Bombshell (Monstrous Ink #2)

Chapter 4

“ A nd why am I back learning the foundations of magic again?” I complained as I used my vines to push the ancient tome that Alexander had put in front of me back across the table at him.

It had been two days since we made our little deal and I was already seriously regretting it.

As per our agreement I came up to the mansion every day with Daphne and Cash in tow. Alexander would check her, prescribe prenatal potions, and chant some spells that I’d never heard of let alone seen before and then they left to head back down the hill to the shop.

Meanwhile I was stuck in this mansion with him again for the first time in fifty years.

Never did I ever think I would be back here, sitting at the same ancient table in the same ancient library learning about the same old magic again.

And yet here I was, fulfilling my end of the bargain to a man I could barely stand. As long as he helped keep Daphne and her baby healthy, I would come and learn magic from him in the afternoons now that my magic had, as he put it, ‘matured .’ Alexander spoke about it like it was a second puberty— gag .

Truthfully, it didn’t feel any different than I usually did. I’d even tried using simple spells earlier and they fizzled out without so much as a spark… just like they always did.

“Because you seem to have forgotten the basics in the half a century you were away,” Alexander said, pushing the book back to me without looking up from the practice test he’d given me once we’d sat down for our lesson today.

I snorted at his word choice. Away was one way to put it. I preferred to say that I ran away, though being booted from the mansion and the coven was probably a more apt description of the events that led up to me leaving.

Shaking off the memories of that rainy night fifty years ago I opened the book with a sigh. It looked just like it had when I was seven years old reading it for the first time, and just as boring too.

Alexander had been a lot more affectionate then, sitting next to me as I sounded out the ancient spells written in Latin like I was sounding out the words in a picture book.

Years after that, as my peers passed me by, Alexander didn’t sit next to me anymore and instead stood over me during our lessons, clearly upset that his own child wasn’t as talented as he was.

The spells depicted in this book were basic. Elemental spells, spells to move objects, spells to change the appearance of something—all things that young witches and wizards learned by the time they were twelve years old and all things that I had always struggled with.

“Try the first one.” Alexander pointed to a levitation spell, the simplest of the bunch. I’d always had some success with that one, though toddlers seemed to still do it better than me.

Looking at the objects that were laid out in front of me, I focused on a golden apple paper weight and muttered the spell, watching as it lifted into the air and wobbled there.

“It seems you can at least do that still,” Alexander muttered under his breath as he scribbled something down on his notepad.

The next few hours were long with Alexander pointing at a spell and me attempting it to the best of my ability.

By the time he finally ended it, the reservoir of magic that always sat deep in my chest felt stretched and empty in a way that it hadn’t been in a long time.

Spells and spellcasting had always seemed to wear on me much more than the average witch—especially seeing as most of the magic users in our coven could pull on the shared reservoir of magic from the White Ponderosa. These spells shouldn’t have taken much out of me but as I sat back in my chair I felt my limbs start to shake with exhaustion.

“Somewhat better than when you were a child,” Alexander said, oblivious to my current state as he looked over his notes. “You still can’t use any of the elements outside of earth which is quite disappointing. ”

“Is that so surprising? I’m literally half-tree.” I rolled my eyes, confident he wouldn’t notice it.

Alexander didn’t miss a beat as his dark blue eyes met mine. “Then that just means you should be more in touch with nature, Euphemia.”

“Well then maybe my magic isn’t as mature as you say,” and that means maybe I can wriggle my way out of our deal, I added silently, resisting the urge to stick my tongue out at him like I used to also do when I was a child. I was half-afraid I was regressing all the way back and soon I’d have a face full of pimples again. It figured that, out of all of the humanistic traits I inherited from Alexander, acne had been at the top of the damn list.

“No it definitely is. It leaks out of you at an alarming rate and goes all over the place. I’m surprised none of the riffraff you spend so much time with down at the Wharf haven’t told you yet.”

I shifted uncomfortably in my seat. Truthfully, I was one of the few magic users that lived on the Wharf. Sure, we had them come through the shop for tattoos, but more often than not I made myself scarce on days we had them on the books.

Other magic users could clock that I wasn’t normal in the blink of an eye and their expressions reminded me too much of the coven members who used to whisper about me behind my back. They always knew just how much of an ‘other’ I was and I didn’t have the time to go into a spiral of self pity every time they blew through to get inked up .

So, instead of answering Alexander’s question, I changed the subject. “So what’s the game plan? I come here and we read spells out of a spellbook until you decide that my magic can’t be developed anymore? Then you send me on my merry way and we can agree to come back to it in another fifty years?”

