If Iona didn’t walk in the door within another ten minutes, she’d—
“At last,” she muttered when she heard the front door open. Striding out, half a lecture already in mind, she stopped both her forward progress and her nagging words the minute she saw both of them.
A woman didn’t have to be a witch to realize how the pair of them had spent a portion of the last two hours.
“So.” She laid her hands on her h*ps as Kathel padded over to greet them both. “We’ll have some tea, and you’ll tell me what happened. You as well,” she said to Boyle, anticipating him. “I want to hear it all, so don’t think about scooting out the door again.”
“Is Connor about?”
“He’s not, no. Took himself off to the pub to flirt with whoever’s about, so you’ve no cover there. Have you had anything to eat?” she asked as she walked into the kitchen.
“Boyle fixed dinner,” Iona told her.
“Did he now?” Brow lifted, Branna sent him a sidelong look as she put the kettle on.
“I was starving after. I was hungry after the spell with the rats, but this was like eat or pass out.”
“It won’t always be so keen. You’re new at it. And you’re looking fit and fine and more than well tended to now. Oh, stop shuffling about, Boyle. A blind monkey could see the two of you have been at each other. I’ve no problem with that except instead of a good shag, I’ve been twiddling about waiting for you to come talk to me.”
“I should’ve come home sooner, instead of worrying you.”
Branna shrugged, then softened. “If I’d had a man willing to make me dinner and give me a good roll after a fright like that, I’d have taken it as well. I trust he did a good job with both.”
Iona grinned. “Exceptional.”
Heat rose up Boyle’s back like a fever. “Would you mind not batting around my sex life, at least while I’m sitting here?”
“We’ll bat it around when you’re not then.” Branna poured his tea, kissed the top of his head.
“Have you eaten?” Iona asked her.
“Not yet. I will once I hear what you have to say. From the start, Iona. And if she leaves anything out, Boyle, however slight, you fill it in.”
Iona began, trying to speak in full detail, and with calm.
Branna gripped her hand. “You’re saying you called a whirlwind? How did you know the way?”
“It’s in the books. I know it’s advanced, and it’s risky, but it was . . . I don’t know why or how, but I knew it was what I needed to do. I knew I could.”
“Why didn’t you call me, or Connor? Both?”
“It was so fast. When I play it back, it’s like it was hours, stage by stage, but it was so fast. I don’t think it was more than a couple minutes.”
“If that,” Boyle confirmed.
“All right, but it’s best if you call for me and Connor.”
“Or Fin,” Boyle put in.
“I’m not shutting him out.” Or only a little, Branna admitted. “But blood calls to blood, Boyle. We’ve the same blood, Connor, Iona, and I. And this is blood magicks at work. You weren’t so afraid. Connor would have sensed that, as he did before. You weren’t so afraid as before, in the woods alone.”
“A little, but no, not like before, maybe because I wasn’t alone. I could only think he’d hurt Boyle and the horses, to get to me. It helped me focus, I think.”
Branna nodded, but pushed at her hair. “I’m jumping you around. You said he didn’t bring the fog.”
“No.”
“More to catch you off guard than to rattle your nerves then. And it may be he pulls some power from the fog as well, and wasn’t as strong.”
“Didn’t think he’d need to be?” Boyle nodded. “He learned different. She turned a tree to toothpicks.”
“I had some trouble with control.”
“Calling a whirlwind with no practice? I’m not surprised, and it’s a wonder if a tree’s all the damage done.”
“All that I saw,” Boyle said. “Unless you count the bastard spinning around in the air.”
“If I could’ve held it, focused it better, I might have destroyed it.”
Branna dismissed that with a shrug. “If it was that easy, I’d have done it myself before this. You did well. Finish it out now.”
Listening, nodding, Branna didn’t interrupt again.
“Yes, you did well indeed. I’d tell you it was a big risk, but I can’t question your instincts. They told you this was the way, and you followed them. You’re safe and well. I think you took Cabhan off guard, and you cost him. It may be you hurt him a bit as well, if his power source—the jewel is that, I think—lessened. How did it feel?”
“Enormous. Like I could feel every cell in my body burning. Like nothing could stop me.”
At that, Branna’s brows drew together. “There’s the danger as true as the wolf.”
“I think I know. Part of feeling that invincibility was why I couldn’t control it, or started to lose it, and let it control me.”
“It’s a vital lesson learned. It’s that being engulfed by the power, the thirst for more of it that made Cabhan.”
Iona thought she understood how that could be, how the temptation, the seduction of such great power could overwhelm. “Boyle talked me down. He helped me hold it, calm it, and finally stop it.”
