~

Perhaps zapping Jack hadn’t of been thought through, but on the bright side, if there was one, it might be easier now to tell the pig-headed male not to go messing around at the Point without me. Or, as he sat in the driver’s seat and kept shooting glances at me like I was a she-demon or something, maybe not.

All in all, it wasn’t a good day to be me because as soon as Gran found out that Jack and Ross knew about us being witches, all hell was going to break loose, if it hadn’t already.

On the brighter side, perhaps, what with the dead body thing and all that Gran had discovered, maybe she didn’t need to be told just yet. Maybe I should tell her while she was otherwise occupied, like when a government slipped out more bad news in the hopes of burying it under worse news?

Maybe not – that was something that Moira would do. I needed to fess up, just not right now.

You say; chicken, I say timing is everything.

“Would you stop with the looks?” I huffed.

I didn’t see a problem with being a witch and having control of the magic that was within every one of us; I don’t see why anyone else would.

“You lied to my face,” he said, and I got it now – pride.

The man thought he could sniff out deceit without a spell to guide it into the open, well, good luck with that. Having a gut instinct might have been your magic waving at you, but if you didn’t know what to do with that, then you would only get so far.

“I did.”

I wasn’t going to defend myself. Witches stayed hidden for a reason. Would you want to do spy work for the government, or something equally as dangerous? Most of us liked the quiet life.

“And?” he balked, practically chewing on his tongue.

“You’re entirely welcome.”

“I’m  …” he gave a man grunt, and I admit, it was kind of cute. “Explain how I’m happy about that?”

“Look at the pouty way you’re reacting now…” I offered a shrug.

“Not pouting, a little…”

“Stupid?” He shot me a glare. “You feel stupid for saying that people who did magic were insane – like swiveled eyed loons or something – magic wasn’t real, people who practiced it were as nutty as a squirrel’s breakfast…”

“I’m sure I didn’t say all that…”

“Close as makes no odds.”

“Well,” he wound his head back on his neck and looked like he was sucking on a lemon.

“And?” I thought I needed my pound of flesh from him because – well, just because.

“I may have been…”

“W-a-s.”

“A little off base with that one.”

“Waaaay out there – off planet Earth, and is that Andromeda I see?” I liked my pound of flesh. He squirmed – I liked that as well.

“Ok, fine. I was wrong,” he muttered the last word as if it tasted bad on his tongue. Of course, he did, he was male.

Of course, I was female and gracious in his defeat. “Ha! Suck it!” Maybe not gracious, but … something.

“So, you can help me with this magic thing.”

He had me there. “That book has almost everything you need to know. I was trying to be helpful in a roundabout kind of way.”

“By lying to me…”

“You’re acting like I robbed a bank or killed Earnest Croon myself…”

“So, you did know the victim.”

“It’s an island of ten thousand people…”

“So, would you say you knew him well?”

“Well, we were getting married next month…”

“That’s not answering the question…”

“I don’t appreciate being interrogated.” I snapped back.

“I’m going to have to speak to everyone that practices the black arts…”

I spat out a chuckle, and he stopped in mid-flow-of-stupid and shot me a curious glance.

“The black arts?” I skewered him with just a look, no magic needed to back that up.

“M-a-g-i-c.” he said it like I was five, and I really wished I’d saved up my zap attack for now, but I still had plenty of juice, and if he hadn’t of been driving, I might have used it.

“Outlander.” I snorted my contempt for him. “You know nothing.”

“Enlighten me.”

“There is no dark arts in the craft. Love spells and potions, not hubble-bubble, toil and trouble, you … numpty.”

“Isn’t it; double, double…?”

“Don’t care, you’re wrong, and a numptie.” I folded my arms and took to watching the view go by.

“So, is your Gran a…?”

“I know when to keep my mouth zipped, and I have hope that you’ll learn,” I snapped back.

“How about your sister?”

“Leave my family out of this.” I turned a scowl on him, and he cocked an eyebrow in return. “This is why people don’t talk about the things that people don’t talk about because we don’t do what people think we do when they think of all the things that some people assume are done. Do you follow me, Mackie?”

