Legacy & Spellbound Read Free Page A

credentials.”
    As with magic use, Holly had been warned that trying to communicate with the Mother Coven would alert her enemies to her presence.
    She looked coolly at Joel and said, “We’re staying, for the moment. But if you do anything I find the least bit suspicious, I’ll kill you. Fair warning?”
    â€œHolly,”
Kari protested, but Holly made no reply, only gazed levelly at Joel.
    â€œFair warning,” he said somberly. “I assure you, we’re both on the same side.”
    â€œAs long as it stays that way, we’ll be fine, then,” Holly retorted.
    He inclined his head, and a small bit of the tension escaped from the room.
    Holly looked around the room and realized it was a souvenir shop. English bone china tea services sat in the front window, and the shelves bulged with dolls dressed like Beefeaters and Royal Marines, and piles of scarves in tartans and plaids.
    Maybe I can find something to take home,
she thought wryly.
Though I’d rather it was Michael Deveraux’s head.
    She was a bit shocked to realize that she meant it.
    â€œPlease, take off your coats and make yourselves comfortable,” he urged as he flipped a CLOSED sign in the front window and pulled the drapes, obscuring the view from the street. “I’ll get some tea.”
    They began to do as he asked while he bustled off through a curtained doorway, leaving the coven alone.
    â€œThat was so scary, with the birds,” Amanda said as she carried her coat to a coatrack beside the dark wood door. “I guess they couldn’t quite figure out where we were.”
    â€œThey were too close for comfort,” Silvana observed, shaking her cornrows to dust the snow from them.
    â€œIt’s not a good sign,” Sasha observed. “We’re supposed to be completely cloaked. The Supreme Coven must be working overtime to find us.”
    â€œOh, joy,” Tommy drawled.
    â€œPlease, come in,” Joel called through the curtain.
    Holly went first, feeling apprehensive. She murmured half of a spell to conjure a fireball, then pushed the curtain away.
    She stood in the sitting room of what had to be his living quarters. There was an overstuffed settee upholstered in fat cabbage roses, and a dark green lounger set at a right angle beside it. On a coffee table before the settee were a ring of runestones, a burning lavendercandle, and a statue of the Goddess in her incarnation as the Blessed Virgin Mary.
    A space heater hummed on the other side of the settee, and Holly moved instinctively to its warmth.
    Gesturing eagerly, Joel said, “Please, sit down. The High Priestess told me to make you as comfortable as possible.”
    He went into a small kitchen alcove. Silvana sidled over to Holly and said, “I have a good feeling about him. I’m not getting any bad vibes.”
    Holly cocked her head. “I didn’t know you could read people.”
    Silvana shrugged. “Not in any mystical way. Just intuition.”
    Joel returned with cups of tea on an oval tray, and all the myriad things the British poured into their tea. Holly liked the richness of the heavy doses of sugar and cream.
    â€œCan we do magic in here?” Tommy asked.
    â€œAye. Magic.” Joel smiled at him as he set the tray down on the coffee table. Then he blushed and looked away. Tommy grinned as he apparently realized he was being flirted with.
    â€œI’ve got some cots for you too,” Joel said, “in my bedroom.” To Holly, he added, “You can have my bed, of course.”
    â€œRoyal treatment,” Kari muttered.
    Holly didn’t react—she didn’t bother anymore. Kari’s resentment was very old and very boring. But Amanda, loyal to her core, snapped, “Shut up, Kari.”
    â€œLet’s all stay calm,” Sasha suggested, holding out her hands. She had taken off her coat. It was hard to believe she was old enough to have two children, with her