Crescent Calling

by Nicole R. Taylor

  “Fate?” I asked. “What does that mean?”

  “When your mother passed, there were no Crescent Witches left to protect Derrydun and the hawthorns, so fate drew you back to your ancestral home. I don’t know much about it, but I’m beginnin’ to believe it has conspired to keep you here.”

  Now that he mentioned it, everything began to fall apart the moment Aileen died. I’d lost my job, my boyfriend dumped me, and Robert showed up with his magic pen with its terms and conditions. Then when I tried to sell Irish Moon, the door became stuck, the computer had a glitch, and the real estate agent crashed his car into the creek.

  “Son of a…” Drawing in a deep breath, I began to understand something very important. “That’s why she left Dad and me, wasn’t it? To protect me from all this?”

  “She never really said,” Boone replied. “Not outright, but I believe it to be so.”

  I shook my head in disbelief, my heart aching. “I hated her for so long…”

  “You didn’t know,” he argued. “You didn’t know.”

  “I still don’t know,” I shot back. “I… This is a lot to deal with Boone. I don’t…” I don’t know if I believe you. I believed he was a shapeshifter—that was hard to deny—but all the things he’d said about me?

  “Now that you know, you can ask me anythin’ you want,” he said. “I’ll tell you everythin’ I can.”

  A million things flew into my mind, and I blurted out the first thing that popped into it. “What have the hawthorns got to do with it? Are the stories you told me true? Are they really doorways?”

  “They are,” he replied, confirming my suspicions. “They guard the doorways to the fae realm, but they were sealed a thousand years ago. Nothin’ can get in or out. Now the hawthorns are safe havens.”

  “Safe havens?”

  Boone nodded. “They are a shield for words and magic. That’s why we can talk freely here. This tree was where the Crescents have practiced their magic for centuries. Or so Aileen told me.”

  “Why was the way to the fae realm sealed off? Do you know what it’s like there?”

  “It’s a long story.”

  I scowled, desperate to know everything about this new world I was supposed to be part of. “Don’t you want to tell me?”

  “No, it’s not that. It’s just as I said. It’s a long story. Perhaps another time.” He smiled a sad smile and glanced up at the tree. “The doorways are never openin’ again, so there’s nothin’ to worry about. There are creatures who still try to get in, and that’s why the witches protect the trees. When the doorways were sealed, a lot of fae were trapped here. Being cut off from magic, they’ve become twisted.”

  “They need magic to survive,” I mused. “That’s why witches are hunted.”

  Boone shrugged, giving away the fact he wasn’t telling me the whole story. I would get it out of him eventually. Something else was in play here, and it worried him. Not enough to warn me away though, so the lack of urgency calmed me a little.

  “Where did you come from?” I asked after a moment. “Mairead said you just showed up one day.”

  “I don’t know,” he replied.

  “What do you mean you don’t know?”

  “Before this place, I don’t remember anythin’. My first memory is runnin’ as a fox through the forest. Then I was flyin’ as a gyrfalcon, and then I crashed to earth. They were chasin’ me… It was your mam who found me right here in this clearin’.”

  “Who was chasing you?”

  He was silent for a long time. Finally, he turned his head and smiled. “That’s a story for another time.”

  So much evasion. Digging my hands into the leaf litter, I picked through the sticks, breathing in the heavy scent of disturbed earth.

  I thought over all the peculiar things that had happened since I arrived, and I knew Boone was right. About everything. It was farfetched, fantastical, and completely bonkers, but it was real. There was just too much evidence not to believe. Seeing the guy you had the hots for morph into a bright red fox was pretty solid proof, after all.

  “Boone?” I asked, breaking up the leaf in my fingers.

  “Yeah?”

  “Robert’s a leprechaun, isn’t he?”

  “I suppose he is,” he replied. “He’s never confirmed nor denied, but he likes to drop hints. He’s definitely not human, that I know.”

  I turned my attention back to the leaf in my hand. If I was supposed to be this badass Crescent Witch, then how was I supposed to use my magic? Where was it? Stuffed if I knew because I didn’t feel any different.

