Making Midlife Magic: A Paranormal Women's Fiction Novel (Forty Is Fabulous Book 1) by Heloise Hull

Author:Heloise Hull
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Henwin Press LTD
Published: 2020-11-24T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

WHEN I WENT to Italy to find myself Elizabeth Gilbert style, I didn’t think I’d actually find myself staying at a strega’s villa, sharing accommodations with a mouthwatering man who was quite possibly a vampire, and waiting on my two new supernatural friends so we could interrogate a siren at midnight in the middle of the ocean.

Yet here I was.

When I got back, Aurick was in his room and Nonna was rolling sun-dried tomato ravioli. She set me to work, harvesting the rest of the bug-eaten lettuce and kale from her dilapidated garden. I cut out the buggy parts, salvaging what I could because, apparently, we didn’t waste around here.

“How was your first day, Mamma?”

Chop, slice. “Pretty great. A lot to take in, but great.”

“I told you. Everyone falls for Italy eventually. Now that you’ve settled in a bit, I wanted to show you what else I found at the cemetery.”

I paused, feeling myself perk up at her words. “Really?”

Nonna plopped the fresh ravioli into a boiling pot of salted water. Fresh Pomodoro sauce bubbled away on the back burner. “Yes. Go into that drawer.” She pointed at the bottom one near the hearth. “Pull out the tube, open it, and bring me the scroll.”

I did as ordered, finding a brittle roll of parchment. It had red and black ink scrollwork and long, looping cursive letters. The moment my fingers touched it, whispers drifted up, and I almost dropped the scroll.

“Careful, Mamma!”

“Aye, sorry. But I think I heard it say something!”

“That’s just its protections.”

“Why does it need protections?”

Nonna rinsed the lettuce and dried them in a tea towel before dousing them in lemon juice, olive oil, and fresh chunks of parmigiana cheese from her wedge. “Most witches have grimoires, right?”

I shrugged. “I guess.”

“I have Septimius Severus’s magic scrolls.”

At the pregnant pause, we both stared at each other, the scrolls dripping curls of smoke onto the floor. “Is that a Harry Potter thing?” I finally asked.

If looks could maim, I’d be without a finger.

“Don’t be silly. Severus, the Roman emperor. He buried secret scrolls of magic in the tomb of Alexander the Great. Alexander’s tomb used to be a pilgrimage place before it was lost sometime in the fourth century during the riots and earthquakes in Alexandria. The scrolls were secreted away, meaning I had to obtain them much later.”

“How do you lose a tomb?”

“You’d be surprised,” Nonna said darkly.

By now, Tiberius had smelled the food and wandered into the kitchen. I wondered where he went when he wasn’t mooching food off of Nonna. Or what good a familiar served besides witty banter.

“I’m giving them to you to look over. For some reason, I haven’t been able to open them in decades, but you’re making me rethink all kinds of things. Maybe I can’t read them because they’re not mine anymore.”

“Wow, that’s generous. But like Tiberius said, I’m not a witch, so I’m not sure why I would be able to access them.”

Tiberius jumped on my shoulder and sniffed my hair.

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