Chapter 9
CHAPTER NINE
Calli woke to the distinct feeling she was not alone. Cautiously opening one eye, she found two creatures at the foot of her bed, heads down, staring at her.
The giant schnauzer politely waited for her to sit up. Persephone sat on Hades’s back, kneading her tiny paws as if getting comfortable..
“What time is it?” She grumbled. She tried to sit up, but her head throbbed and her mouth tasted like sandpaper. She felt hung over, but she hadn’t had anything to drink last night. Had she? No, the only thing she’d eaten had been those snickerdoodle cookies…
Oh God.
The spell had to be the reason she felt like this. An unexpected magical side effect?
Hades whined and crawled forward on the bed to lick her face.
“Thank you, I think.” She laughed softly as the dog nudged her cheek with his nose.
“What’s wrong with you, anyway?” Persephone trundled toward Calli on her little legs and Calli scooped up the ball of fur, grinning at the little purr that immediately started up when she held the kitten to her chest. The kitten’s tiny paws looked like black marshmallows.
A deep voice came from the doorway. “Glad to see you’re awake.”
Malcolm watched her cuddling her familiar. He had changed into a fresh pair of jeans, and wore a gray T-shirt topped with a dark blue and purple flannel button-up shirt that he left unbuttoned. She wondered where he’d gotten new clothes.
He seemed to read her mind. “I have a small travel case on the back of my bike. It’s got a couple of days’ worth of clothes, but I wouldn’t mind hitting up a clothing store if there’s one in town.”
“We have the Spooky Boo-tique.”
“Of course you do.” Malcolm chuckled, and the rich sound did something strange to Calli’s heart.
His hair was doing that thing where it fell into his eyes like some boy band singer.
She wanted to brush it back with her fingers right before she leaned in to kiss him.
And that only reminded her of what they’d done last night on the picnic blanket in the meadow at Whimsy Woods. The man was wicked and wonderful.
“Oh, um…” he cleared his throat. “I kind of met your grandmother last night.”
Calli, who had just started to stand up, nearly tripped and fell out of the bed. Malcolm was there in an instant to steady her and the kitten in her arms.
“You okay?” he asked in that low, enticing voice that called out to every feminine instinct in her.
“What do you mean you met my grandmother?” she asked, her voice held a note of uncertainty she wished wasn’t there.
Celestine was dead, her bones buried in the quiet cemetery just on the other side of town.
“I said kind of. I met her painting,” Malcolm explained.
“Oh, right.” That made sense.
Why hadn’t she realized that’s what he meant? Maybe it was because Malcolm had the strangest way of bringing things back to life whenever he was near. Not literally of course, but things in her world just seemed more alive, more charged with energy.
But with a warlock who could stop time, who’s to say he couldn’t go backwards in time too?
She shook her head. No, that was a wish too far. Part of being a hedge witch was accepting the cycle of life and death, embracing life while you had it, because eventually it would pass.
She wasn’t foolish enough to believe he could bring something back from the dead but for an instant she’d almost thought maybe he had.
“Calli,” Malcolm’s bright green eyes searched her gaze.
He sighed. “I feel ridiculous even mentioning this, but I don’t want any secrets between us…
She said something strange to me.” From what he knew of witch portraits, they didn’t talk much, and it wasn’t like the person in the painting had their soul trapped within the oil, it was more like an echo of them.
The painted version of that person had some memories and knowledge, and could interact with someone, but they usually didn’t.
“That portrait rarely talks. What did she say?” Calli set the kitten down on the ground. Hades sat behind Persephone, guarding her as he nudged her into the shelter of his front paws. All three of them turned their focus to Malcolm.
His brow furrowed as he hesitated, but at last he repeated her grandmother’s words. “You will break her heart… It has been foreseen. The power of Moonstone Falls will fail, and you will be at the center of it. Leave now before all is lost.”
It took Calli a moment to truly understand what he’d just said. He was going to break her heart? And he would destroy Moonstone Falls’s power?
He caught her chin and held her eyes with his own. “I don’t want to do any of that. You must believe me, sweetheart.”
“I do. You’re a good man, Malcolm—but prophecies are strange things. They always seem to come true…just not in the way you sometimes expect.” Calli suddenly felt hollow, and a dread took root inside her like the cavernous depths of a hollow tree.