  “Boone?”

  “Yeah?”

  “What do I do now?”

  He shrugged, which wasn’t any help at all.

  “Find your way,” he said after a moment.

  “If I’m the last Crescent Witch, what does that mean?”

  “Aileen told me you might be the last thing standin’ in the way of magic dyin’ out for good.”

  I made a face. “That’s not ominous at all.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  My gaze flew to his. “What for?”

  “This wasn’t how I imagined this going…”

  Thinking about how I whipped his bare ass with the lamp cord, I snorted and then burst out into peals of laughter.

  “What are you laughin’ at?” he asked angrily.

  “Whipping your ass,” I replied, wiping at my tears.

  “Ack, don’t remind me.” He rolled his eyes and playfully rubbed his ass cheeks. “It stung.”

  The mood had lightened significantly, but it wasn’t long before I felt a tug of depression. Everything had been turned on its head, again, and I had no idea what to do. None at all. Who was Skye Williams? I felt like I should know, but I’d been so concerned with figuring out Aileen, I’d forgotten about who I was going to be in the wake of her death. Now, it had reverted to nothing but chaos. Fantastical chaos.

  “I’m a witch,” I said, my heart sinking. “Everything I’ve ever known is just…gone. Who am I? What am I supposed to do?”

  Boone placed his hand on mine and tangled his fingers through my own. “I’m goin’ to help you, Skye. We’ll work out what to do together. You won’t be alone in this, I promise.”

  We sat in the shade of the hawthorn for a long time, just existing. A shapeshifter and a witch.

  Staring up at the hawthorn, I knew the Tower had finally been rebuilt.

  Chapter 12

  Needless to say, Buddy didn’t make an appearance that night, though Boone made one the next morning.

  Emerging out of the cottage, I lingered in the garden. The world seemed to have changed overnight. It was unseasonably warm, which was saying a lot since the Irish summer was as mild as a spring day back in Australia. I still needed to throw on a loose cardigan before leaving the cottage. Otherwise, I would catch a chill.

  Meandering down the path, the flowers either side appeared more vibrant than usual, and the bees buzzing around the lavender were bigger and fatter than I remembered. I was still the same Skye who saw all these things yesterday, but the difference was…now I knew the truth. I was a witch.

  As if knowing changed anything.

  Boone was waiting for me outside Irish Moon. He was leaning against the wall chatting with Mairead, looking rather sexy in his skinny jeans, boots, and red and black checked shirt that was rolled up to his elbows. It was like his trademark uniform or something. A cross between farmer and hipster sheik.

  “Skye,” he said in his sexy Irish lit.

  Mairead narrowed her eyes, clearly annoyed I’d interrupted her one-on-one time with her crush. If only she knew how foxy he really was.

  “Hey,” I said. “What’s up?”

  “Have you forgotten?” he asked, flashing me a wink. “You asked me to help you with some errands today. I’ve come to collect you.”

  I curled up my lip, not understanding what he was on about, and then I twigged. “Oh…” I declared, cottoning on to the fact he wanted to
help me with my magic and was trying to spring me out of work. “Yeah, the thing.”

  “I guess I’m mindin’ the shop on my own, again,” Mairead complained.

  “You love it,” I retorted. “I’ll give you a bonus.”

  “Fifty euro,” the girl demanded.

  “Twenty-five,” I countered.

  “Forty.”

  “Twenty-five.”

  “Thirty-five.

  “Twenty-five.”

  “Thirty.”

  “I’m not going a cent over twenty-five.” I put my hands on my hips. “We can stand here all day if you like.”

  Boone was watching us with an amused expression, his head flicking back and forth like he was watching a tennis match.

  Mairead stamped her foot. “Fine. Twenty-five.”

  “Yes.” I handed her the keys triumphantly.

  “You owe me big-time,” she said, turning to unlock the door.

  “I owe you twenty-five euro!” I chortled as Boone and I began walking away. “See you later!”

  “You two fight like sisters,” he said as we moved out of earshot. “It’s perplexin’.”

