Fiery Gemstones (A Heston Witch Novella) (2 page)

Eden Heston was not the most lenient of mothers on a good day and both girls knew it. If they were going to be caught by one of the adults they would both prefer it to be their grandmother or their aunt, Edna. They would still get into trouble but they knew they’d get off lightly all the same.

“
It
’
s your fault for
insisting we did the spell here
.
How could you expect us to hav
e any privacy in the main house?
And
near the kitchen as well?
”

“
I wanted the old magic
of the house to aid our cause and the oldest hearth at Red Rock is in the kitchen. It’s the heart of the house … Arrgh, why do I even bother?
”
She groused as she saw the look of boredom and inattention that was spreading over Elvira’s face.

“
Yes
, old power, magic, I get that
but
seriously
, Esther,
there would have been more privacy in a field or a park or
even a cave for crying out loud.”

“
Not really.
We’d have to get to the field or cave or whatever first wouldn’t we and you
know how people stare when we go out together.
Word would soon trickle back to Red Rock Haven and then where would we be?
”

“
True.
” Elvira conceded the point with a slight inclination of her head. “
But
they
only
stare
because you always give them so
much to stare at.”

“
Not as much as you do.
Besides, we’d probably have been followed by one
of those Townie boys with
a crush on you.”
Esther
mocked as she
poked out her tongue.

She was enjoying their mock debate far better than t
he torture of waiting for Elvira
to get her rhyming done.
He
r cousin wasn’t very successful at being
unassuming or circumspect in her dealings with the town folk in
Silverline City
.
 

The town was called Silverline City because it sat on a strong thread of silver ore that never seemed to run dry. The old legends said that the town had been founded at the eastern gates of the mythical Garden of Eden and the thread of silver came from the base of the trees that marked the path to the garden.
People in Silverline City believed that rumour, just as they believed that the Heston Witches were direct descendants of mother Eve herself. Naturally, this meant that the
Hestons were the closest thing to a ruling family the town had. With its modest population of just over forty five thousand souls, it was often difficult for the girls to be incognito. Especially when they went out together
, which was most of the time
.

“
It
’
s not my fault they are so nosy.
Or so rude. Even Aunt Edna says it’s rude to point and stare
, and you know how she is
.
And ever since mum
lay down the new rules
I can’t make those idiots
bark like dogs for a couple of weeks so they are fast losing their manners.
”

Elvira’s
face puckered up as
she
thought about it.
Her mum’s book
S
ocial
Etiquette
for
Heston Witches
was hardly a page turner.
And every time she had an episode
with the
townies
that her mum considered included
an
outright
infraction of the r
ules (because that was what the suggestions in the book
were)
she had to read the whole bloody thing over again. Twice. Some of the words in that tome were permanently scarred into her retinas.

“Perhaps I could get around that, Esther.
If I could make them
think
they were barking like dogs, that
wouldn’t actually
be disobeying mum now would it?” The thought perked her
right
up.

“
No
, Elvira, no
.
No
more barking or
making townies think they’
re barking.
What is it with you and dogs anyway?
We’ll be in enough trouble with the family if they
get wind of what we are up to.”

Elvira cocked her head to the side as she considered her cousin’s words.

“
True. Maybe we should leave this till later.
”

“
That’s the best idea I’ve heard from you in ages.
”

“Oh yeah?
It’s not like you’ve been a regular fount of wisdom either.
”

“
Shush
, girl. I am agreeing with you. Is
midnight
ok?
”

Her cousin rolled her eyes.

“
Totally predictable
timing
, but yeah, that works for me.
”

“
Splendid. I’m off to find mum. I’ve got to do damage control in case
Grams
gave
her
a hint
about what we are up to.
”

Three heads are better than two.

A
part from being the prominent magical family in
Silverline City
, the Hestons owned various tracks of land and most of the local residences as well.
Their vineyard made the most exquisite of vintages and they were famous the world over for the culinary delights that their gourmet chefs cooked up at their restaurant, The Happy Place.
The Hestons also had a high end boutique that stocked their fashion line and a chain of malls that carried knickknacks and other little mementoes.
The lure of the silver mines brought in a lot of tourists and there was a high demand for their stationary and other collectables.

