Love in Flames (3 page)

“Holy smokes.”

Esther laughed. “That about says it all. She needs us and, I don’t know about you, but I need details.”

“Do you think that candle spell actually worked?” Maggie voiced what Esther had been wondering.

“I don’t know.” She didn’t know how she felt about Rhiannon being a witch. She loved and respected her friend, but wasn’t sure she wanted to believe. If her friend really was a witch, then maybe reincarnation was a possibility. Maybe her family legend was true and someday James and the other Esther would be united.

Maybe her dreams were more than just dreams.

No, she refused to believe that. She was the master of her destiny. Not some legend in a book and not some candle spell they’d cast. If she wanted a lover, she’d find one on her own.

It was closer to forty minutes later when she parked in front of A Touch of Magick. To save time, she’d picked up Maggie. They’d also swung by Clancy’s Bakery for chocolate croissants. Esther didn’t want to think about the calories, but she needed something to kick-start her morning and, since she didn’t drink coffee, chocolate was it.

Plus, ever since Rhiannon had mentioned chocolate, she’d had a craving.

“Sorry we took a little longer than I thought.” She held up the bakery box as an offering. “I figured Ada wouldn’t be here yet and you sounded like you could use something.” She glanced at Maggie. “Plus it took a bit of work to get Maggie out of bed.”

“Hey, Rhiannon.” Maggie yawned but smiled as she gave her greeting.

It didn’t take them long to settle at a table with large mugs of coffee for both Rhiannon and Maggie and a fragrant mug of tea for Esther. The chocolate croissants were piled on a plate in front of them.

“Okay, spill,” Esther ordered.

Rhiannon told them everything, starting with her finding graffiti on her store the morning before. Esther had heard about that. Working as a police dispatcher, she knew most of what went on in the community. Even though it hadn’t been serious—vandalism, but no break-in—she’d expected Rhiannon to contact her to talk about it. When she hadn’t, Esther had planned to call her later today.

Rhiannon was obviously tense about the graffiti and what had been written. Why anyone would write such nasty things on someone’s place of business was a mystery to Esther. Having words like
witch
and
devil
written on her wall had visibly upset Rhiannon.

Both she and Maggie did their best to reassure her, but there was really nothing they could do about it. The hurt had happened and it would take Rhiannon time to get over it.

The only upside of the entire affair was Rhiannon had met an interesting man—Ryland Stone.

Esther sat back in her chair with a smile on her lips. “I know Ry. He’s not exactly hard to look at.”

Rhiannon made a noncommittal noise, but Maggie wasn’t fooled anymore than Esther was. “You like him.” Maggie picked up her croissant and took a big bite off one end, chewing as she talked. “I know him from when I lived here as a kid. He’s a couple of years older, but he used to do chores for my grandmother during the summer months.”

They talked about Ryland some more. Esther sat back and watched Rhiannon as Maggie spoke of him. There was no doubt in her mind that her friend was seriously interested in the deputy.

The rest of it came out in a rush. The first meeting between Rhiannon and Ryland. The sparks when they touched. The fact that he kissed her and asked her out on a date.

“Uh oh.” Esther stared at her friend. “From the look on your face, I’d say it was one heck of a first kiss.”

“It was.” Esther and Maggie exchanged knowing looks as Rhiannon gathered her composure and continued her story. “It might have gone further if we hadn’t been interrupted by a colleague who’d come to examine the crime scene.”

“Bad timing on Jed’s part.” As a dispatcher, Esther knew which deputies had responded to the call.

“Jed Bearson?” Maggie’s voice sounded strained, but her face was composed.

“Yes. He seemed very nice.” Rhiannon studied her friend. “You okay, Maggie?”

She nodded. “I’m fine. Tell us what happened with Ryland.”

Esther freely admitted she was curious. Rhiannon hadn’t dated anyone since she’d moved here. For her to go out on a date with a man she’d just met was a huge deal.

“It was wonderful. It was awful.” Rhiannon continued. “He took me to The Seaside.”

Maggie let out a low whistle. “Not cheap. Kudos to him.”

