Table of Contents
COVER
COPYRIGHT
TITLE PAGE
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Mistletoe & Ivy
Copyright
Magick & Magnolias
Copyright © Ellen Dugan 2018
Cover art designed by Kyle Hallemeier
Cover image Fotolia/Adobe Stock: millaf
“Legacy of Magick” logo designed by Kyle Hallemeier
Editing and Formatting by Libris in CAPS
No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any other form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the express written permission of the publisher.
Published by Ellen Dugan
All rights reserved to the Author
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Magick & Magnolias
By
Ellen Dugan
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
As always, thanks to my family, friends, beta readers, and editors. To Crystal who was a voice of calm reason when I started to slam my head against the writing desk. To M and P who let me bounce crazy ideas off of them, and don’t seem to mind. Finally, to Katie, Meme, and Necole for the information and insight into modern-day witchy Southern women.
Other Titles by Ellen Dugan
THE LEGACY OF MAGICK SERIES
Legacy Of Magick, Book 1
Secret Of The Rose, Book 2
Message Of The Crow, Book 3
Beneath An Ivy Moon, Book 4
Under The Holly Moon, Book 5
The Hidden Legacy, Book 6
Spells Of The Heart, Book 7
Sugarplums, Spells & Silver Bells, Book 8
Magick & Magnolias, Book 9
Mistletoe & Ivy, Book 10 (Coming 2019)
THE GYPSY CHRONICLES
Gypsy At Heart, Book 1
Gypsy Spirit, Book 2
Gypsy Soul, Book 3 (Coming 2019)
DAUGHTERS OF MIDNIGHT SERIES
Midnight Gardens, Book 1
Midnight Masquerade, Book 2
Midnight Prophecy, Book 3
Like the magnolia tree,
She bends with the wind,
Trials and tribulation may weather her,
Yet, after the storm her beauty blooms…
-Nancy B. Brewer
CHAPTER ONE
“Mama, are we there yet?”
I’d lost count of the number of times I’d heard that question over the past two days. Gripping the steering wheel tighter, I resisted the urge to scream. “No, sugar pie, we’re not. But we’re close.”
“We are?” My daughter, Willow, bounced in her booster seat, and I flashed my eyes to the review mirror in time to see her kick her snow boot-clad feet in the air.
With relief, I checked the GPS. “We should be arriving in less than a half hour.” A massive double bridge came into view, and I counted five lanes heading west and five heading in the opposite direction. “See that bridge?” I desperately pointed out. “Once we cross that we’ll be almost at our new house.”
“Will I get to use my snow boots?” It was her second favorite question.
“I’m sure you will.” I smiled when I said it, but internally I was thankful our trip up north had not included me driving through a snow storm—for the very first time.
“Can I see the pictures of our house, again?”
“Sure,” I patted around, found my cell and handed her my phone without taking my eyes off the road. With terrifying skill she opened the photo app and began to scroll through. “Do you see the pictures of the cottage?” I eased into the far right lane of the bridge. Everyone was driving so fast, it was more than a little intimidating.
“Uh-huh I see it,” she said. “I get my own room.”
“Yes you do.”
“Will my toys be there?”
“Yes. Remember that cousin Thomas called yesterday, to tell us that all our boxes had been delivered?”
“What if my dolls are lonely?” Willow asked.
“You can reassure them soon enough.”
I thought to the pictures Thomas Drake had sent me. The stone cottage on his estate—his estate—I thought, was charming. The fully furnished rental property was small, but we didn’t need much. The two bedrooms with one and a half baths would be plenty for Willow and me. I hoped the fireplace in the living room worked. I was looking forward to building a cozy fire and sitting in front of it.
“How come you don’t have any pictures of Thomas?” Willow wanted to know, as she went through the photos.
I thought back to the elegant older man who’d swooped into our lives a few months before and saved the day. “Because he didn’t send me any.” It was the most honest thing I could think to say.
“Mama, I like our cousin. He’s nice.” Willow sang as she entertained herself looking at the pictures of the cottage on my phone.
He certainly was, I thought to myself. Thomas Drake was also powerful, and if every story that my mother had ever told me was true, the man had descended from some pretty powerful modern-day magicians as well.
Since I’d been young, my mother, Patricia, had told me that she was the secret love child of a Witch and a Magician. Her birth mother, Irene Bishop, had hidden her away with the only couple she could trust—her best friends—Vance and Taylor Sutton. The story went that Irene had given up her baby girl to keep her safe from an evil man who threatened her very existence.
At first, I’d been spellbound by it all. What little girl doesn’t want to believe in faery tales? But after I’d grown up I’d begun to doubt my mother’s claim, figuring she was simply making up stories about her biological family for attention, or so she could brag to her friends about being a hereditary Witch.
Then out of the blue, her biological family had contacted me. When I’d met my mama’s family—her cousin, I wasn’t sure what to make of Thomas Drake. Somehow, I had felt a connection to him from the first moment we met: A soul-deep, quiet, yet powerful recognition.
The older man had carried himself with a sort of dignity, or polite arrogance I supposed. Honestly, his wardrobe, fancy car and bank account hadn’t impressed me much. But copies of my mother’s birth certificate and her adoption papers certainly had. In the short week he’d spent in town, he
