Crescent Legacy, Nicole Taylor [best 7 inch ereader .txt] 📗

“Close the shop, and go to the cottage,” I said. “There’s a surprise waiting for you there.”

“A surprise?”

“Don’t get too excited. There’s a lot to do!”

“A lot of what?” Mairead’s frown deepened. “Better not be work.”

“It’s time,” I said mysteriously.

“Time?” Her expression began to change as understanding dawned. “You mean?”

“Yep.” I nodded. “We’ve got a plan, but it’s going to take everything we’ve got.”

“What plan? Who’s we?”

I snatched a calico bag off the shelf and began tipping crystals into it. Points, tumbled stones, agate slices, geodes. You name it, it went in.

“Hey! I’ve got to scan those!” Mairead exclaimed squirming. “You’ll ruin the system!”

“Here,” I said, thrusting the heavy bag at her. “Take these to the cottage. Aileen will explain the rest.”

“Aileen? But… Skye, are you sure you’re not…”

“I’m not high!” I exclaimed. “Go, Mairead. We haven’t got much time to prepare. We’re going to lure that bitch Carman here and end her for good.”

“But—”

“Go!” I thrust my finger toward the door.

“What about—”

“Mairead!”

“Fine!” She rushed out of the shop and disappeared.

That girl was about to get the shock of her life. Hmm… I should’ve packed a defibrillator.

Taking her lead, I followed her outside, though I had another errand to run before I could make it back home to help Aileen with the crystals. Locking the door behind me, I sprinted across the street to the teahouse.

Mary Donnelly was the biggest gossip in Derrydun. If there were such a thing as an emergency phone tree in this place, she would be right at the top like a star on a Christmas tree. One word from her and the whole village would mobilize.

“Good mornin’, Skye,” the little old lady said as I barged in. “What’s ticklin’ your nether regions this mornin’?”

When she held up a bucket, I grimaced.

“That was one time!” I exclaimed.

“Can’t take any chances, dear,” she replied. “My back isn’t what it used to be.”

Taking it from her, I hugged the plastic against my chest, more to appease her than to catch any wayward spew. It was slightly humiliating, but not as awkward as things were going to get.

“I’m calling the banners,” I declared.

“The what?” She blinked at me, the reference going straight over her head.

“It’s a Game of Thrones reference.”

“A Game of who?”

“A Game of…” I clucked my tongue. “I’ll lend you the boxed set. Right now, I’m calling a village meeting. Tell everyone.”

“A village meetin’? The last time we had one of those was when…” She trailed off, looking troubled.

“When my family was burned alive?” I raised an eyebrow.

“Why, I wasn’t goin’ to say it so bluntly,” Mary said with a huff.

“Can you do it?”

“Call the banners?” Mary asked with a quizzical look. “What’s so important? You’ve been actin’ really strange lately.”

“No, I haven’t!”

“Well, ever since Boone—”

“I’m going to stop you right there,” I declared holding out my hand. “This is very important. The life or death kind. It involves the whole village, so if you’ll humor me, pick up the phone and start ding-a-linging.”

Mary tilted her head to the side and clucked her tongue. Picking up a pair of tongs, she lifted the glass lid off the cookie display and retrieved a double chocolate chip, slipped it into a paper bag, and thrust it at me.

“Eat up, dear. A little sugar will have you feelin’ better in no time.”

I wasn’t about to argue over a free chocolate cookie, so I took the bag and pointed to the phone. “Remember. Life or death.”

I didn’t look back as I ran from the shop, darted across the road without looking, and crossed the garden out the front of the cottage. I was hardly feeling the cold anymore, and the added sunshine warmed my back and shoulders as I raced across the village.

The talisman factory was in full swing by the time I barged into the lounge room.

The first and second steps in our ‘make it up as we went along’ plan were in action, but if no one turned up at Molly McCreedy’s tonight, I wasn’t sure what we would do. The flare our magic was sending up while we charged all these crystals was epic. It was a giant neon sign in the shape of a middle finger Crescent salute aimed right at Carman, and the first piece of bait on the lure. Yet more evidence my barrier had been a pathetic fart in the wind.

Aileen and Mairead were sitting on the floor when I walked in, and there was a mountain of crystals piled on the coffee table.

“I’m still worried she’s goin’ to eat my brains,” the Goth girl said, glancing up from her notebook. She’d been scrawling down barcode numbers so she could update the computer later. Talk about obsessive.

“Unless you’re a lamb, I wouldn’t worry about it,” Aileen quipped, closing her fingers around a little spike of clear quartz.

“Gross.”

“I’m glad to see you too, Mairead.”

A smile crept across Mairead’s black lipstick-stained lips. “Me, too.”

“How did it go with Mary?” Aileen asked me.

“She gave me a cookie and sent me on my way, is what she did,” I complained, sitting on the floor.

“She would’ve picked up the phone the moment you left,” Aileen replied. “Mary Donnelly is a busybody, who lives for scandal. Don’t let her blue rinse fool you.”

“So we can count on the whole village being there tonight?”

Mairead blew a raspberry and rolled her eyes. “Duh. Nothin’ else happens around here.”

“But a magical cataclysm?” I raised my eyebrows as I reached for a crystal, adding my magic to the mix. “How can we ask them to fight with us?”

“Don’t underestimate the Irish,” Aileen declared.

“If only we had a few more athames.” I glanced at the dagger on the coffee table, studying the silver and gold hilt. Crescent moons wove an intricate pattern, signifying that it was a Crescent Witch heirloom. It had worked wonders on that craglorn. Stick it in and poof!

Wow. That didn’t sound dirty at all.

“We’re doin’ what we can,” Aileen said. “Anythin’ more would be too