Seeing Magic (The Queen of the Night Series Book 1) (14 page)

For a moment, I considered whether I would prefer life as a zombie. That’s how bad the stuff tasted. Somehow I gagged it down. Fiona took the empty mug out of my hands.

“We should know in a few hours. You should get some sleep. That will help the healing process.”  Fiona left and Evan sat next to me.

Once again, he wrapped his arm around me and pulled my head onto his shoulder. “Maggie, I want you to try something. Listen to my heartbeat. Just focus on my heart beating. Block out everything else. Thump, thump, thump. Now relax, and try to go to sleep.” 

I buried myself in his warmth, his scent and his energy. I focused on his steady, strong heartbeat. I felt the strength of his arms wrapped around me. For the first time since Dariene had touched me, the pain lessened. I didn’t feel the hum anymore…and I fell asleep.

***

I woke up slowly, and allowed my senses to open one at a time. I lay in a bed. They must have moved me while I slept, but Evan’s heart still beat under me. He lay next to me, still holding my head on his chest. We were fully clothed on top of the covers, but my breath still caught in my throat at the prospect of being in such an intimate position.

Evan and Fiona talked quietly. They did not yet realize I had awakened. I chose to keep it that way.

“Why would Dariene do this?”  I kept my eyes shut, but I could almost hear Fiona running her hands through her hair in frustration.

“I’m not sure. Do you think it has something to do with her parents?”  Evan asked tentatively.

“Dariene doesn’t have a grudge with Shannon or Matt. That is, unless she was working for Arianrhod.”

“I can’t believe Dariene would lower herself to be Arianrhod’s enforcer. Besides, would Shannon and Matt’s betrayal be a big enough event to even register on Arianrhod’s radar, let alone be cause for vengeance?”

“I don’t know,” mused Fiona, “but Shannon did tell me she was worried about letting Maggie come here. She said she had been threatened by Arianrhod once. She seemed insistent that Arianrhod not know Maggie was in Cacapon. Oh Goddess, she’s going to be pissed when she finds out what happened to her little girl. I hope this potion works. In any case, you’re right. I don’t think Dariene would do it as a favor to Arianrhod either, so why did she curse Maggie?”

It seemed fruitless to let them keep asking questions for which they had no answers, so I let a little sigh escape from my lips, as if I’d just awakened and opened my eyes. It was early evening. I’d slept the day away. Then came the moment of truth, I looked at Fiona. She was still surrounded by her green and gold aura, but it was not as vibrant. I looked down at Evan. I could still see the gold mist floating over the many layers of color. The rest of it: the ever-present hum of the earth, the sounds and colors of every living creature, were gone. Slowly, I smiled. Fiona audibly sighed in relief. I sat up and Evan asked the obvious question.

“How do you feel?”

“I feel so much better than before.”

“Is it over?  Do you still see auras?”

“I see yours and Fiona’s, but the rest is,” I opened my hands, palms upward, as I searched for the right word, “quiet. It’s like I could hear and see things if I listened and stared very hard, but I don’t want to.”

Evan looked skeptical. “Describe my aura to me.”

“It’s multi-layered. On top is a floating mist of gold. Underneath are swirls of purple and green. There are big spikes of auburn and orange. It’s really pretty.”

“Okay, that’s enough.”  He seemed embarrassed, as if I’d described him naked.

I shut up.

He continued, “Describe Fiona’s aura.”

I complied.

“That’s exactly what I see when I look at you, Fi. I wonder why the potion didn’t work.”

“But it did work!” I cried. “I can think now. I can function. Your auras are there, but they’re not as overwhelming. They’re muted.”

“Okay,” Evan reasoned, “then what was the curse?  I would say she cursed you to enhance a Seer’s gift beyond your ability to cope with it, but that would mean you already had a Seer’s gift, and you didn’t.”

Fiona interjected. “How do you know she didn’t already have a Seer’s gift?  Her father was a Seer. Maybe it was repressed because she was taught her whole life that magic didn’t exist.”

“You said she had a Healer’s gift. She can’t have both.”

“Unless Arianrhod lied to us about what would happen if Healers and Seers crossed lines. Maybe Maggie’s the Destroyer.” Fiona almost looked scared.

This time Evan gasped. “No!  She can’t be. Does she look dangerous to you?”

“She looks like dear Maggie to me, but others would fear her if they knew. We have to keep this a secret. No one can know she has Seer gifts.”

“I agree,” Evan nodded. “People are superstitious. They’ll assume the worst. They might try to hurt her.”

“Mother Earth and Father Sky protect us! What can we do?”

“There’s only one thing we can do. We can teach her to control it. She’ll need a real trainer. She’ll need someone we can trust to keep her secret. I know whom to approach.”

Fiona agreed with a nod. “Yes, you do...so, will you take care of it?”

“Indeed I will.”

“Who’s going to train me?” I asked. At this point, I had decided to take part in my own destiny.

Evan grimaced. “I’ll take you to my mom.”

I gulped.

Chapter Fifteen

Aura Vision

“Concentrate.”

