Tragic Magic: Wards and Wands #3 Read online

  “So…” She needed to say something. “This happened early.”

  Melanie had always believed the best thing to do was point out the elephant in the room and not pretend it wasn’t there.

  He nodded. “Seems to be the case. I… I think it’s for the best, actually. Get it over with. I was tired of it stalking me anyway. I’d determined very early I would be the last person to ever have this curse. If I couldn’t cure it, which I tried to do, believe me, I wasn’t going to pass it on. I’ve been wondering if it’s taking me early as a punishment for not procreating.”

  The way he spoke about it—this curse that had plagued the last five generations of his family—was as though it was a living, breathing thing. Melanie didn’t remember his father doing that. But then again he’d lived a full life before it took him down.

  “You think the curse… hurried up your punishment… because you didn’t find the right woman to have children with?”

  He ran a hand through his hair. “I determined very early on that I wouldn’t allow this to continue. Even before I saw my father taken down to madness, a shell of the man he’d been before, devoid of magic, shaking in a corner. I wouldn’t leave behind any heirs that could take the curse when I died. It ends with me.”

  Melanie swallowed. She remembered as the bright, happy young man he’d been when she’d secretly followed him around. He’d decided even then that he’d be staying alone his whole life? Not have any children? There was a tragedy to that, to accepting his solitary state, because circumstances that were never his fault took him down.

  There really wasn’t much to say. She had to keep it together. Save for her early fantasies, she didn’t really know him, and expressing huge emotion would hardly seem appropriate. “I don’t suppose you’ve tried any new practitioners who do this for a living? Who could take the curse off your family?”

  “Every possible one. No, this is ending and that is why I’m so glad you could come.” He motioned toward the desk. “Don’t mind me. I’m going to try to smoothly walk to my chair and sit down like I am perfectly capable of making my way blindly. I’m not flying because that goes even worse than walking. And… my magic is already depleted enough. I can’t seem to spell myself places so I am fumbling around forever, unable to see.”

  It wasn’t that he was in the dark either. Melanie remembered enough of his father’s ramblings toward the end. It was like being stuck in a perpetual bright light that never let you see anything because of its luminosity. Eventually, in addition to the curse taking his magic, this would drive him insane. Sleep was virtually impossible.

  He made it to his desk, only banging his leg once as far as she could tell. It was impressive that he could find his way at all. Her father used to help Mr. Boothe get around, but Elliot was still doing things himself. Maybe it was just early days.

  She took a seat in the chair across from him. “How can I help?”

  It took him a moment to answer, as he tried to orient himself. Or at least that was what she imagined he was doing. “It’s hard for me to picture you here, Melanie. The last time I saw you… you were very young, I think.”

  He’d seen her once as a teenager but paid her no attention. That didn’t surprise her at all that he didn’t remember even if what was left of her teenage heart wished it was otherwise. “I don’t think we interacted when last I was here. I was a teenager. You were older.” She cleared her throat. “I think the last time we spoke I was quite young. I was surprised to get your note.”

  “It’s been a long time since I interacted with someone that I didn’t know what they looked like before I lost my sight. You are a first for me. I’m trying to imagine the person with the voice.” He tilted his head. “I don’t suppose it matters. I locked myself up in this house to wait out the end in privacy. My staff has directions to not let me out when I start raving later on in the progression. I’m giving myself the gift of not being remembered publicly for what this will to do to me.” He paused and took a breath. “Forgive me, I’m rambling.”

  She loved the sound of his voice, could have listened to it all day. “Well, I am… tall, I suppose. Almost six feet. And my hair is very dark brown.” Or at least it was when she left her natural color alone. She’d been many different shades over the years. “Like my father’s. I look like my mother, otherwise. That’s what they tell me.”

  He smiled. “I have a sense from that, thanks. It helps that I actually know your parents. Are they well? I spoke with your father, and he told me what you were doing. That’s what gave me the idea. He seemed fine. Is he?”

  It was sweet that Elliot was even thinking of him given the current state of things. “He is well. Sustained some damage to their home in the weird tsunami a few years ago, but that seems to have been worked out and fixed, finally. There was a whole ordeal with getting the city to pay for it.”

  The time had been miserable for Melanie. She’d kept Ava’s secret that her father caused the tsunami while trying to get her parents through the bureaucracy of the witching world to get their place fixed. It would have been so easy to turn around and sue the Blakelys for what happened except Melanie only knew in confidence, and she’d never do that.

  In the end, it had worked out, but the hours spent feeling like she’d betrayed one person she loved for another had been what finally made her go out on her own, leaving her corporate job. Life was too short to be unhappy every day.

  “I’m glad to hear that. I don’t think I knew they’d been affected.” He winced. “But I wasn’t great at paying attention to small things I should have been attentive to. My father wouldn’t have liked to have known I didn’t take care of that.”

  Oh, she hadn’t meant to make him feel guilty. “Please don’t worry. Your family was so generous with mine. They were well taken care of in so many ways. They have everything because of their years with your family. All is well. How can I help you?” She repeated the question.