  “Mairead’s cool. She reminds me of me when I was her age.”

  Boone tilted his head to the side. “A rebellious girl who dresses in head-to-toe black?” He looked me over and smiled. “Nah, I cannae picture it.”

  “Smooth,” I drawled as we wandered down the footpath while Mairead shot daggers into my back with her eyes. “So anyway, this is a surprise.”

  “It is?”

  “After yesterday…” I trailed off.

  “After yesterday, I’m surprised you want to come walkin’ with me at all.”

  “Well, I don’t think you’re a pervert anymore if that’s what you’re getting at.” I snorted, still unable to get the image of his bare ass out of my mind. It was a nice ass now that I thought about it.

  “Lucky me.”

  “So how does it work?” I asked. “The whole…you know.”

  “It’s instinctual,” Boone replied, chuckling at my covert references to his shapeshifting.

  “So that story you told me about Bully and Roy,” I mused. “That had to do with the thing.”

  “Aye, I calmed him with me affinity. Only for a moment, though. Bulls are too wild to be tamed even by someone like me.”

  “And you can heal yourself?” I went on, as curious as a kid who couldn’t stop poking a bug with a stick.

  “To a certain degree.”

  “Like, what’s the worst thing you’ve done to yourself that you’ve been able to fix?”

  “You ask a lot of questions, you know that?”

  “You’re no fun,” I said with a pout.

  “I’m beginnin’ to understand why Aileen was so annoyed with me,” he muttered.

  I waited a moment and then asked again. “Tell me. Please?”

  He sighed, but I could see the hint of a smile pulling at his mouth. “Broken bones.”

  “No way! That’s pretty impressive.”

  “You’re takin’ this really well,” he said with a frown. “It’s rather unexpected.”

  “I contemplated running away screaming yesterday, but it seemed excessive. Seeing you do your…thing? Well, I couldn’t really claim ignorance after that.”

  He laughed as the hawthorn came into view. “I suppose not.”

  “You’re cute as a fox.”

  “You think so?” He grinned, pleased with my declaration.

  Standing under the hawthorn’s branches, I glanced up, studying the dappled canopy overhead. So much had happened in this very spot, including the standoff with the wolf, but I wasn’t afraid here. I felt an odd sense of calm as if a blanket had been flung over me and someone loving had tucked it in tightly. Boone was right when he said we were protected here. Now that I was beginning to understand the world I’d fallen into, I could feel it.

  I wondered at the things Boone had told me about himself and how he’d ended up in Derrydun. Something had chased him here, and Aileen had found him. Before that, he didn’t remember anything. I couldn’t imagine it. Not knowing where I was born, who my parents were, or even my own name. Things must be tough for him, and no one had any idea. No wonder he’d been close with Aileen. She’d been the only one who’d known the truth.

  “Does it bother you?” I asked, glancing at him as we approached the base of the hawthorn. “Not remembering who you were?”

  “Sometimes,” he replied. “In the beginnin’, I struggled. I was like a newborn babe. I didn’t know my name, what I looked like, or where I’d come from. I didn’t even understand I was a shapeshifter. I was a fox first, then a gyrfalcon, and a man third. I asked so many questions that Aileen contemplated throwin’ me out on me backside. She also saved me from myself a few times, so I mustn’t have been too bad.”

  “She saved you?”

  “Aye.”

  When it became clear he wasn’t going to elaborate, I pressed him. “From what?”

  “There are creatures out there that are tryin’ to get home,” he said reluctantly. “There used to be a hawthorn down in the gully behind Sean’s farmhouse. I couldn’t leave well enough alone even when Aileen warned me to leave it be. A creature was there, feedin’ off the tree’s magic, and it almost got me. Aileen said they were fae that had become twisted after they’d been cut off from magic. She called them craglorn.”

  “Craglorn.” I tested the name on my tongue, and it sounded strange. “What does it mean?”

  “The ravaged, crag, and the lonely, lorn.”

  “That’s so sad. A thousand years is a long time,” I mused. “I suppose they’re starving.”

