Chapter 7 #2
“Sorry, sorry,” I whispered, easing my grip on the dog.
Had anyone else seen that? Why was nobody reacting to the fact that a goblin had just raced through the room?
Was this something to do with my powers?
Confused, and more than a bit unsettled, I eased toward the door. Maybe it was best if I left altogether.
Lia turned and must have seen something on my face that had her throwing her head back with laughter.
“I forget. That’s Brice. He’s my kitchen broonie.”
I blinked and pressed my lips together, tilting my head at Lia. She seemed mostly sane, but I’d only just met her.
“I know, I know.” Lia laughed again. “Trust me, it took me a moment to wrap my head around it, too. Particularly as I’m not from Scotland and not as in tune to all the magickal elements that come with the history here.”
“A broonie?” I swallowed, uncertain if this was some sort of hazing that went along with initiating people into the Order of Caledonia.
“Aye,” Faelan said, smiling as she took a seat at the freshly made-up table. “We’ve got a kitchen elf, garden gnomes, my fox, a talking crow, a ghost coo, hedgehogs … honestly the list goes on. It’s quite a magickal hodgepodge of creatures and witches we’ve got here, isn’t it?”
“What about a squirrel?” I blurted out and then flushed when Zara swung her head toward me.
“A squirrel?” Zara asked.
“Och, have you met your familiar already?” Faelan asked in delight, and Zara’s face crinkled with concern.
“Her familiar?”
“Many of us have a familiar. Gloam’s mine. I know I’ve told you he’s just a recovering patient, but he’s actually my familiar. Many magickals have familiars. They help when doing spells or just act as a companion as needed,” Faelan explained, beaming as a bowl of chili landed in front of her.
“What the—” My mouth fell open. I hadn’t even seen the broonie this time, but clearly he’d delivered the chili.
“I know. He moves fast,” Faelan said, acknowledging my look of surprise.
"What happened?” Zara asked.
“Um, the house elf moved like the speed of light and delivered a bowl of chili to Faelan at the table.” Automatically, I took Zara’s arm and helped her to the table, and she bent and unharnessed Mitch so he could be off duty for a bit.
Mitch immediately bounded over to where Harris and Lady Lola lounged in the corner and made his introductions.
Sir Buster squirmed in my arms, so I put him down so he could race off and lord his importance over Mitch.
“I can sense him. He’s got a pleasant aura,” Zara said, settling back into her seat. Her eyes took on that dreamy expression they did when she looked inward. “He’s a sweet soul.”
A soft sound at Zara’s side had her turning, and my eyes rounded as Brice appeared. He moved slowly as he put the bowl of chili in front of Zara, and then took her hand, placing it on the bowl so she could feel where it was.
“That’s him, isn’t it?” Zara asked, smiling down at the house elf who had the type of face that only a mother could love.
“It is,” I whispered.
“See? He’s sweet. I could tell.” Brice reached up and put a spoon in Zara’s hand and she smiled again, before leaning over to spoon some chili into her mouth. “Mmm, delicious.”
Seemingly satisfied with the compliment, Brice disappeared in a blur of motion again, and before I knew it, the table was set with eight bowls of chili, and two baskets overflowing with thick hunks of crusty bread.
“Hello, hello.” I turned as a curvy woman with strawberry blond hair and a hooded jumper strolled into the dining room. Behind her, a short woman in coveralls followed, along with Archie and who must be his wife, Hilda.
Harris jumped up and bounded across the room, nuzzling his nose into the leg of the shorter woman.
“Och, there’s the best lad. I’ve missed you, darling.” The woman cooed down to an equally adoring Harris.
“You must be Liora.” The woman in the hoodie smiled down at me and offered her hand.
“I’m Sophie, owner of MacAlpine Castle, though I still really don’t believe it’s mine.
This is Orla, head builder at the Common Gin distillery site, and one of the Order as well.
You’ve met Archie, and this is his wife, Hilda. ”
The trim woman with kind eyes and short-cropped grey hair smiled at me from where her arm was looped through Archie’s.
