Illicit Magic (Book 1, Stella Mayweather Series) by Camilla Chafer

CHAPTER SEVEN

  After the frustrations of those first two weeks, I was glad to have the weekend largely to myself. I slept in to mid-morning both days. Deciding that it was thoroughly antisocial to hide in my room, I took one of the mysteries and Evan’s music player into the sitting room and curled up in an armchair.

  The sunlight streamed through the windows and kept me warm as I found myself either engrossed in the story or eagerly checking the music player’s digital display to find out what band I was listening to. I liked Evan’s music a lot and I made a mental note to see if he would like to borrow my music player in return. It was like a supernatural swap shop, I thought, with a giggle.

  Meg was noticeably absent that weekend along with Étoile and Seren. Étoile had ducked her head in before they left to say she was leaving for a few days and that she hoped I would be happy to stay with the group. I was.

  Marc left shortly after them and they all ended up staying away all week, though I didn’t know if they were together. Marc didn’t call but I could hardly complain; I had no claim on him, though I wondered what he was doing that kept him away so long. I was glad that I had chance to familiarise myself before he left. At least I didn’t feel so alone. Kitty was pleased to have my company, David and Jared too; while Christy and Clara kept much to themselves as usual and Evan spent a lot of time out of the house, though he never said where.

  Ever reliable, Meg fussed over all of us when we saw her. I thought she was lonely and wondered where her family was and made sure to be extra helpful when she asked, and even when she didn’t.

  The next week was less frustrating. Now that I knew I could not only teleport an object but also send it to where I wanted it to be, and Evan knew it too, my confidence had a brief burst of ego. He set up little tasks for me to practice. Move something, a peg or a pencil, from one side of the table to another. Sometimes I could do it, sometimes I couldn’t but the control was getting easier to harness. Later, Evan tried harder stuff like committing an object to memory and then trying to locate it in the house. I even tried to move myself again but ended up a frustrated mess.

  I flopped back in the chair. We were in the library again and it seemed a given that this would be where we’d study every day. I knew Evan worked in here on his laptop between lessons and I gathered it was something to do with his business. He hadn’t volunteered what it was that he did so I hadn’t asked. I’d been feeling a little off about the dancing and chaste cheek kiss and wasn’t sure if I was supposed to bring it up or ignore it. Maybe it meant nothing at all to Evan and I was deluding myself into thinking there was something more between us than teacher and student.

  “I give up.” It was my final lesson of the week and it wasn’t going well. I was tired and a headache was beginning to gnaw at my temples.

  “You can’t give up.”

  “Apparently I can’t start either.” I sniffed. Evan was still a taskmaster but we’d settled into an easier routine and he didn’t seem entirely unhappy about teaching me anymore at all. I liked being around him but he hadn’t touched me again, except for an accidental brush of his hand against mine that sent my heart leaping.

  “We’ll just have to work out why. We know you can do these things, we just need to know how you can activate them.”

  “You make it sound so simple.”

  ‘It will be simple when you work it out.”

  “Why do I need to do this stuff anyway?” I felt like flouncing around. “Why can’t it just come naturally?”

  “It would have come naturally and you’d be in control by now if you had had guidance while you were growing up.”

  “So, maybe it’ll take a few months or a few years; who’s counting?”

  “The timing counts.”

  “Why?”

  “Because...” Evan sighed, but it was one loaded with expression as he picked his words. “Because there’s going to be a war, Stella, and we’re probably going to end up right in the middle of it.”

  “I don’t want to be in a war!” My voice pitched upwards and my heart clamoured inside my ribcage.

  “Who does? It’s not our choosing. If people won’t leave us alone, if magic gets thrust into the open when people aren’t ready for it, there will end up being a war. It won’t be guns and tanks but death and mayhem and we’ll be targets, even from our own governments. The world will never be the same again.”

  I slumped further down in my chair. “But we’re not going to harm anyone!”

  “You won’t. I won’t. Who’s to say others won’t?” Evan shrugged. “Or they’ll just think we will, because we can. That’s probably an argument the Brotherhood would advocate.”

  I shuddered. I tried not to think about them at all. “Why would anyone else want a war?”

  “The same reason regular people want wars. Power, greed, domination. Just because there’s a world of magic on top of the regular world doesn’t mean we all want to spin love potions and keep cats.”

  “That’s depressing.” I wondered if Evan kept a cat. Or had ever spun a love potion? Who would he use it on? What the hell was I thinking about?

  “Let’s call it quits for today. We’ll start again next week.”

