Unruly Magic (13 page)

Right. Gage had mentioned that Wilding had its own version of a citizen movie theatre.

“I said we were going out for dinner and maybe some other time. I hope that was okay?”

“Yes, thanks.” I said. I wondered if Annalise had recognised Evan from the two small pictures I had on the mantelpiece. “Did she say anything else?”

“She asked if I was the guy in the photo.” Evan signalled to the mantelpiece where the two photos I’d brought with me sat side by side. Ahh, so she did. He pulled out his wallet and slipped something out which he held to me. It was the same picture.

“I made it to wallet status?” I asked taking a few steps towards him, and, standing on my tip toes, kissed him softly. He just smiled at me as he circled his arms around my waist.

“We should go before I change my mind,” he murmured, before stepping away with a sigh and reaching for my black coat on the rack. I spun round so he could hold it as I slipped it on and then followed him out the door. As I went I trailed my fingers across the lock out of habit.

Evan drove us in his car, using his SatNav to guide him. It was bigger, newer and considerably nicer than mine, not that either of us drew attention to that. Seren and Étoile were already seated at the restaurant – a barbecue place with a warm, countrified sense of style from its gingham check curtains to the scrubbed wooden tables – when we got there. They both raised their right hands to wave to us and we crossed the crowded room. Evan held my seat while I sat and he’d just taken the place next to me when David rushed in, unwinding his scarf, before dropping into the seat next to Seren, leaning over to kiss her cheek before signalling to the waitress. The sisters were dressed up as per usual, Étoile in wool pants and a silky shirt in cobalt blue and Seren in a long red dress that was nipped in at the waist. I’d definitely picked the right dress to wear.

“How’s the inn?” I asked.

“Better than expected,” said Seren, flashing a smile at David. “Much more modern than I had hoped.”

“She means it wasn’t quite as Hicksville as we were expecting,” said Étoile bluntly, reaching for her wine glass. “Wilding is a nice town. Very pretty.”

“I like it,” I said, but not defensively because I could see their point. Wilding was a quiet town with a few amenities and shops that were kept to a strict town planning code. If you wanted something bigger or more exciting like clubs, bars, bowling, and, well, all the fun stuff, you went to one of the neighbouring towns whose reach had yet to swallow up Wilding. Instead what you got in Wilding was a neat brick built Main Street with shop hoardings matched right down to the fonts, that centred around a community square. There were the usual small town offerings, and, being a pretty town, there were several gift shops that catered to the out of towners that drifted through. Spanning out around this central hub was a variety of homes, tightly packed together at first with the plots broadening the further out of town you got. It was a congenial sort of place, quiet, crime-free and gently stuck in its ways. It was the absolute opposite in every way from my former home of London. I liked it here.

“And what do you like about it, Stella?” David had picked up the wine bottle and was filling my glass with Chardonnay while Evan ordered a beer from the hovering waitress.

“I like its quiet mostly,” I said, after a moment of thinking about it. “In London, people shuffled by and tried to avoid eye contact. Here, people make an effort to say hello or ask how you are. I like that.” I’d probably met more people in the months I’d been here than in the several years I’d been in London. Even better, they actually remembered my name here.

“Do you know anything about the town’s history?” Seren asked.

I shook my head. “Not really.”

“I looked it up on the ‘net,” said Seren. She was picking at a bread roll on her plate, steadily turning it into crumbs without eating a single bite. “It has a strange past. Apparently there’s some strange town law that prevents residents from having pets.”

“I noticed that but I didn’t know it was law. I haven’t seen a single dog or cat since I’ve been here and I would have thought there would have been cows or horses, but I haven’t seen any of those either. I hear howling in the woods sometimes.” I watched Seren and Étoile exchange a look. I guessed they weren’t impressed. I hadn’t put them down as animal lovers though. Still, I could agree it was a strange law.

David said, “You should probably be careful at night. Your house is pretty isolated; not the best place to run into wild animals.”

I nodded. “I’ll be careful.”