Now those eyebrows rose. “Is that the way of it? That’s no small feat, to rein in a witch who’s not only reaping a whirlwind but riding one. Otherwise, the pair of you would be roaming about Oz looking for ruby slippers.”
“But I’d be the good witch.”
“Hmm. I’m relieved you weren’t hurt, either of you. And I’m thinking we might have a space of time, before he makes another lunge at us, to smooth out more rough edges. I’m proud of you,” she added, then rose.
Simple words, simply spoken, but they poured into Iona like fine wine. “Thanks.”
“I’ve a thing or two to see to in the workshop now that my head’s clear,” Branna continued. “I’ll tell Connor all of this, and as he came at you when you were with Boyle, it’s best if we tell Meara the whole of it as well. And Fin,” she added before Boyle could. “We’ll meet again, would you say, in a day or two, once I’ve—once we’ve all had time to think it all through.”
“I think that’s the right thing,” Iona said. “We’re stronger together, right, than separately?”
“I’ll hope. See you at breakfast, Boyle,” Branna said with a wink, then left them.
“Oh well, I don’t know as I should—”
“You should.” Now Iona got to her feet, held out a hand. “You really should. Come upstairs with me, Boyle.”
The wanting was so steep he couldn’t climb out of it. He stood, took her hand, and went upstairs with her.
* * *
UNDER STRICT ORDERS TO REPORT TO BRANNA’S WORKSHOP directly from the stables, and with Boyle busy in a meeting with Fin, Iona tapped Meara for a ride home.
“I have to get a car.” She frowned at the winding, narrow road Meara zoomed along as if it were a six-lane highway. “A cheap car. A cheap, reliable car.”
“I can put the word out on that.”
“Yeah, that’d be good. Then I have to learn how to drive on the wrong side of the road.”
“It’s you Yanks who drive on the wrong side, and can put the fear of God into a person just driving out to do the weekly marketing.”
“I bet. But why do you guys drive on the left? I read it was about having the right hand free for the sword, but it’s been a really long time since people needed to battle it out on horseback with swords.”
“You never know, do you? Most don’t battle it out on horseback with whirlwinds as a rule.”
“You got me there. Maybe I can talk Boyle into letting me drive some tomorrow. He’s going to take me around to some sites. I’ve been so buried in work and lessons I haven’t seen anything outside of that, and the village. Not really.”
“A day off’s good for the soul. But it’ll take considerable talk of the very sweetest of nature, and very likely promises of exotic sexual favors to convince Boyle to let anyone behind the wheel but himself.”
“I’m a good driver,” she insisted. “Or was when the steering wheel was on this side. And does everyone know I’m in the position to offer Boyle sex?”
“Anyone with eyes. If there’d been more opportunity today, I’d’ve pulled more out of you about the whirlwind business, and the sex. But we had too many people about for it.”
“You could come in,” Iona said as Meara pulled up at the workshop. “Then Branna couldn’t dump me right into more work, and I could give you lots and lots of details.”
“Why is it so entertaining to have a window into others’ sexual adventures? Maybe so we don’t have to deal with the upheaval of them in our own lives. In any case,” Meara continued before Iona could think of an answer, “I’d be all ears, that’s for certain. But I’ve errands need doing. Now, I could meet you at the pub later, with my ears, unless you’re already planning more adventures with Boyle.”
“I could squeeze in time for a drink with a friend. Do you believe in reincarnation?”
“Sure that’s a question.” Meara shoved back her cap. “Where did it come from?”
“I was wondering why some connections seem so easy, so natural, as if they’d already been made and are just getting picked up again. It’s the way it worked for me with you, with Branna and Connor. With Boyle. Even Fin.”
“I guess I don’t discount anything. You don’t when your best friend in the world’s a witch. But I think a big part of that is you’re open to those connections. You reach for them, you do. It’s hard not to reach back, even when you’re not the reaching type in general.”
“You’re not?”
“Not as a rule, no. I keep my circle tight. Less upheavals, so to speak.”
“Then I’m glad you widened it for me. See you at the pub? A couple hours?”
“That’ll do fine.”
“Thanks for the lift.” Iona jumped out, shot back a wave. She liked the idea of being open to connections, and the prospect of meeting a friend for a drink. Maybe she could talk Branna into joining them—a kind of impulsive girls’ night out.
Then maybe she’d get lucky and top it off with a little adventure with Boyle.
Pleased with the plan, she swung through the door.
“Let the lesson begin, then we can— Oh, sorry. I didn’t see you had company—a customer.”
She hesitated at the doorway, not quite sure if she should go in or out, then recognized the woman standing at the work counter with her cousin.
“Oh, hi. I met you my first night at Ashford, at the Cottage. You’re Mick’s daughter. Iona,” she added when the woman simply stood there, flushed and staring.