Strange Magic (The Witches of Cleopatra Hill Book 9) Read online

  She’d rehearsed this speech in the shower, because she knew that when the moment came, she’d be all too likely to lose her nerve and blurt out something completely inappropriate. Now she sounded almost natural, casual, as if this was a completely normal request.

  Like there was anything normal about this whole situation.

  Still frowning, Levi looked over at Evan, who didn’t move. “Why is he here?”

  “Because we all need to talk together, Levi. Please — can we go outside?” Zoe stepped away from Evan and laid a hand on Levi’s arm. A tremor went through him at her touch, and then he gave a very faint nod.

  “If you wish it.”

  She couldn’t allow herself to be too relieved. Getting him out of the hotel was just the first step. She still had a lot of talking to do.

  The three of them moved away from the restaurant as the hostess gave them a curious glance. She was probably wondering why they hadn’t come up to request a table, but Zoe couldn’t worry about that now. The important thing was to get outside, where it would be easier to perform damage control if Levi freaked out after learning how Evan was now her consort.

  A warm wind blew around them, but it wasn’t too hot yet. Off to one side, Zoe spotted a clump of trees that provided some shade — and privacy. It seemed like as good a place as any for them to have their talk.

  So she moved a little ahead, walking quickly so Evan and Levi would have no choice but to follow her. Once they reached the stand of trees, she turned back toward both of them. Levi’s expression was impassive, but she didn’t know if that was because he’d decided to withhold judgment until he heard her out, or because he hadn’t completely mastered human expressions yet.

  Either way, she knew she couldn’t avoid what she had to say. “Levi,” she began, and then noticed how Evan’s eyes widened slightly. Right — she’d completely forgotten to tell him that Levi had given himself a name the night before. Well, she and Evan had been a little preoccupied ever since then. Blood rushed to her cheeks, but she gathered a breath and went on, “I’m not sure how to say this, but — ”

  Levi’s clear blue gaze flicked from her to Evan and then back again. When he spoke, his tone was flat. “He is your consort.”

  Shock pulsed through her, sharp and as unexpected as if Levi had just punched her in the gut. “I — how did you know that?”

  “I sensed it. Your aura is different now. Brighter, more powerful.”

  “You can see people’s auras?” she asked as Evan crossed his arms and stared at Levi as though he’d never seen him before. Well, in a way, he hadn’t. At least not Levi as he appeared to them now.

  “Yes. Can’t everyone?”

  “Not really,” she said. “That is, I guess there are some witches who can, but we don’t have any in my clan. In yours?” she added, with a quick glance at Evan. He shook his head. “Anyway…yes, that’s what we needed to tell you, Levi. I know it must seem strange, when I brought you here to be my consort, but I should have trusted the universe to know what it was doing.”

  He didn’t respond at first. His gaze kept moving from her to Evan and then back, although Zoe wasn’t sure what Levi might be looking for. Some evidence that their bond wasn’t quite as close as it should be?

  “If that is the case,” he said slowly, appearing to choose his words with care, “then it won’t matter if I kiss you, will it?”

  Her throat went dry. She hadn’t been expecting that sort of request. Confused, she looked up at Evan, whose mouth had compressed to a flat line. It was pretty obvious that he didn’t like the idea at all. But he didn’t say anything. It seemed clear enough to her that he was going to allow her to make this decision on her own.

  She wanted to refuse. What point would there be in sharing a kiss when she’d already sealed her bond with Evan? But as she glanced back over at Levi, saw the painful hope in his clear blue eyes, the hurt he was trying to conceal, she knew it would be cruel to say no. She’d brought him here, and she would do whatever it took to make sure he would want for nothing now that he was a person as real as she was, or Evan. Anything else just wouldn’t be fair.

  “Yes,” she said. “Yes, you can kiss me, Levi.”

  Even though she’d given him permission, he hesitated, his eyes meeting Evan’s. Almost imperceptibly, Evan nodded, even though his jaw was tight, and Zoe could see how much he hated the idea of having to stand there and watch another man kiss the woman he’d just soul-bonded with.

