Page 16 of Twisting Twilight (Homesteader Hearth Witch #9)

“‘Headband?’ Certainly not. It’s—oh, yes, an English translation.” Kian snorted and shook his head, the golden tips of his black hair sparkling. “It’s diadem .”

“We have ‘diadem’ in English,” I grumbled. I gave the fire opal spectacles a little shake as if to realign their crystal matrices to better translate.

To my dismay, Kian had Fiachna fetch yet another book from yet another inner coat pocket, but my helpers were numerous and stout enough to tote along a whole library if needed. A small library. He flicked this new book open to reveal another colored sketch.

“Your history books sure do seem to have a lot of artwork in them,” I mused.

“We scholars of the Solstice Court are very good sketch artists, you know, and capturing an event in two mediums instead of one is only us being thorough at our jobs.”

He gave the sketch a tap with his pointer. “Lady Muriel was gifted the Jewel of the Sea diadem as a wedding present, said to rival the crown of the high lady of the Court of Tides. It was rumored she never took it off, not even to bathe or swim.”

The diadem was an exquisite piece of silver set with pear-shaped aquamarine gemstones. The center stone was as tall as my finger was long and as thick as my thumb. It alone was undoubtedly worth a fortune.

“Lemme guess, the high lady was jealous so she sicced a muirdris on her rival,” Flora said.

Kian paled. “I-I would never insinuate such a thing. While there is enough evidence to support my assumption that Ouzel was a pirate ship, if I was ever called to defend myself in front of the master scholars in the Tower of Owls, there is none concerning that . Although…” The fae rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

“The muirdris was said to attack the castle coastline itself during very bad storms.”

“Storms of the sea that could be conjured by an insulted high lady?” the garden gnome needled. “Tempests that could cause enough storm surge that a sea dragon could ride the waves and attack closer to the castle? Oh no, I see no correlation at all.”

“Stop distracting them, Flora,” Daphne chided.

Flora stuck her tongue out at her friend but quieted down. She turned her eyes to the prairie, growing watchful.

That sent a jolt of alarm through me. Here I was, engrossed by the enthusiastic fae’s tale and not watching our backs. Me, our group’s primary guardian in a hostile foreign realm. Dad would’ve had me running laps and doing push-ups until my legs and arms turned into noodles for such obliviousness.

“Anything?” I asked Sawyer, fighting down a surge of panic.

I hadn’t seen whisker or stripe of him since entering Where the Wind Whispers, though I could tell from our bond that he was close by.

I cast a glance over my shoulder out of habit and gasped to find our trail of flattened stalks completely erased.

If we weren’t leaving a trail, then anything following us wasn’t going to, either.

I fought the impulse to cast a Scouting Spell. “Do you still smell your ‘something?’”

“I do, but good luck pinpointing it,” he groused.

“The wind is swooshing all the scents everywhere. I keep thinking I’m smelling skink and rabbit, and then that thing , and some kind of beetle?

And I barely see anything through this grass.

You haven’t noticed because you’ve had your nose stuck in a book, but I have to jump straight up every so often just so I can see where I’m going. ”

“Do you need a break? Want to ride on my shoulder?” I know I’d certainly feel better about paying attention to Kian with Sawyer keeping watch for us.

“So I can be a kept pet like that opossum? No thank you,” the tabby tomcat sniffed.

Said the cat who’d had no problem whatsoever to riding on my shoulder before he met the opossum.

“I think Fiachna is Kian’s partner much like you are mine,” I pointed out.

At the term “partner,” Sawyer brightened. “ Could you give me your sparkle vision? I could see anything sneaking up on us while you suffer through your history lesson.”

Now there was a thought. I’d been taught all my life that familiars amplified their witches, not the other way around. But my education had been sorely lacking, as I’d discovered. From what I understood of our familiar-witch bond, it wasn’t like all the others either, so why not?

I stopped walking to concentrate. Kian made a squeak of protest as my grassland helpers halted when I did and he was hauled along by my friends away from all his books and scrolls.

Sawyer had piggybacked on my previous usage of the sparkle vision, but this time, I would be donating the entirety of the sight to him so I could keep my eyes on the junior scholar’s books.

This’ll be the perfect opportunity for some finesse , I grumped. This technique was nearly identical to grounding, which I had mastered long ago, and I had to admit my ego needed the win.

“ This might be easier if I hold you ,” I told my cat, and Sawyer leapt into my arms. He gave me one of his aggressive head-snuggles in encouragement, his amber eyes bright.

His paw curled over my wrist and pressed his claws into my skin, holding on.

Closing my eyes, I focused on drawing that connection to Elfame up through my feet and into my core and down our bond.

“ It’s working! ” the tabby tomcat cried. “ This is so cool. ”

Blinking, I adjusted my sight back to the sunlight and the physical realm and hurried to catch up with the others. “Is it still working?”

“ Hmm, ” Sawyer thought. “ It doesn’t seem to have the range it did before. ”

“ Maybe it’s because I’m channeling it into you and you’re not piggybacking off of me? ”

“ You make me sound like a tick, ” he sulked.

“ That’s not what I meant and you know it. My capacity is just… more than yours. ” I hoped he’d take that as an unbiased fact and not a judgment.

“ Hmph. ” The little cat was proud of his talent and abilities, but he was also keenly aware he’d never finished his education at Grimalkin University.

The additional ways he could’ve learned to use his magic were lost to him now that he was expelled.

It burned him to think he was less than he could be. I knew the feeling.

“ I bet Fanga Longclaw or Ame couldn’t do this with their witches, ” I offered.

He didn’t reply right away, and when he did, it wasn’t with a smug, self-bolstering retort. “They didn’t have witches like you.” Then the tabby tomcat gave me another aggressive snuggle and bounded away into the tall grass to push the boundaries of his sparkle vision.

And no one’s had a familiar like you , I thought as I watched the wind wipe away his trail.