  “I thought you wanted to get me all armoured up?”

  “We’ve done enough for this week.”

  “Okay.” I wasn’t going to argue.

  “You can practice in your own spare time,” suggested Evan.

  “O-kay.” Slave driver. I stepped up and smoothed the wrinkles out of my jeans as I remembered to delve into my pocket. I handed the little rectangular device to Evan.

  “What’s this?”

  “It’s my music player. I’ve been listening to yours all week. It helps me sleep. I can’t quite get used to the quiet. I thought you might like to try mine.” I shrugged. No big deal. “There’s some different stuff.”

  Evan turned it over in his hand and ran a thumb over the controls, his face expressionless. “Thanks,” he said at last.

  So I nodded at him and left the room the conventional way.

  I slept better than ever that night. I swapped Evan’s headphones for mine when I switched music players and I put the buds in my ears and fell asleep to Fiona Apple. As usual, the buds worked themselves out of my ears by morning and I woke tangled in wires. I noticed the battery was low so I wrapped the headphone wires around the player and set it on the nightstand. I’d have to find a charger.

  When I finally got up, showered and walked downstairs, Seren and Étoile had returned and they invited me to sit with them. Seren was crocheting some bright yarn on a tiny needle and Étoile was winding the wool. As one, they sat up straighter and sighed happy sighs.

  “What?” I asked. I was getting used to their little quirks.

  “I’ve just realised who this blanket will be for,” Seren answered, her eyes dreamy as she rested her hands in her lap for a moment. The blanket was but a few multicoloured squares but Seren’s quick hands were adding to its size speedily.

  “Who?”

  “It’s a mystery,” Étoile laughed and wouldn’t be pressed.

  “To everyone but you two,” said Marc, coming up quietly behind me and then sitting on the arm of the chair. He put a hand on my shoulder and I reached up to pat it.

  “When did you get back?” I asked him, but nodding at Étoile and Seren to show that I was including them in the question too.

  “Last night for us,” said Étoile.

  “And this morning for me,” said Marc. “I was in New York. My parents had a meeting that I had to attend.”

  “We were at the Washington branch,” added Seren, like she was talking about a chain store.

  “Should I ask about what?”

  Étoile pursed her lips and thought. “Our elders are coming up with plans to get us more organised. The Washington group want a register. Imagine!”

  “Is that so bad?”

  “Can you imagine the Brotherhood getting their hands on a register of witches?” Marc shook
his head. “Not so great. There’s more against than for, at the moment, but there’s a good chance some will acquiesce to it.”

  Seren shook her head in disappointment. “Politics!”

  “I hate it.” Étoile threw the unfinished yarn down in her lap. “All the bickering is so unproductive. We don’t have a single solution that someone else hasn’t shouted down. Everyone is divided over what to do.”

  This was the first I’d heard of the situation with the Witches’ Council. I hadn’t realised things were so precarious and I wanted to know more. I kept quiet lest they decided to curb their tongues in front of me.

  “How did it go in New York, Marc?” Seren asked.

  “Much the same.” Marc shook his head wearily. “Dad could barely keep them under control. Steven thinks we should go public and force the government to help protect us.”

  “What did Robert have to say?”

  “He can see both sides of the argument. He’s not in favour of a register but he thinks we need a better way to keep track of our kind so we can offer assistance. He said Stella wouldn’t have had to be on her own so long if we’d had proper records.”

  Étoile and Seren exchanged a glance. “Perhaps,” said Seren, “but I can’t be persuaded right now.”

  “I’m not trying to persuade you.” Marc took his hand from my shoulder and put it over his heart in an oddly sincere gesture. My shoulder felt strangely bare again.

  Seren picked up her crochet again and Étoile resumed the winding. I gathered the conversation was over. I made a mental note to think about the council’s problems later. After all, they might affect me. And I hadn’t even been offered a vote! I’d always been the independent type and I didn’t want decisions to be made for me by people who had never met me.

  “I quite agree,” said Étoile, who seemed to have picked up what I was feeling.

  Kitty was an even later riser than I but stuffed with energy as she bounded down the stairs. Marc made an excuse to leave and I wondered just what it was with him. I didn’t get the impression he actively disliked Kitty – he was always polite to her – but he never seemed to want to be near her and he had been oddly nice to me after largely ignoring me all week. I was mildly cross that he hadn’t called, especially since we had been spending so much time together recently.