“No you’re needed now,” Alexander said almost absent-mindedly before his dark eyes widened, telling me that I wasn’t meant to hear those words.

“Why am I needed now?” I asked, frowning as he straightened his suit looking as flustered as I’d ever seen him. “You and your coven have never needed me, I’m your weird tree daughter, remember?”

It was Alexander’s turn to frown. “You are not weird Euphemia, you are unique. A special being.”

For just a moment I was transported back to when I was a little girl and I used to tell on the other children who’d make fun of me. He’d reacted the same way then as he did now, but nothing ever changed and I eventually stopped saying anything at all.

“You’re dodging my question. Why am I needed now?”

It had been strange enough that he’d basically shown up out of the blue the night of my last magical freak out and pushed for me to come back and learn magic from him, but now he needed me?

Had I woken up in some sort of alternate reality? Was I about to be on a very supernatural episode of Punk’d ? If Ashton Kutcher popped out from somewhere I was going to lose my damn mind. The guy had always given me the heebie jeebies and that was saying something seeing as I worked at the adult equivalent of Halloweentown down at the Wharf. I knew both heebie and jeebie very well.

“You’re needed because you are my daughter and my heir,” Alexander said after another beat of silence, clearly unaware of the inner monologue ping-ponging in my brain about 90s heartthrobs that gave me the Ick with a capital ‘I’.

I scoffed at that seeing as it wasn’t a full answer in the slightest. “An heir who can’t even perform basic spells? The coven would riot if you tried to put me in charge, hell, I’d riot. You do realize I’m not coming back, right? Not really. Once Daphne safely gives birth I’m done here and I will be on my merry way.”

Alexander looked almost hurt by my words as he tucked the notepad he was holding under his arm with a sigh. “Regardless of what will happen in six months, you are going to learn magic. That was the deal, Euphemia.”

“And I will always keep my end of the bargain, Alexander, but how am I supposed to learn magic when most spell incantations I say blow up in my face?”

I was frustrated, thinking of all of the spells he’d made me read out over the past few hours that hadn’t worked at all.

“I think we need to take a different approach to it this time, try something new. Something more, ah, holistic .”

Even I had to admit that I was curious about his words. Even if he’d used the word holistic which I’d never heard the prim and proper man so much as ever utter in the sixty-seven years that I’d known him. “New? What could we possibly try that you haven’t already forced me to try?”

He’d tried it all when I was younger. Special diets, training stamina, trying and failing to teach me to use magic the nymph way—turns out I couldn’t do any of that magic either. Nope, other than my love of plants and the vines on my back, I was basically a witch… except not really at all.

“I tried to teach you like a witch and I’ve tried to teach you like a nymph, but what if we tried somewhere in the middle? Obviously spell incantations don’t work for you and you can’t access the magic of the earth the way your nymph aunts could—that must mean you fall somewhere in the middle.”

I squinted at him, trying to figure out if the real Alexander Finch had been abducted and replaced by an alien. The man was always by the book—and by the book I mean the spellbook—he was a traditional wizard through and through, so for him to suggest that we throw the book away and go with a compromise like this…? It was weird as fuck.

Later, after our lesson had ended with only mumbled goodbyes from Alexander who seemed to still be deep in thought about his change in teaching methods, I was leaving the mansion to head back down the hill when I was quickly reminded of another reason I didn’t like being at the mayor’s mansion came strolling down the hall.

“So I see the prodigal daughter has finally returned,” Arsenio Sidhe greeted me as he practically floated down the steps to where I was standing. Ever the king of his own castle, he was dressed in the finest suit money could buy—and even then I was pretty sure it was enchanted to the point of being stronger than any body armor. I wasn’t exactly sure how old the faerie man was, but he looked just like a movie star from the 40s, all windswept blond hair, tanned skin, and a deceptively friendly dimple. But even as handsome as he was, I hated the man with every fiber of my being. “We were out of town or else I would have greeted you sooner.”

I frowned, curious about who he meant by ‘we’ until I saw the big blue eyes peeking around his broad shoulders.

“Effie!” Odette Sidhe threw a jaunty wave in my direction, grinning at me until her father shot her a quelling look that made the pretty faerie cringe and stand up a little straighter.

Born only a couple of years after me, Odette had been the one person to make this house bearable when I lived here and losing her as a friend was one of my few regrets I had about leaving.

The birth of faerie children was a rare occurrence in the modern times, so Odette’s mere existence was exalted by everyone of her kind. But while she may have been treated like true royalty, I also knew that she was also lonelier than most. When we were little she was almost never allowed to go outside let alone leave the mansion grounds, so it was surprising that she seemed to be allowed to go out with Arsenio now.