Edna functioned more as a CEO than either of her sisters or her mother. She had a natural gift for
numbers and business and as the middl
e daughter; it was her duty
to be the human or public face of the family.
Apart from the spell casting that was part and parcel of who
and what she was. She also had a natural flair
for telekinesis as well.
He
r special gifts of prescience and telepathy helped her in her dealings with the
populace in and around Silverline City
.

Her elder sister Eden was in charge of all things magical and supernatural. She was their ambassador when they required a speaker for their interactions with other witches, warlocks, demons, vampires, were animals, sprites, elves and
other
magical
beings that the humans dismissed so lightly as the stuff of fairy tales.
Silverline city was the magical hub of the world and creatures that were thought to have become extinct long ago were well and thriving there. Eden’s task was a complicated one but she did it well.
She was Evie’s heir and was set to take up the mantle of leadership if ever Evie was to pass on from this world.
She was a powerful healer in her own right and could shape shift as well as communicate with any warm blooded animal.

Ethos, the baby of the family
,
handled their domestic affairs and their public relations activities.
She could manipulate energy in all its forms as well as control fire, earth, water, air and heavy metals. She was a little dynamo and fearsome witch, her
talents and her temper giving
her a reputation that made most people think twice about crossing
her as a person and the Hestons
Clan
as a whole.

Unfortunately, this new twerp that had shown up in
Silverline City
didn’t seem to have gotten the memo. Strangers in their little town who didn’t know better seemed to have that
in common. On one hand Edna couldn
’t
really
blame them because to be fair, she and her sisters weren’t exactly Amazonian in stature. And Evie always made people want to pick her up and cuddle her. Their matriarch was deceptively harmless looking. Power didn’t always advertise itself
,
now did it?
On the other hand, the fact that her family controlled most of
Silverline City
and had
done so successfully
for
many, many
years should
have been enough to
tell all but the most stupid of strangers that they were not to be messed with.

It was only on the rarest of days that Edna felt this
…
powerless.
Maybe powerless was the wrong word. More like she was constrained. With all the happenings in the human world over the
last few years, the humans were becoming
more perceptive to the idea of alternate realities.
Regrettably
, the
advances in modern technology also made it harder to keep some things away from the public eye. As her sister Eden had so kindly laid out in her book, there were rules that had to be obeyed if their interactions with the townies were to be kept on an even keel.

“
So what are you going to do
,
sis?
” Eden asked.

The three of them were seated in Edna’s office sharing an aromatic brew of Irish coffee and a couple of biscuits as was their usual custom at about this time every day. It was a tradition they had started years ago and now it was an integral part of their working day.

“
I don’t know yet but I will definitely think of something. I have to. He just keeps popping up wherever I
go. It’s downright annoying.
”

Edna
made a face,
took a sip of her coffee and then made a
nother
face.

“
Eww,
that tastes rank. Mine’s
gone cold already.
”

She crossed over to the automatic coffeemaker that was one of the more recent additions to her office and topp
ed up her drink with hot water then returned to her seat behind her walnut desk. Her office décor was plain and utilitarian, done up in shades of coffee and cream. It was a
neat and
peaceful place and Edna considered it her sanctuary. She protected it fiercely from what she called
‘The
invasion of the gadget people
’
. There was no computer in her office, no fax machine and no TV screens
either
. She’d never
own
ed
a mobile phone
and she didn’t plan to. Ever.
Her only concession to telecommunications was the intercom and old fashioned land line that she had on her desk.

“
You could always take the mat
ter to the townie police force and let them handle it.
”

“
Handle it the human way? No
,
that would only reinforce this guy’s arrogance. Besides imagine the message it would send to the rest of the riff raff out there. ‘The Hestons are now fair game,
so feel free to
harass them at your leisure?’ I don’t think so.”

She caught the look on her sister’s face.

“
Don’t worry, Ethos. Wh
atever I do, I promise I won’t s
e
t
a bad example for the girls.
”

“
Too late for that,
”
Eden scoffed.

“
Hey, it’s not my
fault that both your daughters,” she waved her cup across to include both her sisters, “
co
nsider me their favourite aunt.”

“
No
,
it’s not. But it is your fault that they take their inspiration from your wildest pranks.
”

“
That’s not fair. The girls have vivid imaginations and they know how to use them. Besides, we’re all role models for them. And it’s not like we didn’t get into any scrapes when we were their age even though we didn’t have an
Aunt
Edna for Ev
ie to blame all our shenanigans
on.
”

“
Nope
,
we had an
Uncle Harry
and that was much worse.
”