Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 87608 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 438(@200wpm)___ 350(@250wpm)___ 292(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87608 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 438(@200wpm)___ 350(@250wpm)___ 292(@300wpm)
“Like, cooked rice?”
“No. Uncooked, please.”
“Sure.” She bolted into the kitchen, passing her father on his way to me with the lighter.
“Thank you,” I said to him, using the lighter to get the wand lit, the sage, juniper, and red cedar immediately smoking. There were other things in there as well, like rose, pine, and—always—lavender, but the important part at the moment was the cleanse, not the blessing. “Okay,” I said once I liked the thickness of the smoke and Cass returned with rice in a glass measuring cup. “I’ll trade you.”
She got the smoke wand, I got the rice, and I directed her to start in the attic and make her way down to the basement, making sure she cleansed every room, getting smoke in every corner, missing nothing.
“As you do that, I need you to say some words for me.”
“I will, but so you know, there’s no attic. It was gone when we moved in, just open beam ceilings up there.”
“That’s very helpful. Now I need you to say a little chant for me.”
She nodded, and I gave her the simple words of the house-clearing spell.
“I’m saying so mote it be at the end?”
“Yes.”
“Got it.”
“You have it memorized?”
“I do,” she assured me. “But should I be worried about the smoke alarms?”
“I’ve found over the years having done this in many houses that it has to be a lot of smoke to set them off. You waving the wand around shouldn’t be an issue.”
“Great,” she said, seemingly relieved.
“Remember, make sure you go into every room.”
“Not mine,” her father said, but he smiled at her. “I don’t want the smell in—”
“Open the windows in his room, but do the room,” I insisted. “Plus”—I inhaled deeply—“the smell is divine.”
He looked like he wanted to argue, and I reached out and put my hand on his shoulder. The pain was jolting, and I felt it run straight up my arm to my shoulder.
“O…kay,” I gasped, glancing at Cass and tipping my head at her to get her moving before turning to her father. “That is a whole lot of guilt, sorrow, and heartache you’re carrying around, Mr. MacBain.”
His daughter was gone, so he unleashed on me, drilling a finger into my collarbone. “I don’t know who the hell you think you are, bringing all this crap into my house, but—”
I blew into his face, and he took several steps back as Lorne walked into the room. “What the hell is going on in here?”
“Where’ve you been?” James yelled at him and gestured at me. “You bring a crazy person into our home and…and…” He stared at me, weaving a bit, suddenly unsteady on his feet. “What’d you do to me?”
“I blew just a tiny bit of stagnant energy off you.”
“Stagnant what?”
“Energy,” I repeated. “You and this house are covered in so much…gunk,” was all I could think of to say. “I’m amazed you’re moving around in here at all.”
“Hey,” Lorne said, the gentle sound of his voice running right through me, all husky and low. He was staring at me with his warm eyes—and I had to focus for a moment on breathing. “What are you saying?”
“I’m saying it must be quite difficult for you to walk in here at the end of the day. I have no idea how you and Cass are doing it.”
“But you’re not surprised my brother’s doing it?”
I put the measuring cup full of rice down on the coffee table, along with one of the glass bottles with a cork stopper.
“No. Your brother is so weighted down, he can’t tell the difference.”
“Lor, this man is insane.”
“Is he?” Lorne asked, and I heard it in his voice, that he didn’t think so at all.
“Are you listening to yourself?”
“You’re not you, Jim,” he husked, his eyes narrowing. “You’re like a ghost haunting this house.”
“That’s not true,” James argued. “I’m getting better and—”
“You’re not,” I interrupted, and lifted my hand. There was fire in my palm, just as there had been earlier in the day. “But you will be.”
James scrambled backward, tripping over the edge of the rug, falling back onto the couch, but Lorne… Lorne stood his ground, and watching him made me go weak in the knees. No doubt about it, his heart and internal fortitude were quite impressive. It would take a lot to rock him.
“So when you said you were a witch, you weren’t fucking around,” Lorne said, and amazingly, smiled at me.
I was overwhelmed with him, with his capacity for acceptance and ability to see the humor in something that should have sent him off screaming into the night. All I could do was smile back.
“But I kinda figured that out from earlier today,” he said wryly, and the wink nearly undid me.
“I knew you did,” I said with a sigh.
“Okay, so what’s going on in my house?”