I laughed, the sound clearly forced and tight. I felt anxious and ridiculous. Looking off to the right, I picked at my thumbnail. “Do you really think so?”
“Am I not a siren?” She tapped her chest with her long mother-of-pearl nails. “Do I not understand the heart? He likes all sides of you. Truth is, Zinnia, if I hadn’t given my oath, I may have forsaken my vows that day he stumbled into my territory. I found him—him and the child—tramping through my waters, where the boy found you. I watched them, just to see. Curious more than anything. The way he held you then, before he even knew you were cursed, I sensed the pull. Had he not been so gentle, so tender with you, make no bones about it, I’d have made him pay. Him and the boy.”
I frowned. “Edward is a perfectly lovely child. I do hope you’ve noticed that.”
She nodded sweetly. “Aye, I know that now, of course. But I guard my friends first. Though I do like that Edward. He’s a smart lad, that one.”
I agreed with a soft snort. “Yes, he is. A very sweet boy. I like him very much, as does Lapis.”
“Which is saying a lot, considering familiars are rarely given over to sentimentality.”
I nodded.
Meri swam slowly closer toward the shoreline, right to the spot where I stood. With a flick of her tail, the waters rose up, lifting her high with them so that when she reached for my hand, we were eye level.
I grabbed hold of her surprisingly warm fingers and squeezed.
“If you need anything, my friend, you know where to find me. I left a parcel for you at the end of the river, for Lapis. You—”
Whatever else Meri had been about to say was forgotten when a sudden gust of powerful wind blew against us. Her turquoise eyes turned deep black as her gaze turned inward and she listened to the voices only she could hear carried upon the currents.
When she spoke, her voice was thick and powerful. “Your aunts seek you. A gathering has been called. One hour. At the town hall.” Then she exhaled, causing her shoulders to droop and her eyes to return to their bright-jeweled shade.
She blinked, looking at me with a touch of confusion.
“Did my aunts say anything else?” I asked, wondering why they’d called upon the waters rather than call to me directly. That further confirmed my doubts that they were intentionally keeping away from me. But why? What had I done to them to make them ignore me so? I worried my bottom lip between my teeth. Maybe it wasn’t me though. Sometimes my aunts tended to get secretive when they were working on a new spell. Or, maybe they’d finally cracked the riddle that was Sage. I hoped that was all this was anyway.
Meri wet her lips, looking uneasy and on edge, making my skin shiver with goose bumps. “Nay. Nothing else. Give them my regards. Tell them I shall scan the waters tonight. I feel suddenly unwell.”
I squeezed my friend’s fingertips, which had turned cold. “Do you need a charm? Are you sick, Meri?”
She blinked and looked at me, with an obvious scrawl of confusion bunching her thick brows. “No. Not sick. But not well either.” She grabbed hold of her flat stomach and pressed. “I sense something foul in my waters. I must investigate. Be thee well, witch.”
Then she released my fingers and sank rapidly within the watery embrace of her beloved enchanted river. Not even a ripple of her remained.
Feeling discombobulated by what had just happened, I rubbed my fingers over the warmth of the pearl necklace my aunties had spelled to help me maintain my awareness during the curse. I gave the waters one final assessing look before jogging off to my diner.
THE HEMLINE OF MY PRETTY white sundress became stained from the mud and muck I was forced to slog through on the way home. Thankfully, I always kept a spare set of clothes in the back of my diner. Someday, I was going to bloody remember to stash a broom in the woods.
Walking out of the kitchen, I gave my hair one final touch-up to make sure I wouldn’t suffer any flyaways. The diner smelled of the sweetness of blackberries and the zing of zested lime. I’d spent the wee twilight period just before dawn when my curse activated whipping up a quick batch of cupcakes. I didn’t make them often, but it was nearly Delilah’s birthday, and I’d made her favorite—wild blackberry cakes with tequila and lime cream cheese frosting. I’d figured if I was going through the hassle of making one, I might as well make enough to sell as part of the daily special. I now had all two hundred cupcakes sitting in a long line on the counter. My strategy was to make the diner smell as irresistible as possible so that everyone might want to order one.
