Page 67 of Castings & Curses

Relief that the conversation shifted from me to the weather rolled over my stiff shoulders.

“Kurt is a good boy, but he’s too rough. Instead of having little Liv play in the hose with her cousin and his bunch of rowdy boys, you should take her up to that park up near the Spring Mill.”

“Spring Mill? They have a playground there?” When I was little, we would go out there for field trips. The mill was some kind of ancient historical building, and the spring it was built over was even older. I didn’t remember there ever being a playground. It wasn’t that kind of park.

“They do, they even have one of those splash pads where tiny babies can run around and get wet.”

Terri-Ann hadn’t told me about it, and she had kids. How did Nan know about splash pads?

“My Tyler takes his babies up there.”

“Tyler? He’s got kids?”

Nan looked so proud as she nodded. “He’s got himself a really pretty wife. She raises prize cockerels out past Traitor’s Ridge. They have a nice place. She’s expecting, too, probably about as far along as you are.”

If he was still in town, I would probably run into him sooner than later. Maybe I could meet his wife. Liv wasn’t the only one around here who could use a friend.

“Well, this was lovely. Now that you’re back home, don’t be a stranger.” Nan patted the back of my hand as she pushed up to her feet. “Don’t you get up. I’ll see myself out.”

CHAPTER3

I leanedout on the railing and looked up at the sky, framed by the dark shadows of the trees in Gran’s backyard. Terri-’s yard now. But this felt like a memory and not my here and now. This was exactly like that night when I had been nineteen and home from my first year at college.

I had fallen desperately in love with Dylan. He knew who I was, barely. This was where I hatched the plan and cast my intentions for him to fall in love with me over the next three years, so that by graduation there was no doubt in his mind that we belonged together.

I lowered my gaze toward the back edge of the property. The fire pit was still there. That night all those years ago, I made a mistake out of desperation to belong and to be loved for who I was.

I had suffered culture shock, going from Duchamp to a university outside of Cincinnati. Small town to big city. Okay, medium city, but to me, it had been huge. I had been the pudgy bumpkin from the land of y’all. It hadn’t been the best time of my life. I didn’t have confidence, and so I tried to change everything about me.

Everything.

I starved myself, only to drop ten pounds at most. My genetics have cursed me with a junky trunk andbooobs—all the Os, they’re sizable and round, but not as round as the in between. So of course I was lured in by rakish good looks and charm. Dylan knew my name, said hi, and even occasionally acknowledged he knew who I was outside of class.

I was never going to be more to Dylan without a boost. And I laid out my plans to the moon and stars.

The fire pit flashed to life. “The fuck? I haven’t said anything.” I looked up into the sky and flipped off the stars. “Come on! I’m not casting. What, I can’t even think about casting, and you respond like this? So rude.”

I stormed off the deck and picked up the bucket of ash that Terri-Ann’s husband kept next to the grill. At some point Terri Ann would work it into her compost heap, but for now I was going to use it to smother the accidental blaze I started in the back of the yard.

Covering the lower half of my face as a make-shift mask, I held my breath and dumped the bucket on the fire. It wasn’t much of one, fortunately. I guess strong memories jump started small fires. At least it went for something ready to burn, and didn’t begin smoldering in a pile of half dead leaves, making for a bigger problem.

I had been taught that use of magic always came with a cost. And in my case, that payment was exacted immediately in the form of flames. I always thought of it as the universe’s way of slapping my hand for doing something I shouldn’t be.

Terri-Ann would make food spoil, when she could get a casting to work. The magic was leaving our family bit by bit, generation by generation. I didn’t know how or when it would show up in Liv, or if she had magic at all.

Outside blood diluted the magic in our blood. Dylan was not from a place where the mountains were older than the continents. Liv was born away from this place, and distance definitely had an effect on my abilities. I hadn’t sparked a fire for years, and then Dylan told me he didn’t love me anymore.

Something in me broke the night I realized that my life had been nothing but a lie. I had been living the false reality created by a love spell that I had woven, and conveniently forgotten.

I had pulled out a candle, giving my flame a place to go. As hard as I wished and cast, the wick barely smoked. I was far from the source of my talents, I was broken.

“What are you doing out here? The mosquitoes are going to eat you alive?” Terri-Ann stood on the deck, smacking at her arms.

Funny, I didn’t notice any bugs. Maybe they didn’t like the taste of my pregnant blood.

“I was just thinking about crap, and look at me now, I’m back in Belvoir County.”

“I know that wasn’t your plan. But it really isn’t that bad here.” She jogged down the stairs and met me in the yard.

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