The Gray Prophecy, page 6
Her Eye fluttered open, this time gently.
Two boys played in the garden. Their pants were stained with grass and mud, and their hair was caked with sand and sweat, freckled skin shining in the sun. The smaller boy grabbed a shovel and started eagerly digging. Excitedly, he leaped to his feet, clutching an orange plastic dinosaur. “Ma, I found another one!”
Rain dripped from the sky, summoned by his triumph. The boys tipped back their heads with wide smiles, greeting the cool drops as a woman laughed warmly in the distance.
Cori recognized the little boy with the chestnut brown hair and dirty sneakers as she snapped back into reality and saw Adrian’s head bowed over the table. Despite the happiness in the memory, sorrow welled within her. This glimpse into the past shadows of this garden made her yearn deeper for the times that she had spent with her own family.
Seeing the Huxleys interact in such an easy, warm way left a hollow ache within her. It had been that way with her family once, but it was so long ago it felt like that piece of her had gone cold.
Ariel shivered, wrapping herself in a thick, colorful sweater. “It's not even October yet, and it's already cold,” she complained. She sat in front of the stone fire pit, and the wood erupted into flame.
Cori’s sucked in a breath. A Fire Elemental. Her mother had told her stories of how the Fire Elementals were the only survivors of the burnings that led to the formation of the Covenant against dark magic. According to the legends, the Fire Elementals passed down a desire for vengeance to their descendants.
Cori saw Adrian roll his eyes. “Show-off,” he muttered under his breath.
“What was that?” Ariel asked, reaching her hand directly into the fire to adjust the wood. “If you weren’t enjoying the warm fire, I’ll make it go away.”
In an instant, the flames extinguished in the fire pit as the napkin Adrian was folding started to smolder and smoke in his hands.
“Holy shit, Ariel,” Adrian scolded as he dropped the steaming napkin on the worn wooden table. Suddenly, the water from a nearby glass pitcher leaped into the air and neatly extinguished the flame. Cori watched Adrian shake the napkin, and it was bone-dry again immediately. “You could have burned me that time.” He frowned at her and slowly shook his head with annoyance.
Her face lit up with playful teasing that only a little sister could muster. She cocked her head at him, fire in her eyes. “I light a fire pit, and I’m a show-off, but you make water soar through the air, and that’s OK?” She shot back. She turned back to the fire pit, and it was alight once more. She nodded her head toward the table as a dozen tea lights flickered to life.
“Yeah, because I was simply reacting to your insanity. It was instinct. Completely different,” he calmly reasoned as he continued to fold the napkins.
Cori noted that the water had rematerialized in the pitcher. “How did you refill the pitcher?” she asked curiously.
“Oh, I just summoned it from the air,” he explained nonchalantly. “Easy in the summer, when the air is so humid. Harder to do it in the winter when the air is dry, but there’s always vapor in the air.”
Cori suddenly became acutely aware of the humidity all around her. A cool mist brushed by her cheek as Adrian looked up from his task and smiled. “So, you aren’t all Water Elementals, then?” she asked.
Adrian shook his head. “Pop, my brother, Seth, and I are Water. Ariel is Fire. Mom is Ground.”
Just then, another broad-shouldered man stood in the doorway. He leaned on its frame, massaging a bag of frozen peas to his neck. He groaned when the sunlight struck him, and he stepped tentatively onto the deck like a linebacker that had just been tackled, retreating to the sidelines.
Just as tall as his brother but with cropped hair, a full beard, and rougher features, Seth waddled into his chair, eyes squinting in pain. Cori noticed a large intricate tattoo of what appeared to be a whale tail peeking out of the neck of his white T-shirt onto his thick neck. Ariel rolled her eyes as she lounged back in her chair, scrolling through her phone.
“Ah, here comes our gallant hero, licking his wounds as he recovers from the most impressive array of masculinity the folks Down East have ever witnessed,” David teased from the porch.
“Don’t ask.” Adrian shook his head at Cori’s inquisitive look. “Seth got himself into quite the pickle today, and in doing so completely ruined my weekend.”
