A Witch Too Late

by Paula Lester

  “This is a dousing amulet. It’s very taboo in the witching community, which is why Siren Shiloh had to use very unorthodox means to obtain it. It won’t hurt a bit. See, I’ll demonstrate.”

  Dustin looped the chain over his head. Behind him, more than one of the sirens gasped. He flashed a satisfied grin over his shoulder before turning back to Cas. “See, it doesn’t hurt at all.”

  “So then why are the sirens so freaked out?” Cas asked.

  He jingled the chain. “There’s quite a bit of superstition about items that tamper with a witch’s magical strength. But for a witch of your magnitude, this will only subdue your power. It’ll keep you and the people around you safe. No more flying pigs or paper hearts when you sneeze.” Dustin slipped the amulet off and held it out. “May I?”

  Cas’ gaze swept the room and landed on Echo. The cat only peered back. This decision would have to be hers alone. Could she trust them?

  Well, she had just caused a multi-car pileup in the middle of town.

  “I don’t have much of a choice.” Cas stepped forward

  Dustin flashed the warm smile again and put the chain over Cas’ head.

  The change was instant. The tremble that had been inching up her body snapped off like shutting a faucet, though she did feel strange too. It was as if everything in the room had become a bit muted or covered with a thin sheen of grey. It was odd but tolerable. For the first time all day, she relaxed. The thought that she could hiccup or cough without causing a fire or a flood was reassuring.

  “What of the stone, Dustin?”

  Dustin gave Cas a reassuring wink before turning back to the council. “Archsiren, the peacekeepers have yet to find anything, though there are residual signs that something odd did take place. They are investigating other aspects of Ms. Lorne’s story.”

  Lavania drummed pointy nails against her armrest. “If the thing exists, we can’t have it at large. If something of such magical value fell into nefarious hands, the results would be catastrophic for us.”

  Once again, Dustin bowed. “I will direct the search myself, Archsiren, and report to you immediately about any developments.”

  The offer didn’t seem to relieve Lavania. Distracted, she dug a fingernail into the wood of the chair, gouging out a small groove. Without warning, she stood and left the audience chamber through a side door.

  “I guess that’s that,” Albert said and stood to go as well.

  Shiloh spoke up. “Echo, go with Ms. Lorne. Keep an eye on her. If the stone shows up, report back to us immediately.”

  “And if she manages to use any magic, you better be back here in an instant to let us know.” Valencia wrinkled her nose as if she smelled something rotten. “All this drama is giving me indigestion. Go. All of you.”

  Cas thought a thank you was in order. But with Valencia’s decree, the sirens who were left had already lost interest in them. Except Stu, who winked over the book he’d reopened.

  Dustin ushered them out of the council chambers and back to the reception area. “Time for you to go home and get some rest. Just do your normal thing, and we’ll contact you once we have any new information,” he told her.

  Cas nodded. “Thank you for all of your help.”

  “You’re welcome. I like you. You’re spunky.” Dustin turned his attention to Echo. “I know you haven’t been out of Crystal Springs for a while. Don’t get any bright ideas. Stay with Cas and keep an eye on things.”

  “Of course. I would never consider doing anything else,” the cat said with a haughty flick of the tail.

  As Cas and Echo settled into the chair in the courser to head back to her house, Cas closed her eyes and let her shoulders relax.

  Home.

  Outside, colors zipped by as the courser traveled at a speed she couldn’t comprehend. In her lap, Echo nibbled at something caught between his toes.

  Cas was going home all right. She was going home in a magic bubble with a talking cat.

  Just a few hours earlier, Cas had thought going home would make everything better. Life would go back to normal. Now, a sinking feeling in her stomach said something different.

  Cas pushed the dismal feeling aside. She was bone tired but knew sleep would be impossible until she’d had some time to process everything that had happened. That was just fine with her.

  At least she’d be safe at home, and the craziness would be over.

