“That’s him, isn’t it?” Zara asked, smiling down at the house elf who had the type of face that only a mother could love.
“It is,” I whispered.
“See? He’s sweet. I could tell.” Brice reached up and put a spoon in Zara’s hand and she smiled again, before leaning over to spoon some chili into her mouth. “Mmm, delicious.”
Seemingly satisfied with the compliment, Brice disappeared in a blur of motion again, and before I knew it, the table was set with eight bowls of chili, and two baskets overflowing with thick hunks of crusty bread.
“Hello, hello.” I turned as a curvy woman with strawberry blond hair and a hooded jumper strolled into the dining room. Behind her, a short woman in coveralls followed, along with Archie and who must be his wife, Hilda.
Harris jumped up and bounded across the room, nuzzling his nose into the leg of the shorter woman.
“Och, there’s the best lad. I’ve missed you, darling.” The woman cooed down to an equally adoring Harris.
“You must be Liora.” The woman in the hoodie smiled down at me and offered her hand. “I’m Sophie, owner of MacAlpine Castle, though I still really don’t believe it’s mine. This is Orla, head builder at the Common Gin distillery site, and one of the Order as well. You’ve met Archie, and this is his wife, Hilda.”
The trim woman with kind eyes and short-cropped grey hair smiled at me from where her arm was looped through Archie’s.
“Sit, sit. Faelan and Zara have to get back to work.” Lia bustled back into the dining area with two jugs of water in hand. In moments we were all tucked around the table, the dogs circling and hoping for a snack, and I looked down at my bowl of chili and then up at the group of people. It all just seemed so…normal.
Yet this was anything but normal.
“Delicious chili, Lia,” Sophie said. “But is there…”
A bowl of shredded cheese appeared in front of Sophie and she beamed. “Thanks, Brice!”
“I’m sorry… I hate to be rude,” I said, unable to shake the overwhelming feeling that I was being put on. “But this has to be a?—”
“Joke?” Zara finished for me, angling her head toward me in accord. “It does feel pretty surreal. Even for us.”
“Aye. We’re not strangers to the magickal world,” I explained as everyone at the table looked to my sister and me. “But our powers tend to run more toward auras, empathic readings, astrology, that kind of thing.”
“Nothing wrong with that,” Archie barked at me, and I raised my eyebrows. I hadn’t said there was something wrong with that, had I?
“It’s just that this all seems a little…”
“Out there?” Sophie supplied and I nodded, pleased that someone else agreed with me.
“It is,” Orla said, picking up a piece of bread and dunking it in her chili. “There’s no denying that.”
“But it’s also really fricking cool,” Lia added. “I mean, trust me, when I moved from Boston to start a restaurant here, I certainly wasn’t expecting to have a kitchen elf as my sous chef. But, here we are.”
“Do you get used to it? Having familiars?”
“Is that what you meant about a squirrel earlier?” Zara intervened, turning to me. “Do you have a magickal squirrel?”
“I, uh, I mean, kinda?” I asked, uncertain how to proceed.
“Oh, that’s grand. Your familiar has already found you.” Hilda beamed at me and nodded toward my bowl. “Eat up, dear. It’s not poisoned. Promise.”
“That’s exactly what they’d say in the movies if it was poisoned,” Sophie said, shaking her head at Hilda. “Listen, Liora. It’s wild and out there and I totally get it. I moved here not having a clue about any of this, but what I did have was a strong belief in the mythological. My uncle had spent countless hours going over these legends with me, and so to see them come to life? Well, I was pretty jazzed, I guess. But at the end of the day, when the Kelpies come for you, you don’t have a choice but to believe. Because you need to know how to protect yourself and those around you.”
“Oh, great.” I swallowed, my nerves making it difficult to talk. I was supposed to fight a Kelpie?
“I, too, thought it sounded a bit cult-ish. I think everyone did, no?” Lia looked at Orla who just nodded and kept eating.
“But in the end I’ve learned it’s about something more than all of us,” Sophie continued, glancing to Archie who just gestured with a piece of bread for her to go on. “The Order ofCaledonia was contrived to protect the Truth Stone, to make sure it stays where it is, and doesn’t land in the wrong hands. Through the years, it has grown too powerful. Without the Order protecting it, which is what is currently happening, it has called upon the Kelpies as the last line of defense. Unfortunately, the Kelpies don’t distinguish between friend or foe. They’ve become a terrifying menace and the longer we go on without completing the Order, the more they attack the town.”
They attack the town?