Making Midlife Magic: A Paranormal Women's Fiction Novel (Forty Is Fabulous Book 1)

by Heloise Hull

  “Let’s go with elated,” I suggested. “Otherwise I’ll feel bad for coming here and starting an existential crisis. It’s bad enough when I’m having one of my own, but to give the existential bug to everyone around me just seems rude.” I swirled a glass of red wine and popped a bacon wrapped date filled with parmigiana cheese into my mouth.

  I loved this life. Except for the basilica that seemed to have it out for me. But honestly, I’d put up with more to get less in life before. This was downright delightful. I adored mysteries.

  “Darling, we’re glad to have you,” Rosemary covered my hand with hers and squeezed. “And a little existential crisis now and then never hurt anybody.”

  “I doubt that, but thank you. Wow, these dates are so fresh! They taste like pure honey and then the salty cheese and bacon...” I gave her a chef’s kiss and ate another one.

  A shadow covered our table. We looked up to see Luca. He always dressed so professionally. A button-down shirt, carefully manicured hair and fingernails—important, since they’d be touching you—and not too tight pants. It was as if he really expected to be running down a criminal or petty thief, but still wanted to look professional.

  “Can I have a minute?” he asked. “With you, Ava,” he added when we all stared.

  “Of course. Be right back, ladies.” I left my wine and walked a little ways to the fountain. Luca took a Euro and flicked it into the water with his thumb. He handed another one to me. “Make a wish.”

  My mind churned at this new side of the suddenly mysterious polizia. “Okay,” I said slowly, taking it from his fingers. His touch was warm and sent shivers down my belly. Even he seemed taken aback by the sparks. When I glanced up from our hands, his face had an unfamiliar look. Almost hungry. For me.

  He cleared his throat. “How was your dinner with Aurick?”

  I lifted a shoulder. “Well Nonna was there, so… fine?”

  “Fine. Hm. And are you planning on staying for a while longer?”

  “Looks like it. I love the quiet life here and all of the culture and history steeped in every stone and tree. I do miss my boys, though. They started college, so I’d be without them at home, too, but it’s still an adjustment.”

  “If you’d like to use the phone, please don’t hesitate.”

  “Thank you.” I made a little wish, gave the coin a kiss, and threw it in the fountain. We started walking around the square and into the quiet alleyways. “Do you have children?”

  Luca shook his head. “It was never in the stars for my wife and me.”

  The silence stretched out between us, which wasn’t really my style. I took a deep breath and went for the plunge. “May I ask how your wife passed?”

  Luca’s eyes were pain-filled. He was still very much in love with her, and I would have no hope of competing with that. He laced his hands behind his back and stared into the distance for a moment.

  “She died for me,” he said shortly.

  “I’m sorry,” I said softly, not pressing any further. I could take the hint.

  We continued to wander. Finally, he got up the courage to tell me why he had asked me to join him. “Would you like to get dinner with me tomorrow?”

  I stumbled over a cobblestone, and Luca caught me before I fell.

  “Excuse me?”

  “Where two people eat food and get to know each other better.”

  “Right, a date. It’s been a while, but I still understand the concept.”

  “If it makes you feel better, it’s been a while for me, too.”

  I stopped walking to turn and face him. Post-affair Ava wasn’t going to play the dancing-dating game. I was going to be blunt. “I have to admit I’m curious. I heard you haven’t dated since the passing of your wife. Why now? Why me?” When he gave me a shocked look, I added, “Like you said, it’s a small town and the gossip is fierce in Aradia. As the two newcomers, so to speak, we get the most attention.”

  Luca faced me, too. We were near the ancient Roman ruins of free-standing columns and aqueducts. I couldn’t help but think he would have made a fine warrior, just like that Centurion, but that kind of thinking wouldn’t help unless I understood his motives.

  “Honestly?” he asked.

  “No. Dishonestly.”

  Luca started, then gave me a wry smile. “Funny. The thing is, I’m not sure you’ll like the answer.”

  My heart twisted a little, but I stood a little straighter. Whatever this man had to say wouldn’t affect me. He had no place in my life—how could it wound me?

