CHIARA
MY mother is always in flight, on witchy jobs as a junior elder of the Council of Magick.Her missions are dangerous she can't be found lingering in the mundane world or living with non-Magickal loved ones.She divorced my father to protect him from enemies his wealth could never protect him from.When I was asked in all honesty where I wanted to live, my father was floored that I chose to be here.I was thirteen. They never made me feel I was choosing one over the other. I love my mother to death and I share a strong bond with her.But when it came for me to decide whom I would live with, I spoke very intensely about my wish to live with my father so it would be clear to everyone.Mom told me she was grateful I made the decision I did. That I understood what her life is going to be like after the divorce and I chose accordingly to adjust gave her the freedom to do her job without guilt. I am one other person she doesn't have to worry about while she goes on her missions. and that is one of my reasons, too.I knew her other reason is that my father will not be left alone.And we both love him.And we both can't live with this.So I moved with my father to his new, large, penthouse apartment he acquired after the divorce. It turns out really well, despite the fact, our balconies bear all the plants one can acquire in such a space. I love my plants.My father raises me as best as he can. I enrolled in some of the best private schools the city can offer.I am smart—no qualms about saying this, since I have smart parents so I am quite relieved to be so.His wealth gives me many choices and opportunities to become one of the bests in whatever career I pursue.And I know that even as he sometimes grouses about it, he is happy I like my job. That being content where I am is the most important thing in the world to him.I know he and my mom have been meeting secretly sometimes. I know they meet when he's somewhere for a business meeting or a vacation. I am glad he and mom can spend time together, despite the complexity of their situation. That's supposedly what love is all about."You're thinking about how much I look like mommy again, aren't you?" I tease him when I raise my face and catch him looking at me fondly.His shoulders shook as he laughs. "Your mother is the most beautiful woman I have ever met and I am grateful your looks came from her than mine.""And she swears you are the most handsome man she has ever met. Oh god, the sucrose makes me really sick. So heartbreakingly sweet!""Oh, sweetie." He is laughing. Then he grimaces. "It is, isn't it?""You two should better end up together again when she's done with all the council's shenanigans. Don't look like that, Dad. The council doesn't have ears on our walls. They're not going to piss off Mom like that.""They don't have to tell anyone what they do," he said, suspiciously."They better not do that trick. I know when something magickal is happening in this house. I've spelled it so it'll let me know. Mom taught me.""She did? When?""A while back," I reply. "I haven't seen her in weeks, Daddy. But I'm sure the very next time she's got free time and it's safe, you'll see her."And... my father blushes because of whatever he's thinking about what they do when they get together.I think that is too much for me now.Glancing at my watch, I gulp down the last of my juice and get up from the table. I race around to where my father sits and kisses him on the cheek."I've got to go, Dad, or I'm going to be late for work. Don't wait up for me tonight, okay?" I remind him again. "I love you.""I love you, too, sweetheart," Davis responds as he picks up the newspaper, his forehead still creased with that worry that makes me want to slap every elder who has instigated taking away my mother from us. Including my Mom. Sometimes. "Have a wonderful day, okay?""I will!"AT work at five o'clock that afternoon, I dash to the elevator, and then through the lobby to outside where my personal driver, William, slides the car in place on the dot as I am rushing out the doors. He never misses, despite other cars in line trying to get off from parking and drive home. He is to take me to this meeting place with the agent.