  Then Levi stepped forward and twined his fingers with hers. His skin was warm, his hands strong and very human-feeling. They didn’t send any particular spark through her, not how Evan’s merest touch could seem to make her very blood turn to fire, but at the same time, she wasn’t repulsed by his touch. If he’d reached out to her like this, looking like this, only a few days ago, she wouldn’t have recoiled. And that was shallow, because she didn’t know how much of his mind and spirit had changed over those two short days, except maybe his ability to articulate his thoughts. But she needed to be truthful with herself.

  Anyway, it wouldn’t have mattered. Even if she had gone to him willingly, she wouldn’t have felt the consort bond forge itself between them, because he wasn’t the one.

  Then he bent and placed his mouth very gently against hers, an almost tentative brush of lip against lip, as though he knew what the mechanics of the act were supposed to be but was concerned about how to carry them out in practice.

  No heat, no spark, nothing except the realization that she’d done a terrible thing to this man. Tears started to her eyes, and she blinked them back. She’d have to make this right, no matter what.

  He seemed to understand as well, because he gave a sad nod, then stepped away from her. “It’s true, then,” he said softly. “This man is your consort. I had hoped — ”

  “I’m sorry,” Zoe told him, throat tight. She hadn’t meant for this to happen. She hadn’t meant for any of this to happen, and yet here they were.

  His shoulders lifted, and he turned away, as if he intended to walk off into the parking lot…and go where? She had no idea where he went when he disappeared from one place and didn’t reappear for hours later. Would he just blink himself out of existence, disappointment taking him far, far away from her?

  “Wait,” Evan said, and Levi paused, expression puzzled. “Were you just going to walk off into the sunset?”

  The bewildered look Levi wore only deepened. “It is only ten o’clock in the morning,” he pointed out.

  “Right. It’s just an expression. What I meant was, where will you go?”

  “Around,” Levi said, making a vague gesture toward the hills behind the hotel. “Out. Now that I have been brought here, I can move from place to place easily enough, although I cannot return to the place I was when Zoe first summoned me.”

  She let out a relieved little breath. “So you’re stuck here.”

  “In a manner of speaking.”

  Evan glanced at her, hazel eyes questioning. She nodded. She’d already vowed to make this right, but she was relieved beyond measure to see that he agreed, that he wouldn’t leave her to clean up this mess, even if it had been of her own making.

  “Well,” she said, going to Levi and slipping an arm through his, “that doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing. Let Evan and me introduce you to something called Sunday champagne brunch.”

  As she led Levi back toward the hotel, Evan came up next to her on her other side. He didn’t make a move to take her hand, but she caught his gaze for just a second, saw the approval and love in his cloudy hazel eyes. In fact, the warmth of his affection was almost a tangible thing, reaching out to wrap around her like a warm desert breeze.

  In that moment, she was pretty sure everything was going to be okay.

  19

  So many explanations. So many phone calls, so many arrangements.

  Evan had thought he was prepared for the hubbub that would result from Zoe’s announcement that he had turned out to be her consor
t, but he was so very mistaken. Her mother had looked shocked for a split-second, right before she threw her arms around him and told him she was thrilled he would be a part of the family. Zoe’s father Luis was somewhat more restrained, but his smile was laden with relief as he said, “It will be a good thing — another connection between our clans.”

  He was speaking of Caitlin McAllister’s marriage to Alex Trujillo, Luz’s son, but Evan knew this was a far bigger deal. This was the joining of their clan’s prima to a man from another witch family, something that didn’t exactly happen every day.

  More than that, though, was their reaction to Levi. Luz came over to the house to meet him, and inspected him carefully from head to toe, as if she was doing her very best to find something off about the guy, something that would keep him from mingling with regular people. She didn’t succeed, though, because he looked perfectly normal — normal for a TV star, that is.