  “You remind me of my wife.” He said it quietly, fervently.

  Well that was unexpected. “Me?”

  Luca nodded. “You even look similar. I assume you have Mediterranean heritage by your olive skin and dark hair?”

  “My twins gifted me one of those DNA ancestry tests for Christmas one year,” I admitted. “I never knew my parents, and they thought it might help, but the genetics people were flabbergasted. It came back one hundred percent Italian. I guess not even native Italians are one hundred percent.”

  I could have sworn I saw his eyes glow at that, but then I noticed what was actually lighting up his entire face. The Roman Centurion ghost and his faithful mastiff had reappeared. Crap! Had I summoned them with my thoughts?

  I had to get Luca away. There was no way I was going to be the one to ruin the town’s ten-year streak of keeping Luca ignorant of the supernatural.

  “Wait, do you see that? Something is glowing,” Luca said, resisting my efforts to investigate a fascinating looking cracked cobblestone behind him.

  “Nope, just the moon,” I lied with fake cheerfulness.

  “It looks almost human-like.”

  I scoffed. “Et tu, Luca? Come on. There’s no ghost here.”

  “There’s something here.”

  “Maybe it’s indigestion. Did you have the spicy Calabrian crab pasta at the taverna tonight?”

  “Yes…”

  I clapped my hands. “Well, there you go!”

  “To be clear,” Luca said, “What you’re telling me is that bad seafood is making me hallucinate?”

  I shrugged. “I’m just spit-balling. It could have been the peppers.”

  It wasn’t a very convincing theory, but I was desperate. Fortunately, the ghost chose that moment to fade out, perhaps sensing it wasn’t a good time. When Luca turned back, he was gone.

  “We should head back,” I said, relief flooding my body.

  Luca reluctantly agreed.

  I took his hand and forced him to look at me and only me. No ghosts, no distractions. “One more question.”

  “Okay.”

  “Why now?”

  “Anche in paradiso non è bello essere soli,” he said in his sonorous accent. “Even in paradise it is not good to be alone. Besides, you’re very… fascinating. Shall I pick you up tomorrow night? If it’s too bizarre because of what I told you, I’ll understand.”

  “It’s fine,” I said. Then more forcefully. “Yes, that sounds great, but I can meet you at Marco’s. It’s no bother.”

  “No, I’ll pick you up. It’s only proper.”

  As we walked back to the taverna, I couldn’t help but wonder if it was that Old-World quality that made Luca want to pick me up or if it was something else. Rather, someone else. A certain, mysteriously charming man living under the same tiled roof.

  Chapter Eighteen

  As soon as I got back from Rosemary’s Bakery the next morning, I dove into Nonna’s grimoire, which were really Septimius Severus’s scrolls. I didn’t know how to feel about that. I never realized how much I’d relied on the internet until I didn’t have it. I hadn’t learned about the Roman emperors before I dropped out of school to work. Thinking about my lost education inevitably made me think of Jim. He was always so embarrassed when someone asked where I went to college, and he loved to constantly remind me that without him, I wouldn’t have had a chance. No diploma, no degree, gaps in my work history from raising the children. Wha
t was it about me that pissed him off so much?

  “Perhaps I may be of some assistance,” a disembodied voice announced somewhere near my left ear.

  I flung my hand around as if I was swatting a fly. “Piero! You have to stop sneaking into my room like that.”

  My Renaissance Romancer shimmered to life like a mirage. “I’m sorry, Signora. I close my eyes when you…” His eyes tracked down to my lady parts, and he waggled his eyebrows.

  “Piero! I’m going to kill you again!”

  “There’s no shame in pleasure, milady,” he said, floating just out of reach. “We knew that best of all in Tuscany. Shall I find a lute to serenade you the next time you pleasure yourself?”

  I launched a lace doily at his head, but it passed through without the desired effect. He held up his hands, and the feather in his cap jostled as he bowed. “No? Then let me help with your study of the scrolls. I studied them extensively in the glorious Medici court.”

  “These scrolls?”

  “Of course. Everything of power eventually made its way to our court.”

