Beneath An Ivy Moon (Legacy Of Magick Series, Book 4) (3 page)

“Don’t bullshit me, Ivy,” Autumn said. “I’ve been having weird dreams about you for the past few days.”

“Did they involve Tom Hiddleston?” I joked. When my cousin scowled at me I shrugged. “He’s my newest movie star crush...”

“I’m serious,” Autumn said.

I felt a much stronger tug on my mind. My temples throbbed from my cousin’s psychic maneuver. “Hey! I tossed up my hands in laughing surrender. “I was going to tell you. You don’t have to scan me.” I laughed, rubbing my temples.

“You know how I feel about lies and secrets,” Autumn said.

“Boy, what happened to the days when you weren’t sure of your powers and hesitated in using them?” I teased.

“Nothing’s wrong with being confident.” Autumn smirked at me.

Cypress tucked her feet up and grinned at Autumn. “You’re stronger now. And happy being in a relationship with my Uncle Rene. You two are good for each other, and it shows.”

Autumn’s face lit up. Momentarily distracted, she leaned back and beamed at the two of us. “Rene is simply one of the best men I have ever known.”

Bran walked into the room with a squirming Morgan in his arms. “Hey, what about me? No props for your big brother?”

Autumn turned to him with a grin. “Did you just use the word ‘props’ in a sentence?”

Bran wrestled with a giggling Morgan. “I’m hip, I’ll have you know.”

I had a snarky comeback all ready for him, but before I could use it my sister-in-law Lexie came home from work.

Lexie let the front door shut with a slam and planted her hands on her hips. “Where’s my men?” In her police uniform with her blonde hair pulled back in a neat bun, she seemed very happy to be home.
She’s had a really tough day
. I suddenly knew. I frowned, imagining what a ‘tough day’ might actually entail for a police officer.

“Mommy!” Morgan squirmed down and ran to his mother. She scooped him up and pressed a loud kiss to his face.

I watched my brother go and kiss his wife. The three of them went upstairs together. I didn’t bother to hide my smile at the picture they made.

I glanced over at Autumn, and she was holding herself very still in her chair. She shifted her gaze to mine. “Lexie’s okay,” she said, addressing my thoughts without me having to ask— out loud.

Cypress leaned forward. “Is something wrong?” she asked us.

Autumn blew out a slow controlled breath. “I picked up on a few images when she walked in the manor. Domestic dispute call.” Autumn shook her head sadly. “It was a bad one, because she’s not shaking it off.”

“There’s times when I wish I could see pictures the way you do...” I said to my cousin. “Then I change my mind and I decide that I really don’t want to be clairvoyant,” I admitted. “
Knowing
is enough for me.”

“Clairvoyance means clear-seeing and claircognizance is clear-knowing,” Autumn pointed out. “They are simply different facets of our psychic abilities. Ivy, I know that you dream of the past and the future as well.”

“And your point is?” I said.

“My point is, that if you want to get technical, a precognitive or postcognitive dreamer
is
using a type of clairvoyance.”

I made a face. “I never thought about it that way.”

“But you didn’t come to the manor to talk about psychic ability.” Autumn crossed her arms. “So one of you tell me why you’re really here.”

CHAPTER TWO

“We’d like to get your opinion on something,” I said.

“Okay.” Autumn shifted forward.

I glanced at Cypress, she made a ‘go ahead’ motion with her hands.

“Have you detected any type of sour energy or negative vibes since they started working on the expansion of the museum on campus?” I asked.

“No,” Autumn said, “but I haven’t been on campus in the past few days.”

“I felt this negative energy when I left the library today, and I knew something, somewhere was off.” I quickly explained how Cypress and I had followed the energetic trail and where it had led us.

Autumn blinked at me. “So they’ve started construction? They’ve broken ground on the expansion for the museum?”

Cypress shivered. “Broken ground. Those words sound a little creepy all of the sudden.”

“Are you channeling your Native American heritage?” I asked Cypress.

“Maybe.” Cypress narrowed her eyes as she thought about her reaction. “According to Marie, there is a little in our family tree.”

“Regardless, they do have to excavate to begin to lay the foundation for the new building...” Autumn trailed off. As if she realized something, her eyes jumped to mine.

“What?” I asked her

“
Foundation
,” she said with emphasis. “That word is important.”

