Fire Elemental Reverse Harem Quartet, page 13
“Do you want me to do it? I could visit her,” Haydn offered.
“Have you been visiting her?”
It hadn’t occurred to me to ask anything about her up until then because she was dead to me and had been for a very long time.
“I have seen her, but not often on her request. She does keep in touch with Air elementals, requesting we send her things from time to time. She’s also had protections put all around the prison, so she’s safe.”
I rubbed my brow. Safe from what? She was in prison, for goodness’ sake. People had to be kept safe from her.
“You only have to tell the Air witches if you want to make contact. She’s air, so she can communicate with them anytime while they are outside the prison without arranging to visit.”
“Great. Today, tomorrow. Whenever they can, but ASAP.” It sounded like I was giving orders again.
They expected me to take over as the leader of the witches around here, and it seemed I might slot into that role easier than bread goes into a toaster.
But I knew nothing about this witch world, and whose fault was that? My mother’s fault.
And thanks to her, I’d grown up alone. Here in this street, I’d found a warm unconditional welcome as if we were close family. I’d found something that I didn’t know was possible: did I really want to leave it behind?
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Mum’s the word
Haydn Byrne
ANY FURTHER DISCUSSION was interrupted by a knocking at the door.
We all stood still, exchanging glances. We knew what we each had to do, I hoped.
“That’ll be someone coming to warn us about the council delegates’ arrival,” Beck suggested in a fierce whisper.
“Okay, we all know our positions,” I said. And they followed me as I led the way to the front door. We really didn’t need to all go together, but I understood their impatience to find out more and get on with what needed to be done.
Fortunately, they fell back while I opened the door. When I saw who stood on the other side, I was pleased Malka and Beck weren’t at my shoulders.
“Mom!” Did I sound surprised? Pleased? Shocked? I felt all of these and confusion.
“Hello, Haydn.”
“I wasn’t expecting to see you.”
“I think you were. I’m here on council business.”
“I wasn’t told what time to expect the council, and I believe you’re early.”
“Can I come in?”
I stood blocking her entrance with my head in the gap, my face literally outside the door. It was damned obvious I didn’t want her in my life.
As she asked and I’d made no attempt to invite her inside, it required some fast thinking if our plans were to succeed.
“I was literally just about to go out. You can come along and walk with me. I’m just going up to Church Street, not five minutes walk away, where there’s been a fire, and I want to check it out.”
It sounded plausible and urgent. And if she came with me, it wouldn’t arouse suspicion because there had been a genuine fire.
“I didn’t come here to go for a walk,” she replied curtly.
“We can walk and talk, or you can come back later. I won’t be gone long. I need to check out a suspected arson attack in my neighborhood. It’s a minute’s walk from here.”
“Well, I’ve really come to see Malka Selby. Is she here?”
I forced a relaxed smile onto my features. “No, she’s at work. We run a business here; you know that. She’s in the office right now working on a new website. I can take you there now because it’s just a few doors away, and it’s on my way.”
My mother sighed as if Malka should have been in this house waiting for her. Of course, Malka was in the house, but I needed to buy us some more time.
“Yes. Take me to her.”
And I knew that at least this stage of the plan was complete. The council would be reliably informed Malka had been working with computer technology and have no reason to doubt it when they heard it from me, from Rose and her daughters, and then from my mother.
The fact that Malka wasn’t actually at Rose’s house was a mere detail, a bridge to cross when we came to it.
CONTINUE THE STORY in book 4, AIR. The entire series is in this order and also available in one “boxset” volume.
Earth
Water
Fire
Air
Amazing Grace is a short story set in the world of Summer House Road and you can
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Excerpt: AIR (the final book in the quartet, but not necessarily the last story set in Malka’s world)
#Malka: Behind the closed front door, Beck and I looked at each other wide-eyed and fearful. We stood still, and neither of us spoke. Hayden had set off with his scary mother, and I didn’t know what to do next. We had a rough plan, but I didn’ thave a clue how to execute it.
Is she air? I mouthed at Beck. Will she hear us talking?
“No.” He shook his head and placed his hand on the timber door.
“The magical wards around this house keep vampires out and our words in. Whatever sounds we make doesn’t travel beyond these walls.”