I was grateful when they switched topics to more trivial things, before switching to catching me up to date on what had happened in the intervening months since I’d last seen them, which made me think of how collected and together they were when I hadn’t even begun to make solid plans. I had Evan’s offer to think about now though, but neither of us brought that up.

What they had said before about the witches’ council fracturing was all true, but now they filled me in on the rest. The council was already weakened under the pressure of the Brotherhood picking off witches throughout Europe, and this had left the council at a quandary about what to do now there wasn’t a clear leadership succession. Apparently trying to assist European witches wasn’t a popular option and there had been plenty of dissent but the Bartholomews had insisted on reaching out a helping hand to their brethren, even if it wasn’t entirely altruistic when it came to me. I still didn’t understand why Eleanor had chosen to send Étoile to save me, when she could have left me to die and thus solve her problem without any more blood directly on her hands. I would probably never understand that. Still, I could understand why, to an extent, even if it galled me, that other members of the council didn’t want a European problem in their country. Too bad though, they had got the Brotherhood anyway.

So with the Bartholomews gone, and no natural leader to step in and take control, the remaining members of the council had found themselves unable to keep any semblance of control so they had been forced to disband within the last couple of months. With the council split, it was becoming close to impossible to monitor what was going on across the country, never mind with allies overseas. There were some witches who wanted to go their own way, fly under the radar (I started to make a broomstick joke at that but shut my mouth at the last moment) and weren’t all that interested in a crumbling regime. Of course there were some that wanted not just the council together, but the ruling seat with their own council members in power, and for all the witches to be under a new regime. Those witches were already canvassing for power, making for an uneasy time for those who weren’t politically minded, and for those who didn’t want to be pawns in another’s power play.

“Georgia Thomas is the biggest threat,” said Étoile and I watched them all nod in agreement with her, even Evan. “She’s never been able to get on the council.”

“How come?” I asked.

“She’s never been interested in the good of the council.” Étoile glared at me while I covered a snort with a sip of wine, before she finished, “She’s just in it for the power.”

“She’s very powerful though,” pointed out David. “She’s always felt slighted. This is a perfect opportunity for her.”

“She’s as scary as hell,” added Seren with a shudder. “You know that saying ‘wouldn’t want to meet her in a dark alley’? Someone met Georgia right before that.”

David said, “I hear she’s travelling along the west coast recruiting.”

“The further away from us the better. Do you mind if we call an early night? We were driving for hours today.” Seren sat her dessert spoon down and licked sugar from her lips, her eyelids heavy. Étoile and David both nodded and I noticed that they were looking drawn too.

“Of course not. You’re here for a few days, right?” I tried not to look too hopeful, but I really wanted them to stay. It wasn’t just for the catch-up, but so I could learn more. Just because I didn’t want to be under council rule, didn’t mean I didn’t want to know what was going on.

“Yes.” Étoile answered for the three of them and under the table Evan squeezed my hand. Seeing as we hadn’t really talked about how long he was staying, I had been assuming that he just was, but now a time stamp was hovering with a big question mark. I’d been naive not to think about that earlier when he’d put forward his offer.

I reached under the table, my fingers fanned ready to take his hand and squeeze it happily, but as my palm brushed against the top of his hand I gasped as the restaurant disappeared and I found myself in the midst of flames, colours so intense and vivid in oranges and reds with licks of yellow as they flickered around me. I felt the air suck out of the pocket I was in and it rushed past me like a back draft encouraging the flames to leap and cavort. I turned, feeling like I was caught in slow motion as I felt fear and awe. I could feel the heat, the intensity calling me and then strong arms wrapped themselves around me and as I opened my mouth to call out, just as suddenly as it happened, I blinked and was back in the restaurant, Evan’s hand under one of mine, his fingers lacing their way through mine, my other hand gripping the edge of my seat, the cool wood contrasting with the heat of the moment.

“Are you okay?” Evan asked, his face etched in concern as I tugged my fingers sharply from his.

“Will you excuse me for a moment?” I said, pushing back my chair with an ungainly scrape and dropping my napkin on the table. I hurried to the bathroom as fast as I possibly could without breaking in to a jog.

