Angus by Melissa Schroeder Page A

it.
    “I’ve no choice.” It was plain and simple. She didn’t have a real choice. She could run, but at some point Dylan would catch up to her.
    He jumped up on the bed beside the few things Callum had obtained for her to practice.
    “Everyone has a choice, you told me that.”
    Goddess help her.  
    She had always been honest with Jack. She hadn’t had that early in life. Her mother and grandmother had spoken in riddles, leaving her to believe that the world of Magick was wonderful and that nothing bad ever happened to you if you used it for good.
    They had both proven that wrong. She often wondered if they had been lying to her all along or if they had actually believed it. If somewhere in the back of their minds they did believe, Maggie was sure the two of them were shocked when they were destroyed.
    “Sometimes, you don’t. This might allow for us to live anywhere we want. Wouldn’t you like to find a nice little cottage, just for the two of us?”
    He shrugged. “It doesn’t matter what I want. Fate decides. I told you, years ago, we would live in a castle.”
    Maggie picked up her mother’s notebook and then looked at her son. It was true that he had said that, but she had thought it was more wishful thinking than a premonition. “That was three months ago.”
    Another shrug. “Still, we will live in a castle.”
    Pushing him would get her nowhere and sometimes she wondered if Jack’s reality and dreams melded and he assumed they were premonitions. Maggie decided to play it cool.
    “Indeed. And how will we afford this castle?” she asked, sitting beside him on the bed.
    “We’re not going to buy it. Your husband will.”
    Icy cold fingers danced down her spine.  She had the same reaction every single time he announced a prediction that came true.
    “My husband will?”
    “Yes.” He jumped off the bed. “Is it okay if I get a biscuit? Fletcher said I could.”
    Fletcher indeed . “Wait, before you go. What do you mean my husband?”
    He shrugged as he looked back at the bedroom door. Freedom and biscuits awaited him, and again he was an ordinary boy. Usually, she allowed him this, but she couldn’t let this go right now.
    She crossed her arms beneath her breasts and looked at him. “My husband?”
    “Yes.”
    “I’ve only had one husband and I’ve told you that you will be the only man in my life.”
    In truth, he was the only man she would ever trust.  
    “No. There will be another, and you will learn to trust him.”
    Then he waved and slipped out the door as if he had said nothing of all that much importance. She released a slow breath. Any other mother of a normal boy would just shrug the comments away as wishful thinking. Most children would wish for a second parent…it was normal. But Jack was anything but normal.
    He could sense people’s feelings, he could move things with his thoughts, and he always had a prediction about the future.
    And he was always, always right.
    *  *  *  *
    “I thought maybe you could do with a walk.”
    Maggie looked up from her mother’s old notebook and frowned. “I’ve only been at this for a few minutes, Angus.”
    He shook his head. “No, it’s past the nooning meal.”
    Again, his words hit her. He talked normally but every now and then antiquated speech would come rushing in. All of them, but Phoebe, were like that.
    “I missed lunch?”
    She said absently. She realized there was a tray sitting on the table in front of her. Vaguely, she remembered someone bringing it in an hour ago, but she hadn’t really paid any attention to it.
    “Sorry, I’ve been lost in my book.”
    “That’s your book of spells, like on Harry Potter?”
    She smiled. “Not really, but I would have loved a school like Hogwarts. Then maybe I wouldn’t have felt like a…”
    She trailed off the moment she realized she was about to say something stupid. Why did she find herself saying things around the cousins she normally wouldn’t? Especially Angus. She