Dance Upon the Air (4 page)

“Yes, ma'am.” He smiled at Nell again, kept his eyes on her face deliberately as he'd noted how quickly it had paled when Gladys Macey had called him sheriff. “Nice meeting you, Nell.”

She gave him a little nod. Kept her hands busy, he noticed, but not quite steady.

Just what, he wondered, would a pretty young woman like that have to fear from the law? Then again, he thought as he walked downstairs, some people were just naturally skittish when it came to cops.

He scanned the main level, spotted Mia stocking shelves in the mystery section. Either way, Zack decided, it wouldn't hurt to ask a few casual questions.

“Busy in here today.”

“Mmm.” She slid paperbacks into slots without looking around. “I expect it to get busier. Season's just underway, and I have my new secret weapon in the café.”

“Just met her. You're renting her the yellow cottage.”

“That's right.”

“You check her employment record, references?”

“Now, Zack.” Mia did turn now. In her heels she was nearly eye to eye with him, and she gave his cheek a sassy pat. “We've been friends a long time. Long enough for me to tell you to mind your own business. I don't want you going up to my café and interrogating my staff.”

“Okay, I'll just haul her down to the station house and get out my rubber hose.”

She chuckled, then leaned over and gave him a peck on the cheek. “You brute. Don't worry about Nell. She isn't looking for trouble.”

“Got twitchy when she found out I was sheriff.”

“Honey, you're so handsome you make all the girls twitchy.”

“Never worked on you,” he countered.

“A lot you know. Now go away, let me run my business.”

“I'm going. Have to do my sworn duty and scold Pete Stahr over his smelly dog.”

“Sheriff Todd, you're so brave.” She batted her lashes. “What would we islanders do without you and your stalwart sister protecting us?”

“Ha, ha. Ripley's due in on the noon ferry. Any sooner, I'd stick her with dog detail.”

“Is a week up already?” Mia grimaced and went back to shelving. “Oh, well, nothing good lasts forever.”

“I'm not getting in the middle of you two again. I'd sooner deal with Pete's dog.”

She laughed at him, but once he'd gone she looked toward the steps, thought of Nell, and wondered.

She made it a point to go upstairs late in the morning. Nell had already put out the salads and the soup, subtly shifting the mode toward the lunch crowd. The salads, Mia noted, looked fresh and appealing, and the scent of the soup was going to tempt anyone who walked into the store.

“How's it going?”

“Fine. We've finally hit a little lull.” Nell wiped her hands on her apron. “Brisk business this morning. The muffins won the race, but the tarts came in a close second.”

“You're officially on break,” Mia told her. “I'll take care of anyone who comes in, unless they want something that requires the use of that monster machine.”

In the kitchen, Mia slid onto a stool, crossed her legs. “Stop by my office after your shift. We'll get the employment forms signed.”

“Okay. I've been thinking about tomorrow's menu.”

“We'll discuss that then, too. Why don't you get yourself a cup of coffee and relax?”

“I'm already hyped enough.” But Nell did open the fridge, removed a small bottle of water. “I'll stick with this.”

“You've settled into the house all right?”

“It was easy. I can't remember ever sleeping better, or waking better. With the windows open, I can just hear the surf. It's like a lullaby. And did you see the sunrise this morning? Spectacular.”

“I'll take your word for it. I tend to avoid sunrise. It insists on coming so early in the day.” She held out
her hand and surprised Nell into passing the bottle of water to her for a sip. “I heard you met Zack Todd.”

“Did I?” Nell immediately picked up a cloth, began buffing the stove. “Oh. Sheriff Todd. Yes, he had coffee, black, and a blueberry muffin to go.”

“There's been a Todd on the island for centuries, and Zachariah's one of the best of the lot. Kind,” Mia said deliberately. “Caring, and decent without being a pain in the ass about it.”

“Is he your . . .” The word “boyfriend” just didn't seem to apply with a woman like Mia. “Are you and he involved?”

“Romantically? No.” Mia held the bottle back out to Nell. “He's entirely too good for me. Though I did have a mild crush on him when I was fifteen or sixteen. After all, he's a prime specimen. You must have noticed.”

“I'm not interested in men.”

“I see. Is that what you're running from? A man?” When Nell didn't respond, Mia slid to her feet. “Well, if and when you're inclined to talk about it, I'm an excellent listener, with a sympathetic ear.”

“I appreciate all you've done for me, Mia. I just want to do my job.”

“Fair enough.” The bell dinged, signaling someone had come to the counter. “No, you're on break,” Mia reminded her before Nell could hurry out of the kitchen. “I'll take the counter for a while. And don't look so sad, little sister. You've no one to answer to now but yourself.”

Oddly soothed, Nell stayed where she was. She could hear the low ripple of Mia's voice as she spoke to the customers. The store music was flutes now and
something fluid. She could close her eyes and imagine herself here, just here, the next day. The next year. Comfortable and comforted. Productive and happy.

There was no reason to be sad or afraid, no cause to be concerned about the sheriff. He'd have no purpose in paying attention to her, looking into her background. And if he did, what would he find? She'd been careful. She'd been thorough.

No, she was no longer running away. She'd run to. And she was staying.

She finished off her water, started out of the kitchen just as Mia turned around. The clock in the square began to bong the noon hour, in slow, ponderous tones.

The floor beneath her feet seemed to tremble, and the light went brilliant and bright. Music swelled inside her head, like a thousand harp strings plucked in unison. The wind—she could have sworn she felt a hot wind flow over her face and lift her hair. She smelled candle wax and fresh earth.