Judging by his face and the way he whispered, even though no one could hear us, he shared my fear. We were scared, and as outsiders to this community, neither of us knew what to expect.
It was madness, and I was caught up in it.
If I told Betty about what had happened to me since we parted at Kings Cross, she wouldn’t believe it. She’d ask if I’d taken hallucinogens and probably point out halloween coincided with the height of the mushroom season.
What had I gotten caught up in? And how would I explain it to anyone, if I decided to try?
After several seconds of numbly staring at each other, Beck urged me to hide behind him while he peeked outside, presumably to check whether the coast was clear.
As soon as he peered out, he opened the door wider and dragged in the incredibly handsome black man from the other side.
Chet still had his hand raised because he’d been about to knock at the door. He appeared even sexier than I remembered: tall and muscular, with perfect features, flawless skin, and locs I wanted to touch.
The heightened tension and emotions of the morning made inappropriate thoughts race through my mind: thoughts that were wrong on every level.
As much as Haydn reminded me of Chris Hemsworth’s Thor, Chet also had a sexy actor-cum-superhero doppelgänger in Michael B. Jordan. There were some similarities between Beck and the big-screen Aquaman, but my water witch was much younger.
I’m not sure what kind of wonder woman that made me.
These thoughts should not have been going through my mind right then, but honestly, I didn’t know what to think, so lustful, dirty thoughts were as good as any.
I didn’t even understand what danger threatened us. Witches and monsters were beyond my experience and comprehension, just like most things that had happened to me since arriving in London.
Even though I’d traveled the world and visited exotic places, nothing prepared me for all the weirdness and frightening experiences of the last few days.
Stick to the plan, girl.
We had a plan, but I had yet to learn how it would work. Despite my skepticism, I went along with it for lack of other options.
Chet put his finger on his lips. And even though Beck and I both blocked the doorway, he took a step further inside, pushing right past us, and closed the door.
In a hushed whisper, he said, “Hayden’s brought us a few minutes. He’s taking his mother to Church Street to look at some burnt-out house, but it won’t take them long. Let’s get you set up in the office. Niall is already there explaining the plan to Rose and co.”
I frowned. “Neal? Niall? How does he know the plan?”
“We listened to the conversation Haydn had with his mother on the doorstep.”
Chet ignored my reference to Neal, the pseudonym used by Niall when we had our threesome. It seemed like a lifetime ago, back when I was a normal girl trying to make her way in the world without being mauled by dogs and oblivious to magic, witches, and vampires. Oh, happy days.
“How did you hear that? Beck told me sound doesn’t escape from the house.”
“From inside the house.” Chet angled his head to the side as if to say, really? “Fire was outside, or at least his head was outside because we heard him, and that must have been on purpose. He intended for us to listen so we’d be ready to swing into action and help. Now Haydn’s left the street, and if he needs backup, Tu is shadowing him, so we should get up to the office.”
Chet clicked open the door again and put his ear to the gap.
“Just wait a couple more seconds, and they should turn the corner.” His expression showed his concentration as he listened to the footfall of people retreating some distance away.
“Right, it’s time to go. Please don’t say a word while we’re on the street and be careful what you say when outside this house. Let’s install you in the office and make it look like you’re working.”
And that’s what we did.
Half a minute later, I stood in the first-floor office in Rose’s house, where they’d already piled up papers for me to put away into filing cabinets, so if anyone checked up on me, they’d see me attending to genuine work tasks.
Rose, Emma, and Amber all looked terrified as they busied about. So terrified that they barely looked me in the eye.
They didn’t speak. They hardly breathed.
But they made coffee and toast with marmalade, so it wasn’t all bad.
Their fear was contagious, even though I didn’t understand what I should be afraid of. My life had taken a complete turn about. One day I’d been enjoying an extended gap year, traveling the world. And next, I found myself part of this secret organization. Not just another member of the group, but its future leader, supposedly because I might be incredibly powerful.
None of it made much sense with my limited exposure to witchcraft.
What the hell had I done?
One minute I’d been in a cemetery, and the next, I was in a dark underground tunnel; I’d pulled buried treasure out of a wall of earth and similarly found a silver chalice buried in a graveyard.
Somehow, I’d had out-of-body experiences without taking hallucinogenics.