As we make our way through traffic, I keep looking at my watch. I really do not want to be late but traffic is standing still. And it has been for a while now.Pushing a button that slides open the glass partition between myself and William, I inquire what is wrong, as I see him craning his neck out his side window to check the front of the line on our lane."There's a malfunctioning traffic light, Ms. Ravensworth. Cars are backed up in all directions, I'm afraid," he replies sullenly."Oh hell," I say under my breath. Sliding the glass close again, I roll down my side window to try to see how far the holdup extends.The sound of beeping cars and angry drivers assail my ears.But amidst the chaos, a distressed child is crying.Looking in that direction, I see a flushed toddler along with a woman who appears to be his mother holding her in the backseat of a cab. The driver himself is looking worried and, like my driver, keeps craning his neck to check if someone's doing something about the traffic.The child is obviously in pain and needs to be looked at by medical people immediately, and I am guessing they are on their way to the nearest medical facility.This shouldn't be happening because I am there, and I know I can help the poor baby.I don't need to think more about it.My hand moves, my index finger flicking in the air, gathering what I need from the nether. I felt the static of electricity building fast on my fingertips and I throw it out there before it manifests in my hand enough for the naked eye to see.And the problematic traffic light starts to function again.The next one is easier, as the child is nearer to me than the posts that hold the traffic lights.I murmur a spell, and the crying child slumps, fast asleep in her mother's arms.The mother, who of course knows none the wiser, gets more agitated because it looks like her child fainted. She starts to cry herself.But that isn't what's important at that moment.I need to do something else before traffic moves and they drive away from me.I spelled her child to sleep so she will not feel the pain of... I try to sense the reason for the crying with my 'spidey' sense.Ahh, there it is. It is a dislocated shoulder from possibly a fall. I grimace. That is painful. But I can't heal that from here, and I am not that trained to heal bones.I am at least relieved the child will not have to suffer until they can get her to a doctor. Her mother has frantically checked her baby's pulse and breathing and since all that should be good, she appears to look grateful that her child 'passed out' from the pain of her injury.I see her wiping the tears from her eyes and securing her hold on her child. I don't need to do anything to her against her knowledge, thank the gods. I allow myself a small smile before sliding the window back up as traffic resumes very quickly after that.And I think I just may make it in time for my meeting after all.CHIARA WHEN we reach the restaurant, my driver pulls up directly in front of the doors and helps me out of the car.“Thanks, William. I’ll let you know when I’m ready to leave.” He will wait for my call somewhere else, probably in the pub we have passed on the way here. He tips his hat to me in agreement and then he is off. Meanwhile, I walk up to the entrance of the restaurant.I do not recall having eaten here previously. The outside is elegant and modern, and the interiors look intimate and cozy.But most essentially, the smells emanating from the place are delicious.I can see through the windows that almost all the tables are occupied.So how come I have never heard of this restaurant before?It doesn’t seem to be a family-oriented place though, since there are no children in sight. The patrons that are seated and eating dinner have their faces up and turned towards... me?Interesting.I frown. That’s confusing.They are all really looking at me, watching me. Why the hell are t
CHIARA “BUT this is something that you must do. There’s no choice.”“There’s always a choice!” I protested.“I hope you really think about it this time.” And… she’s using her adult voice this time. “There’s a man you need to find and bring before the Council. I wish I can do it but I am swamped. If I don’t finish my own assignment, I can’t be with you and your father after your birthday because I’ll have to go straight to my next assignment. There, okay? It’s not a surprise, anyway, that I’m going to be there. But I’m hoping to at least stay for a week after your birthday, darling.”I rolled my eyes because we both know this is grand manipulation!But it’s the kind I like.“I’m in.”She giggles and shakes her head, looking a little guilty, before she pulls me into her hug.“Why? What did this man do?” I ask as I recover the wine glass from the table. “What’s wrong with him?”“He hasn’t done anything… yet.” She frowns. “Why do you always think that when the Council wants a Magickal bro
CHIARA “MOTHER, we’ll have to do something so I can take off from work for me to fly to where this guy is,” I say.But she just waves her hand dismissively. “Consider it all done. We have a cover ready for you, and you’ll not have to lift a finger.”“Yes… though I wish you’d given me a proper warning. I’ll have to make sure my writers are taken care of.”“Darling, it’s not like you’ll be leaving for a whole year. It’s just going to be a day or two.”“Oh.” I blink. “Okay. I guess we can manage that.” I am frowning a little, because I am expecting it will take a longer time to talk to someone with a name like Gideon Swan, who is a notorious hermit billionaire, about Magickals, and that he is one.My mother is still talking, adding a few more details, then I hear something that catches me.“Nooo,” I wail. “I’m not going to Louisiana! You know how much I hate the humidity there!”“It won’t be so bad this time of year,” she soothes, brushing aside my refueled objections. “Your birthday is