  As we had a free day, Kitty insisted on dragging me (quite willingly as it happened) to the nearest town so she could take me shopping. After a quick discussion between Étoile and Seren, it was decided that there were no objections provided we remained alert, though they didn’t say for what.

  Fortunately, Kitty had a car with her, a white compact that was as neat as she was. We went to lunch first at a little Italian restaurant and sat out in the garden under parasols. Afterwards, she insisted on taking me into shop after shop until I left with two pretty summer dresses, a two piece swim suit, some new tops (not a single tee, per Kitty’s insistence) and shorts, a light jacket and enough underwear to see me through a fortnight.

  I felt only a twinge of guilt as I dipped into my money. It was fun and a small part of me wished I had had a friend like her for years instead of only a few weeks.

  “I am very, very glad you are here,” admitted Kitty as she drove us home past neat townhouses and then out onto the freeway. “Don’t breathe a word of this but while Christy and Clara are very nice, they are also slightly maddening.”

  I mimed that I was zipping my mouth.

  “And Étoile and Seren are gone so much. And Jared is, well, you’ve met Jared. He’s just a boy anyway. Marc and I hardly speak these days so I’ve been very much attention-starved until you came along.”

  “I thought you and Marc were friends since you were kids?” I asked as I tried to remember if Marc had mentioned anything about his past with Kitty. I didn’t think he had.

  “Oh yes. A long time, since we were really little.”

  “I wouldn’t have guessed.”

  Kitty rolled her eyes. “He does his utmost to avoid me.”

  I wasn’t sure if I should ask why. If they didn’t like each other, that was their own business, I decided. I didn’t want to pry so I was relieved when Kitty changed the subject.

  “You know Evan thinks he’s worked out why I can do the stuff I can with the weather. He thinks it might actually be useful.” Kitty snorted and for the first time, I wondered if she felt a bit peeved to possess such an obscure gift. “He thinks I’ll be able to use it to influence events, maybe even create my own storms. Perhaps even a tsunami, though, frankly, what use that would be, I have no idea. I could create rainfall during a drought. That would be handy, don’t you think?”

  I nodded.

  “But I prefer the spells.” Kitty was obviously feeling particularly chatty today and, though we were careful not to mention magic in public, in the confines of her car, it was fine. “I want to specialise in spell casting. David is keen too. I think he’s going to leave soon, he said he’s bored of feeling cooped up.”

  “Cabin fever?” I asked, partly to myself.

  “We all have a little cabin fever,” Kitty laughed. “We’re all used to being able to come and go and live our lives as we please but it’s all so prescriptive now. We have to be on our guard because the worst isn’t just a possibility for us; it’s actually likely to happen.”

  “Do you think it will always be like this?”

  “I hope not.” Kitty slowed to turn the corner and accelerated again on the long stretch of road. We were running through the town near Meg’s house and I watched the roadside buildings – a car rental place, a family restaurant, shops – flit past. “Maybe when we’re more in control, we can be more ourselves but until then, we’re stuck doing what the council thinks is best for us.”

  “Don’t you think they’re doing what’s best?”

  “Well, yeah. I mean we’re all still alive, right? But what the council wants is not necessarily what everyone else wants. Maybe I want to head to New York or LA or London or Paris and just get on with my career; but the council, well, they say no and that’s it.”

  “We still get a choice though, right? You could just leave if you didn’t want to be here. It’s not a prison.” I thought for a moment and barely voiced, “Is it?”

  “No, you’re right. I could leave, but I would be leaving without protection and I could get picked up by anyone at any time. In fact, scrap London and Paris. Europe’s where the Brotherhood is.” Kitty shuddered. “I wouldn’t want to be there.”

  I shook my head. “No, you wouldn’t.”

  Kitty gasped and placed a hand on my knee. “God, Stella, I didn’t think. I’m so sorry. I know they attacked you. I’m so dumb sometimes.”

  “Not at all, and I was agreeing with you, I would not want to be anywhere the Brotherhood is.”

  “Thank God they’re not here, right?”

  “Right.” Watching the news wasn’t a big deal in the house but every so often, a newscast would flick on the television or someone would bring in a paper or the radio would mention it. No one made a big thing about it, but the square-set shoulders and the thoughtful expressions made me sure that everyone was waiting to hear what the Brotherhood were doing. So far, they had stayed across the ocean. At least, there had been no reports of any suspicious activity here. I thought things would be a lot worse if they made that geographical leap. Right now, I could feel relatively safe here, with their threat thousands of miles away. If they were here, I was sure we would have known about it by now.