Had someone tricked, drugged, or hypnotized me?
“This senior person from the witch council, she’s like the equivalent of a government minister, isn’t she? Doesn’t it seem strange that she would arrive here on her own?” I asked Amber when everyone else left us alone in the office with coffee and toast.
“No.” Amber seemed puzzled by my question. “Her son lives here. She hasn’t seen him in a long while, so I think it’s no surprise she arrived ahead of any others. I think she came sooner deliberately to see him.”
“I don’t know; something doesn’t seem right.” I didn’t want to insult Amber’s intelligence, but it didn’t seem right to me.
“She went straight to her son’s home; that’s not strange. What’s wrong with that? She’s here early for her son and to have a reunion with him without other people watching.”
Unconvinced by Amber’s words, I had no counter-argument, so I shut my mouth. I couldn’t put my finger on what exactly didn’t add up.
I was just a normal girl a few days earlier, but since then, I’d discovered a world of magic.
Or had I?
I’d heard fantastic stories and believed them because I wanted to be a part of the community with the lovely characters in the street, plus I’d seen things I couldn’t explain.
But how true was any of it? It seemed far-fetched, and there had to be a simpler, rational scientific explanation for everything.
Was it a hoax?
One giant prank?
A fraud?
Had I become mixed up with a cult?
Everything I’d seen Hayden and Beck do may have been neat party tricks and might have a rational explanation.
The vampire with freaky teeth and super fast speed seemed real enough — at the time. An amateur illusionist could probably perform those tricks, lighting candles, filling up glasses with water, and drying mud to turn it into sand with a wave of a finger.
Bringing a storm? That was a bit more dramatic, but perhaps he’d checked the weather report? Perhaps, somehow even the strangest things could be explained.
Like, I remember seeing clips of the mentalist Derren Brown. He convinced people of anything by hypnotizing people and waking them up hours later. One man believed the sun had fallen out of the sky, and another that the zombie apocalypse had begun. Did something like that happen to me? Did that explain the elaborate labyrinth below Varu’s house?
A hoax seemed more plausible than me waking up one day to discover an alternative supernatural world coexisting alongside normality.
The Summer House Road people seemed genuinely convinced they lived in this alternative world, so instead of conspiring to trick me, it seemed possible that the coven members had become the duped victims of a crazy cult.
If many people suffered delusions, that might explain everything.
They didn’t want me to leave; that was clear. And I wanted to belong somewhere. I wanted the residents of the street to be the family I’d never had. But I had to keep in mind they were close to my criminally insane, mass-murderer mother, and they seemed to still love and cherish her.
Why would they do that?
Why did my mother do what she did?
Money attracts people, and they do mad things because of it, so that was worth considering. My wealthy mother made me the heir to a great fortune, one that I’d been unaware of. My school fees had been paid, my travels abroad were funded, and there was no limit to my ability to access money at will. I could tour the world indefinitely.
Did these people intend to suck me into the cult so the funds would continue to flow and support their lifestyle?
I also discovered I’d had three shadowy bodyguards; Chet, Niall, and Tu had followed me around the world for several years.
Shaking my head to dismiss my troubling thoughts, I had no time to work through them. I had to be on guard, be wary, trust no one, no matter how sexy these blokes were. And not just the men, but the genderqueer androgynous Tu, who stomped around in biker gear, their lips always set in a firm, determined line, and looking like a mysterious, moody, James-Dean, bad boy type.
CONTINUE READING BY downloading Air
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Also by Helen J Perry
Elemental Reverse Harem Quartet
Earth: Elemental Reverse Harem Quartet
Water: Elemental Reverse Harem Quartet
Fire Elemental Reverse Harem Quartet
Sons of Olympus
Defenders: Sons Of Olympus Reverse Harem Romance
Ravens: Sons of Olympus Reverse Harem Romance
Architects: Sons of Olympus Reverse Harem Romance
Sons of Olympus Trilogy Boxset
Watch for more at Helen J Perry’s site.
About the Author
Helen J Perry is a mature British mother of 3.
A bespectacled woman who loves science fiction.
A short lady, a far lady, a lover of chocolate and books in any order but together is good...
because why choose?
Read more at Helen J Perry’s site.
Helen J Perry, Fire Elemental Reverse Harem Quartet