“Something is coming,” I heard myself say. “I know it... and it’s rising from beneath.” I shook my head to clear it, and saw that both Autumn and Cypress were staring at me.

“
Rising from beneath
. That’s an interesting choice of words,” Autumn said.

Cypress nodded. “That’s exactly what I said earlier.”

“Now I’m starting to understand why I’ve been having the same recurring dream for the past few nights.” Autumn tapped a finger on her lips. “The dream is going to be important to you, Ivy.” She went over to the desk in the corner of the family room and pulled out a pen and note paper.

“Important?” I asked.

“Significant,” she said, writing quickly on the note pad.

“Okay.” I glanced over at Cypress to gauge her reaction.

Cypress frowned, crossing her arms. “What exactly did you see?”

Autumn knelt down in front of the coffee table, making notes with her big curvy handwriting. “In my dreams, you’re always standing in an outdoor area and there’s all this loose dirt. You’re holding your camera, taking pictures. There’s a wall of stacked stones, and something
else
... but I can’t ever see it. It’s hidden from me.”

I nodded. “So me, my camera, and loose dirt.”

“Loose dirt, like from the construction site?” Cypress asked.

“Good point,” Autumn said to Cypress, then continued. “I also get the impression of other people standing around... but they aren’t building anything.” Autumn blew her bangs away from her eyes. “My dreams aren’t always clear. When they are like this— a jumble of images— it frustrates me.” Autumn doodled on the page as she talked. “I’m sorry. I wish I had clearer images and more specific information for you.”

Autumn tore the page free and handed me the paper. I saw the words: Ivy, camera, stones, and foundation. “Don’t worry, Watson, I can crack the case.”

Autumn snorted out a laugh. “Smart-ass.”

I glanced back at the paper and my cousin’s doodles. Stars, crescent moons and the letters N and P were the drawn on the side of the paper. “What’s N P stand for?” I asked her.

My question got drowned out in the uproar of Morgan running back into the family room. He threw his arms around Autumn where she knelt on the floor. “Oh no!” she said, playfully rolling as if he had tackled her.

“Dinner is ready!” Great Aunt Faye called from the kitchen.

Lexie and Bran entered the room, and Lexie scooped up her son. Before I could follow the family into the dining room, Autumn got to her feet and caught my hand. “Promise me Shorty, that you’ll keep me in the loop with all of this.”

“I’m five foot six. I’m
not
short,” I said.

“You’re shorter than me.” Autumn gave my hand a squeeze before she let me go. “You’re also nosey. So promise me that you’ll be smart, and that you’ll be careful.”

“Always.” I tossed her a wink and followed Cypress into the kitchen for dinner.

Dinner was as usual, loud, with several conversations happening across the table at once. I felt so much better at the manor surrounded by family. Cypress sat next to Aunt Faye and was telling her about her classes. Lexie and Autumn were discussing the vegetable garden in the backyard. Bran tried to cajole Morgan into eating his dinner, and Merlin the family cat sat under my chair until I snuck him a green bean. The cat trotted off with a happy chirping sound, green bean in his mouth, to go and “kill” the cooked vegetable in private. Merlin had a thing for green beans. What can I say, the family cat— familiar is a little special.

Morgan decided he didn’t like spaghetti, but he loved the meatballs. Unfortunately, he had a meltdown when Bran cut them up into smaller manageable pieces for him.

Lexie cut off her son’s toddler tantrum with three firm words. “Morgan John Bishop.”

Behold the magickal power of the full name...
I thought.

My nephew’s bottom lip quivered as he watched his parents trying to decide how he could get what he wanted. “Broken,” he said, looking at the cut up meatball in utter dejection.

I couldn’t help it. I laughed. I tried to cover it up with a cough when Bran gave me the stink eye.
Goddess help them both, the kid was a handful.
To hide my smile, I wiped at my mouth with a dinner napkin.

I felt bad for Morgan, he was a happy little boy most of the time, and I could tell he was upset. So to make him cheer up, I focused on his sippy cup and like I’d done earlier with Cypress’ water bottle— I made the bright blue cup slide across the tray of his high chair.

All around me dinner returned to whatever passed for normal at the manor. The rest of the family hadn’t noticed, and continued with their meal. Morgan blinked at the cup. He tentatively reached for a handle. With my left hand in my lap under the table, I gestured, and his cup zipped over to the opposite side of the tray.

