Legacy Of Magick (Legacy Of Magick Series, Book 1) (15 page)

Which was our clue to leave. Duncan gave me the name of the nursery where he had an account. Ivy announced she would give me directions so we could go straight there.

“Great. I’ll see you two later then.” Duncan shut my door for me.

“Wait, what do you mean, you two?” I asked.

“I can always use another set of hands to clean up and gopher around here.” Duncan looked meaningfully at Ivy, who blew her cool image and squealed in excitement.

Her eyes lit up. “I’ll do anything! Grout tile, sand the floors—”

“Clean up and run errands.” Duncan corrected. “After school a couple of days, and on Saturdays. Minimum wage, to start. We’ll see how you do and go from there.”

“Thanks Duncan!” Ivy bounced on the seat all smiles.

“You’re sure about this?” I asked him — meaning Ivy.

“You’re hired.” Duncan said. “The both of you.”

***    

To my surprise, I enjoyed going plant shopping with Ivy. As I walked through the garden center, notebook in hand, plotting and calculating, she was attentive and flagged every plant I picked out with the neon green plant tags the nursery owner had given me. With a promise from the owner to set all of my chosen items aside, we left, grabbed some fast food, and headed for the riverfront park to eat our lunch under the shade of an old willow.

“So,” Ivy said around a mouth full of sub sandwich. “How about I teach you some magick?”

I sputtered and almost spit my soda out; whipping my head around to make sure no one was close enough to overhear her.

“Relax.” Ivy rolled her eyes at me. “If you haven’t noticed, people are giving us plenty of privacy.”

Come to think of it, people were avoiding the area. “Why is that?” I asked.

“I put a
reluctance
on the area around the willow tree.” Ivy made a broad circular gesture with both hands.

“Say what?”

“A reluctance.” Ivy explained. “It’s a type of magick that makes people—”

“Reluctant!” I got it.

“Right. Reluctant to come close to a place, person, or thing.” She finished.

“How’s that work?” Now she had my attention.

“You work with the natural energy that is present, the four natural elements of earth, air, fire, and water, and then you give other people in the area a little energetic nudge to stay away.”

I considered that. “Wouldn’t that be manipulative?” According to the lectures from Gwen, magickal manipulation was bad.

“Well...” Ivy drew the word out. “There’s manipulation, and then there’s a little encouragement.”

“That’s like saying six to one, half dozen to the other.” I argued.

“No, it’s all in the intention.” Ivy explained. “If your intention is to create a private or a hidden sacred space, that is acceptable. The spell would make folks reluctant to disturb you or the area. The same thing would apply to hiding something valuable. As in making folks look past what is right in front of them.”

I set my sandwich aside and mulled that over. “Could you use a reluctance on the last sweater in your size at the store? So that come payday it would still be there waiting for you?”

Warming to the topic, Ivy leaned forward. “That falls in the category of gray magick. You know, not white as in positive, and not black as in baneful.”

I knew that term. “Baneful is an old term for poisonous or deadly.”

“How’d you know that?” Ivy asked clearly surprised.

“My dad taught me.” I said softly and wondered.

“Autumn, have you ever considered that maybe your dad taught you more than you realized? I’ve heard you mention faery stories and mythology that your dad told you about. And I bet when he taught you about plants, you learned more than just their botanical names.”

Stunned, I only sat there. “I never thought about that.”

“You know I wonder...” Ivy stood up and walked around behind me, holding her hands above my head.

“Ivy!” I squealed, torn between embarrassment and laughter. “People are gonna wonder what you are doing.”

“Hello. Reluctance, remember?” She waved away my concern. “They won’t see a thing. I just want to see what your personal energy feels like.”

“Why are you checking my aura?” I asked suspiciously as she held her hands a few inches above my head and slowly passed them down and over my shoulders and back.

“I’m checking you for spells.” Ivy explained. “Now shut the hell up and let me concentrate.” She ordered.

“Whoa! Hold on there Sabrina!” I started to jump up, and Ivy shoved me back to the grass. “Why would I have spells on me?” I wanted to know.

“Tell you what.” Ivy said, “If you let me do this, I’ll teach you how to check to see if any item, or person, has been spelled.”

