Chapter 17

Willow

Agentle bump at my head woke me from a dead sleep, and I blinked up at the ceiling before the bump happened once more. Jolting, I focused on the small kitten that was currently headbutting me, and everything from the day before came flooding back.

"Jeez, I'm surprised I slept at all. Hey, bud." I scratched behind Calvin's ears and his eyes closed, a rumbling purr emitting from his little fuzzy body. He really was cute, even if he was waking me up before … I craned my neck to look at my phone … seven in the morning. "We're going to have to work on the concept of sleeping in."

Not that I slept in all that much, but since Ramsay didn't want me at the store until ten, rising before seven did seem a touch enthusiastic. Today it would give me some time to get to know Calvin better, maybe get a phone call in to my dad, and work on a few more designs. Picking up my phone, I scrolled to the world clock app, realized it was far too early to even contemplate calling my father who, albeit was an early riser, but not a one in the morning early riser.

My phone also showed a slew of text messages from Miles, increasing in frustration at my lack of response. I ignored them.

He didn't get a say in my life at the moment, and he probably already had all the intel he needed from Ramsay anyway. Would Ramsay tell him about the magickal happenings in Loren Brae? I doubted it, since the Kelpies hadn't been a surprise to Ramsay, and Miles surely would have brought something of that nature up to me, as protective as he was.

"I guess I'll have to get used to checking in with Dad later in the day. Ope!" I snagged Calvin before he tried to jump off the side of the bed. "That seems like a pretty big jump for you."

I guess I was getting up.

An image flashed in my mind of Calvin's food dish, and I paused in my attempt to extract my legs from the covers tangled around them.

"Are you doing that?" It felt weird, asking my kitten a direct question like that, but since nobody was around to judge me, I went with it.

Calvin licked a paw and didn't reply.

"Calvin?"

The cat looked up at me. Did he already know his name or was he just looking at me because I was the only one speaking in the room? How would I test that he was actually communicating with me?

Maybe Loren Brae was beginning to make me think that anything could be magickal.

"Can you show me what you want right now?"

The image of his food dish flashed in my head again.

Hmmm. Was I doing that because I knew he was probably hungry or was he doing that?

"Can you show me how you fell in the loch?"

An image of a car speeding, scaring him, and sending him careening off the wall into the water, surfaced in my brain.

"Really? A car ran you off the road? You poor thing."

I went to scratch his ears and Calvin bit my finger. Lightly, maybe even playfully, but I grabbed it back.

"Sir. Rude."

The food dish image popped back in my head.

"Okay, see … I think you have to be doing this. Because I'm not thinking about your food as much as you're thinking about your food. I wonder what it means though?" Scooping Calvin up, I acquiesced to his demands, before showering and getting ready for the day.

My sequin skirt had dried from the day before, but now I paused as I considered my outfit choice for today. Yesterday I'd wanted to mix fun with a nod to Scotland in my tartan shirt, never considering that I'd be running through the rain to rescue a kitten. Since it was anyone's guess what challenges would arise for me today, maybe I needed to consider ease of movement and sturdy footwear.

Pulling out my pink Docs, I paired them with grey straight-legged jeans, a Nirvana T-shirt, with an oversized tweed blazer with rolled cuffs. Piling on a tumble of statement necklaces, I lined my eyes with a smokey liner, and pinned half my hair back. Based on Ramsay's preference of rock music, I figured he wouldn't be too fussed by me wearing a band T-shirt at his shop, but we'd never actually discussed work attire. I made a mental note to bring that up with him later today.

A crash sounded.

"Calvin!" I poked my head from the bathroom to see the small box of sewing accoutrements that I'd brought with me from the storeroom on the floor. Calvin, who was on his back on the carpet, didn't seem at all bothered by the mess he'd just made, and batted lazily at a ribbon.

"What the heck? Calvin, you naughty boy." I squatted and began gathering the items, placing the thimbles and buttons back in the box. Spying my scissors, I sighed. "You have to be careful. What if my scissors had landed on you?"

Granted, I guess I would have to be careful. I hadn't really thought about how to kitten proof a room, but now I looked around, wondering if there were other things that could pose a danger to the little man. The last thing I needed was to kill my kitten on day one of having him.

Something caught my eye, and I squinted down at the scissors in my palm. I'd been about to tuck them away in the box, meaning to take them to Sophie at some point to have a chat with her about the possibility of them being my power item—or whatever it was called—and the design caught my eye.

The pattern on the handle had changed.

Or something in the pattern had changed.

I'd always had a good eye for patterns, designs, and things of that nature. When I'd first picked up the scissors and had felt that pulse of energy against my palm, I'd taken time to study the design etched into the handle. Intricate Celtic knotwork and flowers had wrapped the handles, and while that design was still there, now, a singular tiny cat clambered on one of the vines.

"No way," I breathed, bringing the scissors closer. I held them up to the light, turning them upside down to see if there was a cat, or anything else, hidden among the vines.

Nope.

One little cat tucked among the vines that had most definitely not been there the day before. I was certain I would have noticed it. I looked between the cat and to where Calvin played with the ribbon.

"Did you do this?"

Calvin rolled over, twining the ribbon around his little body, and blinked his greenish eyes at me. I waited for some image or inkling to pop into my head, but nothing came. Rolling my eyes, I scooped Calvin up, tucked the scissors in my purse, and brought the ribbon along for him to play with. While Ramsay had been kind enough to tell me to bring Calvin with me to the shop, I wondered just how well that would actually work out.

"You can't knock his stuff over or he's going to kick you out of the shop." I pressed a kiss to the top of Calvin's head, and we went downstairs to find Sophie and Hilda having a coffee in the lounge area.

"There's my wee man. I've kept a bit of chicken out for him."

Sir Buster growled at my arrival, and Calvin perked up in my arms.

