Page 18 of A Dance with the Fae (Mistress of Magic #1)

Annie knew instantly when Faye opened the shop door the next day; it took her all of three seconds to look Faye over and make up her mind that something had happened.

‘Morning.’ Faye stood aside and let her friend in; today, Annie was wearing a belted red trench coat over a baggy Breton stripe shirt with flappy pockets, a denim miniskirt and thick orange tights with biker boots.

Faye felt dowdy in comparison in her jeans and sweater, though the cornflower-blue colour of her top sat nicely against her auburn hair.

‘Don’ give me yer morning , Faye Morgan, like nothing’s going on.

Somethin’s happened. I can tell.’ Annie threw her coat on one of the easy chairs and stalked around her friend like a cat.

She peered at Faye’s neck and grabbed hold of the frayed collar of the old sweatshirt, pulling it away from Faye’s skin and scanning her skin.

‘What are you doing, you madwoman?’ Faye pulled away, laughing at Annie’s manic expression.

‘Looking for love bites, my sweet dahhhling,’ Annie trilled in her actress voice. ‘Remainders of the love act. The shadow of a kiss.’ She stood back and narrowed her eyes. ‘You’ve had sex. Haven’t you? I can tell.’

Faye laughed out loud. ‘My god. What are you, like, some kind of sex detective? Yes, I did. Happy now?’ She straightened her sweatshirt and tried to look normal, though she didn’t feel it.

‘Ye didn’t . Tell me yer not makin’ this up!’ Annie screeched, lapsing back into her normal accent.

‘I’m not making it up.’ Faye fiddled with a basket of crystals, sliding her fingers between the cool smoothness of the clear quartz.

‘Who? When? Where? ’ Annie demanded, letting out a whoop of delight. ‘I cannae believe it! This is big.’ She sat down behind the counter and leaned forward, drumming her fingers on the glass. ‘C’mon. Tell me. I want it all. As the actress said to the bishop.’

‘You are an actress.’

‘I know. Meta.’

The door opened and Aisha strode in, smiling.

The bells tinkled, and Grandmother’s hagstone charm that hung by the door twisted gently in the breeze.

Faye realised that she still hadn’t discovered what had happened to the charm when Finn had come to the shop, that day, or who had put it back in its place: she reminded herself to ask Annie and Aisha about it.

However, right now, that seemed unimportant.

‘Aisha. Yer just in time, sweetheart. Seems that the spell’s worked. Faye got laid last night.’ Annie nodded to Faye, who was feeling increasingly uncomfortable.

‘Annie, I don’t think…’ she began, but Annie glared at her.

‘I hope yer not tryin’ to weasel out of telling us, Faye Morgan.

When we’re the ones that did the spell with ye.

Grandmother Morgan would frown on that, ye know.

She didnae have anyone to share her magic with except your maw and you.

We’re a coven now, aye. Ye share yer magic.

In fact…’ Annie opened the store cupboard and drew out Grandmother’s book.

‘Here. We should be writin’ this all down. Keepin’ a record.’

She took a pen from the counter and sat down again, leaning forward.

‘Annie! You are NOT going to write about my sex life in Grandmother’s book!’ Faye snatched the pen from her hand and closed the covers of the thick volume.

‘We should put in the details of the ritual, though. An’ the results,’ Annie replied sulkily. ‘It’s only common witchcraft practice.’

‘Fine. But only the ritual, and the fact that it seems to have worked,’ Faye insisted.

‘Tell us, then.’ Aisha perched on the closest easy chair.

‘This is so exciting!’ She grinned, but there was a catch in her voice.

Faye remembered their heart-to-heart outside the bar.

Perhaps Aisha was sad that something had happened for Faye, and not her.

Annie uncapped the pen and waited expectantly.

‘Well, there’s not that much to tell,’ Faye lied.

After all, there was a lot she could say: about the strange feeling of being watched on the beach; about the fact that she thought she had seen faeries in the waves, watching her and Rav make love; about the way Rav had looked at her, the fact that he had said I feel like I’m under a spell .

About the primal animal lust that had overcome them both…

But those things were private. And her wild pleasure was also hers, not for gossip.

‘I told you I met someone at the beach, the other week. Remember?’

She had mentioned it to Annie the day after meeting Rav, but had played it down at the time.

