Chapter 20
I was sitting at the kitchen table, glaring at the dirty dishes stacked all over it.
“You were lucky to get out alive,” Aunt Tessa handed me a plate of biscuits.
“Lucky, she wasn’t lucky – she was a powerhouse of a fierce witch who kicked and screamed until reality gave her what she wanted,” my grandmother replied as she made a fist and shook it in the air.
It made me smile. Despite the fact the wild and demented look was back, and I was certain she’d spent the morning digging mud pies in the yard between the charred remains of tentacles and swords, I was happy.
It was over.
I had won.
“Don’t just sit there and hold those biscuits – eat them, that’s what they’re for, you know,” my grandmother snatched one up.
I raised an eyebrow.
My house, in many ways, was back to normal. I however was not.
I had a monster truck, a new job, and new sense of self.
I also had something I needed to clarify. I cleared my throat and the move somehow commanded everyone’s attention, just like the blast of a foghorn or a whistle. “Uncle Frank, are you sure everything is sorted out with... Jacob?”
I didn’t like to say his name, because I still had no idea how I felt about the situation.
“I have turned over his case to the Magical Disciplinary Board. They will hand down their judgment within the week, I’m told.”
My grandmother snorted. “If that blasted family of his doesn’t intervene. The Fairweathers won’t be taking this lightly.”
At the mention of that family name, I swear a cloud passed over the sun.
In the past few days since my little incident, I’d learnt all about dear Jacob Fairweather.
I’d been right about him; he was most definitely an influence witch. A terribly powerful one, who came from a long line of particularly influential witches. A little bit like my family, but kind of on the other side of the magical divide. The dark side.
“He won’t be trying something like this again,” Tessa flicked her hand at Frank. “He’ll know the Sinclairs can take him on.”
“Legally speaking, I cannot comment,” Frank went back to icing a cake.
“To think they tried to get to me through my granddaughter, and I did not once understand what they were doing,” Granny shook her head and sighed heavily.
I had to snort at that. “I don’t get it, didn’t the fact he was called Fairweather ring any bells, Gran?”
She fobbed me off. “Oh he was such a nice man, it never occurred to me that he was part of a clan of powerful witches who have an historic grudge to settle with the Sinclairs. Plus he popped up on our doorstep just when you needed a man. He looked like the perfect match.”
My eyes boggled. “He’s trying to ruin our family,” I gave a confused laugh.
“Oh, I think he’s a far more complicated man than that. Plus, he has such a nice jaw.”
“Gran, you sound like you’re still trying to hook us up. Need I remind you he kidnapped me and tried to destroy our house with you in it? Need I remind you he comes from a long line of people who want to erase our name from magical history?”
She shrugged her shoulders, batting a hand at her wild curls. “You’re a complicated woman, and you logically need a complicated man.”
I stood up suddenly. “You are mad,” I began.
Then I stopped.
It was my choice to rise to her bait, to accept her opinion, to let her voice into my head.
In other words, it was my choice how to react. I could spend my life running after my crazy family, complaining at my lot in life, or I could do something about it.
And what I did was smile.
Whether I would ever get together with the crazy Jacob Fairweather was up to me. Whether I pulled my hair out every time I came home to a muddy, dirty house was up to me. Whether I allowed the hijinks of the Sinclair clan to pull me down was up to me.
And right now all I wanted to do was finish off my biscuits and stack the dishwasher. Everything else could wait.
Thank you for reading Magical Influence Book One.
Book Two is currently available.
Other fantasies by Odette C. Bell
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Read on for an excerpt from The Enchanted Writes Book One
Henrietta is painfully boring. She is uncoordinated,
unsuccessful, and entirely unlucky in love. That all changes when a
strange man walks into her life talking of witches, magic, and
warriors. Soon she finds her life turned upside down, and any
semblance of normality banished for good.
Enchanted Writes is a light-hearted
urban fantasy series, with plenty of humour, action, and
romance.
The Enchanted Writes Book One