“Sit, sit. Faelan and Zara have to get back to work.” Lia bustled back into the dining area with two jugs of water in hand.
In moments we were all tucked around the table, the dogs circling and hoping for a snack, and I looked down at my bowl of chili and then up at the group of people. It all just seemed so … normal.
Yet this was anything but normal.
“Delicious chili, Lia,” Sophie said. “But is there…”
A bowl of shredded cheese appeared in front of Sophie and she beamed. “Thanks, Brice!”
“I’m sorry… I hate to be rude,” I said, unable to shake the overwhelming feeling that I was being put on. “But this has to be a—”
“Joke?” Zara finished for me, angling her head toward me in accord. “It does feel pretty surreal. Even for us.”
“Aye. We’re not strangers to the magickal world,” I explained as everyone at the table looked to my sister and me. “But our powers tend to run more toward auras, empathic readings, astrology, that kind of thing.”
“Nothing wrong with that,” Archie barked at me, and I raised my eyebrows. I hadn’t said there was something wrong with that, had I?
“It’s just that this all seems a little…”
“Out there?” Sophie supplied and I nodded, pleased that someone else agreed with me.
“It is,” Orla said, picking up a piece of bread and dunking it in her chili. “There’s no denying that.”
“But it’s also really fricking cool,” Lia added. “I mean, trust me, when I moved from Boston to start a restaurant here, I certainly wasn’t expecting to have a kitchen elf as my sous chef. But, here we are.”
“Do you get used to it? Having familiars?”
“Is that what you meant about a squirrel earlier?” Zara intervened, turning to me. “Do you have a magickal squirrel?”
“I, uh, I mean, kinda?” I asked, uncertain how to proceed.
“Oh, that’s grand. Your familiar has already found you.” Hilda beamed at me and nodded toward my bowl. “Eat up, dear. It’s not poisoned. Promise.”
“That’s exactly what they’d say in the movies if it was poisoned,” Sophie said, shaking her head at Hilda.
“Listen, Liora. It’s wild and out there and I totally get it.
I moved here not having a clue about any of this, but what I did have was a strong belief in the mythological.
My uncle had spent countless hours going over these legends with me, and so to see them come to life?
Well, I was pretty jazzed, I guess. But at the end of the day, when the Kelpies come for you, you don’t have a choice but to believe.
Because you need to know how to protect yourself and those around you. ”
“Oh, great.” I swallowed, my nerves making it difficult to talk. I was supposed to fight a Kelpie?
“I, too, thought it sounded a bit cult-ish. I think everyone did, no?” Lia looked at Orla who just nodded and kept eating.
“But in the end I’ve learned it’s about something more than all of us,” Sophie continued, glancing to Archie who just gestured with a piece of bread for her to go on.
“The Order of Caledonia was contrived to protect the Truth Stone, to make sure it stays where it is, and doesn’t land in the wrong hands.
Through the years, it has grown too powerful.
Without the Order protecting it, which is what is currently happening, it has called upon the Kelpies as the last line of defense.
Unfortunately, the Kelpies don’t distinguish between friend or foe.
They’ve become a terrifying menace and the longer we go on without completing the Order, the more they attack the town. ”
They attack the town?
“It’s no joke,” Lia said, catching the look on my face. “You’ll hear them. In the night. The sound alone will send shivers down your back.”
“I’m terrible in a fight,” I rushed out, nervous they’d landed on the wrong person to help them. “I always just want everyone to get along. I’m not tough or fierce or any of that. I’m like … sparkles and fun and let’s all go hug trees together.”
Faelan smiled at me. “I’m one for the flowers, my friend. I’m more than happy to go hug all the trees you want to, but you’d be surprised what comes out of you when you need to protect those you care about.”
“That sounds … terrifying.” I looked across the table, wary. “I’m not sure I want to sign up for your club if it means that I have to fight.”
“You’ll have to either way, eventually. If you stay here.” Archie’s voice cut through me. “None of us has a choice, not really. It’s just that some of you will have more tools at your disposal. Like your magick.”
