! No one should be ashamed to be naked in the skin God gave them.”

  “Here, here!” Several of the nudists raised their plastic wine glasses and cheered.

  Great—her art showing was turning into a social justice rally for senior nudists, Cass thought dismally. What else could go wrong?

  At that moment, there was a tapping on the front door and then it opened and in came a familiar face. Cass’s heard sank when she saw it was Lady Blankenship—dressed in a smart, little black dress that probably cost more than a luxury sedan. Behind her came about six other women, all dressed in the same style. They were laughing and talking together as they entered but gradually their conversation began to die away as they took in the contents of the room.

  “Oh my God,” Cass muttered to herself and rushed over to try and salvage the situation. “Lady Blankenship,” she said quickly. “Oh, er—I mean, Ms. Blankenship—it was so nice of you to come tonight.”

  “Yes, well…” Lady Blankenship’s sharp green eyes went wide as she looked around at the living art, naked patrons, wine-guzzling clones, and the fairy floating in the middle of the ceiling. “This is…quite a gathering,” she managed at last. Her eyes flicked from the naked clones and nude seniors to Cass’s richly bejeweled ball gown. “I really don’t know if I’m over or under dressed.”

  “You’re just perfect,” Cass assured her. “And I’m so glad you could come tonight to my display of…of…” Suddenly she had an inspiration. “My display of living art.”

  “Living art, is it?” Lady Blankenship’s perfectly on-fleek eyebrows rose skyward. “Well now, that’s something new.” She eyed one of the paintings that had come to life—it was the one of Jake from the back, Cass saw, and of course it was completely naked. Just seeing it made Cass’s throat feel tight with unshed tears but she pushed them back and looked away.

  “Let me show you around,” she said quickly. “And please don’t mind the nude patrons. They represent the, uh…the um…” She racked her brains, searching for an explanation. “They represent the way seniors are treated in our country. We don’t respect our elders anymore and as a consequence we leave them naked and alone in a cold, heartless world.”

  “Oh!” Lady Blankenship nodded and her face cleared. “Performance art too! Very interesting. Please, do go on.”

  Cass did, trying to point out the art as well as she could, though much of it was moving all around, and to ignore the naked patrons and clones. Josh and Phil were still doing their best to serve whatever drinks and snacks they could find in the kitchen—since the clones had eaten and drunk almost everything at the bar—but soon everyone in Lady Blankenship’s party had a plastic glass of wine and something to nibble on as they walked through the “exhibit.”

  To her cautious relief, Cass was beginning to think she might actually somehow pull this off, despite all the craziness happening all around her. Lady Blankenship and her fellow art critics commented several times on what a “unique” show it was and they all seemed to be enjoying themselves immensely.

  “I must say, my dear, this is so much better than Albert’s dinky little gallery,” Lady Blankenship said to her as she nibbled a third petit four. “He never throws a gala this interesting. He could learn a thing or two from you.”

  “And the art is exquisite,” one of the other ladies murmured, eyeing one of the naked living Jake paintings. “You’re very talented, dear. I definitely want to take some of this home tonight.”

  “Thanks, so much. I’m so glad you’re enjoying my work.” Cass tried to sound happy but inside she still felt like someone had hollowed out her heart. All the craziness of the night couldn’t make her forget that she’d just lost the man she loved and he was never coming back.

  But then things got a whole lot crazier.

  Breena had been floating up by the ceiling and doing something with her wand which looked a little like a baseball pitcher winding up for the pitch. Suddenly she seemed to feel ready to go because she shouted at the top of her lungs,

  “By the power of my wand

  By the power of three,

  I put things right

  As they ought to be!”

  As she spoke the words, she waved her wand madly, sending showers of silver glitter and pink sparks down on everyone’s head. Several of the naked patrons yelped and smacked at the stinging sparks when they landed on more sensitive areas.

  At once, everything tripled itself.

  Suddenly there were three dementor mothers with three dementor babies…three junk monkeys running amok…three blue cubist nightmares staggering around the living room and worst of all…no less than thirty drunk Brandon clones clamoring for cookies.

  “Oh!” gasped Lady Blankenship, who was suddenly elbow to elbow with naked seniors on one side and living art on the other. “Oh, my—how did you do that, my dear? It’s getting a bit crowded in here, don’t you think?”

  “It certainly is,” Cass had to agree. The house on States Street was large but it hadn’t been meant to hold so many people at once, especially since many of them weren’t even people.

  She looked up at Breena who had a perplexed look on her face, as though she was trying to figure out why her spell hadn’t worked.

  “Breena!” she shouted, trying to make herself heard over the racket. “Breena please, reverse it again! That didn’t work—reverse it!”

  “I didn’t put enough power into it,” the new fairy godmother called back. “That’s the problem! Just settle down, my dear—I’ll figure this out!”

  Waving her wand again, she chanted loudly,

  “By the power of three,

  By my wand’s pink glow,

  The magic in this room,

  Will grow and grow!”

