Page 32 of The Water Witch (Fairwick Chronicles 2)

TWELVE

Islipped the stone back in my pocket and fumbled my way to the door, my eyes still dazzled by the light. I opened the door, squinting against the light that formed a corona around the dark figure of a man. My heart beat harder and I thought of Liam in my last dream of him, his face dark against a blaze of Aelvesgold. Hehadcome back to me!

But then the man stepped closer and his face came into focus.Not Liam. He was good-looking, though, with fair hair that swooped up from a high brow and then fell over one eye like a wing. He wore a wrinkled linen suit and carried a worn leather satchel—the kind British schoolboys used inGoodbye Mr. Chips—strapped across his chest. He would have looked like a British schoolboy if his features hadn’t been so severe. He had a strong jaw, high cheekbones, and piercing blue eyes that narrowed at me.

“I’m sorry,” he said with a sexy Scottish accent. “You look disappointed. Were you expecting someone else? Dean Book told me to come as soon as I arrived in town. You are Cailleach McFay?”

He pronounced my name correctly, so he’d probably heardit from someone who knew me. Still, I didn’t want to leap to any conclusions.

“Who are you?” I asked brusquely, still trying to get over my disappointment that he wasn’t Liam.

He took out a card from the inside of his linen jacket and handed it to me.DUNCAN LAIRD, DMAwas engraved on the heavy cream cardstock.

“It doesn’t say wizard,” I said.

He smiled, relieving the severe lines of his face and revealing very white teeth. “Oh, but it does,” he said, “if you look at it the right way. Focus your energy on it. You’ve got enough magic coursing through you right now to light up the Eastern Seaboard.”

I stared at the cardharder, focusing the energy that was fizzing through my veins. A watermark appeared in the paper—a five-pointed star within a circle. A pentacle.

“Cool,” I said. “Does the reverse side have a picture of Jesus blessing the masses …?” I flipped the card over while making my, admittedly, lame joke—really, I was just trying to give myself time to recover from my ridiculous idea that I’d summoned Liam to my door—but the smile vanished from my face when the card burst into flame.

“Uh oh,” Duncan Laird said. “It only does that when it senses an overload of magical power. The spell circle was right. Youdohave a most unusual energy signature. It’s going to take a lot of work to harness your power, but when we do…” He gave me a frankly appraising look that made me blush from the tips of my toes to the roots of my hair. “…you’re going to be magnificent! But,” he added, “I can’t start your training on the front porch.”

He lifted an expectant eyebrow and I realized I was standing with both arms spread across the doorway, hands gripping the frame, effectively barring his entry. “Oh, I’m sorry,”I said, letting go of the doorframe and stepping to one side. “Please come in.”

Duncan Laird smiled and stepped over the lintel, closing the door behind him. The change in air flow puffed the curtains out in the library.

“It’s an old house,” I said, apologizing for the noise. “Come in…”

I was going to lead him into the parlor but, drawn by the breeze from the open windows, he was already heading for the library. “I love old houses,” he said, running his long elegant fingers over my books. Thank goodness I’d just dusted. I caught a glimpse of Ralph scurrying behind the backs of the books and hoped Duncan Laird hadn’t seen him. “They have their own power. This one feels…” He paused and lifted his head, his aquiline nose creasing as he sniffed the air. “Charged. Something has been going on in this room.”

“I was just doing some spring cleaning,” I said. “I hadn’t used this room much recently so I dusted…”

“You’ve been banishing more than dust,” he said, laying his satchel down on the sideboard and removing from it a device that looked like a pocket watch. When he opened it, though, I saw it was no ordinary pocket watch. Its face had three circles on it, each filled with a different symbol and an arrow inside it. Two of the arrows were spinning in opposite directions; the third was pointing straight up and trembling. “You’ve been banishing a presence.” He looked up from the device, keen blue eyes burning into mine with a force that was strangely compelling. Although the last thing I wanted to do was tell this stranger about my romantic troubles, that’s exactly what I ended up doing.

“That would be Liam, my ex.” I was trying for a light tone, but the words came out angry and bitter. “He deceived me!” I didn’t realize how angry I was until the words left me. Thefury rippled from me in a palpable wave. The back door, which I’d left open while cleaning, slammed.

“Ah.” His blue eyes widened and swept around the room and then back to me. “Let me guess, an incubus?”

“How did you know?” I asked, appalled but also impressed at his acuity. “Did Liz Book tell you?”

“No one had to tell me, Cailleach. His presence is still here. An incubus leaves a distinctive mark on a house…” He tilted his head and regarded me. “…and on his victim. It will take more than a little housecleaning to banish his presence.”

“I tried using magic and it went haywire,” I said defensively, afraid he’d somehow intuit that at the end I’d tried to summon Liam instead of banishing him. “So I resorted to Pledge and Windex.”

“And Aelvesgold?” he asked.

“Oh, well…yes. I found this stone and I held it for a little bit just to get some energy from it…”

“A stone? You have a whole stone’s worth of Aelvesgold?”

I removed the Aelvestone from my pocket and held it up for him to see. He took a step back from it, his blue eyes widening, but then reached out for it. I reluctantly put it into his hand.

“Where did you find this?” he asked, his eyes on the stone as he sank down onto the couch. I found it unnerving to see him sitting where Liam had been wont to sit, especially since he said he could feel Liam’s presence.

“In the Undine,” I said, taking a seat across from the couch. “That’s a stream near here.”

“Yes, I’ve heard of it, and I’ve heard rumors that traces of Aelvesgold could be found in it, but I’ve never heard of such a large quantity being discovered or…” He looked up from the stone to me, his blue eyes burning as if they’d absorbedsome of the stone’s power. “…of any witch who could handle this much of it.”

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