17. Cori
Cori
T he brothers led Cori to the aged boardwalk that connected the Farley Center to the road. They walked past the parking lot, now emptied of cars and trucks at the day’s end. The sun had lowered, and in the late afternoon light, the early glow of the moon broke through the pale blue sky.
She tipped her head up as the moon tumbled onward on its orbit, the venerating movement above humming with soft reassurance.
Her mother’s head, highlighted with silvery gray, bowed over a teacup as a kettle whistled on the stove. The cord of the phone dangled behind her as she twirled it in her fingers. “Enzo, we’ve been through this before.” Her voice was tinged with exasperation. “You’re making a difficult situation even worse. If things are so bad at the restaurant…”
Her voice broke off as her brother’s muffled voice argued through the receiver. She turned off the stove and poured the steamy water over a sachet of tea leaves as a sigh huffed out of her.
“I’ll try my best,” she said, her shoulders slumping. “Pick me up at ten o’clock.” Then her mother—her always serene mother—slammed the phone back onto the wall .
Her pounding heart slowed as her Eye released its grip. The brothers were a few paces ahead of her now, thankfully oblivious to the pause in her steps while receiving the vision. She had never seen her mother get angry before. While many things may have changed during her absence, it seemed incredibly out of character for her mother to hang up on Enzo like that.
Enzo had been with Calvin yesterday.
It was possible that Astrid didn’t like the idea of Enzo putting himself in harm’s way. Her stomach turned as she wondered if the meeting about the prophecy was still taking place. Hopefully Enzo had convinced him to call the whole thing off by now. He had been worried about the restaurant while he was at the hotel with Calvin, but now he was arguing about it on the phone with his mother.
She chewed on her lip, overwhelmed knowing that there was no comfort she could give him from three thousand miles away. No encouraging words she could share with him.
In one hundred days, she would be back where she belonged. Anne would understand. The project she had been hired to oversee could easily be wrapped up in a few months, maybe a year at the most. It was normal for academics to travel from one project to the next, and she had already researched ecology groups out in California. As soon as the solstice was behind her, she would send out her résumé.
Ahead of her, Seth laughed at something Adrian said, and he punched his brother playfully on the arm. A small sliver of hope cracked from her heart, deflating it. She shoved her hands deep into the front pocket of her sweatshirt, pushing the thought aside.
They led her to a small walking path that connected the marina to the shops. She wondered that there may be a viable social scene in Farley, after all.
They strode past an open-air seafood restaurant looking out onto the water, bustling with customers dining alfresco. Next door, a coffee shop was nestled into a building bedecked with cedar shingles. Spying the extensive pastry cases inside, she made a mental note to stop there the next day .
Across the cobbled pathway, there was a florist and a yoga studio on a side street that was dotted with charming little lampposts and benches. At the end of the path, a lively brick building was flooded by the sounds of music and laughter.
“Probably not as nice as the bars you’re used to,” Seth said as he ushered her in the door. “Carl keeps most of the good Mainer breweries on tap, though, and he makes wicked good nachos.”
Cori had not been inside a bar in a very long time. Defending her thesis was full-time and lonely work, and she had made it a point to keep away from social situations throughout her time at Yale. Most of the other students had family and friends come out to celebrate after the doctoral awards, but Cori had celebrated alone with a bottle of wine in her apartment. The fewer people she knew, the less suspicion there would be.
A wave of anxiety rose within her. It had never been easy for her to meet new people, and yet here she was at a bar with two new friends.
Friends who were witches.
She breathed in the air, laced with the oil of fried food and the sweet tang of fermented hops, as they made their way past the bar toward an empty booth.
“Well, look what the tall, handsome fisherman brothers dragged in,” a familiar voice called out. Jordan turned the corner, beer in hand wearing designer jeans and a Bob Dylan T-shirt. His other arm was locked elbow to elbow with one of the most stunning women Cori had ever seen.
“Cori, this is Jess.” He turned toward the beautiful girl on his arm with purpose. “This is who I was telling you about from the office. The new scientist.” He winked at Cori, and she gave them an awkward wave coupled with a tentative smile.
Seth shifted on his feet next to her. His laid-back and playful essence had hardened, and his aura was now teeming with heated tension. This was who had distracted him before he crashed the boat, and now she could see why.
Jess had blond hair braided into two perfect plaits that cascaded over her shoulder from under a baseball cap. She wore an ironically simple white T-shirt that was tucked into a pair of faded jeans, but she oozed glamor and sexy confidence. Jess eyed Cori up and down and gave Jordan a nod.
Jess was every girl who used to effortlessly flirt with boys and go to parties in high school. Every girl that Cori looked at with longing and self-deprecation in her heart from behind the pages of a science textbook.
“Agreed, she looks normal to me. Well, as normal as someone who would choose to move to this godforsaken place.” She nudged Jordan playfully on the arm. “It’s so nice to finally meet you, Cori. Jordan has been gushing about how you fixed Anne’s boat all weekend,” she said, winking.
Seth shot Cori a confused look, and heat rose in her chest. Luckily, Jess distracted him with a playful touch on his arm.
“How did it go with Auggie today?” she asked him with a concerned pout.
Jess’s other hand reached for the tip of her braid, twirling it in a casually seductive way. Seth’s aura exuded sexual tension. Jess’s aura, on the other hand, dripped with power. She had him wrapped around her finger and she knew it.