GIDEON I stare out the window of my Mystical Grove mansion the following evening.Something big is coming, I think as I look out at the waning light.The day is almost over, but since it’s been raining since the morning, it looks like twilight the whole day. Well, maybe not that big, but definitely something important, and I’m maybe not going to like it.I wonder if this has anything to do with the woman I keep dreaming about lately.A beautiful woman with titian hair and exotic green eyes turns up in my dreams almost every night and on on my mind a lot during my waking hours, too.In my dreams, I search for her, call out for her, desperately trying to tell her something.I can hear my voice begging.But I can never make out what I was saying.Okay, so I can… see.Like I can glimpse a clue of the future by seeing something significant in my environment, signs that no one else can parse or connect but this different brain of mine, and I can dream dreams that warn me of impending event
GIDEON SO is this my punishment for hurting James and all the others before him due to my ignorance?I ran away from the first family that took me in, and then three foster homes, because I was different.During the time, I was just a freak, the kind that scares regular people. Others—kids and grown-ups—know there is something unusual about me. They never talked about it, because they probably feel afraid others would think they are crazy.I was the freak and I have power over them because of it, and I could feel it even as a child, how scared they are of me. How I make every moment they spend with me hellish.Someone would invariably start acting cruelly because of this terror, or just because somebody’s stupid. I got into fistfights. I never started a fight. But I end up un-punished.Because the adults knew.Or, sometimes, in the case of the foolish, I end up hurting someone.In a way, I was chained and battered. Even as a child, I knew I’m a good person.It’s because I keep wanti
GIDEON BUT how I love storms.There is something majestic about them even when they are the most uncontrollable phenomena on earth.Or maybe it is exactly because of this that I find them so fascinating.Uncontrollable. Powerful. Something like that the power that is inside me.Maybe it is exactly the reason why I like watching storms, because they might show me something that I need to control this storm within me.I took control of my life—a difficult undertaking being alone at the age of fourteen—but I was able to. I eluded the system until I was of legal age.By that time, I have already acquired a significant amount of money by gambling here and there to get me through school and then through college, without having to ask for a student loan that will surely put me in the system for years.Then I discovered the stock market and acquired my first million before I graduated.I took up serious investing in real estate, bought companies to rescue from greedy, unfeeling banks, and m
CHIARA AS I watch the gorgeous man in front of me, I feel strange.In a bit of a quandary.Unbelievable.But in my first glimpse of him, giddiness and pure lust slammed into me.I’m a virgin, for pity’s sake. I’ve never felt anything like this for any man, even the sexually magnetic men I have encountered in my life as my father’s heiress. Or those beautiful men who modeled in shoots of some of the projects I undertook for my publisher.Never.I have dated but I never had a boyfriend.I had lusted, but never felt the desire to jump to bed with the man who triggered the yearning like this. I need something more. I need to know the man, need more time.Nothing like this.This is pure, undiluted lust, for a stranger.And it doesn’t make any sense.So I know it is the magick that’s doing this.And I know, without him saying, that he was Gideon Swan.He is the awakened warlock.And Jesus H. Christ… he is potent.It is all I can do to stay calm.I try to imagine what my mother will do in th
CHIARA GIDEON does not lie. There is a warm, cozy fire blazing in the elegant fireplace in his spacious living room where huge rugs scatter on the wooden floor that gives it a homey feel.I lead him towards the biggest couch that happens to be nearest the fireplace, and after settling him down there, I asked him where I can get a blanket and medicine for him.“There’s a blanket inside that door. It’s the den. I sometimes fall asleep there when working during the night and—”“I’ll get it. It’s not locked, right?”He shakes his head. My goodness, he is shivering all over now!I hasten as fast as I can. I see several blankets folded neatly inside a huge cabinet that has several throw pillows in there, too. I bring a thick blanket and a pillow with me and I go back to the living room.“Are you alone here?” I ask as I put the pillow under his head and the blanket over him after helping him lie down. He clutches at it right away to his chest. “There must be servants?”“She just went home be