“I’m actually not sure,” he said, and I couldn’t blame him. I probably couldn’t follow that line of thought again myself.

 

~

 

“Gran!” I called the moment that I saw her.

I didn’t know if it was just me or if she looked older than when she’d left the house this morning. I suppose finding a dead body would do that to you.

“Feel that?” Gran whispered so as not to be overheard by the slow mill of people that were around the area.

There was an ambulance, a police car, and Jack sidestepped me as he went toward the house. He didn’t say anything, and I had nothing to say to him.

I did as Gran asked and reached out with my magic to see what I could find. There it was, lesser then I’d felt before at the Point, but still there, a residue of dark magic that still clung to everything around us. I shivered in protest at having it touch my inner psyche.

“I feel it. What happened?”

“I was too late to warn her. It had already been here. It left its mark.”

She gave a subtle nod toward the grass just below the window of the old Croft house. It was burnt into the earth, an elaborate mix of symbols that came from the old magic, and while I recognized the symbols of the elements, there was one symbol that I didn’t know.

“Not everything there looks familiar,” I whispered back.

“A claim — a soul has been lost to us. Perhaps there’s a way to get it back.”

Gran was shaking, it was subtle, but it was there, and I didn’t think it was due to the chilled breeze that blew from the Loch. I gripped her hands in mine, pulled on my magic, and warmed her at the same time as I soothed her frayed nerves.

“Not here. Not now…”

“Not now — no,” she said with a shake of her head. Gran wasn’t thinking straight, the last thing I needed her to do was to try to use her magic. “I need to consult the Grimoire.”

“We need to get you home.”

That was the least she needed. A good nip of something exceedingly strong and fiery was top of my list.

Being around her family was a priority, love woven with a magic touch would soon have her back to normal, and then she could paw through the grimoire all she wanted. But right now, this was the last place that she needed to be.

“Mrs. McFae.” I couldn’t mistake Jack’s voice, and that annoyed me. Not only because I was still mad at him, but because he sounded official, and if he thought for one moment that he was going to interrogate Gran, then he could think again.

“Not now.” The fierceness of my voice surprised even me.

“There are a few questions…” Jack was like a pit bull that was too stupid to let it go.

“You can shove your questions up your…”

“Now, Maggie,” Jack said as he lifted his hand and wagged his index finger in my direction. He could shove that as well.

“It’s all right, Maggie, let the man do his job,” Gran said. Little did she know.

“Aye, let the man do his job,” Constable Dougie, with his shiny little face, echoed.

“Oh really, Dougie? And tell me, would you let this outlander interrogate your grandmother…?” I scowled at the man and watched him squirm in place.

To give him credit, he did actually think about it, and I know he was thinking about it because he was scratching his head.

“Well…” Dougie started, and Jack cut him off.

“It’s not an interrogation, Maggie,” Jack said, and, of course, he was just plain lying.

He wanted to lay these murders on the doorstep of a witch — and now he’d found a witch’s doorstep to lay them at. Well, not on my watch.

“As close as makes no odds,” I shot back, putting a protective arm around Gran’s shoulders, and turning her away from the scene of the crime, the scene of Jack’s crime.

If he thought that he was going to railroad my grandmother into taking the blame, then he was dead wrong.

Stupid man — with the stupid job — from a stupid place.

“It’s just a few questions, Maggie,” Jack’s voice was a little less official, and a little more placating.

I clicked my tongue against my teeth, snorted my contempt for him, and steered Gran towards the parked vehicles. Unfortunately, my car was not among them.

“If you want to talk to my grandmother, then you can do it at our house — and only once she’s settled. Picking on the elderly — shame on you,” I shot back over my shoulder, hoping to shame him into retreat, and hoping that my fellow islanders would back one of their own.

“She does look a little shaken up, Detective,” Dougie said, and my spirits soared.

“Fine — take them home, and I’ll speak to her later.”

Jack didn’t sound too happy about that, I think I even heard him sigh, but that was his problem and not mine. I had a family to protect, from him, from dark magic, and I didn’t have a clue how to do it.

The first step was to get home. The second step was to rally the troops.

This was us against them — all of them — and we were the only ones that could protect them from the darkness beneath their feet.