"Can I put him down or will there be blood?" I surveyed the growling chihuahua.

"Put him down. He's all bluster."

I put Calvin down, who immediately scampered across the room, sending Sir Buster running beneath the table from where he let out a near constant growl of warning.

"That's enough out of you," Hilda told Sir Buster before giving Calvin a small plate of chicken. The growling intensified. "Now, Buster. You can share your chicken."

"Coffee?" Sophie asked and I nodded.

"I need to go to the store at some point. I can't rely on you for all my meals."

"It's no bother for me," Hilda said, from where she was crouched by Calvin, "but I'm sure you'll want to have some food in your apartment as well."

"I can take you later," Sophie promised me.

Sophie looked comfortable in a baggy UCLA sweatshirt and leggings, and it was hard for me to remind myself that she was seriously wealthy, and the owner of this castle. Handing me a cup of coffee, she curled back up on a small sofa and tucked her feet under a blanket. The sky outside was just beginning to lighten, and I glanced at it in surprise.

"Does it stay dark this late in the morning?"

"Yup. And summer it will stay light longer."

"Really? That's kind of cool." I took the chair next to Sophie, and remembering Calvin's antics earlier, I dug in my purse one-handed and gave Sophie the scissors.

"What are these? Oh, cool. They're pretty, aren't they? Did you find them in the storeroom or are they yours?"

"Um, both. If that's okay with you?" I took a sip of my coffee and decided to just push forward with it, since, well I guess everything was on the table after the Kelpies had tried to murder us yesterday. "I found these in the storeroom, and for some reason I, like, instantly connected with them. I knew they were mine. Weird, maybe, but I could just feel it."

"Oh! These are your weapon. That's awesome."

"When you say weapon…" I looked helplessly at Sophie. "Am I meant to stab someone with them?"

I really didn't want blood on my Nirvana shirt. It was borderline vintage.

"Let's hope not. I think it's more symbolic than anything." Sophie wielded the scissors and Hilda chuckled, carrying Calvin with her to come sit next to Sophie.

"Let's have a look?"

Sophie snagged Calvin, tipping him over on her lap and scratching his belly, which he seemed to enjoy for a moment before he bit her finger and flipped over, stalking across the couch to jump from the arm to my lap.

"Ohhh, he's got a bit of an attitude, doesn't he? I like it," Sophie said.

"So, with the scissors, do you see the cat in the pattern?" I asked, stroking Calvin's back as he began to knead my knee with his tiny, sharp claws. I winced as one sunk deep and pulled his paw back.

"I do. Look." Hilda tilted the scissors to Sophie.

"Cute."

"It wasn't there yesterday morning."

"Ohhhhh." Sophie's face lit with excitement, and she slapped her hand on her thigh. "No way. You've passed a challenge already."

"Excuse me? I have?"

"I think so. I guess we'll only know if you pass another and see if a different design shows up."

"Aye, that's the way of it." Hilda nodded at me. "Between using your power to predict Calvin's wee spot of danger, to rescuing him, you completed a challenge."

"But did I? I mean, I didn't rescue Calvin. Ramsay did." I took another sip of coffee, mulling it over. "Maybe I was on alert for it. Subconsciously. As I did find myself going to the window a lot yesterday, in between work, and staring out at the loch. But also, that could just be because it's beautiful. Or because you told me about Kelpies and now that I know it's magickal, I'll probably stare at the water a lot."

"Speaking of Ramsay…" Sophie leaned in, brushing over the monumental discussion about me passing magickal challenges and moving one step closer to banishing murderous Kelpies. "He's hot."

"Nope." I wagged a finger in the air. "Don't even go there."

"Oh, come on …"

"Aren't you my boss? And you're advocating that I hook up with the man who is technically my other boss? Wouldn't HR have, like, a million things to say about this?"

Sophie glanced to where Sir Buster had crept to Hilda's feet now that Calvin was tucked safely on my lap.

"HR, do you have a problem with Willow dating her hot boss who looks like he should be chopping trees down for a living instead of sewing kilts?"

Sir Buster pawed at Hilda's legs, giving her a smile.

"See? He's got no problem with it."

"Sir Buster is your human resources department?" I asked, amused.

"Sure, why not? But, in all seriousness, was I reading that wrong? I swear, for a moment yesterday I thought you two might kiss."

So did I.

The feeling of his lips across my cheek had done more for me than many a moment with my last boyfriend, so I'm not sure what that said about my last relationship.

"I don't think I'm really in the space to think about him like that. He's my brother's good friend. He's my boss. I just got out of a bad relationship not too long ago. I've moved to a new country. Learned I have magick, apparently, and you know, the whole Kelpies thing. One might say it's not the best time for love."

"Ohhhh, she said love." Sophie elbowed Hilda gleefully, and the older woman gave me a gentle smile.

"There's never a perfect time to find love, dear. You either make space in your life for it or you don't."

"I don't have space for it." I gave Sophie an emphatic look. "I don't."

"If you say so." Sophie held up her hands, backing off. "We haven't known each other long enough for me to harass you into dating your hottie boss, but we'll get there eventually."

Despite myself, I laughed. I really liked Sophie.

In fact, I'd liked everyone I'd met so far in Loren Brae. The town itself was charming, the castle stunning, and the countryside breathtaking. Be it magick or just the natural allure of a well-connected small town, I was beginning to fall in love with the direction my life was taking me. New beginnings could be challenging, I knew that from experience, but this time felt different.

There was a rightness to this move that was already making me want to settle in and make a name for myself. Maybe, just maybe, I was finally stepping into my own. I couldn't wait to start collaborating on designs for the castle, I already loved working at the shop, and I'd even acquired a kitten.

All in all, I felt like I was ready to take on the world.

Kelpies and all.