It wasn't every morning someone woke up to find a naked Irishman asleep on the end of their bed. Well, not unless there had been lots of drinking the night before. Considering I'd been sober since Aileen's funeral, finding Boone that morning had been super creepy. I didn't want to meet him at the hawthorn, not after whipping his bare ass with the lamp cord, but he had an awful lot of explaining to do. I also didn't want to go back into the forest to the clearing where the wolf almost had me for lunch, either. It was bad news. But curiosity won against fear, and I found myself slinking down the path toward the giant hawthorn tree. I left Mairead in charge of Irish Moon, telling her I had some errands to run, and she was happy enough to handle things on her own for a while. Ever since the real estate agent crashed his car into the creek, she'd been happy as a clam. She ought to be. Her summer job was secure, and the clueless Australian paid her more than minimum wage because the money felt funny here.
My boots crunched underfoot as I made my way through the forest, the path curling through the thickening trees. Listening, I tried to make out the individual sounds around me, trying to figure out if I was being followed or not. It didn't help that I didn't know what I should be listening for in the first place. Everything sounded like a predator out here. Branches snapped and leaves rustled all around me, but it could just be the deer Mary from the teahouse had told me about. She said they roamed around Derrydun.
Hell. Should I be worried about being poked up the backside by a pair of antlers? Glancing around, I couldn't see any rabid deer in the vicinity, but that didn't mean they weren't hanging around.
It wasn't long before I came up to the clearing. I could see the break in the woods ahead, and my heart began to thump wildly. Deciding to sneak, I stepped off the path and ducked behind a tree, then darted to the next, getting closer each time. Ferns brushed against my shins as I lingered, and I was pretty sure my covert operation wasn't as covert as I intended. I knew nothing about the wilderness, and it showed in the racket I was making hiding in the underbrush.
Concealing myself behind the closest trunk, I leaned around and searched for Boone. I sucked in a sharp breath as I saw him pacing back and forth in front of the hawthorn, fully clothed this time. Thank God.
Yesterday, I wanted to check him out, and maybe let him kiss me, but that was before he flashed me in my bedroom. Ugh, I was never going to be able to keep a guy interested long enough to fall in love. Typical!
He stopped and glanced around, sensing—or hearing— my approach.
"Skye?" he called out.
Sighing, I knew I'd been made, so I stepped out from behind the tree and into the clearing.
"You'd better not have lured me out here so you can chop me up into little pieces," I declared.
His gaze shot to mine, and he swallowed hard. "Skye, I'm sorry, I didn't want you to find out like this..."
"Start talking," I demanded, not wanting to entertain any groveling.
"I was in my cat shape, and I fell asleep by accident," he declared. "After the wolf bit me leg, it took time to heal, and it always drains me energy. I didn't mean to frighten you."
"Wait. The wolf?" I scowled. "What's a cat shape?"
"I made a promise to Aileen that I would protect you," he said, rushing through his explanation. "She asked me to help you, so I have been helpin' best I can, but I couldn't tell you. She said you had to find out for yourself, but I guess it's a moot point now."
"What are you talking about?" I exclaimed. "Slow the hell down, and just say it already!"
Boone took a deep breath and declared, "You are the last of the Crescent Witches, Skye."
I scoffed and rolled my eyes. "Yeah, right."
"You are. The Crescent Witches are the most powerful coven there ever was," he said defiantly. "Aileen bound your powers when you were a babe to protect you. Robert told me he unbound them when he visited you in Australia."
"He what?" I exclaimed. "He unbound your powers."
I though about it for a long moment, then remembered the lawyer's solid gold pen and his all-around weirdness.
"He zapped me with his pen!" I was outraged, and then I dissolved into fits of laughter as I realized how stupid this all was. A little Irish lawyer had gone all the way to Australia to zap me with his magical golden pen to unlock my hereditary witch juju. Next Boone would be telling me Robert O'Keeffe was a leprechaun!
"He zapped me with his magical pen, and now you're telling me I'm a witch," I exclaimed. "But not a plain one, a real badass."
"Yeah." He looked totally serious, and I snorted.
"And you can turn into a tabby cat?"
"Not just a tabby cat," he grumbled. "I can be lots of
things."
"I hope so because that's really lame! Hello, my name is
Boone the badass, and I can turn into a house cat." I snorted again and burst out into peals of laughter. "Lame!"
"Hey!"
"You're mental." I threw my hands into the air. "Completely off the charts. I've heard some pretty creative excuses in my time but shapeshifting and witches? You could've said you'd slept walked, and I might've believed you and not pressed charges, but this?" I snorted and turned away, determined to put as much distance between Boone and me as possible. This was not the scenario I'd pictured when I'd decided I wanted to see his bare ass. Not at all.
"Wait!" he called out. "What if I can prove it to you?" I hesitated.
"I can show you... I can..."
I glanced over my shoulder. He was standing in the middle of the clearing, his hands curled into tight fists.
"The fox is me familiar," he murmured. "It's the first shape I remember bein'."
"Then show me," I challenged. I faced him, knowing he would choke and reveal his lie. "Show me, and prove it."
He shucked off his jacket, and I recoiled.
