Page 96 of The Book of Magic

When Kylie nodded, Tom seized a knife from the table and quickly slashed his arm. He grinned and handed it over. Being with this girl would give him the power he needed and had always lacked. The knife was cold in her hand but when Kylie cut herself she was burning. Her breathing quickened, as drops of black blood fell to the floor, burning as magic ran through her.

“Who were your ancestors?” he asked.

“Maria Owens,” Kylie answered. “She was raised by a woman named Hannah who was tried as a witch. It happened here in Thornfield. There was another woman named Rebecca involved with the family. I think we may both be related to her.”

Tom realized who she was. The seven-times great-granddaughter of a witch who had been married to his six-times great-grandfather. They were, indeed, distant cousins, for long ago Rebecca had given birth to both his ancestor and hers, born two years apart. Lockland’s sixth great-grandfather had been removed from a woman considered to be wicked, while Kylie’s ancestor, Maria Owens, had been born in a snowy field, then given over to a woman who raised her with kindness and dedication and magic.

This is what Tom had been waiting for. A conduit to magic, a witch in his control.

“We can break the curse,” he promised this cousin of his. “But only if you trust me.”

Tom brought Kylie to the local pub at the only inn in the village, the Three Hedges, established more than four hundred years earlier. He had little to offer in his own kitchen, having been living on cheese, toast, and beer, and Kylie hadn’t had a decent meal since she’d left Boston, only the snack the librarian had offered her in London. They had a fifteen-minute walk through the falling darkness. There was a green smell in the air, a mixture of clover and grass, and the air was cooler under the gleaming sky. When Kylie stumbled over the pavement, Tom took her hand, looping his fingers through hers. “Steady,” he said. “You don’t want to come all this way and break a leg.”

Kylie laughed, but she didn’t pull away. He was what she needed, a partner in magic. They had made the table rise and she wondered what else they could do. She had felt so vulnerable ever since Gideon’s injury, it was a relief to have someone to help her sort everything out and, truthfully, the weight of Tom’s hand was a comfort.

“The town’s provincial,” Tom warned as he opened the door for Kylie and escorted her inside. There was a wave of smoke and the burnt smell of fried food. “You never know what the citizens of Thornfield will say or do. They don’t know what to think about people like us.” Kylie presumed he meant people who dealt in magic.

The pub was crowded, it was the only place to go for a drink, after all. Kylie kept her eyes downcast as she made her way past a group of local men near the dartboard. They then sat at the end of the bar, undisturbed, as Tom always was when he came into town. People avoided him; there were rumors that if you crossed him you’d regret it and even men who didn’t mind a good fight every now and then out in the parking lot had nothing to do with him.

It all seemed fine enough, a cozy dinner for two, unmolested, but when Kylie went to the ladies’ room, a waitress followed and swiftly locked the door behind her. Kylie was so taken aback she lurched forward, not noticing that her locket had become unclasped, her mother’s lovely birthday gift to her, and now fell into a shadowy corner.

“Are you mad?” the waitress, a young woman called Jesse Wilkie, asked. “What are you thinking?” Jesse had gone to school with Tom Lockland, until he’d dropped out. He’d been good-looking and surly, a type Jesse was often attracted to, Lord help her, but she’d known to stay away from Tom. Her grandmother had made her promise never to have anything to do with the Locklands, and under her beloved grandmother’s tutelage, Jesse had learned to have concern for the fate of other young women. She’d seen him hurt one after the other, discarding them with ease. “What are you doing here with Bad Tom?” she asked.

“That’s not a very nice thing to call him.” Kylie felt stung to be upbraided by a stranger.

“Well, he’s not very nice, so there you have it. It’s a name he deserves. You’re from America, and maybe you don’t know about our history here in Essex, but my advice is go home. I’m telling you woman to woman.” Perhaps Jesse had a fondness for foolish girls because she’d been one herself and dated a few fellows who were utter mistakes. Kylie, though tall, seemed girlish in her oversized clothes, with no makeup, her glossy red-tinted hair pulled back in a sloppy ponytail. Still, in Jesse’s opinion, no one was too young to be warned about a man such as Tom. “He’s a miserable character from a miserable family. All they do is cause trouble. It’s black magic. You might not believe in it, but around here it’s a fact. We all know to stay away from it. You wouldn’t catch me walking on the grounds of Lockland Manor. Not for any price.”

“He told me about his family,” Kylie said, surprised to hear how haughty her tone was, as if she’d been the one who’d been insulted. Outsiders tended to band together, and if anything Jesse’s blunt distaste for Tom made Kylie more contrary in her response. It was in her nature to come to the defense of an underdog. “I know they’ve been treated terribly in this town. He wants to restore their standing.”

“Good luck with that, because it’s never going to happen. The Locklands were a bunch of robbers.” When Kylie moved to unlock the door it became clear to Jesse that she was getting nowhere with this girl. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

Kylie went back to the bar. There were two bowls of vegetable stew set out and some rolls and butter. Tom had ordered her a whiskey, but Kylie stuck to water. “I’ve been warned,” she told him. “You’re bad.”

Tom frowned and cursed softly. “People in Thornfield like to provoke me with their moronic opinions. And you wonder why I hate this place.”

People were staring at him and talking among themselves. Kylie overheard a few comments, mostly centering on what a bastard her companion was. Despite the gossip and the veiled insults, Lockland maintained a wary stillness. He repelled some people, but others were wildly attracted to him, drawn to him as though he were a beacon. There was a light inside him, one that flamed and lured Kylie to him. She noticed that the waitress who’d ambushed her was staring and that there were spots of red on her cheeks. Perhaps she was a vengeful ex-girlfriend of Tom’s, for he’d admitted there were many of his past wrong choices in town and because of his failed romantic history, Kylie might hear awful rumors about him.

“Mind your own business,” Kylie remarked to Jesse as she passed the waitress on her way to the door when their supper was done.

“What goes on here is my business,” Jesse responded. “I’m the manager. Stay clear of Tom Lockland if you know what’s good for you.”

As they set off down the High Street, a wind had come up and the birds stirred in the bushes. What fools some people were. Kylie agreed with Tom on that. They walked along the fens, where water rimmed the side of the road. Already the night was pitch dark and pools that had collected at the change in the tide were difficult to avoid. Kylie stumbled into a puddle that nearly reached her knees. Tom seized her arm so that he might pull her back to the road. “Stay here by me,” he said, and she did so, for she had a fear of water, instilled by her mother with all her talk of drownings and sea monsters. If there were to be a monster anywhere, Kylie found herself thinking, it would likely be here on the outskirts of Thornfield. The twisted forms of old trees emerged out of the dark and there were tall hedges of bramble on either side of the road that shifted in the gusts of wind, throwing up a peppery smell that made Kylie’s eyes itch.

“I usually stay away from water,” she admitted.

“Let me guess. You were warned away by your family.”

Kylie was surprised that he’d guessed correctly. “My mother. We were never allowed to go swimming.”

“What people don’t understand they fear.” Tom seemed more relaxed then he’d been at the pub. “I’m sure they’d all warn you away from me.”

She saw the way he was looking at her, even in the falling dark.

He took a step closer. “Or maybe they already have.”

There was something there between them that made Kylie uncomfortable, a flicker of heat. “I’m in love with someone,” she reminded him. “Gideon.”

“Glad to hear it,” Tom said with a laugh. “Can’t say I’ve ever experienced it. I don’t think it runs in my part of the family.”