I inhaled deeply, excited to get my night started, when I caught the swish of a long black tail. Glancing to my right, I expected to see Lapis getting ready to make a mess of my confections, but jeweled-green eyes stared back at me. I didn’t know how in the bloody blazes Malachite had even gotten back there. I’d kept the cat flap sealed shut tonight. Not even Lapis was allowed in, not with my cakes out.
Without even missing a beat, the terrible kitty meowed and licked at the mint-green frosting.
“Malachite!” I shooed at him, frowning mournfully at the loss of one cupcake. “Bad kitty! Bad.” I rushed over, snatching up the cake and wagging my finger at him. “Now, you know better.”
He hopped off the stool he’d been stretched out on and landed at my feet before hissing and batting at my ankle with his clawed foot.
I frowned, hurt more than I knew I had a right to be at the way things had ended between us. Ever since Sage had arrived, Malachite wanted nothing at all to do with me. In fact, this was the first time I’d seen him in weeks.
I knelt, locking eyes with him. He was sitting up, his tail swishing back and forth behind him. I bit my bottom lip, palming the cupcake and wishing things had ended differently between us.
He’d never taken a shine to me the way Lapis had, but I’d thought we had at least been friends... sometimes.
I sighed. “You didn’t always hate me, right? You loved me once, didn’t you, Malachite?”
He blinked, and his long, magnificent whiskers twitched. That bright pink nose of his that I’d always loved watching turn a brilliant shade of scarlet when he and Lapis would play beckoned me. But I wouldn’t touch him. He was a taciturn thing at the best of times, and unless he specifically requested my caress, it would be to my own peril to try it. I was certain the wild kitty could nip a pinky tip off if he had a mind to.
“I know you may not believe it, but I...” I swallowed and swiped off a glob of the slightly slimy frosting then placed it on the floor beside his foot. “I loved you. Whether you tried to eat me as a newt every day or not, I always loved you.”
He meowed. The sound was sweet, and for some odd reason, my eyes teared up, and my throat grew hot and tight. Then he leaned down and daintily licked at the frosting.
Cats were strictly carnivores. All my familiars had been. But Malachite had always been different. I’d often had to keep him from eating things he shouldn’t, like vegetables, of all things. Rice. Pancakes. Anything sweet. He’d always had a sweet tooth, odd little beastie that he was.
I sighed again.
He reached out with his little black paw and placed it on my knee. I gasped. An invite? Was he wanting me to pet him?
He was still licking at the frosting; he was almost done now. My heart fluttered, and nibbling hard on the corner of my lip, I reached out and ran a finger down his silky black head. His purr sounded like music to my ears.
“You liked me too,” I whispered heatedly.
But the moment didn’t last.
No sooner had he finished his frosting than he lifted his head and hissed. I knew what that meant and pulled my hand back, but I wasn’t fast enough. He bit, nipping at my pinky so hard, he drew a bead of blood.
“Ow! Bad kitty.” I hugged my hand to my chest and yanking my wand out of my inside liner pocket with the other. I aimed it at the door and whispered, “Patintibus.”
The door opened, and Malachite raced out, screeching at me one last time. I frowned, staring down at that dr
oplet of blood, and shook my head. He really did hate me.
I thought of all we’d been through and how he’d looked when I first found him. He’d been a scraggly, dirty little thing, shivering out in the cold, five pounds underweight. Once upon a time, he’d been a sweet kitty, but something had changed in him. It’d happened so slowly that I hadn’t realized it until one day it dawned on me that my familiar really didn’t seem to like me much anymore. But he would always have his moments in which he would be that sweet, little, needy thing he’d first been, and I would forget.
He’d never actually drawn blood on me before, though.
With another long-suffering sigh, I got to my feet, walked back into the kitchen, and went to my herbs shelf. I grabbed a bandage and a small bunch of dried moss. It was good for cleaning out wounds. Granted, the bite wasn’t much of a wound as far as wounds went, but goddess only knew what Malachite had been getting into tonight. I wouldn’t take any chances. Once I’d placed the moss over the bite, I quickly wrapped up my pinky and wiggled it. It stung a little, which was surprising, considering it’d only been a tiny bite. Aunty would throw a conniption if I missed the meeting over a tiny nip, though.
