Part 2 (2/2)
”As I was saying, we have less than six weeks to name a permanent chief of police or Montpelier will do it for us.” I grinned at the chorus of boos the mention of the state capitol always elicited. New Englanders were nothing if not independent. ”I propose that Luke-” I stopped and glanced down at the floor. ”Is it just me or did the earth move?”
”I'd say it's been moving every night since your sweetie came to town,” Midge observed to more laughter.
I waited for everyone to settle down. ”I'm proposing we offer Luke a three-year contract at a salary to be determined after review by our town treasurer.” I turned to Luke, who was hiding behind what I called his cop face. He was better than a shapes.h.i.+fter when it came to keeping his true self under wraps.
In my eagerness to keep from being blindsided by the Weavers, I had managed to totally blindside the man I loved with a public declaration of intent. It was too late now. All I could do was push forward and apologize later. ”We'll present you with a formal offer tomorrow, as soon as I can get to my computer and print one out.”
He nodded and I liked to think he was about to say something like ”Where do I sign?” but he didn't. He didn't say anything, and his silence could be heard loud and clear in the last row.
Renate's smile was wide and triumphant. Colm's held more than a touch of malice. Janice and Lynette looked as uncomfortable as I felt. Lilith, her eyes br.i.m.m.i.n.g with compa.s.sion, pinched her husband Archie's leg. I didn't ask why. Archie was capable of saying just about anything.
I caught a ripple of laughter from the northeast corner of the room. Luke stood up and I swear to you my heart almost stopped beating. I didn't need powers to know it wasn't good.
”I have to leave.”
”You can't!” Could this get any more humiliating?
He flashed his pager. ”Minor one-car accident a half mile outside of town. Gotta go.”
And he did.
About as quickly as any human could, short of an Olympic sprinter.
”I think we have our answer, people.” Renate could barely keep the triumph from her voice. ”That's hardly a man looking to stay in Sugar Maple.”
”There was an accident,” I snapped. ”He had to leave.”
”An accident?” Midge Stallworth piped up. ”In town? That can't be! Did the charm stop working?”
”This is unacceptable. Four months and she still hasn't figured out how to keep things running smoothly,” Colm said with a sad shake of his head. ”I ask you, everyone, is this the way you want to continue?”
”And she's not even pregnant!” Mona was a mermaid currently land-enabled while she studied the healing arts with Lilith and Janice. ”Isn't that what this is about? If Chloe doesn't get pregnant, you'll all lose.”
”Precisely,” Colm said with a satisfied nod in Mona's direction. ”Without a descendant to fulfill Aerynn's blessing, we are doomed to the same fate as befell our Salem ancestors.”
”He's right.” Rose from a.s.sisted Living nodded her tightly coiffed head. ”We'll be hounded like dogs, then driven from our homes! I'd rather go beyond the mist.”
”You're all out of order,” I said. ”If you want to be recognized, please follow the accepted procedures.”
”You might want to try that yourself,” Colm shot back. ”Next time you should ask your boyfriend how he feels before you offer him a job. He took off to keep from embarra.s.sing you.”
”Luke received an emergency call, Colm. He had to leave and you know it.”
”Right,” he said. ”And you're not your mother's daughter.”
”Take that back!”
”I offended you?” He feigned innocence. ”Guinevere was a lovely woman. I meant it as a compliment. You're very much like your mother.”
”Because I fell in love with a human?”
The mask of innocence dropped away, and I saw nothing but hatred in his eyes.
”Because we can't count on you any more than you could count on her.”
I started to shake with rage. Even my teeth rattled. The power of my anger scared me until I realized that I was being shaken from the outside, not the inside, and so was everyone else in the room.
”Earthquake!” Manny bellowed. He aimed his motorized Scooter toward the exit, but his wheel locks were on and he started moving in lazy circles.
”d.a.m.n heating system!” Paul Griggs said, glancing around. ”We're going to have to spring for a new boiler before the old one blows.”
With all the magick afoot in Sugar Maple, you would think we could just conjure up a new heating system, but not even sorcery could replace a good plumber.
Lynette stood up and pointed toward one of the pillars on the bride's side of the old church. ”I just saw a flash of light over there!”
”I didn't see anything,” Janice said, ”but it's definitely getting hot in here.”
”I smell smoke,” Archie said.
But it wasn't smoke he smelled. It was the smell the air got just before an electrical storm broke loose. Sharp, metallic, and frighteningly familiar.
Above my head the Souderbush family collectively dematerialized. You knew something bad was coming when even the dead were afraid to stick around.
The center of the room pulsated in time to a rhythmic pounding that sounded like a thousand battering rams slamming against a locked door. I felt the sound in my very bones and it was gaining power with every second.
”There's nothing to worry about,” I called out. ”We're safe. The spell's still in place. This is just a little blip. Nothing can harm us!”
I'd no sooner uttered the words than the room split in two from ceiling to floor with a sound like giant metal gears grinding together. If h.e.l.l had a sound, this would be it.
If h.e.l.l had an image, it would be the streaks of purple glitter I saw near the corner of the room.
Glitter was the Fae equivalent of fingerprints, the one thing even the cleverest among them couldn't disguise. Only one member of the Fae carried deep purple glitter within her, and that was Isadora.
Terror sprang to life inside my chest and clawed like a wild thing trying to get out. Isadora couldn't possibly be here. With help from the Book of Spells, I had banished her forever and then rebanished her twice more just to be on the safe side.
The pounding, thundering noise grew louder, faster, more insistent. The pressure in the room intensified until I thought my head would burst open like an overripe cantaloupe. Something terrible was about to happen, something- ”Everybody down!” I cried out, and the next thing I knew, I was flat on my back as the world exploded around me like a thousand Fourth of Julys.
A sickeningly sweet mist quickly filled the room, swirling up to the eaves, then snaking back down around our ankles. I knew that smell. I remembered that oily film on my skin just before- Isadora . . . oh G.o.d, not Isadora . . .
I had banished the Fae leader three times. I had called upon every ancient charm and spell I could find in the Book and doubled their strength. She shouldn't have been able to get anywhere near Sugar Maple, much less the human realm.
The villagers were in a state of total meltdown, which would quickly turn into a full-scale riot if anyone else noticed Isadora's calling card. Now that I knew the Weavers weren't the only family in Sugar Maple who harbored resentment toward me for banis.h.i.+ng Isadora, I wasn't ready to find out just how deep the opposition ran.
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