Celtic Magic (13 page)

“Thanks for the help Gladys, Abby loves wild
flowers, and these will be a great surprise when she gets home from
work tonight” he said.

Abby’s heart flipped as she watched the
woman nod and say something back to Tom, although she couldn’t hear
what she was saying. She looked up from the orb and caught
Jasmine’s eye.

“How do I make it little again?” she asked
her.

“You just need to thank it for showing you
what you asked of it” she answered.

Abby looked back down at the orb and said,
“Thank you orb, for showing me what I asked of you” and then
watched as it stopped glowing and became a small marble again as it
fell back into her waiting hand. After she put the orb back on the
table, she looked around the room again.

“What exactly is this room? I never would
have guessed this was back here, I mean, the store doesn’t seem
this big from the outside” she asked.

Jasmine laughed, “No, this room doesn’t
really exist in the mortal world. It was created in kind of an in
between place. Any magic done in here is not detected by anyone, so
people can practice their magic without having to worry about
anything. Especially when the person practicing is as powerful as
you are” she explained.

“Are you ready to keep going?” she asked.
Abby nodded, ready to get started.

Chapter
2
1

Later that night, as she was unlocking her
door, she heard music coming from inside of her apartment and
remembered for the first time what she had seen in the orb earlier.
As she pushed open the door, all she could see was a sea of color.
She looked closer and noticed for the first time all of the flowers
that she had seen Tom buying. Some were in vases all over the
apartment, while others were right on the carpet leading to her
bedroom.

While looking around she listened to the
music playing and almost laughed when she realized it was a Barry
White song, it just seemed so cliché. She put her purse and keys on
the small table next to the door and walked to the first bouquet of
flowers that she saw in a vase. They were wild flowers, exactly as
she had seen in the orb, only there were much more of them than she
even imagined, he must have taken more to his car after she had
stopped watching.

She leaned down and smelled the sweet smell
of the flowers and smiled to herself, she was so lucky to have
found such a romantic boy friend, even if he was just a little bit
corny. She started toward her bedroom, following the flower petals
Tom had sprinkled on the floor, taking her time to look at all of
the different vases.

She spotted at least six bouquets on the way
and as she opened the door to her bedroom, she saw that he had put
flowers all over the bed. Sitting in the middle of all of the
flowers on the bed was a long white box with a note attached to it
that had her name on the front. She walked over and picked up the
note and read it.

“Hey sweetie, I hope you love all the
flowers, put on what’s in the box and meet me on the roof terrace.
Love you, Tom.”

Abby smiled to herself as she picked the box
up off of the bed and opened it, gasping as she saw what he wanted
her to wear. It was the lightest dress she had ever seen, feeling
as though it were made out of air, but as she looked at the tag saw
that it was actually made from pure silk. She had never owned
anything this soft before and she loved the color, it looked like a
glass of sparkling champagne.

She hurriedly took off her clothes and
pulled the dress on, loving the way it felt on her bare skin. She
pulled her hair down from the clip she had put in it earlier and
left her apartment, heading for the roof.

When she opened the door to the roof terrace
she saw Tom standing next to a small table that was only big enough
for two people to sit at. The table was already set up and held a
plate of strawberries, a fondue pot and two glasses of champagne
that practically matched her dress. Tom smiled when he saw her
coming and came forward to embrace her.

“You look great in that dress, it’s a good
thing Saks still had your dress size on file” he said to her
between kisses.

She giggled, “What is all this for?” she
asked.

He shrugged, “I just wanted to do something
special for you because I love you” he told her.

She felt her heart melt as he she kissed him
again, “I love you too.” He pulled her away and turned her back
toward the table

“Ready to eat?” he asked her. She nodded;
she was starving after using so much magic for three hours and not
having eaten since lunchtime. They sat down at the table and he
picked up a short fondue fork and stabbed a strawberry with it and
slowly dipped it into the fondue, which she could now see was
chocolate.

He pulled it back and blew on it for a few
seconds cooling it off, then she leaned forward and he fed it to
her slowly. It tasted better than any chocolate she could remember
having, and after she finished eating her strawberry, she licked
her lips.

“What kind of chocolate is that? It is the
best chocolate I’ve ever had before” she asked.

Tom smiled, “its Belgian truffle chocolate
that I had flown in” he said nonchalantly.

Abby’s mouth dropped open, “I just do not
understand money, I’ve never really had to worry about it much, but
I have never known anyone as rich as you are. You do things with
money that I would never dream of doing. The last time I ate
chocolate I bought a candy bar from the grocery store” she told him
as he dipped another strawberry into the chocolate.

He laughed, “I just grew up that way, so for
me it’s not a big deal, my family has always had the best, and now
I want to give that to you” he said as he fed her another
strawberry.

“I’m not sure how to comprehend all of this
though. You can just get some random generic chocolate and I would
be happy. It’s nice just spending time with you” she told him after
she finished chewing.

“I don’t want to make you uncomfortable, but
all I want to do is spoil you” he told her.

She smiled and accepted another strawberry
from him and while she chewed asked her, “Have you ever had
lobster?”

She shook her head, “Good, then you will
love what’s next” he said as a waiter that seemingly appeared out
of thin air stepped forward and took away the fondue pot and
strawberries and set down two plates of lobster.

She licked her lips and looked back up at
Tom, “Why did we eat the strawberries first?” she asked him.

He smiled and winked, “I always take my
dessert first, it’s better that way.”

***

That night they made love like they never
had before. Instead of the wild can’t get enough of each other sex
they had the weekend before, it was slow and romantic and made her
feel more in love with him than she was before. After he fell
asleep, she got out of bed and put the dress back on that he had
bought her, rubbing it against her skin and smiling.

