Chapter 6 #2
“Sure, girls’ trip?” Mia asked, which seemed more polite than asking if Levi was tagging along.
“Levi’s heading to his folks’ for dinner. Will your grandmother be okay alone?”
Grans had told Mia she had dinner plans with Robert to make some decisions.
“She has plans. I’ll see you downstairs in fifteen.”
Mr. Darcy followed her to her bedroom and watched as she got ready. “I’ll feed you now and let Damien know you’re going to be alone tonight. I don’t know what time he’s leaving, but I suspect he’ll stay around until Grans comes back from dinner.”
Mr. Darcy yawned like he didn’t care what the humans were doing, but Mia felt his relief. “Oh, and Muffy will be here.”
His tail flicked as he walked away. Apparently that hadn’t been the answer he wanted.
She was downstairs in twenty minutes after feeding both Mr. Darcy and Muffy and explaining to Grans what was happening. She might have made it sooner if Damien hadn’t been so chatty about the books the library had provided.
Christina was sitting on the couch, waiting for her.
“Sorry. I’ll grab a coat and we can leave. Had to check in with Grans and Damien.” Mia grabbed her coat and watched Christina stand and slip on her pink designer puffer jacket. She wore fuzzy Ugg boots and her hair was pulled back with a pink hair band. “You look adorable.”
“I’m in need of some major retail therapy. Levi doesn’t get it. He wants to talk out all our emotions. I guess in this situation I learned from my mother. Buying is more fun than talking all the time.” Christina unlocked the Land Rover. “Besides, you need some new clothes. Those boots are a mess.”
“I love my boots. I’ll take them in and get them resoled after winter’s over.
You know, talking isn’t a bad thing. Especially with the guy you’re going to marry in less than a year.
” Mia snuggled into the warmed leather seats.
She loved Christina’s car. Her beater car was on its last legs and barely had a working defrost setting, but it had snow tires and would get her through until she had the money for a better one.
Not one as nice as Christina’s, but better.
“I know, but this magic thing is just normal for him. He doesn’t understand why I’m freaked out about it.
My mom instilled in me a fear of magic. She told me many times that it was bad, probably her way of trying to keep me from exploring my birth parents’ talents.
Now I know why she had such a fit during my Goth stage.
I just wanted to wear black for a while because she kept buying me pink. ”
“You love pink.” Mia looked out the window as they pulled onto the highway down the mountain. Now was the time of day deer would be out, looking for snacks.
“Not as a sixteen-year-old who wanted to be anything but her mother.” Christina turned down the music.
“Even though I knew I was adopted, I was scared to death that I’d turn into a mini mom.
You were the one female role model I had that made me think I could be my own person and still be loved, or whatever it was my brother called love.
Trent is so much better for you. He listens when you talk.
You should see the way he looks at you when he thinks no one’s watching. It’s fire and ice.”
“Fire, I understand. Ice?”
“Solid, and desperately in love,” Christina explained. “Anyway, I want to know what you think about me training and eventually testing for a level. Am I too old? Should I just let the magic be part of my history?”
“You could do both. Exploring who you are on the magic level gives you options later. If you want to expand that part of your life, you can. If, like Sarah, you want to step back for a few years, you can as well. Except she’s been coming back into the fray ever since the Goddess gave her and Mark, Em—that’s what they’re calling the baby now.
Cute, huh? I think Em getting a hellhound is a warning that we are going to need protection in the next few years.
But what do I know? At least if you train, you can fly in the mist with me, and we can ignore what’s going on. ”
Christina was quiet for a few miles; then she spoke.
“Mom wants me to walk away from Magic Springs and all the magic stuff. She says it’s like my Goth stage, just another way to not grow up.
Of course, my first reaction is to go deeper, just to spite her, but this decision is too big to make just because I’m rebelling.
With me marrying Levi, and into the Majors family, magic is always going to be there.
If there’s a war coming, I don’t want to be the frail human wife who Levi has to protect from harm.
Not that I want to be a warrior. I just don’t want to be a burden. ”
Proud of her friend’s growth over the years, Mia smiled at her. “You’ve grown up into this amazing woman. Do you have tissues? I’m so proud of you, I think I’m going to cry.”
“Shut up.” Christina laughed but handed Mia a box she had stashed just in case. “So you think my logic is sound?”
“I do. What’s the harm in learning something?
If you step away later, that’s your call.
Right now, you can’t make the call because you don’t know what making it means.
I’m not sure what your magic gift is, but I’d bet it’s related to your ability to make people feel welcome.
Your hospitality career fits right into your strongest magical skill.
Like my cooking. I’m a kitchen witch and a healer.
I take care of others, which is why I was drawn to buying the biggest building in Magic Springs for my upstart catering company.
If I’d been using human logic, I would have found a small, cute old house and just made the garage into a commercial kitchen.
Instead, I have a three-story monstrosity filled with humans, creatures, and ghosts.
I was worried I’d be lonely with you moving out, but people came right in and took your space. ”
“Hopefully not my space as your BFF?” They were down off the mountain now and driving into the flatter area where the Snake River had carved a deep canyon so many eons ago. Evel Knievel had once tried to jump it. Christina increased her speed as she drove toward the freeway and town.
Some enterprising humans had built the Perrine Bridge spanning the 1500 feet across the river. Mia always felt queasy as she went over it. The power of the water called to her senses. A pedestrian bridge lined the side of the vehicle area, but Mia couldn’t even imagine trying to walk the distance.
The river was like the dividing line between the magic in the mountains and the agricultural community on the other side. Maybe the world would have been better off if the bridge had never been built.