Face the Fire Read Online Free PDF

on still water. “When I wake and when I sleep. What once I gave with love and free will, I take back to me, and hold calm and still. Then lovers, now strangers without joined destiny. As I will, so mote it be.”
    With her cupped palms lifted, she waited for the cool flow of serenity, the stream of confidence that would indicate her ritual was complete. As she watched, the cup of herb-scattered water began to shiver. Water lapped against the rim in quiet, teasing waves.
    She fisted her hands, fought back her own temper. Focusing her energy, she punched magic against magic. “My circle is closed to all but me. Your tricks are foolish and bore me. Do not enter what’s mine again without invitation.”
    At the flick of her fingers, the lights from the candles streamed up, lancing to the ceiling. Smoke from them billowed, spread, and blanketed the surface of the water.
    Even then she couldn’t find her calm, or get a cleangrasp of her temper. He would dare test his power against hers? And in her own home?
    So he hadn’t changed, she decided. Samuel Logan had always been an arrogant witch. And his element, she thought, hating herself when the first tear escaped, was water.
    In her circle, behind the haze of smoke, she lay down and wept. Bitterly.

    The island grapevine spread the news fast. By the next morning, the hot topic of Sam Logan had outdistanced every other tendril of gossip.
    Conflicting reports had him selling the Magick Inn to mainland developers, expanding it into some fancy resort, firing the staff, or giving everyone a raise.
    One thing everyone could agree on was that it was very, very interesting that he was renting Mia Devlin’s little cottage. There was no consensus on what it meant, only that it was a puzzler.
    Islanders, hoping to gather more nuggets, found reasons to drop into Café Book or stroll into the lobby of the hotel. Nobody had enough gumption to ask Sam or Mia directly, but there was plenty of watching and hoping for some excitement.
    It had been a long, slow winter.
    “Still handsome as sin and twice as deadly.” Hester Birmingham confided this information to Gladys Macey as she bagged Gladys’s weekly supply of groceries at Island Market. “Strolled in here big as life and twice as bold, and said hello to me like we’d just seen each other a week ago.”
    “What did he buy?” Gladys questioned.
    “Coffee, milk, dry cereal. Whole wheat bread and stickbutter. Some fruit. We got bananas on special, but he passed them up and paid dear for fresh strawberries. Bought himself some fancy cheese and fancy crackers and some bottled water. Oh, and some orange juice in a carton.”
    “Not planning on doing any cooking or cleaning for himself from the sound of it.” Confidentially, she leaned closer to Hester. “I ran into Hank from the liquor store. He says Sam Logan breezed in and bought up five hundred dollars’ worth of wine, some beer, and a bottle of single malt scotch.”
    “Five hundred!” Hester’s voice lowered to a hiss. “You think he picked up a drinking problem in New York?”
    “Wasn’t the number of bottles, but the price,” Gladys hissed back. “Two bottles of French champagne, and two of that fancy red wine you-know-who favors.”
    “Who?”
    Gladys rolled her eyes. “Mia Devlin. Heaven’s sake, Hester, who do you think!”
    “I heard she kicked him out of the bookstore.”
    “No such thing. He walked in and out again under his own steam. I know that for a fact because Lisa Bigelow was in the café having lunch with her cousin from Portland when he was there. Lisa ran into my daughter-in-law at the Pump ’N Go and told her the whole story.”
    “Well . . .” Hester liked the first story better. “Do you think Mia will put a whammy on him?”
    “Hester Birmingham, you know Mia doesn’t do whammies. What a thing to say.” Then she laughed. “But it sure will be interesting seeing what she does do. I think I’ll go put these groceries away, then go buy