  Suddenly, to Cass’s horror, all the living art began to expand in size. Had she thought Nana’s living room was crowded before? Now it was positively packed as the living sculptures began to swell to three times their original dimensions. The three junk monkeys were beginning to look like huge gorillas and the dementor mothers and babies became horrific monstrosities moaning and reaching boney hands to the sky. The thirty clones were all nine feet high and still growing, shouting in hoarse, terrifying voices for cookies.

  Lady Blankenship and her friends as well as the naked seniors from the Lake Como Resort started trying to get out the front door. But it was blocked by one of the cubist nightmares which had plunked its square blue body right in the doorway and wasn’t budging.

  “Oh my God, this is awful!” Cass heard a voice gasp beside her. Turning her head, she saw it was Phil.

  “Tell me about it,” she snapped. “Everything’s a big fat mess!”

  “We have to stop it somehow!” Phil exclaimed. “This new FG is awful! We need help. But who in the world can counteract a fairy’s magic?”

  “I know who can help,” Cass said reluctantly. But the thought of calling for that help was like a fist clenched in her gut. She felt she would almost rather be crushed to death in the crazy crowd of clones, nudists, and living art than ask to be rescued by him.

  But she couldn’t only think about herself, she acknowledged regretfully. This had become a genuin
ely dangerous situation and someone was going to be seriously hurt if she didn’t do something quickly.

  Taking a deep breath, she raised her voice and shouted as loudly as she could,

  “Jake, I need you!”

  Of course, she had no idea if her court-appointed elf would help or not. He had, after all, decided to run off with Glorianna and presumably had no more interest in Cass. Still, she couldn’t think of anyone else she could call on—anyone else who had the power to counteract what her incompetent fairy godmother had done. So she shouted for Jake and hoped that at least one last time he would help her.

  Almost the moment she finished her cry the entire scene around her froze. The babbling of the clones, the frightened cries of the patrons, the hooting of the giant junk monkeys, and the hoarse demands for cookies from the clones was suddenly silenced. In fact, everyone around Cass looked like they had been turned into silent statues—even Phil and Breena, who had been stopped in mid-flutter up near the ceiling. Even the sparks from the fairy’s wand were frozen in place.

  “Cassandra?” Jake was standing there, at the bottom of the staircase, an unreadable look in his pale green eyes.

  “Hello, Counselor O’Shea.” Cass lifted her chin, trying to keep her voice steady. “I’m sorry I had to bother you,” she said, using a businesslike tone. “I know you’d probably rather not be here but since you are still my court-appointed elf and my new fairy godmother has made a huge, freaking mess—”

  “What makes you think I wouldn’t want to come to you?” His tone was soft and urgent. “Nothing could be further from the truth, Cassandra. I’m so glad you called me!”

  Cass was somewhat taken aback.

  “You are?” she asked uncertainly.

  Jake nodded. “Of course! I wanted to go after you at once but the words you spoke when you said you never wanted to see me again created a binding against me.”

  “A binding? How?” Cass demanded.

  “It’s because you spoke them in the Cathedral of the Oaks, in a place of power,” Jake explained. “I literally couldn’t come to you again unless you called.”

  Cass frowned. “I didn’t know,” she said shortly. Not that it would have stopped her from saying what she had said. She still wished she didn’t have to see him again—only dire necessity had forced her to call the big elf.

  “Please, Cassandra…” Jake held out a hand to her. “You left the ball in such a hurry, I never found out why you were so upset and of course, Glorianna wouldn’t tell me.” He made a face. “Although I have a feeling she is definitely behind whatever it is that happened.”

  “How can you ask me that?” Cass demanded, as she struggled to make her way through the frozen crowd to get to him. “How can you pretend nothing happened when I saw you and Glorianna making plans to run off together?”

  “Making plans to run off together?” Jake echoed, frowning in apparent confusion. “What are you talking about? How would you see such a thing? I was talking to Judge Gruff—how could I have been making plans with Glorianna?”

  “I saw you!” Cass insisted, huffing as she pushed her way through the crowd and finally came to the foot of the stairs. “Valen showed me in a magic-mirror thingy. Kind of a hand-held version of the U-News thing on your wall.”

  Understanding suddenly bloomed on Jake’s face.

  “Ah, I see,” he murmured. “Would it happen to be something that looked like this?”

  He spoke a word of power and suddenly a hand-held mirror, filled with the same inky black liquid she’d seen in the mirror Valen had showed her, appeared in his hand.

  “Yes.” Cass crossed her arms over her chest. “Exactly.”

  “All right—watch this.” Jake brought the mirror close to his mouth and whispered something to it that Cass couldn’t hear, followed by a word of power that raised the short hairs on the back of her neck. “Now,” he said, holding up the mirror again so she could see into it. “Look.”

  The dark surface of the black liquid cleared and suddenly Cass saw herself standing close to Brandon with her arms around his neck. His own arms were looped around her waist and he was pulling her close and looking down into her face, a passionate expression in his eyes that Cass had never seen in real life.