  “Well,” she said briskly after giving Zoe’s creation the sort of scrutiny usually reserved for livestock at the county fair, “he’ll definitely pass. So I suppose the next thing to do is figure out what we should do with him.”

  Zoe winced at her aunt’s comment. “Maybe we should ask him what he wants to do. I mean, he’s standing right here.”

  Those words made Levi smile slightly. “It is all right, Zoe,” he said. “I know this is an unusual situation. Your prima is just being careful.”

  “Thank you, Levi,” Luz said, a smile of her own touching her lips. “All I’m saying is that he can’t stay at the CopperWynd indefinitely.”

  Because that was what Evan and Zoe had decided to do, in the interim before they could figure out anything more permanent. After their brunch, they’d gone to the front desk and asked about available rooms. Since it was Sunday and people had begun to check out, there were a few empty ones, and they had Levi set up in one not long afterward.

  They’d gone on their own to the house to make the announcement to her parents, but once that was done, they’d returned to the hotel to fetch Levi. Now Luz still appeared abstracted, her mind clearly racing to come up with a solution for this unexpected stranger her niece had dropped into the middle of their clan.

  Levi was also somewhat bemused, although it seemed to Evan that he was willing to let those around him decide on his fate. Actually, for someone brought to this world for an express purpose that didn’t exactly pan out, he was acting pretty damn mellow. Maybe any kind of existence here was better than where he’d come from, in which case Zoe had actually done him a favor, even if Evan could tell she was still wracked with guilt over the whole thing.

  Also, a kernel of an idea was beginning to hatch in his mind. Levi had managed fairly well at brunch, but it was pretty obvious that the hustle and bustle of the hotel had begun to overwhelm him. At the same time, Evan didn’t know how beneficial it would be for him to be someplace where he could see Zoe and Evan all the time, or even merely hear about what they were doing. Although he wasn’t acting horribly disappointed about not being her consort, Evan had to think that Levi might do better someplace where he wouldn’t have that particular reality shoved in his face all the time.

  “How about Jerome?” he asked, and everyone looked at him as if he’d sprouted wings. Well, Luz and Zoe’s parents, anyway. Levi frowned — Evan wondered if he even knew what Jerome was — and Zoe’s eyes lit up with sudden interest.

  “Why Jerome?” she asked, speaking quickly so as to get the words in ahead of any protests from her aunt or Luis and Andrea.

  “Well, think about it,” Evan replied. “It’s kind of a funky place to begin with, so Levi wouldn’t stand out so much. Also, there’s my flat. Obviously, I’m not going to need it anymore, but it would be perfect for him — it’s right in the middle of town, so people can keep an eye on him and help him out.”

  Luz and Andrea exchanged a dubious glance, but Luis nodded, his expression thoughtful. “It does sound like it might be a good setup. And your elders would agree to this?”

  “I’d have to ask them, of course,” Evan said. “But I think they’d be okay with it. More to the point, I’m pretty sure Angela will want to help out, and that’s the really important thing, isn’t it?”

  “True,” Luz said. “Your prima’s wishes would, of course, supersede those of your elders. If you really think she’d agree to it — ”

  “I do. But obviously I’ll need to call her first before I promise anything else.”

  As if noting the rather strained look on Levi’s face, Zoe got up from where she’d been seated in one of the living room’s side chairs and went to sit down next to him. “Would you be all right with it, Levi?”

  “I — I’m not sure.” He glanced over at Evan. “What is this Jerome?”

  “It’s the town where I grew up, a little more than a hundred miles from here. The weather is cooler, and it’s much smaller. Here.” Evan pulled his phone from his pocket, then unlocked it so he could go to his photos. Last summer, he’d been up in the mountain town and taken some fairly spectacular pictures during monsoon season, especially one where the clouds had broken and shone golden light over Sedona’s red rocks while a rainbow formed overhead. He walked over to where Levi sat and held the phone out to him. “See? That’s taken from Main Street in Jerome. It’s basically the view out the bedroom window of my flat.”

  Levi peered down at the image on the screen, and his eyes widened slightly. “I would be able to see that all the time?”