  Despite my anger at his intrusion, I had to admit I needed the help. Nonna was constantly napping, and Tiberius couldn’t shake the need to stock up for the winter, including storing walnuts in my suitcase. Even though he was only inhabiting a chipmunk’s body, the rodent instincts were strong.

  I put down the hairbrush I was planning to eviscerate him with. “Why did you study Severus’s scrolls?”

  “Severus merely found the ancient scrolls. The Book of Thoth was famous for centuries before and after in certain esoteric circles. Even Isaac Newton, that hack, may he rot forever and ever amen, tried to unravel the mysteries inside.”

  I moved past the Newton hatred and into the mysteries portion. “What was the mystery?”

  “Immortality, of course. The Book of Thoth contains writings from the god himself. Its real name is the Emerald Tablet.”

  My hands froze over the brittle papyrus. “It’s not emerald. Or even pea green. It’s also not a tablet.”

  “Not to you. I saw it change once under the hands of the master mage John Dee in the court of Elizabeth I. While I never want to witness that particular trick again, I can help you with the more mundane passages.” He rubbed his translucent hands together and drifted over the text. “Oh, yes. I forgot about that bit.”

  “What?” I peered over the lines.

  Piero shuddered. “I guess it’s fine now, but last time I incanted these lines…”

  I gave him an encouraging continue gesture.

  “I sort of exploded myself.”

  I practically pulled a muscle in my calf jumping away from the papyri. “These scrolls caused your death?”

  “Yes, but reading the text is different. As long as you don’t incant, it should be fine.”

  “Should?”

  “Let’s see, shall we?” Piero traced the Latin with a fingertip. “Verum sine mendacio, certum, et verissimum. Quod est inferius, est sicut quod est superius.”

  “What does that mean?” I whispered, glancing at the door. I hoped Aurick couldn’t hear Piero. Something told me that he’d be more than interested in what was happening in here.

  “Tis true without lying, certain and most true. That which is below is like that which is above.”

  Something sparked in my mind. I blinked a few times as images wavered to the surface. A woman. The scrolls. A dark passageway under stone arches. “Piero?” I asked, uncertainty marking my voice. “Did you accidentally—”

  With a pneumatic pulse, I felt my body bounce and I was there.

  * * *

  Looking over my shoulder, I continued, my heart pounding in my fingertips and adrenaline coursing down my legs in a cold spurt. It smelled like rotting leaves and decaying earth in the cavern, and the small space was as black as tar.

  My stolen body threw a small orb of blue light, illuminating the corbelled walls. This felt familiar. The place, the movement. Without having to blindly grope, I knew where to shine the orb. There it was. A small door glowed under my ghostly light. It was short; I would have to bend to get through it. I brushed away the undergrowth around the handle, found an ancient ring of bronze, and opened it with a creak. The passageway ended abruptly, and I could see a diamond of white at the far end. Vertical lines of text, hymns, and protection spells were carved into the stonework. I squeezed the orb into my fist, extinguishing the light. He was there. Fear, knowing what was ahead, mingled with something else. My ambition. It was all-consuming and vengeful.

  On tiptoes, I crept along the dank walls, seeping moisture so far beneath the surface of the earth. The diamond grew as the tunnel rose. It smelled cleaner. Like lemons and pomegranate. I inhaled, enjoying his scent. I had given him the sleeping potion myself, but he was strong. There was only a little time before he fought against the magic.

  Quickly, I vaulted over the secret wall and allowed myself a quick glance at the four-poster bed. Silk drapes billowed in the breeze from the open window. His eyes were closed, but his lids fluttered as if he were in a deep REM cycle. I knew better. He was no human and he did not dream. He was fighting me.

  The scroll was tucked under his arm. Delicately, I wiggled the papyri back and forth until I freed it, unleashing a hunger I’d never experienced before. I knew I would rather die of thirst than let go of these words.

  He may have found me, but I would know his most intimate secrets.

  He may have dragged me home, but I would rise again.