  Kitty indicated to turn into the driveway and she parked next to Marc’s car. It had moved from where it was parked when we left, so he must have been out somewhere, but if Kitty noticed, she didn’t mention it, so neither did I.

  We grabbed our bags from the back seat and went inside. It was late afternoon and the house was quiet.

  “Hullo-o,” Kitty called and David ducked his head around the library door. “Where is everyone?”

  “Headed down to the beach,” David answered, repositi
oning his glasses on his nose. “I might head over that way myself soon. Hey, bring a swimming costume!”

  “You swim in the sea?” I asked Kitty as we went upstairs.

  “Sure,” Kitty was rummaging through her bags. “It’s a good job we got you that bathing suit. I’m quite ready to sunbathe. It seems a good day for it.”

  In my room, I snapped the tags off my bathing suit, changed out of my clothes and slipped it on. It was white with belted bikini shorts and a halter neck top and I thought I looked pretty snazzy in it, plus the pure white didn’t show up my pasty skin too badly. I pulled one of the dresses over the top. It buttoned up the front so it would be easy to get on and off at the beach. I swapped my flats for sandals that were better for the sand and went to knock on Kitty’s door. She waved me in and I leant against the doorframe while she finished rummaging in her closet. At last, she sprang up, gold sandals dangling in her hand and slipped them on her feet.

  “Let’s go!”

  We veritably skipped our way out of the house and across the lawn. I could hear laughter from the beach and we followed it. By the time we got there, blankets had been spread out and cool boxes sat to one side, anchoring the fabric to the sand. Christy and Clara had taken towels and were sunbathing on their fronts. Jared was talking to Seren and Étoile in his usual animated way; Evan was reading a book, pausing occasionally to add to the conversation. It was Étoile who spotted us first and waved us over.

  “It’s like Spring Break,” said Kitty gleefully, skipping towards them.

  “Where’s Meg?” I asked as we crossed the beach, the sand sifting through the straps of my sandals.

  “She won’t be out ‘til later, if at all,” Kitty replied, waving to the group. “She has this, um, skin condition and the sun bothers her.”

  “Oh, I didn’t know.” I guessed it explained her preference for night time walks.

  “She doesn’t make a big thing out of it.”

  I settled down on the blanket with Kitty flopping in between me and Étoile. I looked wistfully at Evan’s book and wished it had occurred to me to bring a book too. Reading on the beach would be pleasant. Evan folded down the corner of the page and closed the book, setting in down. I gestured to it. “May I?”

  “Of course.” He handed it to me and I turned it over to read the back cover synopsis, my elbows propping me up as I lay on my stomach, before passing it back. “Have you read the other books already?”

  “One of them and I’m half way through the second.” It was a whodunit set in the thirties and the dialogue was very witty. I said as much. “I hardly ever see you without a book.”

  “I like reading and there isn’t a whole lot of entertainment out here.”

  “What would you do if you weren’t here? At home or...?” I couldn’t think where else Evan would be.

  “I’d go catch a movie or attend a sports game. Basketball preferably, but I’ll take football or baseball, too.”

  “I have no concept of American sports,” I confessed which led to Evan trying to give a lengthy explanation of the rules of baseball.

  I couldn’t remember what it was that Evan said that made me laugh so hard but it gave me the kind of ache in my ribs that I hadn’t had in a long time. Marc was crouched beside me in an instant, his hand on my elbow as the laughter came to a spluttering stop in my throat.

  “Hey.” I smiled, a smile that faded as I realised Marc looked thunderous. I hadn’t even realised he’d come to the beach.

  “Come for a walk,” he said, his face stern.

  “Um, sure.” I scrambled to my feet and looked back at our small group. Seren and Kitty were taking turns slathering on sun lotion, even though the sun wasn’t really all that hot. Evan had turned his head and was unscrewing the cap from his soda bottle. I could tell he was listening. He wasn’t making too much pretence not to.

  Marc led me away from the little group and for a few minutes we walked, until we reached the part of the beach where it twisted back on itself and headed back inland before stretching out almost as far as I could see.

  “What’s going on?” Marc snarled the question.

  “Huh?”

  “Back there.” Marc jerked his head back to the group.

  “We were just joking around, having fun. Goodness knows we’ve needed it these past weeks.”

  Marc rolled his eyes. “C’mon! I’ve seen the way he looks at you.”

  “Who? Evan?” I involuntarily turned my head and caught Evan’s eye as he looked over at us. He held my gaze steady for a moment before turning away and tossing a juice box over to Kitty who caught it in one hand.

