~

 

So, there we were, the three Musketeers, Gran, Moira, and I, along with the vampire, all squished into my poor little car on the road to the old mill when I spotted Helena’s car up ahead.

“Oh, look who it isn’t,” Gran said, and I never really understood that saying, but I saw what she was pointing at.

“Don’t point,” Moira said from the backseat.

“Slow down, Maggie, you don’t want to catch up to her,” Gran chirped.

“Well, she’s going slow enough that I’d get there faster in reverse,” I bit back.

My car liked one gear, fast, anything else and it started to chug, and with the added weight from Moira’s hips…

“Follow her,” Duncan said.

“It’s a straight road with no turns. I wasn’t planning on going off-road,” I snapped back.

“You have been skirting pretty close to the edge,” Moira teased, and I shot her the evil eye in my mirror.

“What’s that sound?” Gran asked as the car started to chug.

“The car is struggling under the extra weight of Moira’s backside,” I grumbled.

“We’re headed towards the old mill,” Gran informed us what we already knew. “That devious old hag.”

“Aren’t you the same…?” Moira yelped under the sting of my Gran’s magic, and I sniggered.

“Behave,” Gran warned her.

“Just an observation,” Moira grumbled.

“Maybe we’ll catch her in the act of something nefarious,” Gran mumbled to herself.

“Maybe she’s meeting dad,” Moira sniggered.

“I can’t bleach that thought away,” I hissed, and she sniggered harder.

“She’ll turn off in a minute if is she is going to the mill,” Gran said. “Keep with her, don’t let her get away.”

“I thought I was to stay back,” I said. “But, the mill road doesn’t go anywhere but the mill, so if she turns off…”

“Just don’t lose her!” Gran exclaimed.

“I can’t blooming lose her,” I protested. “Backseat drivers!”

“I’m in the front,” Gran offered me the stink eye.

“There she goes,” Moira exclaimed, and I rolled my eyes.

“I can see that,” I shot back.

“Keep back,” Duncan warned.

“Get closer,” Gran said.

“Oh, for the love of the Goddess, will you all just shut up!” I exclaimed, feeling the sudden urge to headbutt the steering wheel. I hit the indicator, and Gran shrieked.

“Don’t indicate, she’ll see you!”

“If she can see my blooming indicator what makes you think she can’t see my bloody car?”

“Someone’s getting their lace panties in a…”

“Moira, so help me, I will dump you out of the car on your extra-wide load!”

“Concentrate on the road,” Gran berated me.

“Love too, so if you could all just f…”

“Margaret McFae!” Gran growled.

“Yes, Broom Hilder!” I shot back, and I would have laughed at my grandmother’s face if I didn’t feel like my head was going to explode.

“There’s the mill!” Moira’s excited tone rattled my eardrums.

“Well, where else would it be?” I asked, sounding exasperated.

“Less tone of voice, thank you, madam,” Gran berated me again, and finally the inside of the car was silent. I could have sighed as my ears said thank you.

“This is fun!” The vampire bit out with enough sarcasm to stomp on the last nerve of the dead – and there was a walking corpse in my car that I would love to have kicked in the groin.

“This is why we don’t do family days out,” I huffed.

“Not exactly a shopping expedition to …”

“Moira!” I growled.

“Did that remind you of your boyfriend?” Duncan teased her and got the evil eye back.

“Next stop will be to drop you off at the morgue, you should feel at home,” she bit out.

“Gran, make it stop,” I whined.

“Stop,” Gran shrieked.

“A little less shrew-like would…”

“Stop!” Gran gave me a swift punch to the thigh, and I hit the brakes.

“What the…?” I bit out.

“It’s Earnest. He’s alive!” Gran muttered.

“Oh – my…” Moira said.

 

~

 

“Didn’t you say Earnest had a twin?” I asked, after the initial shock of seeing a dead man wore off. Still, I guess I should have been used to the walking dead, considering we’d sort of adopted the vampire.

“Angus Croon,” Duncan bit out. “There’s your source of dark magic, Fiona.”

“That means the isle’s magic isn’t waking up,” Moira said. “That’ll give Eileen some relief.”

“She’s got other things to worry about,” I said, meeting Duncan’s gaze in the mirror and bringing his own words back to him.

“Right!” Gran snapped to it.

“What are you doing?” Moira said, sounding a little panicky as Gran popped the door lock off. I always wondered who she thought could run fast enough to actually open the door while driving.

“I’m going to put a stop to this,” Gran bit out.

“Maybe we should watch and…” I started, but Gran had already opened the door and was climbing out. “Or we could just go confront them. ‘Cos that’s good too.”

“Time to kick some dark Warlock backside,” Moira said, following Gran’s lead.

“Fine,” I muttered, to myself, because the vampire was already outside. “Wait for me.”

 

~

 

We weren’t even being sneaky about it. I excepted to be hunched over and hugging the tree line that ran towards the old mill, like in the movies, but Gran, with her temper on show, made a beeline right for the two of them.

They seemed a little distracted from their surrounding, and in, what looked like a heated debate, but it didn’t take long for Helena to spot us coming, and with Gran leading the charge, I’m sure Helena’s heart must have lodged in the back of her throat as she hurriedly motioned to Angus that trouble had found them.

To say that neither one looked pleased was an understatement. I’d already crafted my magic into a tightly woven ball inside the very heart of me, and I could feel that power tingling against my fingertips waiting, wanting to be released like the build-up of electricity that had nowhere to go.

I knew Helena well enough to know that the woman’s magic was no match for mine, but Angus Croon was a different kettle of fish entirely. I’d only just heard of the man’s existence, and the fact that he had both Dark and Light magic flowing through his veins made him a different entity completely.

I would have preferred it if Eileen was with us; the power of three was much more potent compared to what Moira and I could achieve alone, but we’d make do, we had no other choice.

“That’s far enough, Fiona,” Helena, with her high and mighty attitude, demanded, but Gran wasn’t stopping.

“Off the isle was you, Helena?” Gran’s voice sounded as if she had a caged beast of her own that she wanted to unleash.

“I’m not a minion to be summoned by you,” Helena offered back. “Let’s go, we don’t need to speak to them.”

“And you, Angus. Come back to stab your brother in the back again,” Gran tossed out the accusation, and I saw the way the man clenched up, as if he had a case of dodgy tummy, fisting his hands at his sides, and glaring at her with the fire of a thousand suns.

“I did not stab my brother in the back, now or then,” he spat out.

“Don’t say any more,” Helena hissed.

“I suppose he tossed himself off the Point,” Gran rallied, and stopped once she was no more than ten feet away from the pair of them.

“That was…” he growled the words in anger and stopped himself just in time.

“Go on, man. You did the deed, why would you be shy in claiming it?” Gran tossed back, challenging him.

“It was nae me,” he shot back, with a sideways glance at Helena.

“Ah, did the deed together, did you? Then what? You come back and claim what was his, including Helena?”

Whoa, newsflash! Helena and Earnest Croon – there’s a thought I wouldn’t be able to shake for a while.

“She’s already mine!” He couldn’t help himself, and just spat the words out.

“Enough,” Helena hissed. “You’re playing into her hands. She knows nothing…”

“Which means there’s something to know,” I tossed back.

“Why Leonna? What did she ever do to you?” Gran tossed back.

“Crazy old woman should have kept her nose out of other people’s business,” he growled.

“Earnest!” Helena hissed.