Malcolm began to pace the room, then halted and faced her.
“Wait, in Boston, the Salem Witch Council keeps track of prophecies. Do you have a record of prophecies from Moonstone Falls?”
“Yes,” Calli said, some of that darkness transforming to the sparking of agitation of her nerves. “It’s at the town hall. We have a private room where prophecies are stored.” She reached up to grasp the pendant on her throat, trying to find comfort in the large moonstone.
“Let me make you breakfast and then we’ll go,” Malcolm said. He whistled to Hades, who trotted out of the room after him.
Prophecies… Her grandmother claimed to hate prophecies and often claimed she didn’t believe them. Why would she believe this one? And how would she know Malcolm was the one spoken about in the prophecy?
Still plagued by questions, Calli grabbed a t-shirt and jeans and got dressed.
Then she scooped up the kitten and headed downstairs to the kitchen.
She passed by her grandmother’s painting, intending to ask her about what she’d told Malcolm, but Celestine was nowhere to be seen.
The painting was empty except for the landscape of a wooded night and a bonfire burning in a clearing.
Maybe the only answers they’d get would be at the Town Hall building.
Delicious smells greeted her when she stepped into the kitchen.
Malcolm removed the egg carton from the fridge. “How do you like your eggs?” He already had bacon and sausage cooling on a plate, and the skillet was already heating on the stove.
Calli sat down on a stool at the island. “Sunny side up, please.”
Malcolm cooked two eggs just the way she liked them and passed her the plate. He poured a glass of orange juice and set it down in front of her as well.
“Aren’t you going to eat something?” she asked.
“Already did. About a half hour ago. Hades and I took a walk to clear my head earlier and I had something then, but I wanted to let you sleep. Those cookies left me with a wicked hangover.”
“Me too.” She dug into the breakfast, glad that the headache had finally worn off. “You know, for someone who thinks he doesn’t do a lot of magic, you do a lot of it without trying.”
“Is that a compliment?”
“Kind of,” she laughed.
They sat beside one another at the kitchen island counter while she ate breakfast. Malcolm’s foot nudged hers every now and then as he shifted.
She moved a little closer, pressing her knee lightly against his, just enough to feel his body.
It was reassuring and comforting, but it also created an ache in her chest.
I could get used to this… to him.
And that was the dangerous thing, wasn’t it?
Starting to depend on and need something or someone you might not be able to keep forever.
Because this witch-lock thing might not work out.
Or it could… and maybe they’d hate each other in the long run.
It was scary to think about all the things that could be with Malcolm.
Malcolm talked about his work, what he loved about partnering with companies to create special software for their businesses. His eyes lit with an admirable passion for his career. Calli couldn’t help but daydream as she watched his mouth move as he talked. She could have listened to him forever.
The next thing she knew, she was picturing him naked and pinning her to the wall.
“I was thinking about your pumpkin problem,” he said, suddenly changing the topic.
She choked a little on her food, trying to banish her intrusive but oh-so enjoyable thoughts. “My—er—problem?”
“I remember you said you always wanted to grow one as big as a carriage and turn it into one like in a fairy tale. I want to help you with that.” He nudged her knee with his under the table, and she lightly tapped his calf with the tip of her toes in return.
“You do, huh?” She giggled at the thought of Malcolm waving a wand around and singing “Bibbity Bobbity Boo” to some cinder-covered princess.
“Yeah. We should start practicing together, on growing a pumpkin.” He sounded so serious, his dark brows lowered as he considered it while drinking his coffee.
“It’s not the growing that’s the problem,” said Calli. “I can make one big enough just fine. It’s the rest of it that’s an issue.”
“Let me guess. At that size, the shell is barely strong enough to hold itself up.” Malcolm seemed to seriously be considering the issue.
“For starters, yeah. And even hollowed out, it’s going to crack with people inside. Then there’s the matter of the wheels, and the seats, and a working door…” She remembered Sage had tried to get in the one Calli attempted last year, and the coach had almost collapsed on her.
“I get the idea. You might be approaching it the wrong way. I have some thoughts, but it’ll take both of us to pull it off.”
“Okay… We can add that to our to-do list then.” Calli took another bite of her toast mulling over the project with fresh excitement.