I wanted to grin at her too, but her father’s hovering presence was making that hard. He always hated that we were friends, but despite living for at least a millennium on this mortal coil, there was only one thing in the universe that could soften Arsenio up and that was his daughter.

Crossing my arms over my chest, I glared at the man, my vines tightening against my back with irritation. “I haven’t returned.”

Arsenio blinked, clearly forgetting that I wasn’t a scrawny eighteen year old that he could intimidate whenever he liked anymore.

While I’d been allowed to live in this fancy mansion with my father, Arsenio never let me forget what I was: a freak of nature, and worse than that? I was a useless freak of nature.

Arsenio could abide anything if it was useful, but if it didn’t have a purpose? Then he tried his damndest to get it out of his sight. Like how you’d get bugs off of your windshield with the wipers, spraying and squishing them until they fly off on the interstate in smithereens.

I still hadn’t forgotten what he said to me fifty years ago the day before I ran away and it was all coming back up to the surface as we continued to glare at each other.

Odette’s blue eyes jumped between the both of us before she finally slipped around her father and hurried forward to take my hand. “I’ll walk Effie out, Daddy! I know you have that meeting!”

“Odette—” Arsenio began, a reprimand clear in his voice, but Odette ignored him, dragging me through the front doors and into the chilly afternoon air.

The sky overhead was dark and it looked like it would rain soon, but even the bleak surroundings couldn’t dull Odette’s inner shine. And by shine I quite literally meant the physical light coming out of her body. Young faeries couldn’t control their forms as well as their older counterparts which meant that the blonde woman in me seemed to glow with a pale gold light as we stood on the stone front porch of the mansion together.

“Sorry about Daddy,” she apologized sheepishly. “He’s been really stressed out lately and it’s making him grumpy.”

I snorted at that. There were a lot of words that I would use to describe Arsenio, but the word grumpy was definitely too cute for the tyrannical faerie that rules over Port Haven like it was his kingdom.

“Anyway, I was so happy to hear you’re finally coming back again! It’s been so lonely without you here all these years…” The way Odette said it made the same familiar twinge of guilt I always felt when I thought about her twist in my chest.

An apology quickly rose to my lips. “Sorry that I never reached out… I wasn’t even sure how to.”

Fifty years ago the mansion was kept under the tightest of security—no one got in or out without my father and his wards knowing about it and there was no way Alexander would have let me in after I vowed to never return. Young faeries are vulnerable and being the only daughter of the fae that ran the Northern hemisphere made her a target—which meant that my leaving barred me from seeing or speaking to her pretty much permanently.

“It’s all right,” Odette murmured with a shrug as she began to twist and wring her long blonde curls in her hands—a nervous tic that she seemed to never have grown out of. “But you’re going to come back again, right? Daddy said you’ll be taking magic lessons again from Alexander.”

I nodded. “Three times a week.”

Odette brightened immediately, her inner glow growing stronger again. “Does that mean you’ll hang out with me afterward? Alexander told me you run a tattoo shop and I’d love to show you my sketches. I’ve always been curious about tattoos, but don’t tell Daddy.”

It was strange that Alexander had talked about me at all, let alone told her about Monstrous Ink. It was no secret that Dallan was the biggest thorn in Arsenio’s, and by extension my father’s, side when it came to his Wharf redevelopment project.

“Oh, I don’t know…” I trailed off, not wanting to make her any promises that I wasn’t sure I could keep. I didn’t want to be at the mansion any longer than I needed to and post-lesson hang outs would mean exactly that..

Odette gave my hands a plaintive squeeze. “Please, Effie? I haven’t had a real female friend since you left and all of the girls that Alexander sends from the coven are the worst.”

At that, I found my resolve crumbling. I knew exactly what kind of girls that were our age belonged to the North Coast coven and I couldn’t blame Odette for not wanting to be around them.

“I’ll think about it,” I finally surrendered, gently pulling my hands from hers as I turned to hurry down the stone steps to where my little moped was waiting for me .

My words seemed to be enough for Odette because she bounced up and down where she was standing, her grin wide as she waved at me. “That’s good enough for me! See you on Friday!”

Then she turned and hurried into the house, leaving me standing next to my scooter with a dazed expression.

It had only taken forty-eight hours for me to start to blend back into life at the mansion and it worried me.

By the time Daphne gave birth, just how ingrained would I be again and would I still be able to retain my freedom in the end?

I wasn’t sure, but even as I drove down the long winding driveway, back toward Port Haven, my instincts seemed to be screaming at me to drive as far away from the mansion as possible and never look back.