Seeing Magic (The Queen of the Night Series Book 1) (5 page)

“No wait, please, don’t leave yet. Tell me about the moving furniture.”

Evan laughed out loud. “There are many magical creatures in this world, Maggie. Brownies share houses with magical folk like Fiona. They help with the housework in exchange for room and board. Grog is their head-of-household. Rock, Ginger, Daisy and Lard also live here. I’ll introduce you properly tomorrow.”  He rose from the chair, walked to my bedside and kissed me lightly on the forehead, leaving a tingly spot near my hairline. He didn’t make eye contact again.

I wondered what I might have seen in his eyes if he had, forcing myself not to touch the tingly spot until after he’d left the room. He used the switches by the door to turn off both the reading lamp and the overhead light before walking away from me.

Completely exhausted, I turned out the light on the nightstand. Then I raised my fingers to touch where he’d kissed me. As I drifted off to sleep, I wondered what it meant to be a Great Healer and if it was similar to being a doctor.

My eyelids snapped open. My sleepy brain slowly started to fit the pieces of this jigsaw puzzle together. He was the Great Seer and not allowed to marry.
That’s why he was so resentful
. Because I existed, he could never have kids of his own.

Another revelation slipped into place. I was supposed to become the next Great Healer and not allowed to marry.
Screw that
. I wasn’t going to let a group of strangers in a strange part of the country tell me what I could or couldn’t do.

The third piece snapped into the puzzle. The picture was almost complete. I didn’t accept the clan’s restrictions, but he did. I needed to squash my feelings around him.

Lastly, I fit all of the connections together. My parents violated the taboo and left a huge gaping hole in this community when they ran away.
How much damage did they cause
?

Chapter Five

Fiona’s Store

“Rise and Shine.”

“Wh-what?”  I asked through a haze of sleep.

“It’s time to get up. Fiona wants you to see the store today.”

“Exactly what time is it?”  I grumbled as I tried to rub the sleep out of my eyes. Sitting up made me realize the pain liniment had completely evaporated. The whole left side of my body hurt…a lot.

“It is…6:30 AM.”  Evan walked right into the bedroom. For the second time, he’d entered without permission.

First, I checked my pajamas. I tended to twist them up when I slept. Pulling at my top so it didn’t cling to my chest, I yelled at him. “Don’t they teach you to knock first in West Virginia.”

By his shocked expression, he’d not thought about it. Even if he didn’t like me, he should still respect my privacy.

“What if I slept in the nude?”

A curious look crossed his face. He lifted his head so as to peek around the covers.

I pulled them up to my shoulders.

“I guess I should have knocked first. Okay, I’ll do it again.” He left the room, closing the door behind him. A few seconds later he knocked.

I called out an invitation.

He returned pushing a wheelchair in front of him. He pushed it right up to my bedside and set the brakes. “Ginger and Daisy will help you get ready. Fiona will be in soon to treat your injuries.”

As he left, Daisy and Ginger, two of the Brownies, entered. Daisy looked a bit older than her friend, but it was hard to gauge their age. Both of them had lines in their faces and dark, almost nut-brown, skin. Daisy had light brown curly hair, huge, round amber eyes and stood somewhere between a foot-and-a-half and two feet tall. She got on the bed.

Ginger had reddish-brown hair, green orb-like eyes and was an inch shorter. She stood by the wheelchair. They urged me to try and get out of the bed by myself.

With a great deal of difficulty, I sat up and threw back the covers. When I tried to stand, my left leg gave way. Preparing emotionally for the fall I knew would be excruciating, I squeezed my eyes shut. Instead I found myself floating. Opening my eyes and using my hands to balance myself on the arm rests of the wheelchair, I turned myself around to sit properly. The Brownies lowered my body by guiding it with their arms and hands.

I gasped. “How did you do that?”

The Brownie named Daisy squeaked, “Levitation is one of a Brownie’s most important skills.”

“You guys were in the truck.”  The events of the previous day came back to me. “You helped Evan pull me from the river.” 

The younger of the two, Ginger, nodded.

“You put the insect repellent on the chair for me, didn’t you?” 

Ginger looked chagrined.

Daisy admonished her, “We wait to be asked for help…usually.” 

“Humans don’t like it when we presume to know what they want.”  Ginger recited this statement as if it was a rule she had been told many times.

