“What else do you know about her?” I asked.
“All I know about her is three things.” He counted each one off on his fingers. “Carman is an evil-hearted witch, who was banished from Ireland a thousand years ago. She’s still alive after all this time. She’s collectin’ magic so she can reopen the doorways to the fae realm.”
“Surely there are stories about her?” I asked. “Myths and legends? People have been writing about the fae for centuries.”
“The problem with stories is they get twisted the more they’re told,” Boone said, picking at the grass. “Someone adds somethin’, and someone else takes somethin’ away. Before long, there isn’t any truth left in the tale.”
He had a point, which kind of explained my results with my spriggan search on Google.
“The doorways were closed around the same time she was thrown out,” I mused. “Did she have something to do with it? She must have since she apparently wants to break back in.”
Boone nodded. “It seems so.”
“She’s coming for me, isn’t she? Like a destiny thing? The Crescent Witches were the most powerful coven in Ireland at their height, right?”
“Yeah, Aileen said they were, but we might get lucky.” He didn’t look convinced, and I began to regret my stupid meddling. “It may only be a craglorn who’s noticed.”
“Great.” I rolled my eyes. “That’s still in the too hard basket.”
“This isn’t a joke,” he scolded me.
“I know it’s not! If one shows up, how do we kill it?”
Boone shrugged, which didn’t ease my nerves. “Aileen used her magic. I was in my gyrfalcon shape, so I didn’t see much. Just…golden light.”
“Golden light. That’s helpful.” I snatched back the spell book from his lap and shoved my head through the silver chain. The pendant settled against my skin, warming me. “There’s got to be something in here.” I licked my thumb and began swiping through the pages looking for references, wishing they’d known what an index was in the year whatever.
“Skye…”
“What?” I snapped. “I feel rotten, okay? I’m a stupid dumbass who knows sweet eff all! If a craglorn comes knocking, I have to make sure I can cut the bitch before it hurts anyone in the village. You don’t know how to kill it, so I’ve got to find out for myself.”
“Skye, you don’t understand—”
“No! I don’t! But I get I’ve made myself a target since you’ve just been lecturing me about it for the past ten minutes. This is my mistake to fix.”
“Skye…”
“What?” I exclaimed, glaring at him. When he didn’t answer, I said, “How else am I supposed to learn about my legacy? Huh? There’s no one else around to teach me, so I’ve gotta take a stab at it. Do you know any other witches?” He shook his head. “And even if you did, could we trust them?”
“Unlikely,” he muttered.
“Yeah, that’s right. I’m not going to trust just any witch who comes along, so that means I’m in this on my own with a judgmental shapeshifter with amnesia. Give me a break, okay?”
Boone snorted and pushed to his feet. There I went digging myself into a hole and making all of this about me. I was such an insensitive jerk.
“Boone…” I tugged at the laces on his boots. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean…”
“If you’re goin’ to meddle with that thing, then at least go to the hawthorn,” he said irritably.
I rose to my feet, clutching the book under my left arm. Grabbing the sleeve of his shirt with my right, I pulled him around.
“Boone, I’m sorry, okay? I messed up, and I didn’t mean… It’s not your fault you can’t remember. You’re not a witch or…”
“No, I’m not.” His eyes were dark and cold.
“You’re all I’ve got,” I murmured. “Boone, I…”
My fingers loosened their grip, and I glanced down, grazing past his lips on the way. Feeling a blush creep into my cheeks, I let him go and hugged the spell book against my chest. This was one of those passionate after-fight kiss moments, but even after the almost kiss at the site of Aileen’s empty resting place, I still shied away.
I guess I didn’t want to overcomplicate things, but I knew it was an excuse so I didn’t have to face his reaction. What if he rejected me? Boone was the only person who knew about me besides Robert, but I hadn’t seen the lawyer since the funeral. I didn’t want to count on another absentee figure.
Boone was all I had in this crazy world of magic. Boone the shapeshifter.
“Skye…”
My heart zinged as his hand cupped my cheek, his fingers tangling in my dark hair. Coaxing my chin upward, our gazes met.
The excited chattering of a group of tourists walking up the hill broke us apart, and I combed my fingers through my hair, straightening out the tangles. Boone jumped back about a mile like I’d zapped him with the static electricity I’d been carrying since Robert O’Keeffe electrocuted me with his golden pen. Way to make a girl feel special.
Glancing away, I shuffled nervously. “Lucky you found me when you did,” I joked lamely. “Otherwise, I would have ended up as a meme.”
“We’re gonna disagree on things,” he said. “But I won’t leave you.”
He guided me back toward the path and around the group of tourists who were pointing cameras and mobile phones up at the tower house in an attempt to add to their libraries of landscape photos.
“That makes me feel a lot better,” I muttered sheepishly.
“Let me take you home.”
“I don’t want to go home.”
“It would put me mind at ease until we know for certain nothin’s creepin’ about,” he replied sternly.
“Fine.”
I allowed him to lead me back to the cottage like a naughty
