Chafer - Unruly magic: Stella Mayweather, no. 2

Unruly Magic
Stella Mayweather Paranormal Series (#2)
Camilla Chafer

Also in the series:
Illicit Magic (#1)

One

For the first time in six months I woke up without the shaking after effects of a nightmare. Instead my first thought as I edged my eyes open had been peace . I stretched out in my bed in my bedroom, in my home, as I had to remind myself frequently while I listened to the quiet of the outside world. I spread my hand out hopefully across the covers as I did every morning and felt... nothing. No Evan.

Pushing sleep away, I opened my eyes fully and yawned. I strained to hear sound, any sound but, as per usual there was nothing. This was as close to bliss as I could possibly get right now, which was good because by this afternoon, my short lived peace would be blown to smithereens. If Id known that when I woke up, I might have stayed in bed.

I lived on the fringes of a little town called Wilding. Situated just a few miles out of town, my home was completely isolated but for the only other house within screaming distance, which happened to be right across the road. As we were well off the highway few cars came this way, and, as such, few people either bar the mailman whom Id yet to actually see. As far as close company went, my neighbours were it, of course, and I was fortunate that they were a friendly pair. They had made me feel very welcome right from the day Id first pitched up unannounced on my doorstep and dissolved the wards that had protected the house for two decades. My neighbour, Annalise, who was only a few years older than me had seemed positively overjoyed at some close company and had made it her business to be my friend. However it was Gage Id seen first, on the same day Id moved in and though he seemed less enthusiastic about getting a new neighbour, he was pleasant enough, even if he hadnt gone way out on the welcome committee.

Though I had been in Wilding for only six months, it was already nearly one of my longest ever residences. Id been moved around a lot as a child, thanks to a long stream of foster homes, and even when I got out of the system, I still moved around a lot through a series of icky house shares; all that was thousands of miles away from my memory, as well as geographically now. Id left all that behind with barely a blink of an eye. I hadnt even gotten homesick.

My new home was a welcome refuge from the horror and terror of those final days of being scared witless by what I had seen and what Id done at the safe house Id been ensconced in for my training. Id been there only a few weeks and Id barely escaped with my life... but I had been one of the lucky ones. Not that I really considered myself lucky when I thought about what I had left behind, who I had left behind.

Get a grip, Stella, I groaned, getting ready to give myself a firm pep talk. So much for finally beating my nightmares; I couldnt help but rehash those memories every single time I woke up. It was the same thoughts of course; what could I have done differently? What if the outcome was different?

What if wasnt getting me anywhere.

I pushed back the covers and slid out of bed, my feet hitting the cold hardwood floor. On auto pilot I turned around to smooth the covers flat again and padded into the adjacent bathroom where I went about my morning routine. After, I pulled on jeans and a cotton shirt plus a pair of bright Havianas suitable for plodding around the house. In the kitchen I flipped on the coffee pot, the vice I had picked up at the safe house, to make my morning fix. It was starting to become a competition in my veins as to what took priority there coffee, magic or blood. Today the coffee was probably going to win.

Just like every morning I pulled out my map from where it had been folded in a drawer, and spread it across the table, careful to smooth out the fold creases that made the thin paper buck against the smooth grain of the table top. I held the long ribbon loop of the crystal Id bought and be-spelled and dangled it over the centre as I did every morning. With a flick of my wrist I set the crystal in motion to spin clockwise while I willed it to find Evan and give me his location the crystal was supposed to lurch to a spot on a map but after a few seconds of momentum it petered out and hung limply in the middle, giving me no direction or indication whatsoever that Evan was anywhere to be found, at least not in the States. Perhaps it was time I widened my search, or give up crystal scrying. One thing was for certain: I had spent months looking for him and I wasnt giving up until I had an answer one way or another.

I folded the map and dumped it back in the drawer, returning the crystal to its pouch and tossing that in on top. With a sigh of annoyance I cast a glance out of the kitchen window. This side of the house looked out over the back of the property and there wasnt a lot to see, just the bushy shrubs that badly needed pruning back for the winter months and a dark tangle of trees that signified the beginnings of the tree line that ran for another mile or so alongside the road heading north and goodness knows how far back. All I could hear was the sound of the pot bubbling away next to me, and nothing from outside at all. Just the thought of that was niggling at my subconscious in a way I couldnt quite fathom. Lately it had started to strike me as weird. Sure, no traffic was great, but where were the birds? Why did I never see a dog or see a stray cat? Or a groundhog? I really wanted to see one of those funny creatures, or at least something native... except skunks. Id give those a miss. Occasionally I heard howling in the woods that bordered the back of my property but Id never seen any animal close-up in the day time so I hadnt gotten to the bottom of what might be living out there. Come to that, I dont think Id ever seen an animal in Wilding which seemed odd for a town that had several thousand people. Compounding that was the knowledge that out here it was relatively rural and there should have been something mewling or stirring up a racket. I shook my head. I was being silly. Of course I was struggling to adjust: I was a city girl and I was used to lights and noise, a constant barrage of unwelcome sound at all hours.

Anyway, yeah, I had been the lucky one, not that it really felt that way, I thought as I stirred two level sugars into my steaming mug. When Evans face lurched into the front of my mind I had to grip the counter to hold myself up right, the force of the sudden memory almost making my legs give way.

Evan. Oh , Evan.

His name alone was like a vice squeezing my heart, leaving me breathless and disorientated. Even the thought of him could reduce me to tears, even after all these months. What was even worse was the speculation that I had replayed in my head a thousand times. What had happened to Evan and where was he? He had saved my life, but had he lost his? I just didnt know and it was the not knowing that made everything so unbearable. After all this time waiting for news or some kind of sign, I didnt know if I would ever know the answer but that didnt stop me looking and it was that determination that gave me strength.

All I knew was that the last time I had seen him, Evan had been badly injured and Id poured my energy into him in a bid to save his life. He had been alive, barely, when our friends Etoile and Seren had taken him to safety. All I could do now was cherish the thought of him, and search for him when it didnt reduce me to a heap of sobs.

I glanced towards the front of the house when I an engine roared to life outside finally, a sign of life and I recognised it as the sound of my neighbour Gages motorbike. I figured he was heading out to work and wondered if that meant Annalise would come by soon. She worked from home and could pick and choose her own hours, so she often came by for breakfast and I enjoyed her company. I eyeballed the coffee pot. There was plenty more. All I had to do was take deep breaths, put on my happy face and pretend that everything was normal ... that I was normal.