He looked at his brother who gave a guilty shrug in reply before settling into his chair with a grunt. He kicked up his feet on the empty seat next to him.
“One good thing came of it, though,” Seth smirked at Adrian. “Jess just texted asking if I was OK.” He raised his eyebrows. “Then she asked if there was anything she could do to make me feel better,” he added with a wicked grin.
Ariel pretended to gag.
Hannah appeared out of nowhere and smacked her oldest son on the back of the head, hard.
“Damn it, Ma! What is wrong with you?” Seth winced, looking wounded.
“What is wrong with you? We have a guest over, and this is the first impression you’re giving her. She probably thinks you’re a macho loon.”
“Sorry, Cori,” Seth said in his smoothest retort. “I didn’t realize I was being so uncouth in the pleasure of your company."
Cori hid her amused smile behind her water glass as she stifled a laugh. David chuckled outright at his son’s series of misfortunes.
As David stepped in to give Seth some tips on how to respond to the text message, much to Hannah’s chagrin, Cori took in the scene in front of her. Ariel happily dipped her biscuit in the brisket's juice, while Hannah dressed one of the most colorful salads she had ever seen.
Cori looked up from the table and locked eyes with Adrian as he took a sip from his bottle of beer. She inhaled sharply at the sight of his eyes and the constellation of freckles in perfect alignment above them. She glanced up at the sky, Saturn growing brighter over the ocean as the sun set behind her back.
“What time are the two of you headed over to fix Auggie’s boat?” David asked Seth.
“I told him we would be there early, eight at the latest,” Seth explained. At this Adrian groaned. “I don’t want the whole day to be ruined. With the size of that dent, I’m guessing it will take at least two hours. I am probably going to need to take off at least half of the wood on the port side and replace it. Do you have any spare planks in the shed?”
At that moment, Cori felt her stomach lurch, as her Eye snapped to attention.
The morning air was cool and brisk. Adrian and Seth sat on the dock, sidled up next to a large white boat. An old man sat on a crate nearby, detangling a net and muttering under his breath.
A drill plugged into a frayed extension cord snaked through the work area emitting a warmth that was heavy and electric. Adrian picked up the drill, dragging the cord into a puddle near the crate with an unnatural, ethereal shimmer. His finger depressed the trigger on the drill as a spark arced from the cord, setting the floor around the old man into a heavy blaze.
She gasped as she snapped back to the reality of the dinner table, her Eye retreating deep into her gut, bile rising in her throat in its wake. The smell of electric heat and singed flesh hung in her nose, so real she almost coughed on the smell. She was breathing fast, her skin was clammy, and her heart was pounding with panic.
She clenched the table with white knuckles, cursing her Eye.
Adrian’s eyes were fixed on her.
Hannah had gone pale. “Cori, honey…are you OK?” she asked softly.
Cori tipped up her chin and looked toward Adrian, still recovering from her vision. “You can’t fix that boat tomorrow morning.”
Seth dipped his head low and raised his eyebrows. “What do you mean we can’t fix the boat tomorrow?” he asked incredulously. “I promised Auggie I would fix it. To be honest, I want to fix it, I need to, after everything that happened today. It would be the only fair thing to do.” He cocked his head at Cori in anticipation.
Across the table, David’s fork was frozen halfway en route to his mouth, and Ariel was peering at her over the blue light of her cell phone. Hannah stared back at Cori, a look of maternal concern etched into her brow.
Cori forced her breaths to slow. How was she going to explain this? She tried to reel in the panic attack that was blooming in her gut. Nonna had always said she couldn't control these visions, but she had quieted her magic in New Haven.
Ever since she had stepped foot in this town, her Eye was a beast she could no longer control. Here of all places, eating dinner with a family of strangers, witches no less.
She really wanted these people to like her, and that was a new sentiment for her. Being alone was safer. It was easier—until the moment this family invited her into their home. Until the moment she got a taste of what she had been yearning for. She was sick of being lonely, but she was not about to reveal another colossal piece of information about herself. This part of her was out-of-bounds, vowed into silence, and locked away.