  This was hard. So much harder than she thought it was going to be, and she’d imagined it would be tough. Seeing him brought down like this and being back here… she was well on her way to feeling like she would always be not quite good enough in a world of stuck up witching families.

  How was he still so gorgeous even in the midst of this? That was a whole other issue. Obviously, she’d never really gotten over her fascination with Elliot Boothe.

  “You’re a solo practitioner. That’s almost unheard of in these days of conglomerates. I need someone like you. When your father told me what you were doing, I got the idea to hire you to help me set these things in order before I pass on and they’re all left for viewing in public records.”

  Now, he spoke a language she could understand. This was what she did. “I never cared for the big corporations. What things do you need set in order?”

  “Hundreds of years of records dating back to before my family was cursed. I need to make this all orderly, filed, or destroyed—what legally can be—and I need my estate set up to go to various charities and people. I need all of this done fast. I’m rapidly fading. I don’t know if we have months. Melanie, I need you to help me get this ready before I am lost to the madness.”

  Chapter 2

  The same feeling of helpless distress struck Melanie hard as she listened to Elliot. This time, however, since she was alone and she had some semblance of decorum and how to behave with a client—which Elliot Boothe was about to become—she managed to keep from sinking to the floor. She kept her face stoic, not that he could see it, but the act of trying alone made her keep her emotions in check, and her voice the correct amount of sympathetic and yet professional.

  “So soon, Elliot? Do you think it’s going to go that fast?”

  He nodded. “It’s racing through me. My father’s slow decline is not present here. Maybe the curse is angry because I didn’t procreate and pass it on. I don’t know how all this works. I always said I’d be the last to go through it, and so help me I will see to it that I am. But maybe there’
s some rule long forgotten that says it makes it worse on the person deciding that. My father was so convinced he’d beat it, as was my grandfather before him, that neither considered not living an ordinary life. The men in my family and their utter egotism.” He shook his head. “Will you help me? Let me hire you?”

  She needed the money. Her own investments were only going to keep her tiny company afloat for a little bit longer. Not to mention… this was Elliot Boothe. The man of her dreams to whom she’d silently compared every boyfriend and first date and found all of them lacking.

  “Sure.” She nodded. She’d done it again. She had to remember that all answers needed to be verbalized. He couldn’t see what she did.

  His smile was huge. “That is so… great. You can’t imagine how stressful I found the idea of having strangers going through my family’s things. Again the ego, this time mine, kept me from doing this years ago. I thought I’d have more time.”

  She chewed on her lip. “I have a pretty big case going on right now. I can’t talk about it, obviously, but I’ll tell you what I can do. I’ll take care of everything in relation to that one in the mornings and come here in the afternoons. Unless that doesn’t work for you. Not that you have to be here for me to go through the paperwork and start making up the estate documents.” She just sort of hoped he would be.

  Elliot shook his head. “I have no plans.” He pointed to his eyes. “This is all I’m doing between now and death.”

  Now, that was truly tragic. “There’s nothing you still want to do?”

  “The things I spent my time on required sight. Well, all my senses, really. I’m not going to do any of them half-assed, if you’ll excuse the language.” He waved his hand and a contract floated down toward her. “It’s a non-disclosure agreement. Obviously, you’ll want to read it. You’re the attorney, but it’s the same one I’ve set out for everyone dealing with me in this time in my life. It basically says you can’t talk about what’s happening to me until after I’m dead. Then, if you want to go on the television and talk about it, feel free. I’ll be dead. I won’t care, presumably. Right now we still have holdings and investments, and any discussion about my decline will plummet stock prices in the few things we still own. That will negatively impact the charities and people I want to set up. Otherwise, I actually don’t give a shit what people think of me anymore.”

  She took the paper into her hand. “I’ll read it tonight and let you know if I need to make any changes.”

  “Great. Then can I expect you tomorrow?”

  She’d done this enough and been raised as the child of the servants to know when she was being dismissed. “Absolutely. See you then.”

  “Well you will, I’ll hear you and speak to you but not actually see you.” He grinned, and she winced. Yep, bad choice of words, that was for sure. Even if he made a joke out of it. The point was taken. He would never see her again.

  In fact, she didn’t know how old she’d been the last time he had. It was possible Elliot had never viewed her as an adult, had no idea what she looked like. The idea threw her even though it really shouldn’t matter. She was probably a memory of a child to him in terms of how he visualized her, if he did at all.

  She pushed the thought about. He’d talked about his ego, and it turned out she had one as well. Melanie might have liked him to think she was pretty. Smart, professional, good at her job, talented, and kind… all of those things, for sure. But yes, pretty. Oh well, he was cursed. She wasn’t going to make this about her.

  “I’ll… be in your presence tomorrow, then.” There, that should be better. She sincerely hoped.

  He nodded. “It was a stupid joke. Cursed humor. You’ll have to excuse it. I’ve got to laugh or I’ll just… be angry and drunk all the time. Even that would be too pathetic for me. Big plans tonight?”

  Well, that was an abrupt shift she had to roll with. He wanted to know if she had plans? “I’m seeing friends tonight, actually. Dinner party or sorts. There are probably going to be two former and one current Enforcer there. One of whom has removed a curse that I know of and probably hundreds that I don’t. You don’t want me to ask them if they’ll try?”

