Chapter 20
CHAPTER TWENTY
Calli passed through her grandmother’s archway, feeling strangely peaceful despite being overcome by weariness.
Her left arm throbbed, but the wound was starting to heal, thanks in part to the flood of natural magic that had coursed through her body while saving Malcolm.
She turned back to see Malcolm and his father had followed her through the archway.
Malcolm. Her witch-locked warlock. She felt both soothed and giddy about this new and permanent connection between them, though she was far too tired to show it.
After everything they’d just been through, it was too much to process right now.
So she led Malcolm, his father, and Hades inside her home, and hoped to finally find some rest.
They reached the back porch and the door, which had somehow been repaired since her kidnapping. Sage burst through the doorway and launched herself down the steps. That explained the fixed door, at least.
“Calli! Thank God!” She barreled right into her, almost crushing Persephone between them. Behind her, Malcolm’s mother, and Jasper rushed to meet them.
“Malcolm!” Sarah grabbed both her son and husband into a tight group hug.
Calli watched the three of them, her heart aching that she didn’t belong there, at least not yet. Maybe someday…
Malcolm pulled free of his mother, then he held out a hand to Calli. She let him grasp her hand and gently reel her into his arms so all four were together.
“Mom, this is Callista Wynter. My…” A curious look came over Malcolm’s face, and Calli understood why.
They weren’t married, and “partner” seemed inadequate.
What term could possibly convey what they were to one another?
In a very real sense, their lives were now one.
Finally, he settled on, “My everything.”
Sarah’s eyes softened. “It’s wonderful to finally meet you, Callista.”
“Please, call me Calli.” Calli’s face heated with a blush. Sarah’s smile was so bright and welcoming.
“You all look exhausted. What happened out there? We saw some strange lights and flashes from here. Are you alright?”
Malcolm opened his mouth to answer, only to grasp what a monumental task that was. “We are now. We’ll explain once we can get some rest.”
“Well, it sounds like you need some hot cocoa? Get inside and I’ll take care of everything.” After a chorus of yeses for the hot cocoa, they all headed inside where Sarah made mugs for everyone.
Calli could tell Sarah needed to do something useful, and Calli wasn’t about to argue.
Once she’d collected herself, she’d want to do the same, though in her case it would probably be baking pumpkin bread.
She and Malcolm shuffled into the living room, only to have Sage and Jasper follow them with dozens of questions, while Reginald joined Sarah in the kitchen.
She collapsed on the couch with Persephone on her lap. Malcolm sat next to her, and she nuzzled her head against his shoulder, too tired to answer any of her friends’ questions. She realized how much she had missed Malcolm, missed the constant peace his presence brought to her home, to her life.
When the questions wouldn’t let up, Malcolm finally gave in.
“All right, I’ll tell you what I know, just let Calli rest a bit, okay?
” Malcolm then gave them a somewhat edited version of the events.
Calli yawned and chimed in only to add details Malcolm didn’t know, such as Hades’s brave attempts to rescue her.
The large dog, curled up in the tight space between Malcolm and the armrest, let out a weary sigh.
The voices of her friends around her were so soft that she began to forget what they were even talking about. Before she could stop herself, she’d drifted to sleep.
When she opened her eyes, Malcolm was carrying her up the stairs.
“What time is it?” she asked.
“Late.” He stepped into the bedroom and placed her gently on the bed. The enchanted flowers that grew along the bed posts reached out to them, their petals preening in Malcolm’s presence.
“Where is everyone?”
“Sage went home. Jasper went back to his room at the inn. Persephone and Hades took over the couch downstairs.”
“And your parents?”
Malcolm grinned. “Dad found an old camping tent in your closet and pitched it in the backyard.”
That almost woke Calli up. “They shouldn’t have to do that. I have plenty of guest rooms…”
Her words trailed off as Malcolm shook his head. “Don’t worry about it. He needed it as an anchor point for his hotel spell. The space inside is a penthouse suite nice enough to rival the Plaza Hotel.”
“Really? I need to learn that one.” Calli yawned again and lounged back on the pillows, watching Malcolm take off his clothes.
He dropped the bloody shirt onto the floor, the dark stain reminding her so clearly of what she’d almost lost. They both stared at it a moment before the shirt suddenly disintegrated in a skittering pattern of green and purple sparks.