  Chapter 8

  Despite Cas’ feelings of trepidation about the future, it felt so good to be home. She always leaned a tiny bit toward being a homebody. She liked to read, cook, and watch light-hearted romantic comedies with some popcorn and a glass of wine. She always felt happy when she returned home from being out. But this homecoming was sweeter than any she remembered. It felt as though she’d been gone for a month instead of a day.

  “I’ll give you the grand tour, and then I’m going to take a long, hot shower,” she told Echo. She showed him her small house. “You can stay in my guest room. You can sleep up on the bed; it’s really cozy.”

  She found an old plastic sweater box, filled it with sand from her backyard, and tucked it into the closet for him. “I’m sorry it doesn’t have a hood, but you’ll have lots of privacy in there,” she explained. “Tomorrow, I’ll get a proper box for you.”

  Echo sniffed at the sand. “And please procure some scented litter. Scoopable. I’m not a heathen, you know. Do you have any paté?”

  “I think I have some rotisserie chicken. I’ll get some for you.”

  Once she had gotten Echo settled, satisfied and purring over the chicken, Cas hopped in the shower and stayed in there until the water ran cold. She put on a turquoise jogging suit—noting that the orange dousing amulet looked nice with it—and went to see if Echo needed anything else. He wasn’t in the guest room, but the chicken plate was licked clean. She picked it up and went to put it in the kitchen sink.

  She called for Echo and looked through every room, but he wasn’t there. As she scanned the living room, she saw that she’d left one of the small side windows open. The screen was dislodged. Echo must have pushed it out and taken off.

  Cas left the screen ajar in case the cat came back. She checked the mail, her email, and her voice messages. There was nothing important in any of them, so she made herself a salad and chewed slowly as she thought about the day.

  When Cas was a kid, she’d loved fantasy stories, especially after being sent to boarding school. Daydreaming about being a princess or a powerful sorceress helped her pass many hours that she would otherwise have spent bored or anxious. Today, her childhood stories came to life and grabbed Cas by the throat. It had ripped away a veil she’d never expected to see through.

  But Cas had to admit that she was a little bit more excited than scared. The council members and others she’d come into contact with seemed to think she had a lot of power. If they were right, she might be able to do some good in the world. Even though she was approaching fifty, maybe the most exciting part of her life was ahead of her.

  Cas pondered everything while washing the dishes. When an unexpected sneeze burst out, she immediately braced herself for a wonky magical reaction, but nothing strange happened.

  The amulet was working—yippee!

  Cas poured a glass of Merlot and headed out the French doors of her dining room onto the deck in the backyard.

  When she and Sterling had bought the house, the backyard had been a big part of the reason. Cas had been drawn to it as a natural getaway. Once in it, civilization felt a thousand miles away. There was no fence, but tall hedges grew close enough together to create a natural barrier all around the yard.

  Sterling had driven shepherd’s hook stakes into the ground periodically along the hedge line. Cas had hung a flower basket on each one and strung white Christmas lights all the way around. She’d worked hard to create five small perennial beds around the yard, and they’d installed a soothing fountain. It was her oasis and the most peaceful place she knew.

&nbs
p; Cas wandered around the yard in her bare feet with her glass of wine. She plucked a few dead flowers from a red geranium and then sat on the wooden bench swing near the fire pit to relax. The sky darkened a little as she sat there, and Cas looked up to gaze at the first star that popped out. She took a deep breath and considered what her wish should be. She thought of poor Aunt Petunia. Cas hoped her aunt’s house was back in order and Petunia was at peace.

  Cas decided that a fire in the pit would be nice. She got a few pieces of newspaper and a lighter from where she’d left them on the table on the deck the day before and dropped them, along with a few pieces from the wood pile and some kindling, next to the fire pit. She got down on her knees and leaned forward to arrange the wood in the pit, but the silver chain that held the amulet around her neck swung forward and got caught on the rough bark. She took the necklace off and put it on the grass next to her so it wouldn’t get broken.

