Interrupted Magic by Karla Brandenburg (best reads of all time .TXT) 📕

I didn’t need to be rescued. I’d learned early on to rely on myself.

I couldn’t go to Ian. Not while I worried he might have a part in my current lack of abilities.

I was an ethnobotanist. Whether I mixed “special” orders or not, I knew the properties of the vegetation I grew and how to best use it for natural remedies. I could find a job using my degree. If all else failed, I could try to get back my old job at the botanical garden near Winnsboro.

Tears streamed down my cheeks.

Nora’s voice sliced through my sadness like a ray of hope. “Hold on another day, honey. I’ll be there on Sunday and we can talk everything through. Will you be okay until then?”

“Yeah. I have to go.” I ended the call and struggled with whether to call Ian to tell him I wouldn’t be coming.

Ash chirped a half-meow from her carrier—Ash who’d immediately taken to Ian, climbing to his shoulders and purring, the same way she’d adopted me when I’d found her wandering my garden. “You don’t think he’s the problem?” I asked her.

Her loud purr rumbled inside her carrier and I chuckled, swiping at my tears. “Would be easier if you could talk.”

Over the past several years, I’d learned to trust my instincts, and every fiber of my being told me Ian wasn’t responsible for the glitch in my magic, and yet common sense told me not to forget the hard lessons life had taught me.

I opened the cat carrier and Ash stared at me with her dark blue eyes. She meowed through a purr and I drew a cleansing breath. “You made your feelings about Madeleine pretty clear. And Narcy. And Ian.”

She purr-mewed again.

“You think we should keep going? Not turn back?”

She crawled out of her carrier and nudged my arm with her head. I petted her reflexively. My cat had been a pretty good judge of character, and she’d woven her own protective spells around me in the past. Even if I didn’t trust myself, I trusted her.

I pulled out of the parking lot and continued to Pratt.

I stopped in the cottage driveway, working on my resolve. The dichotomy Ian presented continued to tug at me, from I hardly know this man to I feel like I’ve known him all my life—the irresistible pull of him which made me question my judgment.

The cottage door opened and Ian stood there, watching me decide.

I’d made my choice. Now I had to face it.

I gathered Ash and my overnight bag and walked to the door.

“Are you all right?” he asked.

I considered all the excuses I could give him, but if I wanted honesty from him, I owed him the same. “I’m overwhelmed.”

I rubbed my forehead, aching to be with him, but needing to find my own way out of this mess. My thoughts flashed to the car accident that brought me to Hillendale, to the treachery of my Aunt Theresa who’d tried to steal my future. The loneliness of being different. For the situations life had thrown me into. Orphaned. Unwanted. Lost.

The business Nora had sold to me had failed. I was in danger of losing my friends. I was no longer able to exercise my unusual abilities.

I’d found direction with Aunt Nora, and I’d made a few friends along the way.

Sometimes bad luck has to run its course.

“Is there anything I can do to help?” he asked.

Ash leapt to his shoulders, purring. Ian chuckled, a familiar, comforting sound. She accepted him as he was. I forced a smile. “Can you figure out why my magic isn’t working?”

Ian scooped Ash off his shoulders and set her down inside the cottage, then pulled me inside, into his arms. “When my uncle passed, I was overwhelmed, too,” Ian said. “Moving to Pratt. Dealing with the folly he’d built—I mean, who builds a castle, right?”

I gave way to a smile.

“I miss him so much. Moving into this house, I see him everywhere I look. All the things he taught me. All the things we did together. He was as dear to me as my own father.” Ian sighed. “But that doesn’t solve your problem, does it? I have to wonder if what you’re going through is some sort of defense mechanism, a temporary hiccup until the road ahead straightens out. We can consult the books.”

I shook my head. “No, you’re probably right. Can we go to the tower? To your workshop? Working with the herbs and oils always calms me.”

He studied me a moment before he nodded. “Sanity from the mundane.” He took my hand and led me toward the tower. “Tell me, how was your day?”

I snorted. “The whole town is buzzing after you spent the night.”

“How could they possibly know that?”

“Small town. Nosy neighbors.”

He paused, met my gaze. “Do you care what your neighbors think?”

“As a rule, no.” We continued to the wooden door that led into the folly. “Did I tell you we got an offer on the shop? Cassandra’s Realtor is presenting the offer before we open tomorrow morning.” I pressed the heel of my hand against my eyes, once more questioning my common sense. “I can get there faster if I’m not driving home from your house. I shouldn’t be here.”

He cupped my face. “I disagree, and I also think you wouldn’t have come if you didn’t want to be here.”

“Everything’s happening so fast,” I breathed. “You. Closing the shop. I feel like I’m out of control.”

“I don’t want to be one of your problems. You aren’t upset with me because I won’t help you reverse your spell, are you?”

“No. I do understand that.”

He unlocked the door. Ash trotted along behind us, her tail raised tall. She raced up the turret steps, as if she knew the way to the workroom. As I took one step up, Ian tugged on my hand. I turned toward him, his face level with mine.

“You fill me with wonder and delight and desire, all at once,” he said.