“Rotten cat,” I muttered, shoving the leftover moss back into its bowl before turning on my heel and marching back out.
I was surprised to note Gwenny in her nest, looking around at the empty diner with black, beady, angry little eyes. She must have waddled in through the bird flap in the kitchen door from her garden roost out back.
“Meeting tonight, Gwenny. Blouse back to your roost if you’d like.”
She honked once from within her nest, and I gasped. I spoke fluent Geese. She said she’d just waddled her feathery behind up that hill once and that she would be... well, the rest wasn’t proper for a lady like me to repeat.
Flipping the Temporarily Closed sign over with more force than was necessary, I said, “Well, I never. And you can just mind your potatoes, Gwenny.”
In reply, my rascally fowl gave an ear-blasting honk, so loud and so long that the frosted windows trembled. I grimaced as the ringing of it echoed in my skull.
“Break it, goose. Just try it, and see if I don’t make good on my threats. Foie gras sounds like just the ticket tonight. And you know how much Auntie Vi loves her liver.”
That put an end to my fowl’s tantrum. I snorted, my mouth twitching. Goddess, save me from cranky familiars. Pursing my lips, I glared at her. “I should have called you Thanksgiving just like Aunt Prim told me to.”
Her dark eyes widened, and now it was her turn to gasp.
Grinning wide, I exited and shut the door behind me, sticking the key in the lock.
“Please, please, God, don’t tell me you’re closed yet!”
I frowned at the frantic and high-pitched female voice over my shoulder. Leaving my hand on the doorknob, I glanced behind me and was shocked to note that the stranger looked familiar to me.
It took me a second, but I soon realized where I had seen her before.
It was the beautiful yet insulting female who’d been at my diner just the other night with her handsome beau, complaining about my service—or rather lack thereof. What was her guy’s name? David? Daniel?
“Draven,” I said beneath my breath. Ah yes, that was it. I narrowed my eyes as I looked for her man. Those two had seemed attached at the hip before. But he was clearly not with her.
The female looked a mess. Her eyes were puffy and bloodshot, her nose a bright red. Streaks of mascara trailed down both her cheeks. There was also the strong stench of liquor wafting in the air. She’d been drinking for some time, it seemed. I knew the sight of a woman who’d been crying many hours, and though I’d not taken kindly to her the other day, I felt moved to sympathy for her obvious suffering.
She was dressed as beautifully as she’d been then, with fashionable clothes. She was clearly made of money. But her hair, which had been lovely and smooth then, was now a rat’s nest around her elfin-shaped face.
She sniffed, rubbing at her nose with her wrist. “Look, lady, I’ve had a day from he—”
I held up my hand, my suspicion about her situation confirmed when I caught a flash of what had transpired between her and her mate that afternoon. The image of him looking at her with dark, sad eyes and the echo of his words, “I’m leaving,” imprinted themselves like a sketch in my head. I felt the sickness she’d felt when he’d said the words as if it were my own and rubbed at my chest.
“I... I can’t,” I said softly and not without sympathy.
She rolled her eyes. “Look, I’ve got more money than God so I’m not planning to steal a dime from your stupid diner, but I’m starving, and I’m pissed off about it.”
I lifted a brow. “You don’t say.”
She huffed. “I hate carbs.” She sniffed. “But I need them right now, or I might hurt something. So I’ll pay you whatever if you just unlock that door and let me get something.” She shoved a hand into her pocket, pulled out a wad of bills, and thrust them toward me.
I frowned. “Pipe down, lass. Relax. And I don’t need your scratch.” I curled my hand over hers and pushed her back gently.
Her chin trembled, and I saw the tears swimming in her eyes again, shimmering bold even under the pale light of the half moon. “I hate this stupid place, and I hate you, and I hate... hate...” She trailed off. “I’m so freaking hungry. Please.”
That please sounded ripped out of her, and though she’d just insulted me every which way to Sunday, I couldn’t hate her. Breakups were brutal, not that I would know, but I was having my own troubles and commiserated.
I thinned my lips. I was such a bloody bleeding heart. Not happy with myself for what I was about to do, I pulled my key out of the lock, turned the knob, and opened the door.
“I’ve just baked some cupcakes last night. They’re sitting out on the counter. Take one if you’d care too, lass.”