  “Well, not exactly like that, because the weather is always changing. But the red rocks, and the mountains beyond — yeah, you’d always be able to see that except on really cloudy days.”

  “I like this Jerome,” Levi announced, and a palpable wave of relief swept over the room.

  “Then that’s where we’ll take you,” Zoe said. She glanced up at Evan, her dark eyes shining with gratitude. “Just as soon as you want to go.”

  She’d never been any farther north than the outlet mall at Anthem, on the far northern outskirts of Phoenix. Zoe didn’t know whether it was Levi or she herself who was more fascinated by the landscape passing by outside the car windows. The highway climbed, gaining altitude, and the saguaro cactus disappeared. Evan explained it was because they got snow up here, and the cactus weren’t hardy enough to survive at this altitude.

  It had all been easier to arrange than she’d thought. Evan had spent some time on the phone with Angela — Zoe supposed it was a story that needed a good deal of explaining — and then gave Zoe the thumbs-up sign, indicating that his clan’s prima was just fine with taking on a man who hadn’t even been a man up until a few days earlier. After that, Evan was on the phone even longer with his cousin Kirby, whom she gathered was his caretaker for the apartment over the kaleidoscope store in Jerome.

  “I’ve been renting it out as an Airbnb flat,” he explained once he got off the phone. “But luckily, it’s been a kind of dead time of year, and so we didn’t have any bookings until the end of the month. Kirby is going to cancel them for me and then help the people who had reservations find something else.”

  “That sounds like a lot of work,” she said. “Is he okay with handling all that?”

  “I’ll make sure he gets a nice bonus,” Evan replied. “He’s kind of bummed that he won’t have the caretaker gig anymore, but I assured him it was all in a good cause.”

  “Ack, now I feel bad about it.”

  They’d been sitting in Zoe’s room at the CopperWynd, since they’d decided that was the best place to live until they got more permanent digs. It would have been too weird for both of them to stay in her room at her parents’ house, and they certainly weren’t going to be separated, even though she’d informed him that it was sort of the custom in the de la Paz clan for the prima-in-waiting and her consort to stay in separate homes until they were married. But she could tell Evan wasn’t too thrilled by that idea, so the CopperWynd seemed like the best interim solution.

  At any rate, Evan got up and pulled her into h
is arms, holding her close so she could hear the comforting beat of his heart, the strength of his embrace. Her body thrilled, and it was so hard not to take him over to the bed so they could make love once more — but she managed to keep it together. They had the rest of their lives to be with one another, and right then they had a whole lot of logistics to work out.

  “Don’t feel bad,” he told her. “Kirby gets his stipend like everyone else in the clan. It’s not like he’s going to be out on the street or something. And, since it’s Kirby, I’m sure he’ll have another side gig going within the week. That’s kind of how he operates.”

  “I think I like Kirby,” she said with a grin.

  “Everyone likes Kirby. And they’re all going to love you.” Evan bent and kissed her then, and all her good intentions about staying focused went out the window. But that was all right. Making love with him was damn important, too.

  So now she watched as they cut off the highway and headed through open country for a while until they came to the outskirts of Cottonwood. She couldn’t say she was that impressed by most of it, since it felt small and shabby to her, although the downtown area was cute and looked like someplace she might want to explore.

  First things first, though. After passing through Cottonwood, Evan guided the Barracuda up a winding mountain road, steep hills on every side, the landscape just beginning to be flushed with the first green of spring. And then they were in Jerome itself, old buildings of clapboard and brick on either side, so close to the street that they seemed to loom over it.

  Evan pulled off into a sort of alley behind a row of tall buildings and parked in one of the spaces there, right in front of a sign that said “Residents only. Violators will be towed.”

  Zoe raised an eyebrow at him.

  “I am a resident. Well, sort of. I mean, I’ve been living down in Cottonwood. But the flat’s still mine, so I get parking privileges if it hasn’t been rented out.” He glanced over his shoulder into the back seat. “Ready to check out your new home?”