Page 10 of Spellbound

“You said this was magistrate business just now,” Janet said. “I haven’t heard that in years. Not since my son…” her voice trailed off and she sat down in one of the rocking chairs, looking down at her lap. “What did you mean by that?”

“I’m sorry, Janet,” Rosalyn said, reaching over to squeeze her hand. “Ben will explain. I hope you don’t mind answering some of his questions.”

“Well, I guess it doesn’t matter if I do, does it?”

“Of course it does,” I replied, “And if you don’t want to talk about anything I ask you, just say so.

The Council may overrule you and force you to speak to me, but that’s up to them.

I do feel as if this interview is long overdue, and I don’t want to do it with Asher until I know more.

Tell me about the accident with his leg. He told me it was a climbing accident.”

“Not exactly.”

“I know a little of what happened. I checked into it and read the police report. He was hiking in a state park, wasn’t he? Who was he with?”

She shook her head. “Some friends. One of them was his ex-boyfriend, I think, or he’s an ex now.

A young man named Brent. The outing was completely out of character for Asher—he doesn’t usually like outdoor things like that.

They drove up there and then they climbed over a barrier and went up a trail beside a waterfall in the park, ignoring all the signs posted against it.

Asher waded out into the water at the top, and the rocks were slippery with algae.

The other people in the park that day witnessed the accident and saw him slip and fall.

He went over the first set of falls and landed on the rocks below—another drop of twenty feet.

It’s a wonder it didn’t kill him. Somehow, he managed to stop himself from falling any farther.

He broke some bones in his leg so badly that he had to have surgery, and they put in pins and screws.

He also sustained a severe concussion and was lucky he didn’t fracture his skull. ”

“Why did he do something so dangerous and reckless? Had he done anything that before?”

“No, not that I know of.”

“What made him decide to go climbing around like that?”

“That’s just it. He won’t talk to me about it. I don’t know why he even went to that park. It’s nowhere near his home. At first, he said he didn’t remember why he wanted to go, and then he said it was just a ‘spur of the moment’ thing.” She shook her head. “It was so foolish. He could have died.”

“I know that Asher’s powers were bound a long time ago. What can you tell me about that?”

She gave a little gasp, and Rosalyn smiled at her reassuringly. “Just tell him whatever you know, Janet.”

“Wasn’t it his father who did it to him?” I asked. “I know some other magistrates were involved. No one else would have had that authority or that much power.”

“Yes,” Janet said, her voice breaking a little.

“It was Rosalyn’s husband and son, along with my son, Richard MacGregor, and perhaps a few other magistrates.

My son was Harvard educated and brilliant, possessed of good breeding and formidable power…

why he married a woman like that Opal and had a son with her, I’ll never understand. ”

“Why do you say that?”

“She was common and uneducated. I never thought she really loved my son, and their marriage was on the rocks almost from the start. She was a terrible mother too, and I don’t think she even wanted Asher.”

“What makes you say so?”

“Oh, I know it sounds like I was interfering, but I wasn’t.

She argued with my son about everything, and I saw her slap Asher’s little face more than once for not picking up his toys.

It made me so angry that I took him home with me a couple of times, but she didn’t care.

She was glad of the break. It all came out, you know. At the hearing after her death.”

“But why was his magic bound? What exactly did Asher do? And why would a father bind his own child? I need to know and try to understand.”

“No one liked it, but they all agreed it might be for the best, considering how young Asher was when it happened.” She sighed deeply, a ragged sound in the silence that had suddenly seemed to fall around us.

I hadn’t noticed, being so intent on what Asher’s grandmother had been saying, but even the cicadas had gone quiet.

The lights seemed dimmer, and the darkness was leaning in to listen.

I looked up and felt a shiver of alarm. “On second thought, let’s go inside to talk about this.”

Both ladies looked a little surprised, not to mention uneasy, but they got up and headed back inside with me.

I followed them in, stopping at the front door to gaze back out into the moonlit yard for a few long seconds before I closed the door behind me, saying the words that would seal the door for the night from all intrusions. “Ka luv quo rool thia quo rais.”

The windows were already shut and sealed, as it was still early in the year and still too cool outside at night to leave them open, but it didn’t hurt to make sure.

Let’s go in the parlor,” I said, taking the lead.

“Make yourself comfortable.” I gestured toward the twin wing-back chairs by the hearth.

Janet took one of them, leaving the other for me.

Rosalyn took a seat on the sofa. I saw Janet shiver, so I switched on the electric fire logs, and they began glowing softly.

It was still a couple of months away from the warmer weather of summer, and the nights could be cool.

I sat down across from Janet and leaned forward to place a hand on her arm. She was trembling a bit.

“You don’t have to be frightened, and I’m not going to press you for answers. If you don’t know something or don’t want to say, just tell me so.”

She nodded and I gave her what I hoped was a reassuring smile. “Since your son Richard was a magistrate, you’ll know about us and what we do.”

“Yes, of course. I guess I’m just having trouble remembering all that happened again. I’ve put it so thoroughly out of my mind. Asher is going to be terribly upset if he finds out I talked to you.”

“Don’t worry about him. I’ll handle all that. Tell me what happened to cause his father to bind his magic?”

She took a deep breath and nodded. “It was when Asher was a child. His father was away from their home a great deal in those days. He was based in North Carolina and some of Tennessee, but he still had to travel a good bit. Opal was…well, she was a really unhappy person—unhappy in her marriage and unhappy about being a mother, like I said. She said it tied her down way too much. She claimed to be a conjure woman, but I never saw that much magic in her. Some said she’d made a love potion to trap my son. ”

“Do you think she did?”

“Yes, I do. She didn’t understand magic, really, but at the same time, she was jealous of my son’s power, because it was high magic and so much stronger than her own. She was just a hedge witch.”

She used the term in a derogatory way, but that was probably because she obviously hadn’t liked Opal.

A so-called hedge witch worked alone and didn’t adhere to any strict dogma—religious, spiritual, or otherwise.

They had their own kind of magic, focusing primarily on creating healing, herbal remedies.

Everything was kept simple and basic, and all rituals are non-fussy and minimalist.

“Opal never understood why Richard didn’t use his power to enrich himself,” Janet continued.

“They weren’t poor—my son made a good living—but she wanted real wealth—a much bigger house and more expensive clothing and jewelry, and my son wouldn’t agree to that.

We learned later that it was around then that she began to look for ways to get more power of her own.

She started playing around with Ouija boards, conjuring demons, and talking to so-called psychics when my son was gone on his trips out of town.

She even tried infernal magic once or twice. My son told me so.”

“Was she able to do it? Did she conjure up a demon?”

“Not that I know of. When Richard found her boards and made her confess to what she’d been doing, he was furious and told her she had no idea what she was playing at.

He made her stop and disposed of all the boards.

He told her to stop seeing the psychics or talking to them on the phone.

He threatened to leave her and take Asher with him, and even to turn her over to the Council, but that only made her anger worse.

She never wanted Asher but resented the idea of him being taken away.

She threatened me and Asher and tried to scare Richard.

I don’t like to speak ill of the dead, but she was really not a nice person.

“She and my son were arguing all the time, and there was more and more talk of a divorce. I know Richard still loved her, in a way, but she often told him how desperately unhappy she was. Things couldn’t have gone on that way long, but then one day my son came home and found her dead on the living room floor with Asher nearby.

My son was shocked. Devastated . It didn’t seem possible that she was gone and there wasn’t a mark on her. ”

She buried her face in her hands and sat that way for a few moments. I urged her to continue as gently as I could. “Go on, when you feel like you can.”