The Castle of Water and Woe: Luxe paperback

CHAPTER ONE

MAEVE

Did you need all these clothes?” I dropped an armload of Kelly’s shopping bags underneath our table at Happy’s Diner. One toppled over, sending a red bra skidding across the linoleum toward a table of stern-looking women holding their coffee cups with pinky fingers out and sniffing as they railed about their grandchildren’s various piercings.

Arthur shuffled inside Happy’s, laden down with even more bags. His boot scuffed the bra, looping the strap around his foot so that when he spun around to shove the bags under our table, he kicked the bra up into the air.

It sailed across the room, heading straight for the sourfaced ladies. Arthur lunged for it, catching it between his enormous hands right as one of the ladies turned around. He bowed to her, waving the bra in front of his face while she stared in horror, then slumped down in the booth beside Kelly and presented it to her with a flourish.

She giggled and accepted the bra, tucking it back into her
bag. “You just gave that lady a heart attack.”

Arthur picked up the menu. “If the food in this place doesn’t already do it. Look, this burger has four patties. You Americans are bloody insane.”

“Mock all you want, Aragorn,” I waved my fork at him. “But I know you’re going to order that burger.”

Arthur shut the menu. “Hell yes.”

“Your boyfriend is wise beyond his years,” Kelly giggled as the waitress came back to give us two baskets of loaded fries and take Arthur’s order.

“He is at that,” I grinned at her as I watched Arthur try to fit the entire bulk of his shoulders into the narrow booth. He raised an eyebrow at me. I kept my face impassive. Kelly’s statement was technically true. Arthur was my boyfriend now.

No way in hell did Kelly need to know about the other four
boyfriends I had back at Briarwood Castle in England.

How I was going to keep my polyamorous relationship a secret from my somewhat religiously conservative sister when she was living at Briarwood was beyond me, but luckily I had some time to consider the problem. Kelly needed me and Arthur to stay with her in the States for the immediate future while she petitioned for emancipation, sorted a passport, and generally put her life together before she could come live with us in England.

And my multiple guys wasn’t even the biggest secret I was keeping from Kelly. No way could I even begin to explain I was actually a powerful witch with the ability to manipulate and travel in dreams, and that my birth mother was also a powerful witch and my birth father an evil fae king who was trying (unsuccessfully so far) to reclaim the earth for himself and force me to rule by his side.

Phew. My head spun just thinking about it.

Before I left for America, we managed to secure the gateway to the fae realm with magical wards, so my father Daigh would not be able to come through anytime soon. But he still lurked just behind that doorway, waiting for his chance to strike. We had no way of stopping him permanently yet, but my boys were hard at work looking for answers. Maybe by the time we got on the plane to England with Kelly, the fae wouldn’t even be an issue any more.

Wishful thinking, but if anyone could make a wish come true just by thinking about it, it was probably a spirit witch.

Arthur’s hand snaked across the table and pinched a
handful of fries.

“None of that,” I slapped his hand away. “You’ve got your
heart attack burger coming.”

“Just seeing if you were paying attention,” he grinned back.

“I think we should hit that outdoor shop on the corner
next,” Kelly said, diving into her fries with gusto.

“Why?” I must’ve missed something important in the conversation, because no way would Kelly ever opt to enter an outdoor shop unless a hot guy she liked worked behind the counter. Kelly’s idea of the ‘great outdoors’ was walking down the front path, and even then she complained that the desert dust messed up her hair. I couldn’t see any reason why she’d need to stock up on waders and fishing hats.

“I was talking to Gabe and Pete at the hostel and they said it’s the best place in the city to buy a decent backpack.”

I groaned. The hostel, of course. We’d bowed to Kelly’s crazy request to stay in a local youth hostel, instead of renting a hotel or AirBNB like sensible people. I didn’t see the appeal in threadbare sheets, cockroach-infested bathrooms, and a "continental breakfast” that consisted of a box of expired Cheerios and some powdered milk. Even though we had a private room, it was impossible to sleep with doors slamming and showers running and drunk people yelling down the hallway at all hours of the night. Kelly loved it, though. While Arthur and I tossed and turned on the hard mattress, she’d spent half the night down in the hostel’s attached bar, batting her eyelashes and letting complete strangers convince her that what she really wanted to do for the rest of her life was sit in drum circles and carry her possessions around on her back.

“Don’t look like that, grandma. This is one topic where you actually don’t know everything. Gabe and Pete have backpacked through twenty-eight countries. They know what they’re talking about. If I want to do some travelling, it’ll be good to have something lightweight to carry around all my clothes.”

I kicked one of the shopping bags at my feet. “Even if the
manufacturer could somehow bend the dimensions of space, there’s no backpack in this universe large enough to accommodate your new wardrobe—” My phone buzzed across the table. I grabbed it before it slid over the edge. Corbin’s name "ashed on the screen.

“Corbin, hey! We’re just eating lunch—”

“Maeve, you have to come home now. It’s an emergency.”

My chest tightened. Corbin was always so calm and in control. For his voice to be shaking like that, it meant something was seriously wrong. I immediately recalled the dream I’d been in with Blake where all the guys had been impaled on stakes and burned alive.

“What’s happened? Is everyone okay?”

“That lady Sheryl managed to pull some strings and organize another baptism for Connor. It’s tomorrow at two-thirty.”

Phew. So something awful hadn’t happened. “Finally, some good news. You had me worried for a min—”

“It’s not all good. Blake says he heard from his friend that the fae are going to be at the baptism. They’re going to try and take Connor again.”

Briarwood Witches
Book 1 - The Castle of Earth and Embers
Book 2 - The Castle of Fire and Fable
Book 3 - The Castle of Water and Woe
Book 4 - The Castle of Wind and Whispers
Book 5 - The Castle of Spirit and Sorrow