Fiery Gemstones (A Heston Witch Novella) (6 page)

“
We also know that he is despicable and there are no lows he will not sink to in order to get his way.
”

“
I wouldn’t put it quite like that.
”

“
What
do you mean?”
Edna rounded on her sister.
“D
on’t tell me you are defending that creep.
”

“
No, not defending or excusing what he did at
The Happy Place
.
”

Despite her sister’s
obvious
agitation, Ethos remained calm and collected. She had a sound and logical mind and was able to analyse situations in a way that would not have occurred to most people. She laid a soothing hand on Edna’s shoulder as she continued.

“
But think about it
,
Sis.
Someone
who has enou
gh fire power to come after you
didn’t need to pretend he was ill to empty the restaurant. He could just have easily made all the clients sick instead.
”

Edna paled as her sister’s words hit home. Ethos was right. Preston had just been toying with her. He hadn’t even unleashed his big guns. She shuddered to imagine what havoc he could have
wrecked
on the innocent customers
if he’d chosen to.

“What are we going to do?”

“
I don’t know, but whatever it is, we better do it fast, because Plan A just fell to pieces and Plan B doesn’t sound like it has a chance in hell of succeeding.
”

“
We could always skip ahead, pull out the big guns
and settle on Plan E.
”

Plan E was their
code for
Emergency Plan and involved Evie and all the girls pulling on their collective heritag
e as Heston Witches. It took some power
ful spell writing and required
major utilization
of their combined powers and it wasn’t something they did lightly. The ripple effect that resulted from the use of that much power could affect things in
Silverline City
for years to come. The last time they had run a Plan E, the
Townies
had been
green
-
skinned for a month. It had taken a lot of magical tap-dancing to be able to keep the population from noticing their leafy skin tones.

“A plan E,” Eden echoed. “Nothing so drastic
, at least not
yet. But we might want to bring Evie in on this. She was quite miffed earlier when you were heading out and read us the riot act about keeping her in the dark.”

“Huh!” Edna scoffed. “As if there was a mouse that
had
the slightest
chance of get
t
ing
a
single
crumb in this place without Evie knowing about it.”

“Yep. And
she says
that is the way she wants to keep it, so no more trying to keep her in the dark. Besides
,
this guy might be dangerous.”

For the first time in ages, the Heston W
itches were under threat and none of them liked the feeling
.

The Apple Doesn’t Fall Far From The Tree.

“
S
o are you done? Is it ready?
”

Esther was almost hopping up and down in impatience. It was almost midnight and she and Elvira had met in the old stor
e beneath the kitchen to assemble
their props before they set off for their magical midnight rendezvous.

“
I think we are set. Not that I mean to brag but you do know that my spell writing skills will soon be the stuff of legends.
”

“
Of course. Legends of what happened to the Heston witch who fell into a fairy tale and became a travelling bard writing sonnets for fair ladies.
”

“
You only complain because there is no poetry in your soul,
” Elvira
retorted, her black eyes sparkling with amusement.
“
It takes a real wordsmith to produce the goods as you well know.
”

The
‘
goods
’
in this case was a powerful spell that was meant to allow the spell caster to borrow and magnify any magical ability so long as there was som
eone nearby who actually had that
ability in the first place. They had thought it up when
they had overheard
their aunt Edna
remarking
that she would have liked to borrow Evie’s gift of conjuring
stuff
out of nothing at all.

Though they all had a common ancestor, their magical gifts were inherited in a seemingly random fashion and some gifts like prescience had been known to skip a generation or two. The girls were hoping that if their plan worked, all the Heston witches would be able to wield
all
the gifts in their lineage. It was a heady idea, and would ensure that this generation went down in the history books as the greatest generation of Heston witches
Silverline City
had ever known.

“
Enough with the self-adulation already. Let
’
s have a look at the spell
then
.
”

“
Yes, let
’
s all have a look at the spell.
”

Elvira gasped in horror and heard a similar squeak
from her cousin
whose
blue eyes widened in mild alarm
. On the other side of the room that
had appeared empty when they’d
first entered stood her two aunts, her mum and her grandmother.

They must have used a cloaking spell
. She thought desperately.
We are so grounded we have become part of Planet Earth.

While Elvira knew her spell casting was getting better, she
also
knew there was
simply
no way she could manipulate the family members standing in front of her.
They were packing a lot more firepower than she could even dream of having, and that was individually. She took in a deep breath and let it out slowly.
She would just have to grin and bear the lecture that she knew was coming. She gave Edna and Evie dark looks as she rightly supposed they had been the ones to tattle on them.

