Page 16 of Midlife Demigod Unexpected

“Why don’t we see if she has any plant skills?” Mae asked.

“That’s one thing I definitely don’t have. Not like my mom does,” I said. “Or didn’t have before. Of all the skills, if I had any, that one would be because of my mother.” I looked around at them quietly, not asking for pity but wanting them to know a little bit about me. “If there’s one magic skill I’ve tried out, it is how to grow plants.”

“Maybe try again one more time,” Mae said.

“OK,” I said. I turned to the cup Bianca had put a bit of soil in and I held my hand over it. I glanced over at Jane.

“Close your eyes,” she said, “and focus on the magic energy inside your body. Feel a little pulling together in your heart center then feel it moving out to the edge of your hand.”

Even as she spoke the words, I could feel energy moving through my body. It came to the edge of my hands, and it was tingling along every particle of my being. My hands tingled as the energy triggered a warm glow. I moved my hand forward over the cup. The strangest thing happened as my energy came over it.

Something in the soil was responding to my power.

As it grew more intense within me, I could feel an equal and opposite intensity coming from the cup below, pulling at the center of my palm like a single thread of golden light. I stared at it in awe as it nestled into the soil and within seconds we watched as a plant began to grow. It was the most miraculous experience I’d ever had. Tears formed in my eyes as I gasped, my hand shaking.

“I can do it,” I murmured. “I can do it.”

All the years of ignoring the supernatural world and drowning it out and pretending it didn’t exist and wanted nothing to do with it because it couldn’t have anything to do with me were suddenly wiped out as I watched the tiny plant poked its head out of the dirt and raised two little baby green leaves up in the air, called forth by my magic.

Chapter 12

Hours later as I sat outside on the hillside alone under the stars, staring out across the cemetery, I couldn’t help but think of all those years the power had lain dormant within me. The ability to make plants grow. I was sure that wasn’t all I could do, but for now, it was enough. We had tried out a variety of other magic throughout the evening. Air magic, water magic, crystal magic, but none of it had connected other than the earth magic.

The air moved in a rugged scent like embers burning on the fire on a hot summer night.

Jag had arrived.

I had known he was hot in the attractive sense, since the second I met him, but now there was something about him that drew me to him, it made me want him. I didn’t know if it was me or if it was because the magic now coursing through my body was making me a little more exuberant than normal, but I definitely wanted him. When he sat down next to me, I had to take a deep breath and push away the desire inside me to touch him, stroke his skin, and feel his touch. Jag and I had always been friends, my ability to grow plants and his demonic ability to turn things into burning embers notwithstanding, we were still friends. He sat down next to me on the hill, his knees bent, his arms wrapped around his knees. He stared out at the cemetery. “There’s a lot of death and destruction going on in there,” he said. “Do you guys think you have enough fire power to take care of it?”

“I have no idea,” I said. “I’m still trying to understand how I’ve had magic powers for forty plus years, but I didn’t get to use them until just now.”

“At least you get to hang out with a group of people who are pretty cool,” Jag said. “That’s not half bad.”

“Ever since I was a kid, I knew my mom was magic and she was special. I was always waiting for the day I would have that special thing, too. It never came though. There was nothing special about me. Except my pub. O’Halloran’s. I poured all of me into that pub,” I smiled as my eyes misted over. But then O’Halloran’s burned to the ground, and I ended up with this.” I held my hands out, golden balls glowing in each hand. “I don’t even know what to do with them,” I whispered.

“I know what you mean,” Jag said. “I come from Undirheim, the Underworld. It’s made up of Valkyrie and demons. We’re meant to guard portals but there are more demons than there are portals. It gets a little intense sometimes. There’s always fighting and bickering going on. When I first came here, I was amazed to find it wasn’t how you ran things. I had to get used to human life quickly. I found that I loved it. I’ve loved living in Cougar Creek and working at your bar. I really want you to build the pub back and go back to work there,” Jag said with a laugh. “My friends are jealous I’m the guardian of the Cougar Creek portal. Though that’s not what it’s called down there,”

“I’m sure it’s something charming in demon tongue,” I said with a side grin.

“I found once I got here what I enjoyed was the camaraderie. It’s like you say. You were shunned by the supernatural world and so you never had that bond, but you created it here for us and you know the people who work at the pub. It’s why everybody wants the pub to be back in business again. Not because they need their jobs, but because you’re a center of the community.”

I looked at him quietly for a moment. “So, you were a supernatural craving the human world and I was a human craving the supernatural world,” I said.

“Meeting halfway in between,” he said with a smile, his hand reaching over and touching my cheek.

I leaned into his hand, loving the warmth of his touch, the feel of him against my skin. Swallowing hard, I looked up, nibbling slightly on my lower lip. This wasn’t exactly what I had in mind when I came out here to assess my powers quietly alone.

I stood up abruptly, staring down at him for the brief second.

He leapt to his feet as well. “Did I do something wrong? If so, I’m sorry.”

“I don’t even know how old you are,” I said. “I don’t know anything real about you. I mean, I have all your Social Security details, but now I realize all of it is falsified.”

“I just signed on to guard the portal,” Jag said. “I’m the guy you’ve had cooking in your kitchen for the last ten years.”

“Somehow that’s supposed to make you familiar to me, but in so many ways it still makes you completely alien, someone I don’t even recognize,” I said, looking up at him as he towered above me. I sucked in a breath at the pained look that crossed his face.

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