I pull off the shoulder of the on-ramp and ease Hi-Ho Silver up to the metering light. The light flashes green and we’re off, speeding westbound on I-80, merging between a FedEx truck and a VW bug the color of a candy apple.
Fields of parched olive trees sprawl from the shoulders of the road all the way to the horizon in every direction. The sweltering sun bleaches the sky a shimmering silver.
I’ve pulled my russet thatch into a turquoise-beaded scrunchie and pulled the ponytail through a second time. But my makeshift chignon scarcely cools me. The chain with my Eye of Horus traces a hot silver trail around my neck, the amulet smoldering in the hollow of my throat. Silver rings on every finger, silver bangles stacked on wrists, and a silver ankle bracelet burn bands of heat where metal meets flesh. Sweat slicks my skin beneath a turquoise tank top and trickles between my breasts. Below the denim short shorts, my dancer’s thighs just about melt in the leather bucket seat. Only my feet in strappy Isis sandals aren’t grilled Abby.
“Where you headed, dear Abby?”
“Same town as you. I just got accepted by the Berkeley College of Magical Arts and Crafts.”
“Hey, congrats.”
“Thanks. And I’m interviewing for a job on campus that sounds too good to be true. It’s not a sure thing, not by a long shot, but if everything works out? I can pay the tuition and start my first class tomorrow. I’m all fired up.”
I am more than all fired up, I am smokin’. I need that first class, need all the classes that will follow. I need guidance. I need instruction. My survival depends on learning to master my power.
So my mother told me on her deathbed, only days ago. Days ago? Try a lifetime ago. She told me other things, too, secrets I’d never known my whole life. Family secrets. Terrible secrets, shocking and strange.
“I wish I could go to magic school, but I can’t afford it.”
“I can’t afford not to.” It’s been good packing up my life. Good leaving my hometown behind. I’ve had no time for tears, for grieving. I glance at him, to find his sly blue eyes trained on me. “You’ve got some handshake yourself. A magician’s handshake. If you don’t mind my saying so, Brand, you’ve got a lot of power.”
He laughs his comradely laugh. “Nah, just a touch. Not enough to leap over tall buildings or stop a speeding bullet. I’ve never had any schooling, not like what you’re going to get. But it’s true, I’ve had to keep secrets. Even a touch of power can be a tricky thing. Especially when you’ve hooked up with someone who hasn’t got any.”
This rings a bell. A big, big bell. “Tell me?”
“This friend is putting me up till I find a place of my own. A girlfriend once, serious shit for a while, but we just couldn’t make it work. She accused me of holding something back, and she was right. I couldn’t share my power with her, and she had no power of her own to share with me.”
“She figured out you’ve got power?”
“She saw enough of me in action. It drove her nuts.”
“Huh. Well, something sure was missing between me and Daniel.” I’d be lying if I didn’t admit I’ve missed Daniel Stern since the day I broke off our engagement. I miss the way he sweetly kneaded the knots out of my shoulders. I miss a whole lot more than that. Once I thought the heat between us would be enough to sustain a marriage. “Something I knew would always be missing. Something I didn’t ever dare talk about. Not with him.”
“The magic.”
“The magic, yeah.”
“Then here’s to magic, dear Abby.” He boldly reaches over the gearshift for another handshake.
I shouldn’t. I really, really shouldn’t. But I do it, anyway. “To magic.”
And his hand pulses in mine, electric, electrifying. His power beats in syncopation with the quickening beat of my heart.
A massive bank of black thunderheads abruptly boils up out of the west, drenching the road with cool, fat raindrops and gracing Hi-Ho Silver with a free car wash.
I wrench my hand away. The nerve this guy has.
Then the deluge ceases, just like that. No lingering pitter-pat of raindrops, no departing grumble of thunder. The thunderheads roll away, receding into the east, and vanish just as suddenly as they’d appeared.
Once more the sweltering sun bleaches the sky a shimmering silver. Raindrops clinging to the olive trees glimmer, a million tiny diamonds among dripping leaves. Ghostly streamers of hot mist drift up from the fields.
My jaw just about drops to my sandals. “Was that a freak storm or did you do that?”
“You did that, dear Abby.”
“No, I swear!” It’s all I can do to keep my eyes on the road as I speed down the freeway at seventy-five miles an hour. “Did we do that together?”
“If we did, I’m not sure what we did.”
Is he being disingenuous? Lying? Jerking me around?
No doubt.
Do I mind? Strangely, I don’t.
“That, Brand my friend, is why I’m going back to school. Magic school.”
********
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