I felt bad that Ginger was being chided. “Thank you, Ginger. It helped so much.” 

She smiled at my gratitude and flipped her hair at Daisy, which for the ladies was a bit longer than the curly mops worn by the guys, and marched from the bedroom to the bathroom. I wheeled after her. The Brownies used their power of levitation so I got through my morning routine with minimal suffering. When I had wheeled myself back into the bedroom, Fiona came in behind me.

“Don’t put your clothes on yet. Just lie down on the bed on your right side.”

With magical help from the Brownies, I did. Fiona proceeded to rub my left side with the liniment that had worked so well yesterday. She and Daisy put my knee and ankle into new splints. As they treated my injuries, Ginger asked me what clothes I wanted to wear and retrieved them from the closet and dresser. Luckily, it was summer and I could wear shorts, because none of my jeans would have fit over the knee splint.

The pain had almost completely abated. I asked Fiona what was in the incredible liniment.

“Hmm, let me think…arnica, witch hazel, cayenne, ginger, peppermint oil, and comfrey. You’ll learn to make it in time.”

***

When I reached the stairs on the front porch, I came to an immediate stop and set the brakes on the wheelchair. Evan lifted me and carried me to the passenger seat of his car. I didn’t mind being in his really strong arms. He smelled good. I needed to get a grip on my hormones. At least he didn’t act like he hated me anymore.

Just before he got into the Jeep, he saw movement in the nearby trees and stomped toward them. Green Eyes stepped into the sunlight. Craning my neck, I watched events unfold from the passenger seat.

“What the
hell
did you think you were doing yesterday, Buach?” 

The man he’d called ‘Buck’ had taken a step back under the cover of the trees. He looked a little intimidated by Evan, but still wore a sinister grin. “Doing what comes naturally, of course.”

“You’re disgusting. She’s only a girl.” Evan spit out his retort. My heart sank a little.

“If she’s precious to you, keep her away from the hawthorn trees. She wandered into
my
circle.”

My heart rose a little at the word,
precious
.

“She’s precious to all of us, Buach. She’s the eldest niece of Rose. You know what that means.”

I wanted to point out that I was the only niece of Rose’s but a sideways glance from Evan drew me up short. Since I obviously understood nothing of the underlying dynamics between these two, I opted to keep my mouth shut. Besides, at the look of shock on Buach’s face, I guessed Evan had said something really upsetting.

Comprehension came across his perfect features. “Shannon’s
daughter,
” he said with finality.

Evan nodded as he headed back to the driver’s side of the vehicle.

Buach turned his gaze to me and his eyes were only a dull green, not the mesmerizing color I remembered. He inclined his head toward me and said, “My apologies, young Healer.”  He looked directly at Evan and said, “Until next time, Seer.”  With a blink, he disappeared back into the thick stand of trees.

***

Once we were headed down the road I asked Evan, “Why didn’t the Brownies use their magic to get me in the car?” 

“They won’t leave the house unless it’s necessary.”

“Didn’t they leave the house when they helped you pull me from the river?”

“Yes, but that was an emergency and they were with me the whole time. Plus, it’s the back garden that scares them.”

“Why?”

“They say there’s something evil out there.”

I remembered the strange noises I’d heard in the corn…and the sinister grin on Buach’s face. “Yeah, they’re probably right.”

During the drive to Berkeley Springs, I urged Evan to tell me more about our clan.

“Well, first you should know when I use the word clan, I really mean community. Other people, like the Cherokee, use the word to mean one family. We’re really a coven, but we can’t use that word in casual conversation without raising suspicion among our non-magical neighbors. There are many different families in the Cacapon clan. Each family is associated with one of the seven professions.”

I interrupted him. “Professions?”

“I’m glad you asked. Our people are different because we have special gifts. You might think of them as superpowers. I can see or sense the future and you have the gift of healing hands — or at least you will have that gift someday. We also have Dowsers, who can sense energy under the ground. They use their gift to find underground springs for wells; a critical skill for a farming culture. They can also find ley lines or energy vortexes.”

“I’ve heard of those. They’re like magnetic fields that run in lines under the earth.”

“Correct. Sometimes Dowsers work with miners to locate large deposits of iron or other magnetic metal.”

“Cool.”