Shocked, Calli lifted her face up to his, knowing that had been his magic.
She felt him cast the wordless spell through their bond.
“You’ve learned a lot since you’ve been gone.” It had been barely a week since he’d left and yet their separation had felt like a lifetime to her.
“I have, you’d be quite impressed. Apparently, having my heart broken and my world ending was just the thing to make me better able to handle my magic.
” His rueful smile tore at her heart. “Lady Batsford’s husband, Curtis, taught me that my emotional reaction to my magic failing became a self-fulfilling prophecy.
If I cared less about it failing, it might work better. He was right.”
“But now that you’re here… will it make it hard again?” she asked, biting her bottom lip.
“No,” he whispered. “Being here with you, where I belong, I no longer feel torn about my life. This is where I’m meant to be, and my magic knows it.”
The emotions in his green eyes would forever be her undoing. She had to touch him, had to kiss him, had to do everything with him before she lost her mind.
“Malcolm, come here.” She sat up on the edge of the bed as he came over. She placed her palms on his chest and stroked the spot where the bullet had hit him. The skin was smooth and perfect. She looked at his hand next, seeing the scar on his palm that he’d gotten the night her parents had died.
“It’s strange. The bullet wound is gone, but…” Malcolm frowned again.
“I suppose some wounds never fully heal,” said Calli.
“I can still feel it, but it doesn’t hurt anymore,” he added, pressing the pale streak of flesh. “I suppose there’s a metaphor there somewhere, but I’m too tired to figure it out.”
Calli pressed her lips into his palm and kissed the scar. “Some scars you’ll always feel, but eventually the pain goes away? I can see that.”
Malcolm looked down. “Calli… we should talk.” His green eyes rose to meet hers, dark as a forest. “I’m sorry I took them from you.” His voice was thick with pain. She pulled them closer, sliding her hands up his arms to his shoulders.
“I know it wasn’t your fault. It doesn’t matter if there was a prophecy involved, it was still an accident. It took me a while to understand that. I had a wonderful life with them, even if it was short. When they left, they knew you would be here for me, that you would find me.”
“I will always be here for you.”
She nodded. This wasn’t just a promise, it was a statement of fact. “And what about Boston? The council?” she asked.
“Turns out my duties are not as restrictive as I was led to believe, or as frequent. I have a secure traveling mirror I use to attend meetings when I’m summoned. So I don’t need to live in Boston. I can move here.”
“Where you belong.” The warmth in Calli’s chest spread out as she tilted her head back. “I love you, Malcolm. Lock or no lock, I choose you. I choose a life with you.”
Her warlock, her love, her destiny.
His face softened and he cupped her cheek, leaning down to kiss her.
“I love you too, Calli, with everything in me. I will love you until we are both stardust.”
“Then come to bed.” She pulled at him to come closer, but he stepped back.
“I want to show you something first. Stay there.” He left the room and returned with a small crystal ball in his hands.
“I’ve been thinking about how prophecies are stored in these.
I don’t see why a regular memory can’t be stored as well.
” He held the ball in his palms and closed his eyes.
A moment later it glowed a soft white. He opened his eyes and held it out to her.
She took the crystal and gazed into its glowing light. Shapes emerged in the opaque center of the ball, pulling her down into the spell of Malcolm’s memory.
She was dying… no, it was Malcolm who was dying. She was merely seeing through his eyes.
“Not yet… not yet, son of Salem…” a voice spoke. It was familiar, like when an old favorite song was unexpectedly played on the radio. It brought back hundreds of memories for Calli.
Dad.
It was her father speaking to Malcolm, his spectral form shining in the fall of night.
But Malcolm was barely hanging on, he was going to die soon.
“Son of Salem…” her mother’s voice now filled the crystal in captured memory.
“Tell her I was wrong to be afraid. Tell her that the only way forward is to trust her heart.” Her mother’s voice was followed by a kiss to Malcolm’s forehead as she comforted Malcolm in his pain.
“How I wish that we could have known you, could have loved you, but she will have you and that must be enough.”
“Willow, the council coven is coming.” Her father then spoke to Malcolm one last time. “The only truth to fate and destiny that matters is how we choose to love. Love her and all will be as it should.”