Magaestra: Found: An urban fantasy series Read online

  Magaestra- Found

  Katherine Kim

  Magaestra: Found © 2021 Katherine Kim. All rights reserved. This book or parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise—without prior written permission of the publisher, except as provided by United States of America copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, at [email protected]

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, or events is entirely coincidental.

  Follow me on Instagram @katherineukim or on Facebook www.facebook.com/katherineukim

  Cover by Sabrina Watts at Enchanted Ink Studio

  To my family, who didn’t murder me during lockdown.

  1

  Faith smiled to herself as she dropped her bag on the rustic cabin porch, the feeling of fresh air and wild places and dusty old magic pressing into her skin like the embrace of a long-lost family member. It seemed as if this place had missed her as much as she had missed it. She laughed at her own fanciful thoughts and started digging in her pocket for the key.

  "Come on, sis, I bet this place needs airing out something awful," Faith turned to look over her shoulder at where her sister Christina– Crissy– was struggling with the bags. Her mahogany dark hair was pulled back into a messy bun, though Faith knew that when it was released it swept down her sister's back like a damned dream, making her look like royalty. Like a queen when she was all glammed up and making an effort.

  Faith's own black hair was more like their mother's had been: stick straight and boring as hell. Her slight frame and general failure to gain any sort of athletic ability were from her mother as well. It was infuriating, especially when they had both wanted to take gymnastics classes and she watched Crissy doing cartwheels and handstands while the coach had very kindly offered to keep her in the classes though she would never, ever compete. Ever.

  Crissy took more after their father, with her sparkling smile and outgoing personality and athletic ability. He had looked like a fairytale prince, they both agreed, and Crissy looked like a fairytale prince's daughter.

  Faith wasn't jealous. Usually. She had other skills that made up for it. And, of course, she had her mother's gifts as well. They both did to an extent, but Faith got the greater share, just like Crissy got more of their father's athleticism.

  "I bet it does, it's been shut up for ages. When was the last time we were up here?" Crissy laughed as she managed to finally free the strap of the duffel with all her clothes in it. She glanced around and smiled when she saw her daughter dancing around the half-wild lawn and picking buttercups and dandelions. "I think Kaylee was a toddler. She was just starting to walk, remember?" Crissy pulled another bag from the car and walked up the steps to the porch.

  Faith snickered. "I remember. She kept landing on her butt and you kept freaking out that she was going to get hurt."

  They both turned to look at the girl in question, not quite five years old and adventurous and eyeing a tree as if considering its climbability. Hell, she probably was. The kid didn't know the meaning of the word fear. Or, unfortunately, the meaning of the word careful.

  Faith jiggled the key in the lock again and something finally clicked and the door swung open at last, blasting her with stale air as if the cabin had been holding its breath. "Why haven't we come up here more often?"

  "Because it's a pain in the ass to organize while juggling my kid and both of our schedules?" Crissy laughed.

  "No more excuses! We do this more often from now on. Oof, let's get the windows open. I hope we cleaned out the fridge, whichever of us was up here last," she wrinkled up her face to express her opinion on the mustiness.

  Still, as the sisters hurried around, opening windows and shaking out blankets and curtains, Faith found herself smiling. The cabin had barely changed since she was a girl. She felt an unreasonable joy surge through her when she looked at the ancient sofa. It was lumpy and patched where her mother had tried to cover up a small hole caused by lord knows what childhood antics. The extremely seventies floral print of the patch clashed perfectly somehow with the rust-colored sofa fabric and the cheerful quilt thrown over the whole mess to try to make up for the sins of several generations of children.

  The rest of the cabin was similarly shabby but just as well-loved. Three small bedrooms held five beds between them, each with its own small collection of quilts and worn bedding. The kitchen was full of chipped cups and plastic bowls with scratched pictures printed on them, and a coffee maker that was at least twenty-five years old but somehow still worked.

