Flipping the Bird (Shift Creek #1) - Carrie Pulkinen Page 0,51
little tidbit of info because he always clammed up when she asked him about his past.
“It’s okay.” He laced his fingers together. “Marty didn’t want me to have the amulet’s power because he was afraid he would lose me if I used it as I intended and was successful.”
Alice chewed the inside of her cheek as she tried to understand what he was saying. Normally, the formality of his speech was an endearing quality, but damn… She felt like she was listening to a politician admit he’d been caught storing his sausage in an intern’s cookie jar. “Spit it out, Donovan. You’re skirting around the edges of what you’re trying to tell me. Just say it, for heaven’s sake.”
“Here, I want you to have it.” He pulled the amulet from his pocket and pressed it into her hand. “I don’t have access to any magic of my own. When the creek didn’t heal me, I planned to use the amulet, and Marty was afraid I’d abandon him if I succeeded.”
What the what? He didn’t…? But he… “Come again?”
“I don’t have powers.”
“Wait.” She scratched her head. “So that story you told the game warden was true?”
“Every word of it.”
“I am so confused.”
“As I told the warden, I was born with my magic locked. I trained. I learned spell-casting and everything that is required of the most powerful of warlocks, but I’ve never been successful. Not once.” He ground his teeth.
Alice’s mouth hung open, so she snapped it shut. Her mind reeled, her thoughts running a thousand miles a minute. “But your aura is so strong.”
“A cloaking artifact.”
“And you have a familiar. How did you…?”
“When it became evident my magic would never be unlocked, my father bought him on the black market and gave him to me for my fifteenth birthday.”
“Oh. That was nice, I guess?” Black market familiars. She’d had no idea they existed, and her stomach soured at the thought of what else one might be able to buy in the shadows.
“Not in the slightest. It was meant as a rub. A constant reminder that a small animal was more magical than me. I’m only glad Marty and I bonded, and I was able to keep him from the torture he’d endured with his former owner.”
“Poor Marty. Jeez Louise…” She shook her head. “Why didn’t you want me to know?”
“No one besides my family knows. I’ve been forced to hide my incompetence my entire life, so I went into dealing magical artifacts to compensate for my inability. I’m a fraud, Alice, and I’ve never been more ashamed.”
“You’re not incompetent. There are plenty of other areas in life where you’re successful. Magic isn’t everything.” Was she hurt that he’d kept it from her? Sure. But from what he’d told her about his childhood, she could understand why he’d be embarrassed. Heck, she’d been embarrassed about her occupation for a hot minute there too.
“It is everything in my family. So much so that I came here with the amulet, intent on using it to take the magic from the creek and keep it as my own.”
Wait… Did he just say what she thought he said? That he was planning to take the town’s magic? Oh heck no.
“Who’s the thief now?” She shot to her feet, clenching her fist around the necklace. “You did it, didn’t you? That’s why the creek wouldn’t heal Daisy. You stole its magic!”
“No, Alice. I didn’t. I couldn’t. Once I realized how much the creek means to this town…how much this town means to you…I couldn’t go through with it.”
She narrowed her eyes, studying him, not detecting an ounce of dishonesty in his words. Then again, that wasn’t saying much. Even when he’d pretended to cast a healing spell on the creek, he’d pulled the wool over her eyes as easily as slipping on a fleece sweater. Love had blinded her.
“You have no reason to trust me,” he said, “but I swear on my mother’s grave I did not even attempt to take the magic from the creek.”
She did believe him. Logically, she probably shouldn’t have. Her mind said the reason the creek didn’t heal Daisy was because the magic was stolen, but instinct, her crow, heck, everything inside her insisted Donovan wasn’t to blame. She felt it in her bones. Plus, he’d just sworn on his own mother’s grave. “I believe you,” she whispered.
His posture relaxed. “Thank you.”
“How did your mom die? You never told me anything about her.”
“A drug overdose.” He fisted his hands on his