  He ran a hand through his dark hair. “Sure. Feel free. I’ve had countless Enforcers here trying that. Bring your friends if you think there’s a chance. They won’t find anything, but it’s worth a go. Tell you what, as we tear down all but the walls of my estate in preparation for the end, you have my permission to have anyone you want try to remove this. I won’t have it said I didn’t give it the old witching school try to survive and recover. Enjoy your party. I took those times for granted. Friends. Normalcy. Until tomorrow, then.”

  And just like that she was somehow employed by Elliot Boothe in his quest to set things in order before his untimely death. Life had a way of taking sharp left turns she never saw coming.

  * * *

  Ava and Lawson’s house had evolved over the course of their marriage. Lawson lived on the edge of the best part of town but never crossed into it. That was very different from Melanie who had taken the first chance she’d gotten to move to the right neighborhood and inserted herself into society that way.

  Not that they ever accepted her. They didn’t. But she could afford to be there—or at least she had been able to when she’d been working for the big firms—and that was where she’d been determined to be. But in Ava’s house, they didn’t seem to be concerned with any of that. Ava had been born into the right society, one of the richest families in town, and Lawson was the head Enforcer. They didn’t worry anymore about the things that still plagued Melanie. Maybe it came from finding a soul mate. It certainly did seem to make people… content… in a way she’d never been.

  Or maybe she was just all worked up because she’d seen Elliot and it brought her whole childhood to the forefront of her mind again.

  She knocked and entered after the come in. Ava had a tremendous amount of power now but hadn’t for most of her life. They still did things the human way around her from habit if nothing else.

  Melanie was a few minutes late and so it wasn’t surprising that the room was filled already with people. It was the usual crowd. Ava and Lawson, Stefan and Kim, Eleanor and Mitchell. They were a strange grouping considering Mitchell had once been hexed to leave Ava at the altar. But in the end, it had all worked out. Melanie looked around but didn’t see Zoey or Elijah there. “Well, hello there, everyone.” Melanie put on her best version of a happy smile. “You all look wonderful.”

  Everyone turned to welcome her and soon hugs were exchanged and greetings made. There was a motion to doing these things, like hugging and hellos were a wave that moved from one part of the room to the next.

  It finally ended with Ava who pulled her close. “Are you okay? You’re almost never late.”

  “I’ve had quite a day, actually. I can’t talk about it. Client privilege.” Even as she spoke, she realized that wasn’t entirely true. She could discuss this with some of the people in this room. Elliot had said she could bring in Enforcers. She’d do that, after she got them to sign non-disclosure agreements. If they would do that. The Enforcers were pretty much permanently on a non-disclosure agreement.

  “Work.” Ava nodded. “Come in. Let’s get seated. We actually have news this week.”

  Melanie smiled. They always had news. It was part of what was so interesting about these dinners with Ava. Her best friend winked at Melanie. “We’re pregnant. Decided, finally, to just do it.”

  The tears that flooded Melanie’s eyes surprised her. “Oh, Ava,” she managed to choke out. “That is the most beautiful news, ever. Congratulations.”

  Ava stopped, holding her tightly. “Melanie… I… Thank you.”

  She managed to suck in her tears. What a way to make an entrance. Apparently, she was going to be on the edge of hysterics all the time now. But it was a beautiful thing. Babies. Weddings. After seeing Elliot so brought down… it was lovely to know that life went on in positive ways.
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br />   It was a joyful dinner, everyone talking over each other, and laughing. Ava would be the first of Melanie’s close friends to have a baby. Ava’s sister, Zoey, didn’t count. Outside of being close to Ava, Zoey and Mel had never been close. Melanie didn’t know Eleanor well enough to ask her about her future plans to have children or not have them. The two had grown closer over the years but still it was one of those very private conversations that she was never going to initiate. If Eleanor wanted to talk about it, that was one thing. Asking was an invasion of privacy.

  And as for Kim and Stefan? The ex-Enforcers, with ex seeming to come and go as they saw fit, had never struck her as the settle down and have a baby type. But really, what did Melanie know?

  What made someone want kids and someone else not want them? It was a very personal decision. These were the kinds of things she thought about when she watched everyone laughing and congratulating her best friend on the upcoming beautiful addition to their family.

  “Melanie, I heard about you today.” Lawson set down his drink, and she turned toward him.

  She arched her eyebrow in reply. “Really? Should I be worried?”

  “Maybe.” He nodded and that was concerning. “I wouldn’t share this except that I trust everyone in this room. Are you somehow involved with Peter and Elaine Evans?”

  She’d half-expected him to ask her about Elliot. The Cursed family was famous but maybe not a huge concern to the Enforcers. Instead, he brought up the divorce situation she found herself in. “I’m sorry, Lawson. As you know, I can’t confirm or deny clients. So while that might seem like I’m saying yes by saying that, what I’m really saying is that you know better than to ask me that since I’m not going to answer.”

  Was there anything more awkward than telling someone no in their own house? She rubbed the back of her neck. Give her a courtroom to argue in any day of the week and she was fine. Telling Lawson no at his dining room table? That was harder.