  And neither she nor Crissy had ever considered replacing any of it since they came into their inheritance.

  "Mom would be so mad that it's been so long," Crissy said softly as if she read Faith's mind.

  "Yeah. Remember how much she loved coming up here every summer? Man, we must have been out here every weekend from the time school ended till we had to go back in the fall," Faith laughed at the memory of weekends spent running wild with Crissy through the small section of woods that belonged to them. "I think we were the only kids at that school who showed up at the end of summer unrepentantly wild."

  "Well, it sure didn't help us fit in well, that's for sure,” Crissy grinned. "We didn't have a lot of friends there, but I didn't care. We had each other and Mom and Dad and the best summers ever. And we made up for it when we moved."

  "To be fair, there were several reasons we didn't fit in. I'm pretty sure that Mom's special talents weren’t the only reason. She was still different enough even without that. Not a lot of our classmates had seen such an unrepentant hippie, let alone an Asian one,“ Faith shrugged and turned back to pulling the cooler over and opening the fridge, carefully. It was thankfully empty, so she started filling it up with their supplies. She didn't like to think about the move.

  Faith had been only nine and Crissy twelve when their parents died. Just like that, their lives changed dramatically. They were pulled out of school and away from the home they'd shared with their parents and sent to live with their dad's sister, Lucy.

  Aunt Lucy was a sweet woman and did her best to raise two heartbroken little girls more used to playing outside and getting filthy 'hunting' in the park than to dressing up like princesses and pretending to find Prince Charming. Aunt Lucy, however, lived and worked in Los Angeles, and while she tried to get them all outside to hike as much as she could, her job was demanding, and the city intruded even into the wilder spaces. It was nothing like the small northern California town they had been used to, but Aunt Lucy tried, bless the woman.

  Faith had hated it.

  She hated everything about the city– cities in general, in fact, made her teeth itch. The first thing Faith did after she graduated high school was to come back to the town she had started in— with Chrissy following enthusiastically not even a month later— and worked her way through community college while working as a waitress at the local diner. Aunt Lucy helped as much as she could, and when Faith turned 21, she had come into her inheritance as well which put her over the top as far as getting set up for her happy, small-town life.

  Now she was settled in her own home, down the street from the house she spent the first nine years of her life in. That house was now occupied by Crissy and Kaylee, inherited along with this cabin when they came of age.

  Faith finished emptying the cooler and the bag of dry goods they had packed and frowned at the empty bag.

 
"Crissy? Where's the coffee?" Faith called out the front door. She stood up from where she crouched by the fridge and wandered out the door to lean on the porch railing and laugh at Crissy trying to do a cartwheel on the lumpy grass. She was significantly less graceful at it now than she had been when they were kids. Kaylee was rolling on the ground with laughter.

  "Been a day or two since you practiced, hasn't it?" Faith laughed and joined them.

  An hour, and about a million grass stains later, all three of them were lying in the trampled grass, grinning like lunatics and staring at the sky. Kaylee was snuggled in between her mom and her aunt and Faith couldn't think of a better way to spend her time than playing on the lawn with her niece and her sister.

  Life was pretty good.

  "Hey, what was that you were yammering on about when you came outside?" Crissy asked after a while.

  "Oh! Hah!" Faith laughed. "We forgot to pack coffee. Tomorrow morning could turn into a bloodbath."

  "Oh good lord no," Crissy sat up and glared wildly at Faith, gasping and clutching her chest dramatically. "We shall surely perish!"

  Kaylee giggled and Faith tried to keep a straight face even though she felt the smile tugging at her lips.

  "Aunt Faith's so mean in the mornings without her coffee," Kaylee giggled again. "Like a monster! Aunt Monster!"

  "GRAAAR!" Faith growled and rolled over to tickle Kaylee, who squealed with laughter again and squirmed her way free somehow, running across the lawn.

  "You wind her up again, you calm her down," Crissy grinned. "I'll go into town by myself."