  “Who else? What’s going on between you two?” Marc jutted his chin toward Evan.

  “Nothing.” I shrugged my shoulders and the breeze gently lifted my hair and fanned it across my back.

  “I’ve seen the way he looks at you,” Marc repeated, sounding for all the world like a jealous boyfriend.

  I gaped at him. “He’s my teacher,” I hissed. “He’s looking out for me. He’s helping me.”

  “He wants to help himself to you.”

  “What do you mean by that?” I’d had enough of the scowling and the conversation was taking a turn for the worst. Plus I couldn’t pretend I didn’t feel something for Evan. It was there, all right, every day a bit stronger.

  “You know what I mean. He’s had his eye on you ever since I brought you here. He’s interested in you and you sat there, flirting with him.”

  “I did not!” Did I?

  “Well that’s not how it looks from here. You’re practically making out.”

  “Marc!” I was incensed. What business was it of his who I was talking to? He hadn’t staked a claim and even if he had, it was still a free world. I could talk to whomever I liked. Besides, I could hardly ignore my teacher. Not that Evan being my teacher was the problem.

  “How do you think that makes me feel?”

  “I would have thought that me making friends here would be good.” I didn’t even think to add: for us. There hadn’t been any hint of an “us”. It was a topic that never arose and besides the kiss in New York, I had to remind myself that nothing had actually happened. Even though we’d spent plenty of time together since talking about everything and anything, which was what made Marc’s behaviour all the more puzzling. He hadn’t made any moves on me, and I hadn’t encouraged any.

  “It’s like he’s got a spell on you.” Marc looked at me quizzically and I realised his allegation was serious. I was astonished he’d even had such a thought, never mind spoken it. Magic on others was absolutely forbidden as I already knew. Spell casting to make someone attracted to another was strictly punished as David had mentioned when he was running though some rules during a class. Marc knew the rules better than I.

  “Are you sleeping with him too?”

  “That’s out of order, Marc. You know I’m not.”

  Marc sighed and kicked the sand dune. A spray of sand shot into the air. He ran a hand through his thick blonde hair and his shoulders seemed tense. Before, I might have reached out and gently kneaded them, or given him a hug, but right now, I was furious at his accusations and didn’t want to touch him, not as a friend or as anything else. Instead I folded my arms and waited.

  Marc took a deep breath and inclined his head towards me. “I have to go away for a while,” he said at last, abruptly changing the subject. “I’m needed in New York again. There have been some developments.”

  “Is it the council?”

  Marc nodded and his face showed he was unhappy. “Kinda.”

  “How long will you be gone?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “How long have you known?”

  “Since this morning, pretty much right after I got back. I should have just turned round and gone straight back.”

  “Well, good of you to tell me. I wouldn’t have wanted to get up and find you gone again,” I snipped. I could have pinched myself. He owed me nothing. He was just sent to deliver me
here. That was it.

  “I’m sure you would have found somebody to keep your bed warm,” Marc spat like a spurned lover, his face clouding as he looked over at Evan. I didn’t follow his gaze so I didn’t know if anyone else could hear. I imagined not from this distance, but who knew what superhuman talents I didn’t know about with this crowd of weird and wonderful people?

  “Hold on!” I raised a hand to him in a stop sign, palm flat towards him. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Oh hell, Stella.” Marc was getting more agitated and his toe was digging at the sand again. “Evan, he’s ... he’s not like us. He shouldn’t even be thinking about it. You should stay away from him.”

  “What do you mean by that?”

  Marc sighed. “You’re a free woman. Do what you want but don’t say I didn’t warn you. I’ll see you when I get back.” He turned on his heel and strode back along the beach to the steps that would lead him to the house.

  I stood still, watching him retreat, the breeze gently caressing me as I tried to assess what had just occurred. Marc acted like a jealous boyfriend, or someone who wanted to be more than friends, not that he actually said that at all. Or had he assumed there was something between us? I hadn’t even had a chance to ask what he meant but it seemed clear. I was a free woman, all right. If he’d been thinking about making a move, he seemed to have scrubbed the idea away. Whatever feelings could have been had ceased existing the moment he stomped away. I watched Marc finish climbing the steps and disappear into the garden. I hadn’t even begun to address what he said about Evan.

  It felt like I stood there forever when Kitty came over and slipped her arm around me. If she had been a bit taller, I would have rested my head on her shoulder. Instead, she put another arm around my front, linked her hands together and hugged me. I breathed deeply, more puzzled than ever.