Cori slid into the booth between Adrian and Jordan, sending Jess an invisible message that she was not a threat to her conquest. Not that a girl like her would stand a chance in a contest for affection with someone like Jess.
“Boat is good as new, but my brain may be permanently damaged,” Seth said with a smirk, rubbing his hand through his hair.
“It was already in a relatively damaged state, even before yesterday,” Adrian teased him.
A short, stocky man adorned with an impressive collection of tattoos approached their table. Adrian raised his hands in relief. “Carl, you’re a sight for sore eyes. I’m in desperate need of a round, maybe a pitcher. I spent the whole day with Seth and Auggie fixing a fucking boat.”
“Well, shit. Sounds like a pitcher to me.” Carl turned a curious eye down the table. “Ah, an out-of-towner! ”
Jordan nudged Cori with his shoulder, making his introductions between the barkeep and the new scientist in town. She could feel Adrian’s gaze on her in silent appraisal as she struck up small talk with Carl about what she liked to drink.
Carl seemed like the type of barkeep who liked to know the preferences of every customer, so he could have your drink of choice at the ready the moment you darkened his door.
“So, let me get this straight.” Seth stared at Cori incredulously. “You don’t like beer ?”
“It’s not that I don’t like beer,” she argued, trying to defend herself. “It’s just that I would prefer to drink wine, if I’m given the choice.”
“Why would you even move to Maine if you don’t like beer?” Seth shook his head.
“I do like beer!” She huffed, “I’m from California, we drink a lot of wine, OK?”
Her heart stilled. She had never—not once—revealed something so personal about herself to a stranger before. Sitting in a bar, in close distance to a dozen people she didn’t know, no less. Sure, she could tell that she and Seth and Adrian were the only witches in the bar, but witches regularly employed, or even bewitched, humans to do their will. Now they all knew she was from California.
She shrank into the booth.
When people had asked where she was from in the past, her response was always swift and easy. Oh, from the West Coast , she would reply airily. If someone tried to pry, she employed a very handy charm her mother had written for her. After murmuring the incantation, people would change the subject and simply forget that she had told them anything at all.
But it was too late, and too risky, to bewitch anyone at this table. Adrian and Seth would sense it, and she had already noticed on more than one occasion the brothers were suspicious of her. She tried to reel in her panic and lighten the tone in her voice as Adrian and Seth argued about what was the best brewery in Portland .
Seth and Jess made their way to a private booth, where she gently inspected the wound on Seth’s head with careful and delicate hands. He said something to her and smiled wickedly. She laughed and pushed him hard on the shoulder. They finished their pints, Jess whispering something into his ear that made his eyes widen.
“Oh, she’s going in for the kill.” Jordan leaned back, surveying them. He nodded to Jess with admiration. “This on-again, off-again bullshit those two have is exhausting. I feel like I’m watching an episode of Dawson’s Creek .”
Cori snorted into her wineglass. “Wow, you just really dated yourself there.” Jordan glowered at her. “So, they did date?” she asked.
Adrian rolled his eyes. “She broke things off when she went to college, but she ended up moving back home. Everyone always does.” He drained his glass, and she noticed his words were coming more easily, a smooth buzz on his lips. “He was devastated when she left,” he explained with sincerity. “She’s been back for a few months. She worked in Boston for a while after school. Sounds like she broke up with her fiancé”—he raised his eyebrows—“and now she’s about to make up for lost time.”
Jess was leaning in close, her hand on Seth’s forearm. The sexual energy oozed off them, making Cori want to shove her nosy Eye deep down into her gut where it belonged. This was the part of her power that troubled her the most.
She had forgotten how difficult it was to be in larger crowds, sensing everyone’s feelings. It was exhausting, overwhelming, and sucked the energy from her.
Adrian told Jordan all about their day with Auggie, and when Cori’s wineglass was emptied, a new one arrived moments later at the table. Carl was rapidly becoming her favorite resident of Farley. Two booths away, her attention shifted to a middle-aged man who sat with a friend. The crushing heaviness of sadness and mourning rolled off him.
She was not surprised when the spirit of a woman materialized behind him. Her passing seemed recent, and it was common in the early days of grief that people would be visited. It’s easier for the spirit when a soul has only recently crossed over into the realm.
Cori watched the woman, a mere wisp of light and breath only she could see, put a hand on the man’s shoulder as a tear rolled from his eye. She kissed him softly on the cheek before making her way over to his companion, thanking him, too, with a kiss for being a good friend on a dark day. The man’s hand drifted absent-mindedly to his cheek, completely unaware, but aware all the same.
The spirit saw Cori from across the room and nodded before dematerializing back to the spirit realm. She let go of a ragged breath, relieved that the spirit had not tried to interact with her. Even when her Eye had been locked away during her time at Yale, there was nothing she could do to stop herself from seeing spirits.
She came out of her haze as Jordan nudged her sharply in the ribs.
He cocked his head to Seth and Jess as they headed toward the door together. “And there they go,” he said approvingly.
“Well, there goes our ride,” Adrian puffed out an annoyed sigh as he drained his third beer. “Come on, Cori. I guess we’re walking home.”
“Okay, I’ll just ask Carl for my check,” she said, craning her neck toward the bar.
He raised a brow at her. “Nope. Your money’s no good here. Our tab is always open at Carl’s.”
Jordan cocked his head at her as they rose from the table. “You watch out for those Huxley boys, Dr. Evans.” He patted Adrian hard on the back before they made their way to the door and into the cool, dark night.