CHAPTER THREE
The rest of the day flew by and before I knew it, it was five o’clock and time to close. I’d had consults every hour and a ton of walk-in traffic, which made for a busy day. I’d sent Syd home an hour earlier, knowing she needed to get back to her daughter, Presley. The afternoon had quieted down after the lunch crowd thinned, probably because the temperatures had been dropping steadily all day. Winter in New England. It was a crapshoot, for sure. I was as desperate for spring as Sydney, but we were barely into March.
And now I needed to meet my mother for dinner. She’d called me earlier and asked me to come, and I’d learned that when Fiona summoned, you pretty much just went. If you didn’t she’d simply beam you to where she wanted you anyway. I switched my sign to Closed, locked the front door, shut off all the lights, and went out back. I grabbed my bag and tugged on my moonstone necklace. That crazy feeling of free falling hit me like the rush you get on a roller coaster. A moment later I landed on the porch steps of my old house—my Grandma Abby’s house, where I’d lived for most of my life after we left New York City when I was a child—pushed the front door open and stepped inside.
And stopped. Stared. I almost went back out to check if I had the right house, but the one thing of my grandmother’s that remained, her favorite chair and cozy fleece blanket, was still visible in the corner of the living room. I could just see it from where I stood and although it looked incredibly out of place given the new ... decor, it still gave me peace. I sat in it every time I came over here. It let me feel like Grandma Abby was still with me.
But the rest of this place ... I could feel her turning over in her grave.
“Problems, darling?”
I whirled around. I hated when Fiona snuck up on me like that.
“No problems,” I said. “Just looking at what you’ve done with the place. It looks, uh, different than last time I was here.”
Fiona Ravenstar—my mother—placed her hands on her hips and gave me her best stare, the one that dared anyone to challenge her. “You told us we could live here, Violet. You said we could make changes to the house. Have you changed your mind?” She towered over me in her black platform boots, and the red velvet cloak she’d wrapped herself in made me think of the devil witch costume I’d convinced my dad to buy me when I was thirteen. All she needed were the horns. She was exceptionally beautiful, though, with her flawless skin, elegant high cheekbones, and today, hair that was blond and turned wine-colored at the ends. It was a different color every time I saw her. She’d also been experimenting with length and right now was wearing it long, halfway down her back. Her presence loomed larger than anything else in her energy field.
Which was also a lot to get used to.
“No,” I said. “I haven’t changed my mind. I just need to digest the new look and feel of the house. It’s a lot different than when Grandma Abby lived here.”
Fiona looked around as if seeing the room for the first time, smiling a bit. I knew she was enjoying this. When she turned back to me, she had a twinkle in her eye. “Abigail always had ... antiquated tastes. You know that’s not my style.”
“Oh, I knew that in the first five minutes of our reunion,” I said, smiling back sweetly.
It had taken me a while to believe Fiona was really my mother, the woman I hadn’t seen since I was five years old. I’d pretty much written her off years ago, although I was smart enough to know I’d never fully healed the wound she’d left when she vanished one day. But I’d always wrestled with myself about it, with thoughts ranging from Why would I want to meet her anyway? What kind of mother willingly abandons her child? to I wish she would just come home.
Then she had shown up, seemingly out of the blue, during a major life crisis moment. With a half-sister I never knew I had and a wild story about how I was three-quarters witch and belonged to the two most powerful families in the witches’ realm.
Did I mention it took a while for me to buy into that?
But as crazy as it sounded at the time, it was all true—and instead of being Violet Mooney, as I’d always believed, I was really Violet Raven Moonstone. My grandma Abby had been the matriarch witch of the Moonstone family, and my mother’s family, the Ravenstars, were apparently also a very big deal. Which meant I had powers of my own. Big ones, if she was to be believed.
Apparently not big enough to keep my mother in check, though.
“I meant, like, move the furniture around. Get new beds. I didn’t think.... Grandma Abby’s house was ... a little more soft and comforting,” I said, glancing around at the purple metallic paint that now covered the living room walls, which had previously been a soft green. Ravens—fake ones, at least I hoped—perched on every available surface. The new artwork on the walls was all silver, metal, sharp edges. When I’d told Fiona she and my half-sister Zoe could move into Grandma Abby’s house since they wanted to be close to me—and in Zoe’s case, experience the mortal world for the first time—I didn’t think she’d completely redecorate the entire place.