Installing myself in a cubicle, I felt my chest tighten in sudden panic as my thought processes caught up with the lurch I’d just felt. I couldn’t even fathom what had just happened except that it was terrible and awesome, intense and alive. My breath caught in my throat. And someone else had been there with me, wherever ‘there’ was. I gripped the basin with both hands and stared at my stricken reflection.

“Are you okay?” came Étoile’s voice from outside the door.

“Um, yeah, I’m fine.” My throat felt parched. I ran the water for a moment then straightened up and unbolted the door to step out.

“You looked like you’d just seen a ghost.” She looked at me carefully. “You do look a bit pale. Are you sure there isn’t something wrong?”

I shook my head. “Oh no, it’s nothing. Probably just drank a bit too much.”

“You hardly touched your wine.”

“I’m fine, really.” How could I explain what had just happened?

Étoile touched my arm with long fingers and her eyelids lowered as I let her draw from me what I had just experienced. Her face stayed expressionless and I wondered if she got an instant replay, or just snapshots.

“You had a vision?” she murmured.

“I don’t know what it was.” I shivered.

“I think you saw some of the future.”

“How? I can’t do that. You and Seren do stuff like that, not me.” I scanned the restroom. We were the only two in there, but I kept my voice low all the same. “I just zap myself places and move things.” But I knew it wasn’t true. I’d had a vision when I touched Chyler too.

“And make magic from your natural energy. You heal, I remember that. And now you have visions too,” Étoile said, more to herself than me. She ran her fingers through her hair, fluffing it a bit until she achieved just the right volume.

“I don’t understand it though. How can I be seeing the future?”

“Possibly some latent psychic skills, or just a new manifestation of your power. What were you doing right before you had the vision?”

I thought about it for a moment. “I’d just put my wine glass down.”

“Then?”

“I touched Evan’s hand.”

“Hmm. I think Evan was part of that vision. It’s something that involves you and him in the future.”

“It seemed like we were on fire. I should be worried about that, right?” Like, really, really worried I wanted to ask. What if it was the Brotherhood? What if they had captured us both. I couldn’t bear to see Evan hurt, not at their hands.

“I don’t think you were in danger. That’s not the impression I got.”

“Are you sure?”

“It
was
fleeting.”

“You need to work on your reassuring manner,” I snipped and immediately regretted it.

“You’re not the first one to say that. Fortunately I’ll always believe I’m fabulous. Back to you though, are you sure you’re all right?”

“Honestly, I’m fine. Let’s go back.” My hands were shaking slightly and I could feel the cold tingle of fear edging through my bones. I wanted to be near Evan, not far away from him. I wanted to put the vision out of my head, and leave my subconscious to deal with it. I hoped my subconscious had a witchy streak that would work it all out and deliver a satisfying cerebral message that would explain everything. The rest of me wasn’t holding out any hope. Damn it, I really needed a manual for this kind of stuff.

“Take your time,” Étoile was saying. “David got Evan into a conversation about soccer and, really, no one needs to listen to that.”

I grinned, relaxing. “We should probably save Seren then.”

The bill was paid by the time we got back to the table and Evan leaned over to slip his arm around my chair, not mentioning my sudden flight. I made sure to only touch him with the parts of me that were covered; I wasn’t quite ready to experience the vision, or whatever it was, again. “Ready to go?” he whispered.

I plastered on an agreeable smile. “Absolutely.”

Our goodbyes were swift and whatever awkwardness had been there earlier was gone now. Just as the vague thought that I hadn’t thought about Chyler flitted across my mind, I stuffed it back down. I had never been entirely sure just how much Étoile or Seren could see into my brain, but I did know that when they were together their power amplified. I had to do some investigating before I could talk to them. For all the talk had been about the witches’ council, and the general mess it was in, I had no idea what the Winterstorms’ position was in all of it. As soon as I thought that I immediately felt mean. Part of me wanted to immediately tell them about Chyler and beg for their help. Another part of me wanted to understand what was going on before blurting out my little secret.