  She busied herself putting the fire together. When she grabbed the last piece of wood, a beetle ran off it onto her hand. She screeched and tossed the wood back on the ground.

  Chaos erupted. The strings of Christmas lights began to dance around in a circle. The hedges groaned and creaked. Then they started moving too—marching along in the opposite direction as the lights.

  Every few seconds, a firecracker sound would go off in the yard, accompanied by a flash of colors. A family of six squirrels raced out of the hedges, looked around, and realized they had nowhere to go. They crouched down near Cas and trembled, their eyes wide.

  Cas jumped to her feet. “Stop! Be still!” she screeched, but to no avail.

  How could she stop this? She looked at her hands. She’d seen other witches make complicated movements with them when they wanted to do something magical, but she had no idea how to do that. When she’d made the iris appear in her hand on the first courser ride, she’d just closed her eyes and thought hard about it. Maybe she could do that—think hard about stopping the madness.

  She stood up, clasped her hands tightly together, and squeezed her eyes shut. She tried to envision her backyard calm and back to normal, but her heart pounded and she couldn’t get the image right.

  A loud pop broke her concentration.

  She looked up and had to catch her breath. There, next to the squirrel family, was her new neighbor, Hottie McHotterson. He held a small device in his right hand that looked a bit like a tuba except it was only around two inches big. It was bright green and had swirly silver markings on it.

  Hottie held his right arm and the device straight out from his body and then brought his left hand up to it, pressing on the device’s side with his fingers in a fast pattern. The backyard suddenly felt as though a twenty mile-per-hour wind swept through it. Cas pushed hair back from her face, and the squirrel family hunkered down even closer to the ground.

  Five seconds passed, and the wind stopped. The hedges and Christmas lights went silent and still. The firecrackers and fireworks ceased.

  Hottie brought his arm down and turned toward Cas. “Hi,” he said with a smile that made her feel like sitting back down on the ground.

  “Hi,” she managed to get out. Her throat tried to close around the word.

  “I’m Graham Noble.” He had the faintest of southern accents and just the right amount of stubble on his cheeks. He switched the strange device to his left hand and held the right hand out to shake.

  She took it and tried not to think about how attractive men with strong hands and arms were.

  “I’m sorry to just burst in, but it sounded and looked like you could use some help.” He walked over to the fire pit, set his device on the ground, and picked up the dampening amulet. “You have to wear this all the time to keep stuff like that from happening until the council figures out another way to help you.” He handed her the necklace, and she took it reflexively, putting it on and drawing a deep, calming breath.

  “You know about the council? About me?” she asked.

  He smiled again. “I’m sorry, ma’am. It was a sneaky thing to do, but the council knew I moved in next to you, so they hired me to keep an eye on you in case you got into something Echo couldn’t handle.” Graham looked around. The squirrels had disappeared back into the hedges. “Where’s Echo?”

  “Oh, I don’t know. He left the house while I was in the shower earlier. After he had his chicken.”

  “Hopefully he’ll get his tail back here before the council finds that out,” Graham said. His lips down-turned slightly. Then he caught sight of the half-built fire in the pit and his face softened again. “Were you building a fire?”

  “Yes. That’s why I took the amulet off. It’s so heavy, and it was interfering with me getting the wood in there. I didn’t want to break it.”

  “Oh, that thing is indestructible. Nothing could break it. Here, let me.” Graham finished setting up the logs, placed the newspaper inside them and the kindling on top of that, and lit the paper. Cas went and sat on the swing and watched him. The sky was dark and the moon climbed in the sky.

  Once the fire was going well, Graham sat next to Cas and they both watched it for a few minutes. Cas settled down as they sat there, and her pulse slowed to normal.

  “So, what brought you to this neighborhood?” She normally didn’t pry, but the silence had lasted long enough. Plus, she needed more answers.

  “I think you did.” He didn’t look at her, but she looked at him, surprised. The firelight danced on his face and made him even more handsome.

  “Me? What do you mean?”