  "Wait, what?" Faith turned to glare at her sister.

  "You heard me!" Crissy laughed and scrambled to her feet. "I'll grab some coffee and if there's anything that looks good for snacks. I think s'mores supplies are in order, as well!"

  "Oooooh, that's genius!" Faith smiled broadly. "Okay, that's a deal. Coffee and chocolate and marshmallows in exchange for babysitting and bed-making from Auntie Faith."

  Crissy snickered and stepped back just before Kaylee tackled Faith back to the grass. "I'll leave you to it, then." She brushed off the grass and other bits of lawn debris she had stuck all over her, completely missing a long bit of dandelion chain that Kaylee had abandoned after three flowers that was stuck somehow to her collar, and headed to the car.

  "Well, Kaylee-bee, it's just you and me!" Faith sang out and Kaylee grinned.

  "Ice cream for dinner!" Kaylee cheered.

  "Shhhh!" Faith found it difficult to shush her niece and laugh at the same time.

  "I heard that!" Crissy called over her shoulder as she slid into the driver's seat. "That explains why she was still so wired the last time I left her at your place when I had a date!"

  "Just go! Coffee is life!" Faith shouted. She chased Kaylee around the yard for another few minutes after Crissy drove off before herding the girl inside.

  "Okay, Kaylee-bee, I volunteered us to get this place a bit more habitable for this week. What should we do first?"

  "There's suitcases in the living room!" Kaylee pointed. "That's not right. And I know you said we would make the beds, right?"

  "That's right. They're just case-less pillows under a pretty quilt right now. They need sheets! And pillowcases! And monsters!"

  Kaylee giggled. "No monsters!"

  "Sure, why not? It's not like the monsters under the bed stay there all the time!" Faith told her, her laughing smile refusing to stay hidden like she was trying to keep it. She gathered up the bags and Kaylee's backpack and headed down the short hallway. "Can you imagine how bored those poor monsters would get in a place like this? They only have little girls to scare maybe once every few years! Poor, sad, lonely monsters."

  Kaylee laughed. "Aunt Faith! There's no such thing as monsters!"

  "Let's see, now," Faith said. "Which room do you want?"

  Kaylee raced in and out of the bedrooms and finally picked one with two beds and the afternoon sunshine pouring into it.

  "These are the best quilts here!" Kaylee declared. Faith grinned and had to agree. They were the ones she and Crissy had slept under themselves when they were kids, both made of soft pink and yellow and blue squares, seemingly stitched together at random. They looked like they had once been several other blankets or sheets that had been cut up and recycled into quilts by someone's grandmother.

  That was likely exactly what happened, in fact. Faith's grin turned into a small smile as the faint memory of her grandmother bustling around the kitchen here, whipping up cookies or muffins or something with a small smudge of flour on her cheek. This cabin held so many wonderful memories.

  "Well, whip those quilts off there, girl!" Faith shook herself out of the memory. "We have sheets to tuck and pillows to case and monsters to rent space to!"

  Kaylee giggled and did as she was directed, and the rest of the afternoon turned out to be one of the best Faith had in recent memory. They really had to get up here more often.

  2

  Faith had trouble remembering why they hadn't prioritized coming out here. Sure there had been reasons, but it felt now like they had been making excuses. It was bittersweet to think about coming here without their parents, it was true, but the good so greatly outweighed the bad in Faith's mind. It felt like Kaylee was blooming before their eyes after even just one day in the woods.

  The weather was perfect, seemingly just for them. Hot enough to make swimming in the small creek the ideal way to spend the afternoon, but cool enough that hikes and picnics weren't uncomfortable. The rain held off on their third day until they were safely inside for dinner, then provided a glorious summer thunderstorm that they could sit on the porch with s’mores and enjoy watching. Even Kaylee loved it, despite the thunder.