“I’m not sure how reading people’s charts will help in a battle against Kelpies,” I said, nonplussed.
“You might have other powers.” Zara surprised me when she turned to me. “It would make sense why your astrology never really clicked for you. There might be something else that you don’t know about.”
“I…” I looked at her and then down at my hands. “I did find my name in a family book. A spell book.”
“You didn’t tell me,” Zara burst out.
“Listen, there’s a lot that has happened in the last day,” I exclaimed. “The family spell book being the least of them.”
“Well, that sounds promising, doesn’t it?” Sophie beamed at me across the table. “At least you might have some information to guide you.”
“Not all of us have that,” Orla added, looking up at me over her bowl of chili. “I had no family to speak of, let alone a book to read about my past. You’re lucky to have it.”
“Oh.” I gave her a soft smile, understanding what she was trying to tell me. “I haven’t had much time to go through it, but I’ll look more deeply later.”
“I think you need to do this.” Zara turned to me and reached out to find my hand. “Seriously, Liora. This may be the answer you’ve been looking for. Why you’ve been so lost these past few years.”
I winced at her words, my skin flushing as she revealed my vulnerabilities to the group of people I’d just met. “I wouldn’t say lost exactly.”
“Floundering. No direction,” Zara continued on, ignoring me. “And maybe this is why. You’re meant to be here. In Loren Brae. Helping others. Maybe your magick will finally make sense and it will all come together for you. I have a good feeling about this.”
“And these people?” I asked, not even caring if I was being rude. If Zara was going to lay my weaknesses out for everyone, what did it matter if I was being blunt back? But I wanted to get a read on everyone from Zara’s own take, with her empathic powers rarely leading us wrong.
“They’re good people. I wouldn’t be sitting here, eating this food, if I didn’t think so,” Zara insisted, squeezing my hand harder. “Even Sir Buster has a good aura.”
“Told ya he was all bark,” Archie said, his tone gruff.
“Like someone else I know,” Hilda murmured, squeezing Archie’s hand.
“So what then? I just join a magickal Order? And then go on with life? How does this work, exactly?”
“We’ll take you through a ritual to induct you into the Order.”
I blanched at the word ritual.
“And, you’ll pick your weapon …”
I shrunk into my chair even more.
“And then when you complete three challenges, you’ll be a part of the Order,” Archie finished.
“It sounds intense. And it kind of is. But you also get used to it and you’ll be fine, I promise,” Lia said, looking across at me. “If I can get used to a kitchen elf, you can get used to whatever your powers may be.”
“That’s the truth of it. Though I’m not sure any one of us will ever get used to Clyde,” Sophie laughed.
A long wailing “moooo” was our only warning before Clyde burst out of a wall, trampled across the table, and sent the dogs into a fit, chasing him as he looped the room.
“Bloody hell, Clyde. That’s enough!” Archie barked and Clyde disappeared, and the dogs skidded to a stop, looking around in confusion.
I held my hand to where my heart hammered furiously.
“Does that happen often?”
“Too often.” Lia glowered into her bowl and Sophie snorted out a laugh.
“He made Lia pee her pants once.”
“Damn it, Sophie, do you have to tell everyone?” Lia rounded on Sophie, and despite my misgivings, I was smiling.
“You’re sure?” I lowered my voice and leaned into Zara.
“Aye. This feels right, L. I don’t know how else to explain it, but I think you should do it. I truly think you could make a difference here.”
“Okay, I trust you.” And a part of me really wanted Zara to be proud of me for once. Looking up to where Sophie and Lia bickered, I raised a hand to interject. “All right, ladies. I … I agree. I’ll do this. I’ll join the Order.”
“Well done, lass.” Archie gave me a nod of approval. “Welcome to the Order of Caledonia. Loren Brae needs you.”
My stomach twisted at his words. I hoped they were true, because I wasn’t even sure what I needed, let alone how to help a town in need. But, per usual, I decided to jump without looking. At least Zara wouldn’t begrudge this choice.