Seeing Magic (The Queen of the Night Series Book 1) Read Free Page A

small orchard grew off to one side. In the distance the brown-green bank of a river glistened. I discovered tools in the small wooden shed and started the weeding. It was interesting that Fiona assumed I knew how to weed a garden. My family had always lived in apartment buildings in Santa Monica. If Mom hadn’t signed us up for a plot in the city’s community garden, I’d never have had the opportunity to visit one up close, let alone care for it, but I’d helped Mom with hers for two years now, so I was pretty confident.
    Two hours later, the sun beat down on my skin and sweat poured off me. This really grossed me out as I’d always considered myself to be naturally cool and ladylike. It wasn’t just hot in the garden. It was humid. I had never experienced humidity. The mosquitoes irritated me the most. I must have tasted good, because several of them had bitten me all up and down my body. By the time I noticed the swelling of the bite, the darn bug had gone. Scrutinizing my limbs, and waiting for an opportunity to catch one in the act of biting me, I slapped myself trying to kill it. Too fast for me, the pest flew away lazily, taking a bit of my blood. I threatened it anyway which made me feel better.
    The sweat dripping into my eyes and obscuring my vision forced me to take a break. Dusting myself off, I headed inside the cabin. After washing my face and hands, I poked my head in the refrigerator to see what Fiona had to drink. Pouring myself a tall glass of iced herbal tea, I turned back to look out the windows onto the backyard. A bottle of mosquito repellent sat on the chair by the back door where only the basket had been before . I was alone in the house so how did it get there?   Shrugging it off as an ADD moment, I gratefully slathered the lotion all over my exposed areas, identifying aloe in the mixture by the smell. The bites all over my body stopped stinging. Refreshed, I headed back out into the yard. This time I took a bandanna with me.
    ***
    Proud of myself for finishing the weeding, I took time off to explore my surroundings. Startling noises came from the corn. For a moment fear gripped me, but this wasn’t the city and crime didn’t lurk around every corner. Driven by curiosity, I ran over and looked in between all the rows of corn stalks, but whatever creature was messing around had disappeared.
    Deciding I should stay close to the house, I headed back. My explorations had shown me where all of Fiona’s vegetables grew. It was a simple task to get the pruning shears from the shed and, pulling her note out of my back pocket and grabbing the willow basket, to collect the items she’d requested.
    I left the vegetables and herbs in the sink, cleaned myself up and helped myself to another glass of iced tea. That was when I realized I was not alone in the house. Evan sat in Fiona’s old leather chair, ankle crossed over knee, casually flipping through a magazine. Fiona must trust him a lot to give him free run of her house while she was at work.
    “Are you here to check up on me?”
    “Actually, I thought you might like to take a drive. You could see Cacapon from a bird’s eye view.”
    “Really?  That’s kind of you.”  His motivations intrigued me.
    Fortunately, he explained himself quickly. “I wanted to apologize. Fiona reminded me today that you are not responsible for your parent’s mistakes.”
    “What mistakes?”  I bristled at the thought of anyone maligning my parents, especially Dad.
    “Can we agree to not discuss difficult memories today?  I’m sure there will be plenty of time to argue later…after you have that talk with Fiona.”
    I absorbed his words and thought I’ll talk to Fiona…after I’ve talked to Mom . A drive sounded much more interesting than waiting alone in the cabin, though, so I smiled and agreed to drop the subject of my parents.
    ***
    Evan stopped at a scenic overlook at the top of the mountain ridge. A beautiful green valley nestled at the base of