Crowned with Bone: An Urban Fantasy Thriller: (Harker & Blackthorn - Book Five) by J.A. Ironside

Author:J.A. Ironside [Ironside, J.A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Blue Stone Press
Published: 2021-12-20T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen – Rebranded

What do you mean ‘warded’?” Rebekah said. She’d cleared away the piles of research we’d put together for Dr Rollins and was looking at Fiona with interest. It had taken an hour to get the story of how Fiona came to be in England – rather than on the other side of the Atlantic, in Colorado – and then to assure Rebekah that she was a safe person to talk about Harker & Blackthorn business with. After that, I thought Rebekah was rather taken with Fiona, which suited me fine since I had no intention of leaving her out of anything.

Fiona was on sabbatical from the University of Colorado physics department, travelling around Austria and Switzerland. It was so close to the United Kingdom – compared to the US, at least – that she couldn’t resist taking a few more weeks and dropping into Oxford. It had been a whim, which was very unlike Fiona – a consummate planner in all walks of life – but she’d wanted to surprise me. I’d frowned a bit at that because she’d mentioned nothing in the last couple of weeks when we’d been messaging each other. Which meant she’d had a compelling reason for coming but wasn’t sure she should share it with the group.

“It’s still a rather long way for a surprise visit,” Rebekah observed. “What was the other reason for your sudden change of plans?”

Fiona paused, giving Rebekah’s probing question some thought, as she tried to judge her audience.

“Bex doesn’t like the supernatural but she’ll accept it as ‘unproved science’ with a reasoned argument,” I said.

“Thanks for that assessment,” Rebekah said drily.

Fiona laughed, the rich, warm sound raising goose-bumps on my skin. “Alright then. I’m a hereditary witch on my mother’s side. She’s half French-Canadian and half Puerto Rican. My Father is Maori – moved to the states, then to Canada in his early twenties. Now we live in Colorado.” She watched Rebekah’s expression and went on. “The Craft and the training that goes with it, has been in my mother’s family for generations. It’s passed from mother to daughter or sometimes mother to son. For years I resisted it.”

“Why?” It was the first word Steve had said in an hour.

I shot him a reproachful look.

“Any religion can seem oppressive if you haven’t had the chance to choose it for yourself,” Fiona said. “And I had a couple of scary experiences when I was very young. I’m not psychic, like Amy is.” She gave me an affectionate look. “But the Craft is about learning to fully use all your usual senses and build up a reservoir of power to draw upon, as well as carefully syphoning off energy from the natural world. Or at least it is, if it’s done right. Some practitioners are less careful than that.”

“And you’ve been a practising witch for how long now?” Rebekah said, with interest. “Doesn’t that conflict with being a physicist?”

“Magic is physics. Or Physics is magic. Science is a young way of understanding something we defined differently for centuries past.

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