7. Cori
Cori
T he first night in the cottage was disrupted by vivid dreams. She stirred as a piece of yellow legal paper materialized in her hand.
C, Mama wanted me to write to you. She said congratulations were in order, but she didn’t tell me why. I’m sure you’re doing well—wherever you are. Things are escalating here, but I’ve been handling it. Keep your head down .
All my love, E
P.S. 101 days
It must have been a late night for Enzo if he was writing to her at this time of the morning in western time.
Keep your head down . He had underlined it.
She got out of bed and paced the cold floor. Turtle watched her with an amused tilt to her furry head as she tried to drown out the magic that had surged to life in her blood.
The only other Celestial witch she had ever known was her grandmother. Nonna lived across the world, in the same village in Italy where her father had grown up, which made learning Celestial magic from her a special challenge.
Her grandmother lived with them for a full summer when Cori was a teenager, and they had crammed in as many lessons as they could. She had died a year later.
“The worst thing for your Eye is noise, Stellina ,” Nonna had said. “You can’t turn it off. You can only push it away.”
Cori pulled on her thickest pair of socks and warmest sweater, a feeble attempt to warm the chill that had settled on her skin.
She could really use a little advice right now. It had been easy to push away her magic until she stood on that dock yesterday and felt electricity crawling straight to the marrow of her bones.
Through the bay window, rain clouds loomed sinisterly over the horizon of the ocean, giving her an idea. She hoped the roar of the waves and the rumble of thunder would be loud enough to tamp her Eye back down in the depths of her abdomen where it belonged.
The wind off the ocean was brisk, whipping the long waves of her hair around her head as she descended a set of stone steps hewn from the rock that led down to the cove below.
She pulled the salty air into her lungs, pulling back her magic along with it. Despite her attempt, the waves crashing on the shore only amplified the steady blink of her Eye. Her stomach lurched as she tumbled into another vision.
Enzo sat slumped in a hotel room chair, his shirt unbuttoned and his tie loosened as he scrolled through his phone. He scrubbed his hands through his hair, the dark brown now peppered with occasional grays.
A soft knock rapping on the door made him stand up quickly. After peering through the peephole, he opened it, revealing a handsome, broad-shouldered man leaning on the door frame.
“Was that a party, or what?” Calvin asked, clapping his friend on the shoulder .
Enzo nodded. “Another one for the books,” he said wearily. “Cal, I’m not going to the after-party.”
Calvin winked back at him, tipping out his hands in defeat. “Not surprised.”
“I’m exhausted, and I’m getting too old to drink like this. If I don’t go to bed now, I’m going to be toast in the morning.”
“Enz, come on. We’re only thirty-two years old. You have a great thing going at the restaurant. Take the rest of the weekend off. This party in the Valley is going to be unforgettable.”
“I’ll take a rain check,” Enzo said firmly. “My flight back is in four hours. If I get a nap now, I’ll make it in time for the end of the lunch rush.”
“Suit yourself, old man,” Calvin said teasingly as he pulled away into the hall.
As the door of the hotel room swung closed, Enzo sighed a slew of expletives to himself before collapsing into bed, fully clothed.
Cori squinted against the wind as she came back to herself, the roar of the waves growing in her ears. As she slowed her breathing, the rumble of the water crashing over the worn rocks vibrated in her chest. The ocean wasn’t quieting her Eye. It was feeding it.
She pulled the note from her brother out of her pocket, blinking back tears. The yellow paper turned over in her fingers, the very fibers within it linking her to Enzo.
The vision seemed to be from the present, and if that were the case, Enzo could be with Calvin right now. He would stop this mitigation effort at the LARC, or at the very least throw them off her trail and assure that whatever they were plotting didn’t involve her death.
Cal mentioned a restaurant. It had always been his dream. Cori smiled to herself at the memory of Enzo looking through Papa’s old recipe books. There were so many things she had missed. So many moments and milestones she could never get back. What would it have felt like to be with her brother for the grand opening ?
She turned around to go back to the house when she felt it. Electric heat in the air, buzzing through her as it had on the dock the day before. The silhouette of a tall man was outlined through the mist on the rocky steps she had just descended.
Her feet betrayed her, anchoring her to the sand as she watched him materialize through the heavy air. Waves grew louder behind her, and it was as though she was stuck in time, connected and magnetized to each grain of sand beneath her shoes, trapped by rock and turbulent water.
He treaded toward her with one arm out to brace the wind. “Are you okay?” he called.
The man stepped through the mist, the hair on her arms prickling with the intensity of his magic. As he neared, she locked eyes with him—dazzling blue eyes that were haloed with a constellation of freckles over the left eyebrow.
Her breath was stuck in the wind, suffocating her with her own shock. It wasn’t the first time she had seen those eyes. The pulse of her magic drowned out the quickening of her heart.