“Then we have poets who are born with phenomenally good memories. Because our people have always been persecuted for having these gifts, we are extremely secretive. Most of our history and cultural information is passed on orally. We don’t want the wrong people to learn what we can do. The Poets keep our records for us.”

“Okay, that’s four professions so far.”

“That’s right. We also have Farmers, who have a knack for growing things. You might say they’re born with a green thumb. Hunters are born with extremely fast reflexes and highly tuned senses. Lastly, we have Warriors who are born with exceptional strength. No clan could survive without at least one person from each profession.”

“I can see how that works, I think.”

Evan continued, “Now magical people tend to keep to themselves, to protect our secrets, so our options for finding spouses are limited. We occasionally interact with people from other covens, but we also have a lot of people from different professions who marry each other, except that Healers can’t marry Seers, of course.”

“That makes sense.”

“Our gifts are passed down to us genetically. When people from different professions have kids, their gifts are often diluted.”

“You mean a lot of people are born without superpowers.”

“They’re born with limited superpowers, but then every once in a while, someone is born with really great superpowers. That’s how I got picked to be the Great Seer. ”

“What about me?”

“Only time will tell. The gifts need to be honed. There is a lot of training and skill that goes along with each profession. Since you’ve had no training yet, we don’t know what you can do.”

“Oh.”  I digested the new information.

“We’re here.” 

Evan had pulled into a little alley behind a row of boutiques along Washington Street.

“Don’t try to get out of the car on your own. I’ll bring the wheelchair around and help you into it.” 

***

Once I was loaded safely into the chair, I expected to be led into one of the back doors on this row of side-by-side buildings, but instead Evan pushed me out of the alley and onto the sidewalk of the cross street.

“Fiona thinks you should see the store from the front first, so that you’ll get an idea of how it’s laid out.”

“That sounds like a great idea to me.” 

We rounded the corner and I got my first good look at quaint, old-fashioned Berkeley Springs. Straight in front of me on the side street sat an art co-operative converted from an old factory. Behind me was an antique mall and day spa. To my right, the far end of the main street contained an old church and the town square made up of a large expanse of green lawn. To my left sat the Town Hall and a library.

Halfway down the block Fiona’s Store, the ‘Queen of the Night Boutique’, had the door propped open with an old brass umbrella stand. Just as we’d reached the door, a guy came pushing through the other pedestrians on the street and smacked right into the foot pads on my wheelchair.

“Ouch!”

“Shouldn’t let cripples on the sidewalk,” the guy mumbled as he stumbled around me. He continued down the street and I turned my head to follow his drunken progression.

“Hey Jeremy, where do you think you’re going?” called a police officer from across the street.

That’s what you get for being drunk and disorderly so close to the Town Hall
. I looked at Evan. He shrugged.

“Do you know that guy?”

“Nope, he’s not one of ours.”

“Do you mean he’s not a member of the clan?”

“That’s what I said.”

“How do you know?”

“Besides the fact that I’ve attended functions with every person in the clan,” he smirked, “I can see auras. It’s a Seer gift. He has no magic in his aura.”

Evan wheeled me over the threshold. I smelled an enticing mixture of herbs and flowers. There were a myriad of noises; several simultaneous conversations, the clink of jars being placed on a glass counter, and somewhere a woman’s voice sang a Celtic ballad. Evan was talking, giving me the layout of the store, so I tuned back into his voice.

“So the store is broken up into six areas. Here in the front, on the right is where she sells the jewelry, crafts and clothing. Behind that are classrooms, an employee break room and Fiona’s office. On the left is where we sell herbs, candles, soaps and stuff. In the back are the bathrooms and the stock room. Upstairs on the left we keep the books, CDs and DVDs. On the right is where she sells the specialty items.”

“What kind of specialty items?”

“You’ll see,” he replied cryptically.

“How?” I asked, indicating the wheelchair.

“When you are ready, I’m sure you’ll be able to climb a few stairs. I’ll carry your wheelchair up for you. Today, Fiona wants you to learn the jewelry and clothes section.”

He wheeled me over to the counter located at the far right side of the store. A pretty young woman worked behind the counter, showing crystal pendants to a customer. Tiny, with short-cropped black hair that had a single stripe of purple running down one side, she wore a peasant blouse and a gauzy skirt patterned in jewel tones. When she caught sight of Evan, she batted her eyelashes and gave him a demure smile.