  He finally glanced at her and laughed a little. “I didn’t know it was you, but it felt like there was an energy vortex here. And I like those. They’re peaceful. Energizing. To supernaturals, anyway—they make humans uncomfortable and antsy. There wasn’t any record of a vortex here, but I could feel it. Now that the council told me a little about you, I think you were it—the source of the power. Have you noticed a lot of humans moving out of here lately?”

  “Yes! People have been moving both in and out. Mr. Percy and I were just talking about that. Oh, he lives on the other side of my house. Maybe you’ve already met him? He has a small Westie named Demon he walks several times a day.”

  “I’ve seen him, but I haven’t formally met him yet.”

  “He’s a character.” Cas felt bad that a bit of exasperation entered her voice. She didn’t like to gossip, and she didn’t think it was right to let on to Graham her feelings about Mr. Percy. A change of subject seemed like the way to go. “You’re a supernatural then? Drawn to my energy? Are you a witch?”

  He shifted his weight on the swing and angled away from her a tiny bit. “No, I’m no witch.”

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to pry.”

  Graham laughed, and it was a lovely, full, rumbling sound that emanated from his chest. “I think you have a right to a few questions, since I showed up in your yard with a magical relic, like some kind of Indiana Jones or something.”

  Cas giggled too. It felt good to laugh about something.

  “Okay, like I said, you deserve a few answers. My mother was a witch, but I’m not.”

  “So you don’t have to be a witch if your mother was? I’m still learning all about the rules with the supernatural.”

  “There aren’t a lot of hard and fast rules to it, really. And yes, you can be born non-magical to a magical parent. Two different types of magical beings can also have offspring that are one or the other.”

  Cas found that interesting. What other types of supernaturals were there? She was pretty sure she’d seen a sprite and a ghost, but they didn’t seem like beings that would mate with witches. “But you are supernatural, aren’t you? Because you were drawn to my energy—what did you call it—vortex? I wonder why I’m an energy vortex.”

  “I can’t say for sure. Maybe it has something to do with your late blossoming. Maybe the strong energy fluctuations around you were a result of that—of your power being dampened for so long.”

  “Hmm. Maybe
.” Cas thought about that for a few minutes. The idea seemed strange. Something had been bubbling under her surface for years and she’d been clueless. Cas also picked up on how Graham hadn’t answered the question about what kind of supernatural he was, but she wasn’t going to push him.

  “Again, I’m sorry about being a little sneaky and keeping an eye on you without your knowledge. The council wanted me to keep my affiliation with them under wraps.” His brown eyes searched hers.

  “I’m not upset. In fact, I’m pretty glad you were here tonight. I don’t know how I would have gotten that mess under control. I need to learn more about my power and how to control it. The council tried to send me to my family members who are witches today to get some help. My half-sister and my aunt both sent me away. I have to figure out why I never blossomed properly in the first place.”

  “Do you have any ideas at all about that?” he asked.

  “Well, Aunt Petunia said something cryptic today—she seems to have a touch of dementia and forgets her train of thought—but she said it was a shame I had to suffer for something my mother did.”

  “Your mother? What did she do?”

  “I don’t know. She died when I was five, and I didn’t even know she was a witch until today.”

  Graham whistled softly. “That’s a lot to take in all at once. You’re probably exhausted.” He stood up, and Cas felt like pulling him back down. “You should get some rest. My guess is you’ll have a busy few days or weeks coming up while you and the council sort things out.”

  Suddenly, Cas was hit with a wave of pure exhaustion, and the thought of climbing into her big bed upstairs was almost irresistible. As much as she wanted to keep looking at and listening to Graham, she needed sleep. She stood up too. “Thanks again for your help.”

  Graham smiled and touched the back of her arm. He guided her across the yard and up the deck stairs. “You’re welcome. If you need anything, just come over and knock. Anytime. Oh, and keep that amulet on. All the time. That thing is going to be your best friend for a while.”

  “Okay. I will. I’ve learned my lesson, I swear.”