I guess it didn’t really surprise me though. Fiona wasn’t an ask-for-permission type of woman. This had been evident from day one, when she’d showed up and decided to move Sydney out of her apartment across the hall from me and move in there herself. She’d returned that situation to rights, though, and luckily Sydney had no memory of the brief move.
“That’s what I said. Antiquated. Yes, well. It’s a new era.” Fiona swept over and kissed my cheeks. “Dinner?”
“Sure.”
“What would you like?”
I thought about that. I hadn’t eaten much today, between Nicole and how busy I’d been. But any time I’d had a moment to breathe I wasn’t thinking about food, but rather about my troubled customer. The deep fear I’d felt emanating off her worried me, and I couldn’t shake the feeling of that suffocating shadow.
And I wasn’t sure she would do more with her crystals than toss them on her kitchen counter, or if I was lucky, in her purse.
So I’d forgotten to eat. “Something quick,” I said. “I don’t want you to go to a lot of trouble.”
Fiona arched a perfectly shaped eyebrow at me, then lifted her hand over her head, snapping her fingers. Little sparks of glitter shot from her long fingernails, and as I watched, the dining room table was suddenly filled with food. A platter of sushi. Pad Thai and drunken noodles. A vegetable lasagna. Even two pizzas, one loaded with veggies and one plain cheese. The cheese was still bubbling. A giant salad. French fries.
My gaze slid from the table to Fiona. She blinked innocently at me. “Zoe,” she called. “Dinner.”
I knew better than to say anything. I plucked a spicy tuna roll off of the platter and popped it into my mouth. “All my favorites,” I said with a smile.
My sister Zoe swept down the stairs. She looked like any other normal twenty-something in her yoga pants, sweatshirt, and ever-present Converse. Today’s pair was covered in sparkles. Her waist-length, jet-black hair was down today, sporting fresh purple streaks. She took one look at the table and laughed out loud. “Let me guess. Vi didn’t want you to make anything special for dinner?”
“Eventually I’ll stop being at the center of all your jokes. Until then, I’m going to enjoy the food.” I slid into my chair and spooned some drunken noodles onto my plate. She’d remembered I liked them with tofu, I noticed with a little twinge of glee. I guess I had some unfulfilled need for my mother to feed me. And to remember what I liked.
“Zoe. Whip us up some drinks, dear.” Fiona sat and focused on me. “So, Violet. There’s something I wanted to talk to you about,” she said.
I glanced up, chewing. “Okay,” I said once I’d swallowed.
“It’s about the Magickal Council. You need to get up to speed pretty quickly. Things are going to be moving fast, with everything that’s going on.”
“I know,” I said. “I’m working on it.” When my Grandma Abby died, her seat on the Magickal Council went to me. Which was one of the reasons Fiona was so adamant about me believing her story about my heritage. If I didn’t take the seat, it would’ve been opened up to a public vote for a new member. And some of the people who planned to run were, apparently, not very desirable members of the witch society.
Fiona nodded. “I know you are. And you’re a fast learner. I also want you to understand the world itself, not just the logistics of how we operate.”
Zoe plunked three glasses of ice water in front of us.
“Did you actually get those by hand?” Fiona asked, rolling her eyes.
Zoe frowned. “I’m trying to remember where I am and do things the way people here do them.”
“Oh, darling. Don’t be predictable,” Fiona said. “You have powers for a reason. Use them.” She turned back to me. “I have someone who’s going to help you.”
“Help me?” I took a sip of water. “Help me do what?”
“Fine,” Zoe said. She pointed at the glass of water Fiona had just raised to her lips, and it vanished, leaving Fiona with a surprised look.
“Well played,” Fiona said.
“Thank you. I think we need iced tea,” Zoe decided. She closed her eyes, reached up and touched a necklace with a giant raw lapis stone in the middle. A pitcher of iced tea with lemons floating in it appeared on the table.
“Very nice,” Fiona said before she turned back to answer my question. “Help you navigate the council, and the rest of the world. He’s very smart, well-respected, and he just happens to be our new general counsel.” She sat back with a satisfied smile. “And he can’t wait to meet you.”