Correctly interpreting the look, Edna defended herself.

“Nuh huh, don’t give me that look. I didn’t say anything about any spells.”

That earned her a glare from both her sisters but she ignored them.

“Besides what’s it for anyway?” she asked curiously.

She was more than a little in awe of the magical skills her nieces wielded and she knew it would have to be a classic for the girls to risk leaving Red Rock Haven and the collective wrath of the senior generation just to try it out.

Both girls kept quiet, part apprehensive, part defensive.

Evie held out her hand.

“
Let’s have it then.
”

Catching Esther’s eye, Elvira gave a subtle nod.

“
Gramps
,
why don’t I just read it to you instead
?”
She
asked.

“
Nice
try
, young lady. But I wasn’t born yesterday and I have much more experience at handling magic than you do.
Read it to me indeed. Huh!” She snorted.

With a sigh, Elvira handed over her spell.

“
It was worth a try
,”
she said.

She watched her grandmother closely as she read through the spell and noticed her eyes widening as she got the gist of what they had been attempting to do.

“
Girls…, Girls, this is …
”
Both
girls held their breath afraid of what was coming next.

“
This is truly amazing.
”

Evie could not help the proud smile that spread across her face. She tried to rein it in as she could see the girls
’
mothers did not approve of her encouraging them
instead of scolding them
.

That’s why they have you.

Still she believed hard work should be recognised and the skill and patience that had gone into the spell gave her hope that the next set of Heston Witches would be truly formidable in their own right.
Passing on the spell to her daughters
for their inspection,
she faced her granddaughters
once again
.

“
It really is a spectacular spell. And
if it worked
,
if it worked,” she stressed, “it would be amazing.”

Elvira preened a little at the praise.

“
But.
”
She
looked
both of them
in the eye as she spoke
.
“
It was foolhardy and irresponsible for you to have attempted this on your own, not to mention dangerous. And sneaking out at midnight. I expected better from you.
Especially now, when we are under threat from things we do not fully understand.
”

Esther caught
Elvira’s
eye and shrugged. It was news to her too.
No
one had told them about any threats. Edna caught the puzzled thoughts with her gift and hastened to fill the girls in on what had happened despite the objections of their parents.

“
They are not children,
”
she told them.
“
They deserve to know.
Besides
we
are going to
need all the help we can ge
t, especially if we
end up running an E.
”
She
smiled at Elvira
.
“
I for one will appreciate having the next master speller by my side.”

Evie yawned loudly, diverting attention from the
not so subtle
argument
that was going
on among
the sisters.
“
Well, if
you all are sure that
nothing more exciting
than this
is happening tonight, I suppose it is time I found my way to bed. I’m not a spring chicken anymore.
”

A chorus of ‘Goodnight Evie’s’ and ‘Goodnight Gramps’ followed her as she left the room.

“As for you, young ladies…,” Eden started.

“We know, we know, they answered wearily.

Social Etiquette for Heston Witches, again.

“This time you get to read it four times over,” Ethos chipped in. “By sunset tomorrow.”

“And I hate to break it to you girls, but you are grounded. Indefinitely. And
no spell writing
, casting or using magic of any kind.” Eden’s voice was firm.
“
This is not the time for such high jinks. Now get to bed, it
’
s late enough as it is.
”

As the cousins turned to leave the room, Eden called after them.

“
One last thing girls,
”

They turned back towards them, their mums and aunts
, the three eerily similar yet different women who had loved and nurtured them throughout their lives.
A pair of blue, black and green eyes looked back at them.

“For what it’s worth,” Ethos spoke for all of them. “That was a damn good spell.”

******

After leaving her cousin at her door, Elvira crossed over to her own room.  Its pale blue and black tones calmed her spirits and gave her a sense of familiarity and rightness. This was her own space at Red Rock Haven and she had made it up to suit her own eclectic tastes. She wasn’t one for feminine frills and trimmings and she loathed pink. 

The walls were covered with posters of her favourite musicians and she had a full bookcase of leather bound books that she considered among her most prized possessions. She had some knickknacks and framed pictures of herself with her mum and the rest of the family scattered around the room.

Her bed was a large queen-sized one, covered with loads of pillows and mounds of paper covered with her scribbling. Right now it was the only thing she could focus on. The only thing she wanted to focus on. She made her way over to it, walking slowly as she pulled off her tee shirt but left on her black slacks and light purple vest.