“Thanks.” She held out a hand. “I’m Sage Sinclair.”
“Calli’s friend?”
Sage’s eyes lit up. “You know Calli?”
“I do. We only just met last night.” He just hoped she didn’t pry him for details about that.
Sage pointed up to the barn owl nestled on a perch on the back wall. “That’s my familiar, Nimbus.” The barn owl let out a screech that caught Hades’s full attention. He huffed at her.
“So, what brings you to town?”
Malcolm thought back to the wormhole and the pumpkin patch, trying to think of an answer that wasn’t exactly a lie, but didn’t sound so horrible.
Just then, Sage’s eyes shimmered with magic. “You destroyed her pumpkins?” Sage covered her mouth in horror. “Do you have any idea how long she’s been working on them?”
Malcolm’s eyes narrowed. “Wait, hang on. How did you?—”
“Sorry… I have an ability for reading surface thoughts. It’s one of my other talents.” She continued to stare at him. “Wait—how did you destroy the pumpkins? All I saw was a blast of light.”
“I opened a witch wormhole.” Malcolm muttered and rubbed the back of his neck embarrassed.
“Sorry, a what now?”
“A witch portal,” he corrected.
“Ahh,” she was still looking at him curiously. “You came through a portal into Moonstone?” Sage’s tone was clearly disbelieving. “That’s not an easy thing to do. We have wards here, you know. You’d need a lot of magic to pull that off.”
The door chimed behind him and a familiar voice called his name. “Mac? What are you doing here?”
He turned around and grinned at the shocked look on his best friend’s face, then moved in for a bear hug. “Jasper! I was just looking for you.”
Jasper was a tall, blond-haired and blue-eyed man that the girls in college had nicknamed the Viking, because he’d dressed as one at the freshman Halloween dance.
“You came to a magical town to look for me?” Jasper chuckled. “I thought you weren’t a fan of magic.”
Sage seemed to be watching them with way too much interest, so Malcolm pulled his friend over to a table by the windows overlooking Main Street. Malcolm glanced out the window and saw a little girl riding a broom on the sidewalk. She was only a couple of feet off the ground and couldn’t have been more than seven or eight. She was kicking her feet and laughing as she rode in circles around her father, who carried two large bags of groceries.
“You might not love magic, Malcolm, but I do,” Jasper said, also watching the pair.
Malcolm’s chest tightened. The girl made magic look easy. Fun. But it hadn’t been easy or fun for Malcolm when he’d been a kid. When he’d been younger the magic hadn’t been so hard, he’d been able to ride a broom just like that girl, but after the accident? Everything had changed. Unable to keep the wistful feeling hidden, he watched the father and daughter.
Rather than look exhausted carrying the groceries and dealing with the small child, the father managed to chase the girl even as she chased him, like some big game. It was like a Norman Rockwell painting… with magic.
“I’m surprised he can keep up with her like that,” said Malcolm.
“I’m not. Jack’s a werewolf.”
“You’re joking.”
Jasper nodded. “Married one of the local witches. That’s their daughter Belinda, but everyone calls her Bells.”
Malcolm’s brow rose. “A witch married a werewolf?” His father’s family would never have allowed a marriage like that. The Wellesley line dated back to those who escaped the Lancashire witch trials in England. At least it had been until his father had broken with tradition and duty, and married a non-magical human.
“People here are free to live their lives on their terms. It’s incredible. I’ve been here for four months now, and honestly, I have no desire to leave.”
“Really? I thought you loved being on the move.” Since they’d graduated, Jasper had been employed by a travel magazine for feature writing. Until now, he’d never been in the same location for more than a month.
Jasper shrugged, and his gaze drifted to the woman behind the counter. “Some things are worth sticking around for. I’m a bit bored with travel articles lately. I want to try writing some fiction, like murder mysteries or thrillers.” Jasper’s face glowed with excitement. “That way, I wouldn’t need to leave Moonstone Falls.”