Rhiannon laughed, but quickly sobered. “He kissed me in the parking lot before we went in.” She hesitated for a second before plunging onward. “Every car alarm in the lot went off.”

Esther stared at her friend. “Surely you don’t think you had anything to do with it.”

Rhiannon rubbed her forehead and drank another mouthful of coffee “Do you remember me telling you I had problems with my magick?”

When they both nodded, Rhiannon continued.

“My sister called and she thinks my problem is that my magick is trapped inside me. According to Gwen, I need to have sex with the right man to release it.”

Esther couldn’t help it, she laughed. “It’s certainly justification to have a hot affair with a sexy guy.”

“This is serious.” Rhiannon jumped out of her chair and began to pace.

“I’m sorry,” Esther offered the sincere apology. “It just sounds so crazy.” She didn’t want to believe it was related to Rhiannon’s magick or the spell they’d cast in her back yard. If it were true then both she and Maggie could expect to find lovers and soon.

She tried to shove that thought aside as she listened to Rhiannon. Finally, she asked the question she knew they were all thinking. “Do you think this has anything to do with the candle ritual we did in your garden?”

“I don’t know.” Rhiannon propped her elbows on the table. Her bracelets jangled. “It feels like Ryland was drawn to me.”

Maggie talked, but Esther had stopped listening. She didn’t want to think about a lover. Every time she did, Ryan popped into her head and that wasn’t happening.

She started paying attention again when she heard Rhiannon mention chocolate. She couldn’t help but laugh when her friend told them about the disastrous end to her date.

But the talk quickly turned serious again. Rhiannon obviously believed her magick had drawn Ryland to her and was afraid he might be the one to unleash the magick from deep within her.

Esther was worried about the whole lover thing. As much as she wanted a night of hot sex, she wasn’t a one-night stand kind of girl. Not that she really believed that their candle spell had any bearing on Rhiannon’s date. It was coincidence, nothing else. After all, Rhiannon had been on one date. That didn’t mean she and Ryland were going to end up in bed together. And even if they did, so what? They were both adults.

Maggie let out a huff of frustration. “I haven’t had anyone approach me since the candle ritual.” She turned to Esther. “Have you?”

“No. Not unless you count Ryan, which we can’t because he’s always trying to get me to go out with him.”

“Okay then.” Maggie nodded. “That settles it. It’s coincidence that you met and fell into lust with Ryland. Enjoy it. If it helps you get over your problem with your magick, you won’t need to form a therapy group or start a twelve-step program to get past the obstacle that has haunted you for most of your life. Right?”

That made sense to Esther. Ryland coming into Rhiannon’s life was a coincidence. Her friend should simply enjoy herself. Shouldn’t she?

Esther left her friend with a final warning, begging her to be careful. She didn’t know why she felt that way. She should be happy for Rhiannon. And she was. She simply didn’t want to see her friend get hurt.

“What do you think?” she asked Maggie as they climbed into the car.

“I think she should go for it. Have some hot sex and enjoy herself.”

Esther put the keys in the ignition and started the engine. Checking for traffic, which was still light this early in the morning, she pulled out and started toward Maggie’s house, which was on the outskirts of town. “Really?”

“Yes. Why is it okay for a guy to have sex simply because he wants it, but not a woman?” Maggie crossed her arms over her chest and stared out the window.

“It’s not that, not really.” Esther wondered what was really bothering Maggie. She’d gotten tense several times when they were having breakfast, especially when Jed’s name was mentioned. Esther wondered why. Jed was a great guy.

She gave a mental shrug. There was something Maggie wasn’t telling her, but Esther let it alone for now, sensing her friend wasn’t ready to talk about it. “Do you really think it has anything to do with that candle spell? Be honest. Rhiannon’s not here.”

Maggie nibbled on her bottom lip. “I’m not sure. The practical side of me says hell no, but I just don’t know. It’s an awful coincidence coming so close to when we did the spell.” She shook her head. “It has to be a coincidence. There is no such thing as magick or the paranormal.”

Esther held her tongue, wondering why Maggie always protested so much when the question about magick and other possibilities was raised. She was open-minded about just about everything else.