I considered that. “Deal.” I agreed, and stayed seated.

Ivy patted the top of my head. After a moment of her standing back there, she sat down directly across from me. She crossed her legs and our knees bumped. I set my soda down and Ivy grabbed both my hands. “Okay, hang on cousin.” She gave my hands a squeeze and then announced, “Here we go.”

Hearing that, I squeezed my eyes shut, and braced for the worst. Instead, what I felt was a gentle current pass from Ivy to me. And then from me, back to my cousin. Curious, I opened my eyes and looked to see what Ivy was doing.

Her hair ruffled around her face on what I assumed was a breeze, but I had a moment of clarity when I noticed that nothing else was moving. Not the draping branches of the willow we sat under, not our clothes, not my hair. It wasn’t a breeze that caused the movement of Ivy’s hair. It was power. Her power.

My heart thudded hard in my chest and I gulped. Ivy’s grip tightened. Her eyes opened and met mine. A light was in them similar to the light I had seen shine from Bran’s that night when he built the energy ball.

“Well, hello there.” Ivy said softly as if she were seeing something unexpected.

“What?” I asked her slightly alarmed.

“There
is
an old spell on you. It’s a cross between a reluctance and a muffling spell. It’s maybe twenty years old. So it’s worn thin.” Ivy said very matter of fact.

My mind raced as to how she knew that, and also how I knew absolutely that she was right. She squeezed my hands again, and I looked back in her eyes. “It’s been on me since I was a little girl?”
Who the hell would have put a spell on me when I was little?
“Let’s get this off me then!”

“We can break it.” Ivy announced, eyebrows raised. She flashed me a smile that was all determination. “Follow my lead, cousin.”

Ivy quietly told me that I would need to imagine building up my personal energy, my power, and having it shine bright and out from my heart. Then, she told me to visualize the old spell as a cracked egg shell. A shell that wrapped around my chest and back. I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and concentrated. After a few moments, Ivy told me to open my eyes and look.

When I looked down, to my surprise, I saw a slight pink glow radiating out from my body. I gasped and told Ivy what I was seeing.

“That’s your energy. Don’t be afraid, it’s a part of you after all.” Ivy explained. “Push it out harder now, make it shine brighter and repeat after me.”

I nodded and visualized what she told me. I also reminded myself that I had wanted to learn about magick, after all. So I had better Witch the hell up and not back down now. “I’m ready.” I said grimly.

Ivy began to chant, “We seek now to break, what was once cast. By the elements four, this clearing will last.”

I repeated after Ivy quietly, and felt my chest and back muscles tighten up. The pressure wasn’t horrible, but it wasn’t comfortable either.

Ivy continued. “Whether cast with love, or with an intent to harm, the old spell will shatter as we both speak this charm.”

I repeated, “Whether cast with love, or an intent to harm,” and the tightness became unbearable. Gasping, I gripped Ivy’s hands and pushed through it. “The old spell will shatter as we both speak this charm!”

The shell seemed to explode and it sounded like glass shattering. Suddenly I could breathe easily again, and I felt about ten pounds lighter. I looked at my cousin, and tears started to well up.

“You kicked ass, Autumn!” Ivy said proudly, and she grabbed me up in a fierce hug that lifted me to my knees. We knelt there under the willow tree, hanging on to each other, and laughing like lunatics. “By all the power of three times three...” Ivy began and pulled back to grin at me.

I nodded. I knew what to do to close the spell. “As we will it, so shall it be!” I said proudly. With that, a breeze came sweeping through, and all of the draping branches of the willow whipped back and forth. “This is amazing!” I managed, and climbed to my feet, as my hair streamed back from my face, and much cooler air blew in.

As we watched, clouds billowed up from the west, and a rumble of thunder sounded in the distance. A little drunk on the rush of power, I raised my hands in the air and shouted. Ivy slung an arm around my waist, and we stood there and watched as the cold front came roaring in.

I felt incredible, I felt invincible, and I felt like nothing would ever be the same for me again. And then suddenly I felt light headed. “Um, Ivy...” I managed, as my knees began to wobble.

“Oops. Sit your butt down.” Ivy directed.

I quickly sat on the grass, and put my head between my knees. “What happened?” I managed.