"I don't want to see your bits again!" I shrieked. "Wait..." he murmured. "Watch..."
Boone kicked off his boots and stood completely still. Then something strange began to happen. His body began to shrink, his face and arms sprouted russet-colored fur, and his nose began to grow. The sound of snapping bones echoed across the clearing, and I flinched as his arms twisted and his elbow began to bend at an unnatural angle.
"Boone..." I said uneasily, but it didn't make any difference.
My mouth fell open as he disappeared among his clothes, and a bushy tail shook free of his jeans. Then another almighty shake as he shucked off his T-shirt.
"Holy Mother of..."
A red and white fox stood where Boone was a moment ago, his back paws buried in the leaf litter. Swishing his tail back and forth, he let out a yip as if to say I told you so.
Kneeling in the leaf litter, I stared into his honey-colored eyes in shock. I reached out with a shaking hand, and he head butted my palm gently. His fur was wiry to the touch, but his black-tipped ears were soft as silk.
"Holy..." I whispered. "I'm going mad. This isn't real. This..."
Boone nuzzled against my hand and yipped.
"You were limping yesterday... You were... You saved me from the wolf!" I covered my face with my hands. "Oh, God. What if I hadn't poked its eye out with that stick?"
Boone flicked his tail back and forth.
"And... All that time you were the cat? You were Buddy?" Remembering the first night he'd appeared, my cheeks turned red. Oh, God. I'd held up his tail and checked out his balls. His big, tabby cat balls.
He yipped again, this time dancing from foot to foot.
"You're embarrassing the hell out me right now," I grumbled. "You didn't look when I was changing, did you?"
He tilted his fox head to the side.
I gasped. "I'm going to smack you one if you did!"
Rising off his haunches, Boone circled back to his pile of clothing and glanced at me, indicating he was going to change back. I didn't want to see him morph unnaturally again, so I turned around.
He'd changed into a fox! I had so many questions I wanted to fire off at him, but most of all, I was surprised by the fact I wasn't freaking out. I mean, I should probably be running back toward the village screaming like a banshee right about now, but I'd just cuddled a fox. A fox that was Boone—the hot, mysterious Irishman. Oh, God, I'd seen his thing.
"You can turn around now."
"Are you decent?" I asked, covering my eyes with my hands.
"I'm decent."
I shuffled around, still hiding behind my hands. "Swear it!"
"I swear."
Peeking through my fingers, I saw Boone was Boone again, and he was fully dressed. Sighing, I dropped my hands away. I'd seen more than enough unexpected doodle for one day.
"No one must know," he said, watching me closely. He was waiting for me to run away screaming, but I hadn't moved an inch. Yet.
"That's convenient," I said dryly.
"Skye, you mustn't say a word."
"Why?"
"Witches are being hunted," he replied, his tone gravely serious. "It's not all rainbows and sunshine out there. Darkness looms..."
"Witches are being hunted? What for?" I held up my hands and stared at my palms. "I'm not special. I can't do magic spells or whatever. I'm just a woman. A plain, ordinary woman."
"You can't tell me strange things haven't been happenin' to you since you arrived," he said, sitting beside me. "Think about it, Skye."
The day of the funeral, the hawthorn sapling on top of the hill had shuddered and leaned toward me like I was a magnet. The air had been still, and no gusts of wind had whipped it. The man at Molly McCreedy's with the blue skin and pointy teeth. The wolf stalking me in this very spot. Then there was the night I found Sean McKinnon by the side of the road. I'd placed my hands on his shoulders, and he'd seemed to calm down at my touch. Was that why Boone was so mad at me? Had I used some kind of magic to soothe the man's sorrow?
"Sean McKinnon... That was..." I glanced at Boone in shock. "No... That's just coincidence!"
"It was your magic. I felt it clear as day."
"Then why were you so pissed at me?" I exclaimed.
"You need to be careful," he replied. "When you use
your magic, you become a beacon."
"I revealed myself? To who?" My gaze shifted to the
forest, the shadows lengthening and growing eyes. "Nobody. I've been watchin'. Though the wolf... I don't think he knew about you. You poked him with a branch from the hawthorn and took his eye. He won't come back
anytime soon."
"The magical hawthorn?" I asked, remembering how
everybody was fond of telling the story about them being fairy trees.
"Aye, the hawthorn."
I scowled, my thoughts scattered. None of it made sense, and I felt like I was on the brink of a mental breakdown.
"This whole time, you've been looking out for me?" I peered at him, not sure how to take it. I mean, learning about my absent mother was a lot to deal with when I'd first arrived, but now I'd poked the eye out of an unnatural wolf with a magical stick, seen Boone turn into a fox, and heard his wild story about me being some sort of Crescent Witch... I was going mad. I actually needed a straitjacket, stat.
He nodded. "I made a promise to your mam."
"What else did she say?"
"She said you didn't know about your heritage and that fate would draw you here. Without anyone to guide you, she asked me to watch over you."
"Fate?" I asked. "What does that mean?"
"When your mother passed, there were no Crescent Witches left to protect Derrydun and the hawthorns, so fate drew you back to your ancestral home. I don't know much about it, but I'm beginnin' to believe it has conspired to keep you here."