Evan’s mother urged me to open my senses and focus only on the object of her choosing. In this case, the single dandelion sat forlornly in a small, terra cotta flower pot. As I stared and focused on the lonely weed, the swirls of green and caramel brown which rose and fell around it became more solid in my vision as if the colors themselves were swaying in the breeze.

“Hey Mom, what’s for dinner?”  Evan’s tall form striding toward us completely broke my concentration.

We were sitting at a picnic table in a tiny park hidden behind the Berkeley Springs Public Library. Two weeks had passed since the druid’s egg had allowed me to carry this gift, but not be overwhelmed by it. Jenny Keach, also known as Evan’s mom, was a librarian. I had been working in Fiona’s store covering shifts wherever she needed the help; most of the time I worked in the herb shop. Jenny and I coordinated lunch breaks and met at this picnic table so she could give me daily guidance on controlling what they called my ‘aura vision’. The park sat far enough back from the main drag through town that it was rarely visited by either tourists or locals. A couple of benches near a two-swing swing set and a toddler-sized jungle gym comprised most of the features of the park. A small patch of grass housing a lone picnic table and a single tree completed the park’s offering.

Either unaware or uncaring that he’d interrupted my training session; Evan plopped down next to me on the picnic bench and stared earnestly into his mother’s face.

“There’ll be no dinner for you if you keep interrupting us. You, of all people, should know better than to break a Seer’s concentration. How is she supposed to learn if you’re always around?”

“I told you she’s a slave driver,” he grumbled to me.

“I have no idea what you mean,” I quipped. “I think she’s a great teacher.”

“Fine,” he said, getting up from the bench “then go back to reading…whatever that is.”

Jenny looked back at me. “Okay now. Try to concentrate.”

I directed all of my attention to the poor, little dandelion drooping in the hot sun. Once again, I started to barely make out the green and caramel light emanating from it, but burst out laughing. “I can’t. He keeps making funny faces.”  I glanced sideways at him.

He grinned mischievously.

“Evan, for goodness sake, will you go away?” pleaded his exasperated mother.

Evan rose from the bench and walked around the table until he stood behind her.

I tried again. “I’m sorry, Jenny. I can’t focus. He keeps blowing out his cheeks and sticking his tongue out at me.”

“Evan Logan Clyde Keach,” each of his names was spoken with increasing menace, “if you do not leave this instant you will be grounded until the age of thirty-five.”

“You can’t ground me. I’m a council member. I outrank you.”

“As long as I pay for your living expenses, I outrank you. Leave now or I really will take your dinner away.”

“Do it,” Evan jutted out his chin. “Fiona will feed me.”  He looked directly at me. “That’s why I came by, Fiona said to tell you that Caroline and Zoe are coming in for a treatment at 1:15 and she wants you to be there.”

I glanced at my watch. “Okay, I’ll be done in ten minutes.” 

Evan said, “I’ll come back and we can walk together.”  He turned and headed into the library though the rear door.

“I like strict teachers.” I said to her when he was out of earshot.

“That’s because you’re a good girl.” She patted my hand. Then she furrowed her brow. “Why?”

“Huh?”

“Why are you such a good girl?  Evan says it’s weird the way you always do as you’re told.”

I thought for a moment. “I guess I had to be. After my dad died I wanted to be strong for my mom. She was always so sad; I didn’t want to add to her burden, so I never tried to get away with things like the other kids did, unable to make my mom’s life any harder than it already was.”

Jenny sighed. “You know, you and he have a lot in common.”

“How so?”

“Evan was a wild child. Always so much smarter than the other kids, he acted out. He acted the clown. He was incorrigible. I’m half-Poet and I passed on my eidetic memory to Evan. There are people who are intimidated by super-smart kids. Evan had a hard time making friends before Logan took him under his wing.

Then Logan died and those old cronies made Evan the Great Seer and his childhood ended. So much responsibility weighed down on his young shoulders. He’d barely finished middle school, for heaven’s sake. It’s good to see him goofing around again. He’s been so serious, especially this past year. You make him laugh, and you’re both so musical. It’s too bad. I think you and he would have made a good pairing.” 
How did she know I sang in the school choir
? I’d never mentioned my hobbies back in Santa Monica.

“What kind of pairing?”

“It’s a small community here, dear. We have to look ahead, but anything between you and Evan, of course, is forbidden. It violates one of the most sacred rules of our coven.”

“Because Healers can’t marry Seers.” I wondered if she made this point because of my parent’s history. I needed to assure her that I was not them. “I’m too young to even think about that sort of thing, Mrs. Keach.”

“Call me Jenny, dear.”

“Jenny, I don’t even live here. I’m going back to Santa Monica at the end of the summer. You truly have nothing to worry about from me.”

“I’m not worried about you, dear. I’ve just never seen him spend so much time with one girl.”

“I think he’s just doing it to help out Fiona.”

“Perhaps,” she looked wistfully at the back door of the library.

I picked up the trash from my bag lunch and carried it to the nearby trash can. As I walked back to the table, I heard a group of boys shouting off in the distance. Steven McCoy and a couple of his buddies approached us rather quickly. Behind me, I heard Evan reemerge from the library.