For just a second, a ghost of a smile crossed her pretty lips. But it vanished just as quickly as it had come. Notching her chin high, she scowled, bumped her shoulder into me as she swept past in a sea of expensive perfume, and stalked toward the counter.
Gwendolyn honked gently, confusion evident in her matte-black gaze when she turned beady eyes on me.
I shrugged. The woman confounded me too. It was almost as though she wanted to be nice, but she simply had no knowledge of how to do so.
“Gwenny,” I said in a whisper, “watch her. And if she steps out of line, you know what to do.” I arched a brow, and my sweet yet mostly terrible fowl gave me back a soft honk of agreement.
A male’s voice drawled smooth as melted butter from behind me. “Heard there was a town hall meeting. Wondered if maybe you’d like to be my date?”
“Di Mi!” I yipped, grabbing hold of my frantically beating heart and twirling, only to become entranced by the sight of the beguiling smile on Zane’s handsome mug.
He was leaning against the wall, strong arms crossed over his equally strong chest, wearing tan slacks, a white button-down, a mustard-yellow bow tie, and a dark knitted cardigan. He looked every inch the handsome nerd he truly was. Even his thick, wavy hair had been styled.
“You’re looking mighty spiffy tonight there, bub. What’s the occasion?” I asked with a grin.
When he leaned forward, I caught a strong whiff of his moss-scented cologne and fought the urge to sigh.
“Well, it came to my attention tonight, I haven’t taken you out on a date yet. And this seemed like as good a time as any to do it. No diner, just you and me and—”
“All of Blue Moon Bay.” I giggled, covering my mouth with my hands. “Sounds perfect.”
He grinned down at me, and I had the craziest urge to run my fingers through his hair and muss it up just a little.
Edward, who I’d not noticed earlier, stood just behind his father’s leg and giggled.
I thinned my lips, fighting but failing the answering grin. “Find my fear funny, do you, little master?”
/> He snorted. “A little.”
I chuckled and wagged a finger at him. “A little. A little, he says. You terrible child, I ought to turn you into a toad for it.”
Zane dropped a hand onto his son’s shoulder and squeezed. “Don’t tell him that. He might just take you up on it, witch.” He winked, taking any sting out of his words and causing me to sigh with delight.
It hadn’t even been a day since I’d seen him last, but it felt as if we’d spent an eternity apart. He looked good. Really good.
He grinned, exposing his pearly whites and causing his deep-blue eyes to glitter with something close to mirth.
In order to hide my overwhelming emotions, I said the first thought that popped into my head. “How’d you know where to find me?”
He shoved his fingers through his hair, causing the ends to poke up cutely. “I may have bumped into your aunt Vi on my way over here. And she may have told me where to find you and to hurry or I’d miss you.” He shrugged. “Maybe.”
I grinned.
“I wanted sourdough pancakes.” Edward sounded the slightest bit put out, taking my attention off his daddy.
I gave him a soft smile. “I promise to make you the fluffiest ones when we get back. Deal?”
The child had the sweetest disposition. In the month I’d known him, it was rare to see him hang on to displeasure for long. “Deal, Aunty Zinny.”
I swallowed hard, feeling queer in my heart. I glanced at Zane from the corner of my eye. His brows were pinched, and he looked as though he felt a tremor of unease. He gently laid a hand on his son’s head then looked over at me.
Noticing I was already looking at him, he gave me the kind of smile that did all sorts of wonderfully warm things to my insides. I smiled back, feeling as though we shared a secret in some way.
“Should we stay?” Zane asked, his deep voice breaking my thoughts of floating hearts and blooming roses.
“What?” I jerked. My gaze followed his to the lone woman sitting at my counter as she ate from her cupcake. I’d never thought that watching someone eat a cupcake could look as pitiful as she made it look. I frowned, feeling conflicted and unsure. But soon reasoned that she certainly wouldn’t want us there watching her either and I really did have a meeting to go to. Taking a deep breath I squared my shoulders, and shook my head. “No, no. I’ve got the diner spelled. She can only grab her one cupcake. She can do nothing else in there. We’ll be fine to go. And I doubt she’d care for the company anyway.”