Now that he mentioned it, everything began to fall apart the moment Aileen died. I'd lost my job, my boyfriend dumped me, and Robert showed up with his magic pen with its terms and conditions. Then when I tried to sell Irish Moon, the door became stuck, the computer had a glitch, and the real estate agent crashed his car into the creek.
"Son of a..." Drawing in a deep breath, I began to understand something very important. "That's why she left Dad and me, wasn't it? To protect me from all this?"
"She never really said," Boone replied. "Not outright, but I believe it to be so."
I shook my head in disbelief, my heart aching. "I hated her for so long..."
"You didn't know," he argued. "You didn't know."
"I still don't know," I shot back. "I... This is a lot to deal with Boone. I don't..." I don't know if I believe you. I believed he was a shapeshifter—that was hard to deny—but all the things he'd said about me?
"Now that you know, you can ask me anythin' you want," he said. "I'll tell you everythin' I can."
A million things flew into my mind, and I blurted out the first thing that popped into it. "What have the hawthorns got to do with it? Are the stories you told me true? Are they really doorways?"
"They are," he replied, confirming my suspicions. "They guard the doorways to the fae realm, but they were sealed a thousand years ago. Nothin' can get in or out. Now the hawthorns are safe havens."
"Safe havens?"
Boone nodded. "They are a shield for words and magic. That's why we can talk freely here. This tree was where the Crescents have practiced their magic for centuries. Or so Aileen told me."
"Why was the way to the fae realm sealed off? Do you know what it's like there?"
"It's a long story."
I scowled, desperate to know everything about this new world I was supposed to be part of. "Don't you want to tell me?"
"No, it's not that. It's just as I said. It's a long story. Perhaps another time." He smiled a sad smile and glanced up at the tree. "The doorways are never openin' again, so there's nothin' to worry about. There are creatures who still try to get in, and that's why the witches protect the trees. When the doorways were sealed, a lot of fae were
trapped here. Being cut off from magic, they've become twisted."
"They need magic to survive," I mused. "That's why witches are hunted."
Boone shrugged, giving away the fact he wasn't telling me the whole story. I would get it out of him eventually. Something else was in play here, and it worried him. Not enough to warn me away though, so the lack of urgency calmed me a little.
"Where did you come from?" I asked after a moment. "Mairead said you just showed up one day."
"I don't know," he replied.
"What do you mean you don't know?"
"Before this place, I don't remember anythin'. My first memory is runnin' as a fox through the forest. Then I was flyin' as a gyrfalcon, and then I crashed to earth. They were chasin' me... It was your mam who found me right here in this clearin'."
"Who was chasing you?"
He was silent for a long time. Finally, he turned his head and smiled. "That's a story for another time."
So much evasion. Digging my hands into the leaf litter, I picked through the sticks, breathing in the heavy scent of disturbed earth.
I thought over all the peculiar things that had happened since I arrived, and I knew Boone was right. About everything. It was farfetched, fantastical, and completely bonkers, but it was real. There was just too much evidence not to believe. Seeing the guy you had the hots for morph into a bright red fox was pretty solid proof, after all.
"Boone?" I asked, breaking up the leaf in my fingers. "Yeah?"
"Robert's a leprechaun, isn't he?"
"I suppose he is," he replied. "He's never confirmed nor denied, but he likes to drop hints. He's definitely not human, that I know."
I turned my attention back to the leaf in my hand. If I was supposed to be this badass Crescent Witch, then how was I supposed to use my magic? Where was it? Stuffed if I knew because I didn't feel any different.
"Boone?"
"Yeah?"
"What do I do now?"
He shrugged, which wasn't any help at all.
"Find your way," he said after a moment.
"If I'm the last Crescent Witch, what does that mean?" "Aileen told me you might be the last thing standin' in
the way of magic dyin' out for good."
I made a face. "That's not ominous at all."
"I'm sorry."
My gaze flew to his. "What for?"
"This wasn't how I imagined this going..."
Thinking about how I whipped his bare ass with the
lamp cord, I snorted and then burst out into peals of laughter.
"What are you laughin' at?" he asked angrily.
"Whipping your ass," I replied, wiping at my tears.
"Ack, don't remind me." He rolled his eyes and playfully rubbed his ass cheeks. "It stung."
The mood had lightened significantly, but it wasn't long before I felt a tug of depression. Everything had been turned on its head, again, and I had no idea what to do. None at all. Who was Skye Williams? I felt like I should know, but I'd been so concerned with figuring out Aileen, I'd forgotten about who I was going to be in the wake of her death. Now, it had reverted to nothing but chaos. Fantastical chaos.
"I'm a witch," I said, my heart sinking. "Everything I've ever known is just...gone. Who am I? What am I supposed to do?"
Boone placed his hand on mine and tangled his fingers through my own. "I'm goin' to help you, Skye. We'll work out what to do together. You won't be alone in this, I promise."
We sat in the shade of the hawthorn for a long time, just existing. A shapeshifter and a witch.
Staring up at the hawthorn, I knew the Tower had finally been rebuilt.