Here was a chance to learn more about my own intuition. From an actual psychic, I thought. “So…” I said slowly as my curiosity got the better of me. “What other things can you do?”
“I can show you.” Autumn gave my hand a gentle squeeze. “But you’ll have to let me in,” she said.
“Let you in?”
“Yeah, open up,” Autumn said. “Let me see.”
I suddenly understood. “You want me to drop my energetic shields, don’t you?”
“Exactly,” she said. “It’s a hell of a lot easier to scry if you let me in voluntarily.”
I never in my life thought anything I learned from my mother would actually prove useful, but…what the hell, I decided. “You’ll have to give me a moment. It’s been a long time since I tried anything metaphysical.”
“That’s okay,” Autumn said. “Take your time.”
“I can’t believe I’m doing this,” I grumbled and shifted to face her.
There we sat, cross-legged on the sofa and facing each other. When Autumn silently held her hands out to mine I took a deep breath, reached for her hands, shut my eyes…
And I dropped my shields.
It was like being on a carousel, but one that went impossibly fast. There was a blur of color, sound, and movement all melding into each other. Images from my past flashed in front of my eyes. I bore down, gripping onto Autumn’s hands like a lifeline, and then something surprising happened. I started to see pictures. No. Not pictures…it was more like seeing a movie play out…they were memories, I realized. Yet they weren’t my own.
They were Autumn’s.
She knelt in the grass planting flowers with a man with brown hair and green eyes. He said something silly to her, and I heard her laugh as she called him, “Dad”…She was driving an old pick-up truck cross country from New Hampshire to go to grad school in William’s Ford. She pulled up to the manor, and parked her truck at the curb for the first time…She collided with Duncan and they tumbled to the ground, landing in each other’s arms. They were both wearing athletic wear and hers was an eye popping clash of colors…Ivy and Autumn sat face-to-face, in a similar pose as we were now. They were in a park under an old tree. A pink light illuminated the pair of them and I felt, as much as saw, a shield of energy around Autumn. It cracked, shattered and fell to the ground.
Autumn holding her cell phone while she argued with her mother…the call ended. I felt tears in my own eyes as I understood that she’d been disowned for embracing her magickal heritage.
Autumn placing a long stem rose on top of a casket…next, a neon green ball of fire curved down from the sky, and lighting struck the roof of the Drake mansion. The explosion was deafening, and Autumn was huddling with Julian and Faye on the wet, brick pavers of the courtyard…A large group of people gathered in a circle in the same courtyard, and crows watched them all from the limbs of a massive old tree…
The pictures in my mind snapped forward again. I saw Autumn cuddled on a couch, but this time she lay in the arms of a gorgeous man. “Rene,” I hear her say his name as he pulled her protectively close and simply held her.
The bungalow she lived in now, as it was when she bought it. Another fast shuffling of images as it went through a rehab process and Holly bringing Duncan to the bungalow. He was shoved through the door, bumped into Autumn and they landed in each others arms, yet again…Autumn and Duncan kissing in the kitchen…Duncan pulling a lockbox out of it’s hidey hole, and the two of them sitting at the kitchen table going over the contents…
I came back to my body with a thump. It wasn’t pleasant. My stomach lurched as the room took a lazy turn, and then stopped. Belatedly, I remembered to let go of Autumn’s hands.
“Well, god damn, cousin Maggie.” Autumn didn’t sound upset…more like satisfied. “Here I thought I was going to be the one doing the reading and yet, you managed to scan me at the same time.”
“I’m sorry,” I managed. “I knew I had some intuition, but I didn’t know I could do that!”
“Don’t apologize.” Autumn waved it away. “I wondered what talents I’d find if you let your shields down.”
“That was intense,” I said, and leaned back against the cushions.
“So you do have some psychic ability, and a real working knowledge of magick, despite everything. I won’t ask why you don’t practice.” Autumn patted my leg. “I saw how it was for you growing up. That’d be enough to make anyone shy away from the Craft.”
CHAPTER SIX
My shoulders dropped. I was so relieved that I didn’t have to explain it to her, that it bordered on ridiculous. “Exactly.”
“So you’re a Witch after all,” Autumn said.
“Not really.”
Autumn shook her head. “You’re a reluctant Witch. How interesting.”
I jerked a shoulder at her assessment. “I don’t think of myself as a Witch. Not anymore.”
“You did when you were a teenager,” Autumn raised her brows. “Honey, I saw you. That cat you did the healing spell on. His name was Binx.”
Tears sprang to my eyes as I remembered my old cat. “Yes.” I nodded. “That was his name. Like the cat Binx, from Hocus Pocus. Not a very original name for a black cat, but I loved him.”
Autumn tapped a finger to her lips. “No wonder Irene’s ghost has been so demanding.” Autumn reached out for the book she’d brought. “This cookbook, it belonged to your grandmother. But it’s much more than a cookbook, Maggie.” Autumn open the book and spun it to face me. “You see all the notes in the margins?”
“Yes.”
“This cookbook is filled with spells and charms—”
“You’re saying that’s a grimoire?”
“That’s right.” Autumn smiled. “But I’m warning you now…The annotated recipes? Don’t play around with them.” Autumn set