“What goes up must come back down.” Ivy said as she sat next to me. “Eat something,” she suggested. “You just used a hell of a lot of magickal energy.”

I grabbed my half eaten sandwich and devoured it, as Ivy explained to me that magickal energy, like physical energy, came at a cost. If you expend any kind of energy, then you will have to re-fuel. Kindly, Ivy passed me the other half of her sandwich and I scarfed that down too.

After a while, I started to feel steadier, but I sure didn’t want to jump up and do anything physical. “I think I’m going to need a nap.” I told her as I finished off my soda.

“That’s not a bad idea, actually.” Ivy agreed. “You do realize that you probably called that storm in?”

I’m sure my eyes bugged right out of my head. “What?” I asked, incredulous. As if on cue a few drops of rain started to fall. “I... I... but I didn’t mean to.” I stuttered.

“Bet mom’s gonna be pissed.” Ivy leaned back on her elbows in the grass and smiled up at the light rain. She seemed very nonchalant about the whole affair. “Don’t worry though. Once she gets over that, she’ll be proud of you for blowing through that old spell.”

As if that was going to make it all better? I followed her lead and lay down in the grass. I felt better immediately. As soon as my back hit the earth, I felt steadier. “Are we grounding and centering?” I asked her.

“Yes, my young apprentice.” Ivy snarked back.

I laughed, and we lay there, under the old willow, and listened to the rain fall. Occasionally a few drops made their way through, but it felt so great with that cooler breeze. Who cared about a little rain?

“Ivy?” I asked her a little while later.

“Yeah?”

“You called that old spell we broke, a reluctance and a muffling type of spell?”

Ivy sat up. “Yeah, that’s the best way I can think to describe it.”

I sat slowly up as well and started to gather the remains of our lunch. “Why would someone do that to me?”

Before I could ask anything else, Aunt Gwen walked through the draping branches of the willow trees. “Hello girls.” She said quietly, and she did not look happy.

“Oh shit.” Ivy and I said in unison.

CHAPTER TEN

“Before you start to yell,” Ivy said. “Let me explain. —”

“One of you had better.” Gwen warned, as she stood, glowering, under a black umbrella.

I glanced over at Ivy and she tossed me a look that said,
Let me handle this.
I wasn’t sure if I should try and help or scramble behind the trunk of the willow tree to get out of the line of fire.

To my surprise, Gwen didn’t launch into a lecture. Instead, she closed the umbrella with a snap, and sat neatly on the ground between the two of us, clearly peeved. “Spill it.” She told her daughter.

And boy did she. Ivy started at when she loaned me the earrings, to her waiting for me at the house, the job offer, our nursery trip, and then to performing magick under the old willow. “Mom, there was a spell on Autumn.” Ivy confided.

Gwen balked at the news about the job, but her eyes narrowed speculatively over the news about the spell, “Do you know what sort of spell?”

“It felt like a reluctance and a muffling spell, all wrapped up into one.” Ivy explained.

Gwen seemed to consider that. Then her eyes met mine. “I’ll be honest. I’ve wondered for some time if your abilities were bound.”

I had stayed silent during their exchange, but now I spoke up. “Bound? Who would do that to me?” As soon as I said it, I
knew
. My heart broke a little. “My father?”

“I believe so.” Gwen said gently.

“But why?” I asked Gwen.

“There is no way for me to be sure.” Gwen admitted. “But if I had to guess, I’d say he did it to placate your mother. Often powers manifest when a child is going through puberty, but magickal talents can appear earlier. If you were displaying powers early... ”

“Then he muffled, or bound them.” It made sense. My mother always had been terrified of anything to do with the occult, or even New Age topics. It also explained why she had been so unhappy with my decision to move here and go to grad school. I recalled her melodramatic goodbye speech she had made when I was leaving.
If you choose this path over your own mother, then you will never be allowed in my home again...

Gwen rose up. “Show me where you were when you broke the spell.”

I got to my feet and showed her approximately where Ivy and I had been sitting. As I watched, Gwen hunkered down in the spot, and held her left hand out over the ground. She swept it back and forth a few times. Now, she turned to me with her hand held out. I helped her up.

“May I?” She asked. I gave my consent and she also ran her hands above my head and over my shoulders.