‘Ye told me ye had a chat tae some guy. Not that he was some kinda new sex puppet for ye.’

‘Annie! He’s not a sex puppet.’

Annie waved her hand dismissively.

‘Aye, he’s a mega-brainy yogic philanthropist, I’m sure. Get on with it.’

‘He’s new to the village. He moved into that big house on the beach?

You know the one?’ Annie and Aisha nodded; they both knew Black Sands Beach well.

‘His name’s Rav Malik. He’s from London originally, he’s just moved up because he’s organising this new music festival in the village.

He thought his house was haunted, and when I told him it was the fae that were displeased…

That house sits on a faerie road, d’you know that?

’ Her friends shook their heads; Annie raised an eyebrow.

‘Explains a lot, though,’ she said. ‘Continue.’

‘Yeah. Well. When I said that, his first reaction was, like, this is mad . But then he took it seriously. He tried, anyway. I mean, I don’t think we have that much in common.

His whole life is music; I’m not really that into it.

And I don’t know what he thinks of me being from a family of witches.

But I really like him.’ Faye was aware that she had been gabbling a little; usually, she didn’t say as much.

‘He’s probably fascinated with the witch thing,’ Aisha replied. ‘And you don’t need to have that much in common. You just need to have…I dunno. The feelings .’

‘D’you have the feelins ?’ Annie demanded. ‘What happened, anyway? Ye went over there tae look at his haunted hoose? An’ then what? Which, by the way, is a new one on me, aye. Goin’ to have to keep that one in the bank for when I’m tryin’ to seduce a witchy type in the future.’

‘We kissed. And…’ Faye felt shy saying much else. ‘One thing led to another, I guess. On the beach.’

Annie screamed and punched the air. ‘Yesss! On the beach ? Seriously? What time was this?’

‘I don’t know. Evening time.’

‘Christ. It’s not even dark, then.’ Annie exchanged glances with Aisha. ‘That’s intense.’

‘Is he like what you asked for? What does he look like?’ Aisha asked.

‘He’s…not exactly what I asked for. He’s…bigger. Like some kind of animal. I wouldn’t usually go for someone like that. But…yeah. I like him.’ She shrugged.

‘I take it yer going to see him again?’ Annie prompted.

‘Maybe. I don’t know.’

Annie looked concerned and wrote something in the book. ‘Oh, sweetheart. It wasn’t any good?’

Faye smiled, thinking of the way that Rav had brought her to the intense ecstasy of the night before.

‘No, no…it was very good.’ She felt her cheeks colour.

‘He’s…I don’t know if he’s like what I asked for.

He’s tall…’ Faye remembered her doll. The wool hair with golden flecks that she’d braided; the way she’d tattooed its skin with her words.

It wasn’t Rav…but it did look awfully like Finn Beatha.

So, why was it that she had made love with Rav last night? Where was Finn?

‘I feel like there’s a “but” moving in the general direction of this conversation,’ Aisha said.

‘There might be a but,’ Faye conceded.

‘Why? He’s nice?’

‘Yes.’ Faye smiled.

‘He made you come, aye?’ Annie looked concerned. ‘Tell me he made ye come, sweetheart.’

‘Annie, that’s none of your business!’ Faye glared at her friend.

‘Just say yes or no,’ Annie prompted. ‘I’m not going to write it down. Look.’ She put the pen down. ‘I just wanna know. Yer my pal. I want to know ye had a good time.’

‘Fine. Yes ,’ Faye hissed, grateful they didn’t have any customers in the shop while this excruciating conversation was taking place.

‘Good! So, what’s wrong with him? Ugly, is he?’ Annie made a sympathetic face. ‘Ye might get used to it. If he knows what he’s doing, like.’

‘He is very good-looking! Stop asking questions.’

‘So, what is it, then?’ Annie and Aisha were frowning at her, and Faye couldn’t explain it to them.

She was still unsettled that she had acted out of character in going so far with Rav at the beach.

And she couldn’t shake off the suspicion that they’d been watched by the fae – had they influenced their passionate abandon somehow?

As she talked to Annie and Aisha, her thoughts strayed briefly back to Finn Beatha. She had asked for someone kind who wanted her, and Rav had arrived….

But was he the one she wanted?