  The scroll dripped gray-white vapor and hummed slightly. My fingers trembled as I unrolled it, the ink barely dry on the glyphs. Ravenously, I scoured the scroll’s secrets. His life’s work. A story fit for the gods. I was so absorbed in it, I didn’t hear the first creak. Or the second.

  In an instant, the god’s hands were around my throat. The crush of his power was more terrifying than being hunted, and cold fear rolled down my body. He struggled through the fog of my sleep spell, but he was still stronger than me.

  “What are you doing in here?” His voice was quiet, but full of menace. Our reluctant truce forged over the last few weeks, broken.

  I fought to control the shivers and look him in the eyes. “If I am to be brought back bound—” he snarled at that, tightening his grip on my neck, but I persisted. “Yes, Thoth. Bound like a savage beast. If you insist on dragging me in chains, then I will know.”

  “Even for you, Runaway Goddess, it is too much.”

  “Nothing is too much for me.”

  The pressure released and I staggered back, massaging my throat and wheezing. Why had he let me go?

  He laughed once. Then again.

  Soon, he was laughing so hard that an eerie feeling of wrongness took seed and began to sprout. Somehow, he had outwitted me, and it pleased him.

  I screamed and the moon shattered.

  * * *

  In another whoosh, I was back in my bed, shaking off the silvery remnants of the vision. The problem was, it felt more like a memory, something in the distant past. Worse, I didn’t know whose memories I’d hijacked. I hadn’t seen the face of the Runaway Goddess, but it was odd that the memories appeared after touching Nonna’s grimoire. Nonna, who claimed to be 115, but clearly wasn’t. Nonna, who claimed to be a simple strega, but could astral project. Things weren’t adding up.

  Piero looked at me with concern. “Signora,” he began, but fell silent. He staggered a moment, then his eyes bulged. He looked like he was in great pain.

  “What’s happening?” I sat up, alarmed at the grotesque look on Piero’s face. “Was it the spell?”

  The ghost moaned and grabbed at his throat, contorting in unearthly shapes. “Help!” he gasped.

  Chapter Nineteen

  I shot out of my room, shaking and desperate to find help. Yet, as soon as my hand touched Nonna’s bedroom door, I froze. She was the one who gave me these scrolls, and she clearly had her secrets. Then there was Aurick. For all I knew, he was the one killing ghosts, or sucking t
hem dry, or worse. What did I know about the supernatural world?

  Seriously, was Tiberius, a talking chipmunk, really my best option? That seemed absurd, especially since I only trusted him because he was cute and furry. The real Tiberius, the one inhabiting the body of a chipmunk, could be anything.

  I dropped my hand and tiptoed away, but it was too late. A door creaked to my right. It was Aurick.

  He stumbled out of his room, looking sleepy. “Is there a fire?”

  I hesitated. “Nothing. No fire. Just… excitement.” I nodded vigorously. “Yeah, I found a new path today, and I thought Nonna might like to join me on a little walk.”

  Aurick watched me carefully. I always felt like he was playing chess while I was stuck on checkers. And it only took a glance. “I’ll go with you. Despite my, ah, lengthened stay on Aradia, I haven’t seen much of it beyond the villa.”

  I swallowed. “Maybe some other time.” I looked at my wrist. “I forgot. I’ve got an appointment. In town. Soon. Ish.”

  Aurick raised an eyebrow. “You’re not wearing a watch.”

  “Internal,” I tapped my wrist again. “It’s a gift.”

  “What time is it right now?”

  “Four forty-two in the afternoon.”

  Aurick looked at his watch. “Ah-ha! Wrong.”

  “Well what time is it?”

  “Four forty-three. Actually that was pretty good. Right. Well please let me know when you’d like to take that walk, Ava.”

  “I will.” We said our goodbyes and I scooted back to my room.

  “Piero?” I whispered. “Come back.”

  Suddenly, as if I actually had summoned him, my Renaissance Romancer reappeared, rubbing his chest and heaving as if he’d run a mortal marathon.

  “Piero! What happened?”

  “Milady, I don’t understand. Something was sucking at my essence, pulling and yanking. It felt hungry. Vengeful.” He stared at the scrolls. “I knew I shouldn’t have read them again. Their power is too dangerous.”