She looked down at him sleeping peacefully
with his arm still resting where she was just lying on top of it
and she sighed. She knew she needed to speak with her mother, but
it was hard leaving her warm bed after such a long day. She knew
though, that when she returned, it would be like she was only gone
for minutes. She closed her eyes and thought of her mother and the
castle, and before she even opened her eyes knew that it had
worked.

She could smell the sweet air and grass as
soon as she landed. She opened her eyes and looked around and
noticed that she was back in the Southern Gardens and there were
tons of people and creatures standing around and talking excitedly.
She looked around at everyone until she finally saw her mother
sitting on a bench in the center of the garden talking to the pixie
she had seen earlier, Isabella, who was standing on the bench next
to her.

As Abby walked up to them, she noticed that
everyone in the garden seemed to be looking at her and pointing,
but not in a mean way, as though she was a movie star that they
couldn’t believe they were getting to see in person. Abby finally
reached her mother, who turned at the silence that had suddenly
spread throughout the garden and saw her standing close to her. She
jumped up off of the bench and grabbed her into a hug.

“I am very happy to see you Abby, I have
missed you so much since you left, though it doesn’t feel like long
to you” her mother said. Abby kissed her on the cheek.

“I’ve missed you too mother, and I am sorry
I left so fast before, I just missed home, and of course Tom. But,
I wanted you to see that I was okay, so that’s why I’m here now”
she told her. As Abby and her mother let go of each other she
looked over at Isabella.

“Hello Isabella, it is good to see you
again” she told her, nodding in her direction. Isabella flew up
into the air so that her face was close to her own.

“Thank you my princess, it is very lovely to
see you again too” she said before flying away and joining a group
of pixies that were behind her, and Abby nearly laughed as she
watched them swarm her asking her questions about meeting the
princess. Smiling, she turned back to her mother.

“
Can we go somewhere to
talk?” she asked.

Her mother nodded, “Yes dear, meet me in the
queen’s bedroom, there is something I would like to show you” she
answered.

Abby nodded and thought of the queen’s
bedroom, letting the tiny lights take her there.

Chapter
2
2

When she landed she saw her mother standing
next to the mural on the wall with the throne, looking at the spot
where a picture of her had appeared before she left before. She
walked up to her mother and touched her shoulder.

“Mother, I know about this picture, I saw it
here before I left” she told her as she looked to see that in the
painting she was still wearing the pretty pastel green dress she
had seen before.

“There is one thing though” her mother
answered without taking her eyes off of the painting.

“It doesn’t look any different to me” she
said, tilting her head in confusion. Her mother finally turned and
looked over at her.

“The crown is not there yet” her mother
explained.

Abby blinked twice as she looked at her
mother in a stunned silence, “What do you mean?” she asked her.

“The Queen is supposed to be wearing a
crown, but you aren’t wearing one in the mural. I’m not sure what
that means yet” she answered back.

Abby looked back at the painting and studied
the picture a little harder noticing for the first time that there
was a small crown, more like a tiara laying against the throne on
what would be the floor.

“Is that the crown there?” she asked her
mother as she pointed to the tiara.

Her mother nodded, “Yes, I don’t know why
it’s on the floor though” she answered.

Abby pondered that for a minute before
finally answering back, “Maybe I haven’t earned the right to wear
the crown yet, and so the mural acknowledges that I am the future
queen, but knows that I should work for it first. You know, like
prove myself?” she said.

Abby’s mother looked over at her, “Abby that
was actually very intuitive of you, what made you think of that?”
she asked her.

Abby shrugged her shoulders, “I don’t know.
Sometimes I just open my mouth and things come out, and as soon as
I say it, I just know it’s the truth” she said.

Abby’s mother smiled at her and walked over
to the large window that still overlooked the Southern Gardens
where they had just come from. Abby walked over next to her and
smiled as she looked down at the glittering grass that she had
noticed right before she left the last time.

“I don’t remember the grass glittering like
that when we were walking to the castle before. Does it do that
everywhere?” she asked.

Her mother shook her head, “No, only in the
castle gardens and it’s only noticeable from a bit higher up, so
that’s why you didn’t see it before when we were actually in the
garden” she said.

Suddenly she had a sharp pain in her chest,
as though someone had punched her. She gasped and grabbed at her
chest as the pain made it hard for her to breathe. She knew that
something was wrong with Tom, but she didn’t know how she knew, or
even what exactly was wrong with him. She looked at her mother who
was looking at her with a curious expression.

“What’s the matter dear?” she asked her.
Abby opened her mouth and although she wanted to tell her something
was wrong, another wave of intense pain hit her and all she was
able to get out was a guttural scream.

Hoping that her mother would understand, she
knew she had to get to Tom and was relieved when the lights came to
take her without being able to say anything else.

When she landed back in her apartment she
looked around frantically for Tom, but he was not in the bedroom
where she had left him. She went running though the apartment
silently looking, scared to open her mouth again. She knew if she
did another scream would come rushing out of her mouth.

Finally she felt the pain lessen a little as
she got closer to the bathroom, but just as she was about to open
the door to check, she heard his voice from behind the closed
door.

“Why did you call me? I told you not to ever
call me again, I don’t even know how you got this number!” he
screamed in a voice that was so angry it made her back up a few
paces. She had never heard something that angry come out of his
mouth before.

She had a sudden guilty feeling run through
her body and she knew that she should give him some privacy, so she
went into the living room and sat on the couch, waiting for him to
finish his call and come out of the bathroom. Back in the
apartment, and knowing that he was safe, even though she wondered
why he was so angry, and who he could be talking to, the pain in
her chest lessened up a lot.