The toddler jumped and frowned at his wayward cup. I twirled pasta around my fork with my right hand, kept my expression bland, and waited for him to reach for the cup again. He didn’t disappoint me.

This time I made the cup slide away to the opposite side of the tray, turn and go right back into his outstretched hand. Morgan smiled and grabbed the handle, drinking out of the cup like he hadn’t ever seen juice in his life. After a few greedy swallows of the contents he banged the cup back down and reached for a green bean on his plate. I concentrated hard, and all the green beans on his plate stood on end and wiggled.

I’d have probably gotten away with it if the little guy wouldn’t have gurgled in delight.

“Ivy Esther Bishop.” Aunt Faye’s voice was tough as nails.

Uh-oh.
I cringed, and the beans dropped back onto my nephew’s toddler plate.
Whether you were two or twenty, the invocation of the full name worked.
With an effort, I tried to act as innocently as possible. “Yes, Aunt Faye?” I blinked as if confused, for effect.

“Behave yourself.” Aunt Faye frowned at me.

I flinched when Autumn reached under the table to poke me in the ribs. “Troublemaker,” she chuckled.

I tossed my hair. “I have
no
idea what you are talking about.”

Lexie rolled her eyes, and Bran seemed to be on the verge of a lecture. I saw him take a breath to begin, so I tapped into my powers and made my dinner roll shoot across the table— right at my brother’s head. He snatched it neatly out of the air with one hand. “For Goddess sake, Ivy,” he sighed.

I smiled in appreciation. “You’ve still got pretty good reflexes.”

Bran set the dinner roll down deliberately. “I’ve had plenty of opportunity to practice over the years.”

Morgan began to kick his feet and giggle at the flying food. “My Ivy.” He beamed at me from across the table.

I blew my nephew a kiss. “You never know...” I said to Bran. “Morgan might be telekinetic like me; you need to keep those reflexes sharp, just in case.”

Lexie dropped her head in her hands and groaned.

***

Later that night I lay on the top bunk in my dorm room, listening to Cypress mutter in her sleep. I heard her roll over and murmur something about squirrels, and I smiled. I tried to relax and to will myself to sleep, but my mind was too full of the day. If it wouldn’t have sounded so freaking dramatic— I’d have said a storm was coming. Still, Autumn had promised me that she’d privately bring Bran up to speed on that negative energy, and where it seemed to be coming from. And I supposed that should make me feel better... but it didn’t.

My intuition was insisting that something was very
wrong
. And sometimes that inner knowing is one nagging, annoying bitch.

With a sigh, I selected the white noise app on my phone, put in my earbuds and told myself to get some sleep. My alarm seemed to go off a moment later. I tapped the snooze icon on the phone screen and threw the covers over my head to block out the sunlight.
God I hated mornings.
I had only dozed back off when the covers were rudely yanked away from me.

“Rise and shine, sleepyhead!” Cypress sang, pulling the earbuds out of my ears. “Ivy, come on. You’re going to be late.”

“Go away or die,” I told her.

“Your vampire tendencies don’t scare me,” Cypress announced and yanked open the curtains. Bright daylight splashed across my face.

I covered my face with my arms and listened as Cypress bounced around the room all good cheer. Knowing she’d hound me until I was up, I yawned and sat up slowly, my feet dangling off the top bunk. I focused on her, my witchy BFF, roommate and torturer all in one. Cypress was already dressed for the day and her coffee machine was rumbling to life.

“How in the hell can you wake up so cheerful?” I complained, scrubbing both hands through my hair. “I’m telling you Cy, it’s unnatural.” I climbed over the end of the bunk and staggered across the floor.

“It’s aliiiiive!” Cypress exclaimed as she stood before the mirror, adding blush to her cheeks.

I pulled my top lip back from my teeth and hissed at her.

Cypress cringed away. “Ack! Morning breath!”

“Bitch,” I said half heartedly and elbowed her out of the way of our shared sink. Cypress laughed at me while I splashed some water on my face and brushed my teeth. Once I was finished I went straight to our little mini fridge, grabbed a can of soda, and popped the top.

“How can you drink a soda right after brushing your teeth?” Cypress asked me for maybe the millionth time.