Cori paused, overwhelmed, as she tried to figure out a way to get herself out of this mess. She opened her mouth to muddle through a response when Adrian’s voice broke the silence.
“I had promised Cori I was going to take her out on Anne’s boat in the morning,” he said coolly, the lie gliding effortlessly from his lips. Cori attempted to conceal her shock as she slowly turned her head toward him, mouth slightly agape. “She needs to get a feel for the embankment, and she said she’d never operated a sterndrive before.” He took a sip from his water glass casually as he gestured toward Seth. “I had no idea you had volunteered my services,” he continued, rolling his eyes.
David eyed him shrewdly. “That was very nice of you to offer, son.” There was a barely detectable teasing lilt to his voice.
Seth smirked at this as Hannah’s eyes shot daggers at him.
“I’m not familiar with the sterndrive at all,” she lied, hiding her shaking hands under the table. “Adrian suggested I get the hang of it before my first run on Monday morning. The drop-off seems to be more irregular here. I don’t want to scrape the bottom on my first trip out.” The hammering of her heart slowed down as she built on the lie, tension easing from her chest. “Anne has been so generous to me. I’m staying in her guest cottage rent-free.”
She watched the furrow on Hannah’s face relax, replaced with a look of commiserate understanding as she nodded her head in reply. The rest of the family was busy with the last bites of their pie, seemingly nonplussed by her irrational outburst.
Seth shoved an entire biscuit in his mouth as he finally nodded at her. “Nice. Cori, we’ll pick you up at seven thirty, sharp. You can help us with Auggie. Maybe he’ll be kinder to us in the presence of a lady.”
A sigh of relief broke through her lips as she sipped the last few drops of her wine. She exchanged a look with Adrian. Cori opened herself up to his aura. Suspicion and a hint of resentment.
“Anne probably doesn’t mind you living in the guest cottage,” Ariel said matter-of-factly. “It puts another human barrier between her and Richard’s house.”
David smacked the table as he let out a thunderous laugh.
“You’ve got a point there.” Hannah chuckled in return as the rest of the family nodded in unanimous agreement and amusement.
“Who’s Richard?” Cori asked, emptying her glass. At this, Hannah refilled Cori’s wine.
They spent the last hour of their meal regaling her with tale after ridiculous tale of their neighbor Richard. He and his wife lived in the house between Anne’s property and the Huxleys’ farmhouse.
Richard was an artist, and he had a habit of collecting odd objects from around the neighborhood and fashioning them into sculptures. One summer, he had stolen a perfectly good hubcap from Seth’s new truck. Weeks later they discovered it as the centerpiece of a new water feature Richard had crafted in his garden.
Ariel told a story of how Richard had tried to kidnap Anne’s cat after she had developed a habit of taking naps in his window boxes. Turtle, to nobody’s surprise, did not come quietly. She had marked him with so many scratches, Richard tried to sue Anne for assault.
Geoff had retaliated with a phony court summons, leaving it on Richard’s doorstep in an official-looking envelope, citing “cat napping” and “endangering the welfare of a feline.”
At this point in the story, Hannah was laughing so hard she was crying. “So, the next week, he tried to kidnap her again.”
Cori belly-laughed in disbelief. The second bottle of wine was empty now. “How was that supposed to help the situation?”
“The bastard sent back the envelope with a lock of the cat’s hair tucked into it,” David roared.
Cori nearly spit out her wine. “Oh, poor Turtle!” she laughed.
“You’re acquainted with the cat?” David asked.
“Oh, I’m not just acquainted with her, she’s my roommate,” Cori explained.
“Ah, the stereotype of the witch as the wacky cat lady lives strong in you,” Ariel laughed. “Be careful, Richard might try to kidnap you next.”
Cori shivered. “How did they rescue her?”
“Well, if I remember correctly, Geoff and Moses barged into the house, yelling something about a warrant,” David said, draining his beer. “Don’t worry. If Crazy Richard tries to kidnap you, you could always hit him with a nice curse.”