“Yes, I’m OK.” She pushed out the words. “I was taking a walk.” An overwhelming urge to run away consumed her. Her rational brain cried out to her limbs.
Run past him, climb up those steps . She could leave a note for Anne explaining that she had made a terrible mistake and needed to leave. Despite the instinct tugging at her, her body remained rooted to the spot as she gaped at him.
It seemed like an eternity had passed before he spoke again. “It’s about to rain. And see how high the surf’s getting? In about five minutes, this whole cove is going to be under water,” he explained.
“Oh. I didn’t know,” she answered back over the roar of the water. The tide had pushed in between the worn rocks, curling toward the cliff.
“Follow me,” he said.
Cori walked after the stranger whose eyes she had seen hundreds of times in her dreams. The mysterious witch strode up the steps carved into the cliffside, sometimes taking two at a time. His tall, muscular frame maneuvered over the rocks like a cat.
Thick raindrops were coming down by the time they were up the stairs. She glanced back over her shoulder toward the cove and noted the spot she had been standing less than several minutes ago was now getting pummeled by waves that were lapping up against the nearby rocks.
“Thanks,” she said, turning to him and raising the hood on her coat. “I should really run home before I get…” She stopped mid-sentence as an umbrella opened above her head, shielding her from the storm. “Soaked.”
But there wasn’t an umbrella.
A canopy above her was made of water itself, she and her companion tucked neatly underneath. In the same instant, she transformed from uncomfortably sodden to completely dry. It was as though the water simply materialized off her. When she blinked up at him again, he winked at her.
An Elemental .
Elementals were the most elusive and solitary types in the magical community, so it was little wonder someone like him would live in such an isolated place.
“Let me walk you home. I’m Adrian, by the way,” he said.
Thunder roared over her head, drowning out the pounding of her heart. Damn it, he was good-looking, too. The deep blue pools of his eyes stood out against his tanned and freckled skin, and his dark chestnut hair had subtle highlights, as though he were touched by the rays of the sun.
The firm line of his jaw was punctuated by a cleft in his chin and speckled with a dusting of stubble. His heavily muscled arms, adorned with a tattoo that peeked out of his right shirtsleeve, glistened with a subtle sheen of sweat. Instead of moving her feet toward the cottage, she stared up at him blankly.
Earlier that very morning, she had received a warning from her brother.
Keep you head down . He had underlined it. It was foolish to walk under an enchanted water canopy with a stranger—a stranger who happened to be a witch. Enzo would be furious.
But this man wasn’t really a stranger. How could he be? She had seen him before, hundreds, maybe thousands of times. Sensing his magic around her, she opened her senses, allowing herself to get a good look at his aura.
She hadn’t looked at anyone’s aura in years but her magic surged responsively, as though it was relieved to be free. Her Eye widened, like a lion stretching his jaw in preparation of a roar, allowing her to see the wisps of energy rolling off him. His aura emitted a kind, genuine warmth.
For as long as she could remember, she had woken from the dream feeling heavy and warm, and the heat radiating from him reminded her of the weight of those dreams.
“Thanks,” she said reluctantly.
“You were at the dock yesterday, weren’t you?” he asked.
She nodded in affirmation. As they approached the guesthouse, she again considered running away from him abruptly and slamming the door behind her.
The notion that another witch now knew where she lived was nauseating. Despite the approving hum of her magic, she couldn’t shake the nagging feeling of her rational brain.
Maybe you dreamed about him because he was destined to murder you , she cautioned herself. But they were only about five steps away from the front gate that led to her door.
“Erm, well, thanks again,” she said, gesturing to the guest cottage.
“You’re staying with Anne?” he asked with interest. “I didn’t know she had family coming to visit.”
“Oh, I’m not family. I just joined her lab at the marina.” She fought the urge to smack herself in the forehead.
Stop talking to him .
“You’re a scientist?” he asked, raising a brow.
She nodded, noting a healthy dose of relief radiating from his aura now. She had locked the gate with a protective spell, and she shot him an anxious glance before she waved her hand over the latch and whispered the incantation to open it.
More relief radiated from him. “Are you a Charms witch?”
“Yes,” she said quickly, falling easily into the familiar lie. “But I don’t know much magic. Thanks for saving me from a monsoon on my morning walk,” she continued briskly as she stepped into the dry safety of the portico over her door. Monsoon ? She kicked herself.
He shrugged. “Happy to be of service. Sorry. I didn’t catch your name.”
“Oh, right. I’m Cori. Maybe I’ll see you around sometime, Adrian.”
A wry grin spread on his face that made her heart leap into her throat. “Cori, that’s not a maybe,” he laughed as he jogged out into the rain. “See you at the marina.”
As he ran up the street toward the top of the cliff, he angled his head up to the sky, allowing the rain to fall freely on his face. Cori watched him disappear into the mist, thinking that Farley might not be such a good place to hide, after all.