  Boone shrugged. “They would do anything to survive and more still to get home. Don’t pity them, Skye. They wouldn’t hesitate if they found you. If it weren’t for Aileen, I wouldn’t be here right now.”

  Shivering, I wrapped my arms around myself, the rays of the sun filtering through the canopy doing nothing to warm me. Glancing around the clearing, the trees seemed to crawl closer, tightening around the hawthorn and us. Sucking in a deep breath, I began to feel exposed as the sounds of the forest amplified. Rustling, creaking, snaps, rattles, and birdcalls echoed through the thick woodland, and I turned, my skin tingling.

  Craglorn…twisted, starving, magical creatures. It looked like the fair folk weren’t so fair anymore.

  “It sounds like someone’s out there,” I said, shivering as if we were being watched. “It’s freaking me out.”

  Boone’s lips quirked. “Nah. There’s no one out there.”

  He held out his hand and beckoned me closer. Sliding my palm against his, he tugged me toward him.

  “Listen,” he murmured. “Hear that sound?”

  “The fluttering and…” I listened. “The rustling.”

  “That’s the leaves fallin’ from the boughs overhead and findin’ their way to the forest floor.”

  “And there’s that cracking sound… It sounds like someone stepping on branches. Someone following us.” I shivered, panicking slightly at the thought of other unseen people out here.

  “Ah, that’s old branches breakin’ away from the trees and fallin’ to the ground.”

  “How do you know?”

  “I spend a lot of time walkin’ out here.”

  “Why?” I frowned, wondering what the attraction was.

  “It’s quiet,” he murmured. “I can think out here without bein’ distracted. And I can change if I want. I can run or fly without anyone seein’.”

  “You can fly?”

  “Of course. It takes some time to create an affinity with a new animal, but I can change into several things.”

  “Like what?”

  “A fox, a tabby cat, a gyrfalcon, and a horse. I’m sure I could change into Fergus’s donkey if I tried, too.”

  “You can change into a horse?” I wondered what that would look like.

  “I made friends with Mark Ashlyn’s black stallion.”

 
“Really?”

  Glancing up, I realized how close we’d become and let out a little yelp. Tugging my hand from his, I wrapped my arms around my middle.

  “I’m not much of a wilderness person,” I said lamely. “The closest I got was my dad’s house by the beach.”

  “The house by the bay?” Boone asked. “With the cargo ships that sailed in and out?”

  My brow knitted, and I angled away from him. He sure seemed to know a lot about my life. Even more than me. Another wave of jealousy threatened to take control of my mouth, and my scowl deepened.

  “You sure know a lot of fun facts about my life,” I said irritably.

  “Aileen used to talk a lot about you.”

  “Yeah?” I was much more open to talking about her after yesterday’s revelations. If she were still here, then she would be able to tell me what to do, but she wasn’t, which was why I was here in the first place. I would have to figure out this puzzle on my own with the limited expertise of a shapeshifter with amnesia.

  He smiled, then nodded toward the tree. “Do you want to give it a try?”

  “My magic?” I asked nervously.

  “It’s why we’re here.”

  “I’m much more interested in talking about you,” I said, trying to stall. “Is magic a universal thing? If you’re a shapeshifter, does that mean you’re meant to live over there? Is that where the witches came from? That other place?”

  Boone chuckled and shook his head. “You’re stallin’, and no. I’m human at my core, and so are you. Magic lives in lots of creatures that aren’t exclusively fae.”

  “Like Robert?”

  “Aye, like Robert.” He nodded at the tree again. “Now how about you give somethin’ a try?”

  I made a face and hunched over like I had an upset stomach. “How am I supposed to do that when I can’t feel anything? Like, there’s nothing in me that feels any different. Not before being zapped with Robert’s magical pen or after. That sounds rather perverted when I say it like that.”

  Boone raised his eyebrows, his cheeks turning pink, and it was rather cute. He turned away and crossed the clearing. Squatting by the base of the hawthorn, he fossicked in the undergrowth before holding up a green leaf, the stem pinched between his forefinger and thumb.