“I’ll have to work on that,” she said with a content sigh. She had not laughed this hard in a very long time. She closed her eyes as the wine, the fire, and the sound of laughter filled her with a feeling of contentment she hadn’t experienced in years.
Seth eventually stood up with a stretch of his arms, rubbing the muscles on the back of his neck. “Better call it a night if we are going to be fixing boats on a Sunday morning,” he explained. He nodded at Cori, and said, “See you bright and early, then?”
Cori nodded as she stood. “I should get home as well—still lots of unpacking to do,” she lied.
Adrian stood automatically in response. “I’ll walk you home,” he stated, looking at her with a stare that penetrated her skin. It wasn’t posed as a request or a question, and Cori had the feeling he wouldn’t accept “no” as an answer.
Adrian
Rocks and broken shells crunched under Adrian’s sneakers as he walked down the sandy garden path to the side gate, Cori at his heels. It was difficult to see now in the darkness, but the fullness of the moon provided an eerie glow that guided him toward the path along the cliffside. Cori walked beside him on the grass-lined walkway.
Her delicate heart-shaped face was angled toward the sky as she strode along, her eyebrows furrowed and her lips pursed. Her eyes asked an unsaid question, the golden flecks becoming even more illuminated in the moonglow.
They reached the driveway that led to Anne’s cottage as her voice broke through the rhythm of the waves. “You didn’t have to lie for me, you know,” she said. She had stopped in her tracks, inquisitive eyes now focused intently on him.
He didn’t know why he had lied for her.
When she had snapped out of whatever trancelike state she had slipped into at dinner, he could tell she was on the verge of panic. If he hadn’t been studying her so closely to begin with, perhaps he wouldn’t have noticed the change in her at all. It lasted only for a moment. Her eyes had become opaque, and the golden hue seemed to be sucked from them for an instant.
It felt like only a few heartbeats had elapsed, but he could sense something was wrong. That she had left.
He had been studying her closely because, well, he couldn’t help himself. When he had sensed her presence on the dock the day before, the electrical tingle seemed to stay on his skin and linger there. After meeting her on the beach this morning, it felt like a piece of her was embedded within his skin.
“Not that big of a deal. It was only the second time today I saved you from something unpleasant,” he reasoned. He smiled easily at her, remembering how she had almost gotten washed away by the tide this morning.
There were many things he would rather do than help Seth fix Auggie’s boat, but the thought of spending the morning with Cori alone on the water seemed like more than an adequate excuse. “What happened to you at dinner?” he asked.
Cori’s face turned ghostly white. She hesitated, her mouth opening and closing with half-formed words. What exactly was she holding back from him?
She released a breath and squared her shoulders. “Sometimes that happens to me,” she said carefully and slowly. “I had a feeling like if you went to work on that boat something bad was going to happen to you. In my head, I saw a fire.” She breathed out a sigh as she looked up at him. “I know it sounds strange. I just didn’t want you to get hurt. That’s all.”
He pursed his lips together in thought. “I’m a Water Elemental, Cori,” he reminded her. “Usually, fire isn’t a problem for me…” he trailed off in thought, “Unless it was an electrical fire.”
Cori’s eyes widened at this statement, but Adrian shrugged, nonplussed. They continued walking down the side street. She craned her neck to see into Richard’s front yard, her interest kindled by the dinnertime storytelling. He smiled secretly at her as she stood on tiptoes to get a look over the fence, fidgeting nervously again with the dainty bracelet on her wrist. She wasn’t nearly tall enough to see over to the other side.
“Need a boost?” he teased her.
The tension in her brow fractured as she laughed. “No thanks. I’ll just have to imagine what it looks like over there until I can investigate in the daylight hours.”
She seemed more relaxed as they walked along the path to the gate. Adrian had always been naturally empathic, but he couldn’t remember a time he seemed so in tune to another person.
He let her walk a few steps ahead of him and watched the way the moonlight traced lines over her shoulders. She tipped her hand out slightly, grazing the tips of the boxwoods with her fingers as she walked along the path.