Esther didn’t press it and they both remained lost in their thoughts as she pulled up in front of Maggie’s home. Maggie unbuckled her seatbelt and swiveled in her seat. “You take care over the next few days, okay?”

“I’m fine,” she assured her friend. “There’s nothing to worry about.”

“Right.” Maggie climbed out of the car and paused, like she might say something else. Finally, she closed the door and waved.

Driving away, Esther peered in the rearview mirror. Maggie was still watching her.

She shivered. Reaching down, she flicked the button to turn up the heat. She was cold. Nothing more. The shiver wasn’t a portent of something to come.

Even as she thought it, Esther had a sense that her life, her destiny was about to take a turn. Whether it was for the good or bad remained to be seen.

“Enough,” she scolded herself. She had enough to worry about without manufacturing problems or buying into the whole magick-candle-spell thing. It was fun at the time, but it didn’t matter. Whether or not she had a lover was entirely up to her. Magick and destiny had nothing to do with it.

Chapter Three

Days later, Esther sat on the edge of her bed and looked at the candle she’d placed on her nightstand. A week had passed since the night in Rhiannon’s garden. Obviously, nothing was going to come of the spell they’d cast.

She was glad, she told herself for the fiftieth time. She didn’t want or need a lover in her life right now. It was all she could do to deal with the dreams that plagued her nightly.

It was sheer coincidence that Rhiannon had met Ryland. And speaking of her friend, it had been days since they’d talked. They were playing phone tag with one another. They were all busy. Once things settled down after Halloween, she’d have both Rhiannon and Maggie over for dinner.

Sighing, she reached out and ran her finger over the smooth red wax. The faint scent of roses permeated the air. A part of her wanted a deep, abiding love that would last forever, but another part of her really didn’t believe it would happen.

She wasn’t even sure why she’d kept the candle. She hadn’t really believed anything would come of the impromptu ceremony they’d performed in Rhiannon’s garden. Still, she couldn’t bring herself to put the candle away.

It had been a long time since she’d been in any kind of relationship. She wasn’t even sure she’d be able to handle a night of no-strings-attached sex right now. It took everything in her just to get through each day. She was tired and out of sorts. She wasn’t sleeping well, and when she did sleep she dreamed.

Crawling into bed, she pulled the covers over her and closed her eyes, praying she wouldn’t dream of fire, past lovers or Ryan Jamieson.

Two hours later, she was still lying awake staring at the ceiling. Giving up trying to sleep, she sat up in bed and flicked on the bedside lamp. Ignoring the red candle that seemed to taunt her, she picked up the leather-bound journal that sat next to it. Even though she knew the story by heart, she opened the cover, turned the pages and began to read. As always, her imagination took over, the words coming alive. It was so easy to picture it all…

Seven hundred years ago.

The Samhain fire had been lit.

Esther watched as the flames climbed, engulfing the wood that was piled almost as high as her. The rich harvest of barley, oats, wheat, turnips and apples was stored against the oncoming winter. The hay was stacked in the barns to feed the cattle and sheep during the harsh snows, and the animals that were destined for the table had been slaughtered. Now it was time to celebrate their bounty.

She loved this time of year when the labor of summer was past and the air was crisp and ripe with promise. This year, she had worked even harder, all her spare time spent helping James build their tiny one-room cottage at the end of the village where they would begin their new life together. The itinerant priest was due in the next few days, and when he arrived he would perform the ceremony that would bind James and her together forever in marriage.

A shiver caught her by surprise and she wrapped her arms around herself, rubbing her hands over her upper arms to ward off the sudden chill. Samhain was also the time of year that the veil was thinnest between the earth and the world of spirits. Esther tried to shake off her feeling of unease, but it persisted, as it had for days now. She was so close to having all her dreams come true and was so happy that she almost expected something to go wrong.

“What ails you, my love?” Strong, familiar arms wrapped around her from behind. James. His strength and caring surrounded her, driving back the darkness of her thoughts. It had been this way all their lives. From the time they were children, they’d known they’d been destined for one another and they had never wavered in all the long years it had taken them to grow into adulthood.

“I am fine.” She patted his hand when he squeezed her tighter. “Just a fleeting shiver is all.”