“Hey Evan,” Steven called. Inwardly, I groaned. Evan hadn’t run into Steven since the night of the druid’s egg hunt. He told me he had to promise to get something for Steven in return for his help that night. He wouldn’t tell me what he agreed to obtain. Truth be told, Steven and his brother hadn’t been much of a help. The most important contribution they had made was to be unavailable to his father. Connor McCoy had had enough time to sober up and realize the futility of starting a war with the Sidhe, whose magical prowess so far outclassed the skill of humans, the idea of a confrontation was ludicrous.

Of course, Steven didn’t agree with my assessment of his role in the hunt. When he got close enough he yelled out, “Hey Evan, did you get my message?”

“Yeah, I got it.”  Evan drew up next to me and faced him directly. “I told you I wasn’t able to get what you asked for, and I’ll call you when I do.”

Steven looked like he was about to object, but Jenny cleared her throat and Steven relented. From the first time I’d met him, I’d thought of Steven as a bully. He had no right to hold Evan to a deal after he’d nearly ruined any chances of the team finding the druid’s egg with his loud, drunken behavior.

Nevertheless, Evan seemed genuine about keeping his end of the bargain. Convinced that Steven McCoy was no good, and because I hate bullies, I opened my aura vision toward him, as Jenny had taught me, to see if there was anything I could use against him and found something.

Clearing my throat loudly, I said “Steve, what’s wrong with your right shoulder?”

Immediately, he looked up, his mouth fell open, and he forgot to speak. After a few moments of stammering he croaked, “How did you know about my shoulder?  No one but my dad and my coach knows I tore my rotator cuff when I threw that Hail Mary pass against Martinsburg at the end of last season.”

I smirked. “It’s magic. I’m a Healer. I can tell when people are injured.” 

The other boys behind Steven started to fidget nervously and shift their feet. “What’s she talking about Steve?” one of the boys said.

“You never said you were injured, Steve.”

Gruffly he responded, “It’s nothing I can’t handle.”

“I dunno,” said the other boy, “a torn rotator cuff sounds pretty bad…especially since you’re the quarterback.”

“Yeah,” I chimed in, “it seems pretty bad to me.”

Evan reached over and put his hand on my forearm as if to say ‘back off’ but I’d just had an idea. I could bring a bully down a peg and get Evan’s slate cleared at the same time. I pushed Steven a little further. “That shoulder feels like it hurts a lot. Does it hurt, Steve?”

“Yeah, it kinda does, but we don’t have health insurance right now ‘cause Dad’s still looking for a job. Coach said that if I could just hang in there, I’d get a football scholarship and then the college would pay for the surgery.”

“It would seem to me that you could use a few healing treatments before those big football games.”

A wishful look crossed his face as he said, “That would be great.”

“What if, instead of collecting on your deal with Evan, you make a new one with me instead?  After all, I’m the one who benefitted from the druid’s egg.”

“What kind of deal?”

“I’ll get my great-aunt to agree to give you a healing treatment before each of the home games next season, and Evan’s off the hook.”

“Deal,” he said and we shook on it. I felt extremely proud of myself. A sideways glance showed a furious expression on Evan’s face. Steven and his crew sauntered off down the street.

Jenny chuckled.

Evan exploded. “I can take care of my own obligations.”

“Yes, you can,” I soothed, “but I’m the reason you had an obligation with him. Besides, it might help the high school team win a few games. That’s got to be good for the town.”

“I guess so,” Evan grumbled. “How did you know?”

“I used the techniques your mom has been teaching me. I opened my aura vision and looked at him. I saw this huge gray gash running along his right shoulder.”

Jenny jumped into the conversation. She asked me, “describe Steven’s aura, the way you saw it.”

“His aura is a lot different than yours, Evan’s or Fiona’s. There’s not nearly as much gold in it.”

Evan smirked.

I continued, “It’s not an ugly aura, per se; there’s a lot of orange yellow, and spikes of red. Oh, and some really big spikes of auburn — I mean, that reddish-brown color, stood out. It’s a really pretty color I’ve seen before and he has so much on him and…”

Evan interrupted me. “We get it. You can stop talking about his aura now.” 

I shut up and looked quizzically at Jenny.

Evan grumbled, “Fiona needs you back at the store.”  He stomped off without me.

I walked back toward the library with Jenny. “What did I do now?”

She smiled. “You need to learn how to interpret what you see in the auras. The colors tell us different things about people.”
Ah, that’s how she knew I was musical
. She must have seen something in my aura.

“You didn’t ask me to interpret it. You just asked what I saw.”

“That’s true, but you should know the reddish-brown color is only seen in males. It’s an indication of virility.”

“Oh,” I said. Then, after a few beats, I understood. “Ohhhh,” I said again, looked at her and shrugged. “I guess guys don’t like it when you compare the size of their auras.”

“Not so much,” she confirmed.

I headed back to the store alone. As I did so I thought to myself:
Evan’s got a lot of auburn in his aura, too, but it’s covered with so much gold
. I wondered what gold meant.