The world shuddered and spun, then righted itself in a blink of time, as if it had never moved. She shook her head to clear it and found herself staring into Mia's deep gray eyes.

“What was that? An earthquake?” Even as she said it, Nell saw that no one else in the store looked concerned. People milled, sat, chatted, sipped. “I thought . . . I felt . . .”

“Yes, I know.” Though Mia's voice was quiet, there was an edge to it Nell hadn't heard before. “Well, that explains it.”

“Explains what?” Shaken, Nell gripped Mia's wrist. And felt something like power rocket up her arm.

“We'll talk about it. Later. Now the noon ferry's
in.” And Ripley was back, she thought. They, the three, were all on-island now. “We'll be busy. Serve your soup, Nell,” she said gently, and walked away.

.

Mia wasn't often
taken by surprise, and she didn't care for it. The strength of what she'd felt and experienced along with Nell had been more intense, more intimate, than she'd expected. And that annoyed her. She should have been prepared. She of all people knew, believed, and understood what twist fate had taken so many years before. And what twist it could take now.

Still, believing in fate didn't mean a woman simply stood there and let it run her down. Actions could and would be taken. But she had to think, to sort things out.

What in the goddess's name was she supposed to do to make things right when she would be bound to a stubborn twit of a woman who consistently denied her power and a scared rabbit on the run who didn't know she had any?

She closed herself in her office, paced. She rarely turned to magic here. It was her place of business, and she deliberately kept it separate and earthbound. But there were exceptions, she told herself, to every rule.

So thinking, she took her crystal globe from the shelf, set it on her desk. It amused her to see it there, along with her two-line phone and computer. Still, magic respected progress, even if progress didn't always respect magic.

Laying her hands on either side of the globe, she cleared her mind.

“Show me what I have to see. This island holds the sisters three, and we will shape our destiny. Visions in glass come clear to me. As I will, so mote it be.”

The globe shimmered and swirled. And cleared. In its depths, like figures in water, she saw herself, Nell, and Ripley. A circle formed in the shadows of the woods, and a fire burning. The trees were aflame as well, but with color struck by autumn. Light poured out from a full moon like water shimmering.

A new shadow formed in the trees and became a man. Beautiful and golden with eyes that burned.

The circle broke. Even as Nell ran, the man struck out. She shattered like glass, a thousand pieces scattering. And the skies opened to lightning, blasted with thunder, and all Mia could see in the glass was a torrent of water as the woods, and the island they lived on, tumbled into the sea.

Mia stepped back, planted her hands on her hips. “Isn't that always the way?” she said in disgust. “A man ruins everything. Well, we'll see about that.” She put the globe back on the shelf. “We'll just see about that.”

By the time
Nell knocked on her door, Mia was just finishing up some paperwork. “Right on time,” she said as she logged off the computer. “That's a pretty habit of yours. I need you to fill out these forms.” She gestured to the neat stack on the desk.
“I've dated them yesterday. How's the lunch crowd moving?”

“Smoothly enough.” Nell sat. Her palms no longer sweated when she filled out forms. Name, date of birth, Social Security number. Those basic facts and figures were hers. She'd seen to it personally. “Peg dives right in. I made up tomorrow's menu.”

“Mmm.” Mia took the folded paper Nell pulled out of her pocket, read it over while Nell filled in the form. “It looks good. More adventurous than Jane's tended to be.”

“Too adventurous?”

“No, just more. So . . . what will you do with the rest of your day?” Mia briefly looked at the first completed form. “Nell, no middle initial, Channing?”

“Take a walk on the beach, do some gardening. Maybe explore the woods around the cottage.”

“There's a small stream where columbine grows wild this time of year, and in the deeper shade jack-in-the-pulpits and ferns. The kind that make you think the faeries hide in them.”

“You don't strike me as the kind of person who looks for shy faeries.”

Mia's lips curved. “We don't know each other well yet. Three Sisters is alive with legend and lore, and the woods have all manner of secrets. Do you know the story of the Three Sisters?”

“No.”

“I'll tell you one day when there's time for tales and stories. But for now you should be out in the light and air.”

“Mia, what happened before? At noon?”

“You tell me. What do you think happened?”

“It felt like an earth tremor, but not. The light changed, and so did the air. Like a . . . blast of energy.”

It sounded foolish when she said it, but she pushed on. “You felt it too. But no one else did. No one else felt anything out of the ordinary.”

“Most people expect the ordinary, and that's what they get.”

“If that's a riddle, I don't know how to solve it.” Impatient, Nell shoved to her feet. “You weren't surprised by it—a little irritated but not surprised.”

Mia sat back, intrigued, and lifted a brow. “True enough. You read people very well.”

“Survival skill.”

“And sharply honed,” Mia added. “What happened? I suppose you could call it a connection. What happens when three positive charges occupy the same space at the same time?”

Nell shook her head. “I have no idea.”

“Neither do I. But it'll be interesting to find out. Like recognizes like, don't you think? I recognized you.”

Nell's blood went cold and burned under her skin. “I don't know what you mean.”

“Not who you are, or were,” Mia said gently. “But what. You can trust me to respect that, and your privacy. I won't pry into your yesterdays, Nell. I'm more interested in the tomorrows.”

Nell opened her mouth. She nearly, very nearly, let it pour out. Everything she'd escaped from, everything that haunted her. But to do so put her fate in the hands of another. That was something she would never do again.

“Tomorrow I'll serve a summer vegetable soup and a chicken, zucchini, and ricotta sandwich. That's as complicated as it's going to get.”

“That's as good a start as any. Enjoy your afternoon.” Mia waited until Nell reached the door. “Nell? As long as you're still afraid, he wins.”