  That evening, after Kaylee had passed out hard in her bed, freshly washed and wrapped up in the cozy quilt but somehow still smelling of sunshine and creek water, Crissy flopped down on the old sofa with a bottle of wine and two plastic tumblers.

  "Classy!" Faith grinned over at her sister. "Plastic souvenir cups for the wine. I feel romanced already!"

  Crissy threw a pillow at her. "Bite me," she said, faking a grumpy attitude. "You want to bring cut crystal goblets to the cabin, you go right ahead."

  "Nah," Faith laughed. "Frank's Fried Fish and Bait Shack's line of fine dinnerware is good enough for me."

  They both smiled and laughed while Crissy poured a surprisingly decent white wine into the cheap cups.

  "I'm impressed with the wine selection out here these days," Crissy said, sinking back into the lumpy cushions with a satisfied sigh. "Not that I was paying much attention to it when we were kids, I grant you, but still. I can't imagine there was the same variety. There were some good beers there, too, but tonight felt like a wine night."

  "I'll allow it," Faith agreed. She sipped her wine and enjoyed the crisp coldness for a moment. "So, what's had you so tense these past couple of weeks? Don't think I haven't noticed. And this trip was somewhat abrupt, not that I regret coming out here in the slightest."

  Crissy sighed. The stress immediately returned to her posture and her shoulders tightened.

  "I've been getting creepy phone calls lately. Just some jerk who got my phone number and calls to breathe heavily at me. So stupid and last century, but still gross. And there's been a guy hanging out near Kaylee's preschool. And another guy with the same vibe was hanging around the neighborhood. Neither of them have talked to us or anything, but the way they watch us..." Crissy shivered and that conveyed her thought on the subject just fine without the words. She shrugged. "I guess I hoped that if I blocked the number and left town for a bit, it would all blow over, you know? Seems okay so far."

  "Well, if you did block the number," Faith pointed out. "You might not know if it blew over."

  Crissy shuddered. "Thanks. I feel much better now." She shot Faith a flat stare.

  Faith shrugged. "Sorry, but it's true. Where do you think the creep got your number?"

  "No idea. Probably the inte
rnet. God knows you can find anything on the internet," Crissy seemed to deflate. "I just didn't want it affecting Kaylee, you know? She picks up on things so damn fast. And I haven't seen anyone here in town."

  "So, you're up here to get loose of a stalker. Thanks for the warning, sis," Faith kept her tone joking to keep the tension from creeping back.

  "I'm not sure I'd elevate him to 'stalker' status, but yeah. Basically," Crissy shrugged again and took another sip of her wine. "Damn, that's an empty cup!" Crissy grabbed the bottle and refilled her drink.

  Faith nodded. She understood Crissy’s attitude. For a kid, Kaylee was remarkably sharp. She paid attention to the people around her and how they were doing. Faith had the feeling that Kaylee was perfectly aware of her mom's stress, and also of her mom's reluctance to talk about it.

  Kaylee also had an excellent sense of who was trustworthy and who wasn't. She had more than proven that fact when the barista at the coffee shop was trying to give her a free cookie and she looked at him and said flat out that she knew he was only pretending to be nice to her because he wanted to ask her mom out. His stunned expression was enough confirmation for Crissy, who thanked him very much and never went back to that shop.

  "Well, nobody in town but that delicious-looking guy at the grocery?" Faith tried to break the tension a bit. The stress lines that were evident on Crissy's face as she spoke and the tight way she held her shoulders were so unlike the brash, confident woman she usually was that Faith was a little freaked out.

  "Mmmm, he was tasty, wasn't he? Too bad he was there with his whole family," Crissy sighed. "All the good ones are taken... So! Speaking of boys. Any luck with your own social life? Any new guys I need to threaten against breaking my little sister's heart?"

  Faith groaned. "No, Cris, geez. When have I had the time to date anyone?" As subject changes went, this was a perfect choice. Well, not perfect for avoiding embarrassment, but it would definitely help her sister relax, so she'd take it.