  “Cass, baby,” he muttered hoarsely. “I want you—I’ll give up everything to be with you. Just say the word and I’ll quit my band and pose for you twenty-four/seven, I swear.”

  “Hey!” Cass looked up from the mirror, glaring at Jake. “Brandon never said anything like that! In fact, the little jerk didn’t even care when I told him I wanted to break up.”

  “So…you did end your relationship with him?” Jake asked, his face carefully neutral.

  “Yes, I did.” Cass frowned. “No matter what happened between you and me, I decided I couldn’t go on half-assing things with him. It just wasn’t right.” She waved a hand dismissively. “But that’s beside the point—how did you make this thing show something that never happened?”

  “It’s a wish-mirror,” Jake explained. “A magical toy which shows its user whatever they wish to see. Truth has nothing to do with it.”

  “A magical…toy?” Cass stared at the mirror in her hand. “Are you serious? You mean what Valen showed me about you and Glorianna…”

  “Never actually happened,” Jake said earnestly. Coming down the steps that separated them, he looked down into Cass’s face, his leaf-green eyes earnest. “I want nothing to do with Glorianna, my darling. I only want you.”

  “I…I…” Something wet and warm was running down her cheeks and Cass realized that she was crying. Could this really be true? Did Jake really care for her and not the skinny fairy girl after all? “It wasn’t real?” she whispered, looking up at him for extra reassurance. “You really don’t want her?”

  “You are the only woman I want,” Jake said with gentle intensity. He reached for Cass and enfolded her in his arms. “Please believe me, darling—you’re the only one for me. I love you.”

  Cass caught her breath at his words. She didn’t feel ready to return them—not yet. She was still reeling from the long, strange night she’d had and her emotions were a tangled knot. But hearing Jake say those words with such conviction and intensity seemed to ease the ache inside her.

  “Jake,” she whispered, looking up at him. “I’m sorry. I guess I owe you an apology.” She sniffed angrily. “I can’t believe I let those two fool me with a toy!”

  “How were you to know about wish-mirrors?” he asked reasonably. Taking an immaculate white handkerchief out of his breast pocket, he blotted her eyes and kissed her on the forehead. “I’m just so glad you called me, my darling or we might never have figured the whole mess out.” He looked around the room and a wry expression came over his face. “Although I’m guessing I have your fairy godmother to thank for forcing you to call, even when you thought I had been unfaithful to you.”

  “She really did screw things up this time,” Cass admitted with a sigh. “Although I can’t blame the naked seniors on her—those are Nana’s fault.”

  Jake raised his eyebrows.

  “Your grandmother invited nudists to your art show?”

  “Not on purpose, I don’t think,” Cass said. “She’s just really bad at picking men.”

  “So it would seem,” Jake murmured. Looking over the crowded living room, he shook his head. “Well, this is going to take some doing to fix. Of course, I could say a word of power and return everything to normal…”

  “You can?” Cass asked. “Oh, please do! Please, Jake—everything is such a mess!”

  “But that would not break the curse that is on you, Cassandra,” he finished. He lifted her chin and looked into her eyes. “A wish that goes wrong three times is a curse—you know this, I think, from your older sister’s experiences.”

  Cass nodded. “Yes, I do remember that. And somehow Phil was able to break the curse that was on her and get her life back. She never has to take birthday wishes from a fairy godmother ever a
gain.”

  “Would you like the same freedom in your own life?” Jake asked quietly.

  “Of course I would! But how? How can I break it? How can I fix this?” Cass gestured at the crazy, mixed-up tableau in front of them.

  “You have power, we have proven it several times,” Jake murmured. “We simply need to harness and magnify that power.”

  Cass felt her heart starting to pound.

  “And…how do we do that?” she asked, biting her lip.

  “You know how.” Jake leaned down and captured her lips in a hot, urgent kiss. “My darling,” he growled softly, “Do you want me to help you break this curse?”

  “Yes…” Cass kissed him back, feeling her pulse begin to race. “Yes, please, Jake—help me.”

  “Very well then.” With a swift motion, he swung her into his arms. “Let’s go and find a little privacy.”

  Thirty-Eight

  They ended up in Cass’s room, because Jake told her they had to stay close to the source of the problem in order to fix it. Thankfully there was no one else in it and it was still fairly neat and clean from the housekeeping spell he had done what seemed like days ago now. So when he put Cass down in the middle of the room, she felt completely comfortable when she grabbed him by the tie and dragged him close.

  “Kiss me,” she murmured. “Touch me all over—I want your hands on me.”

  “My pleasure, darling,” he murmured. “But maybe we should take off this dress first?” He plucked gently at the richly decorated gown.

  Cass looked down at herself and nodded.

  “Yes, it’s a gorgeous gown but I need to get out of it. Give me half a minute, will you?”

  Jake settled himself on her bed and leaned back, arms crossed under his head.

  “I’ll be happy to wait for you.”

  “Thanks.” Cass went into her walk-in closet and shimmied out of the dress. Hanging it carefully, she looked through her underwear drawer until she found exactly what she wanted.