Through the Storm

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

KAT COULD HEAR the hysterical tears all the way from the library. With a sigh, she stood up from the table where she’d been attempting to read through the cramped handwriting of one of her ancestors and prepared herself for the inevitable knock. It came faster than she expected.

“I beg your pardon, Miss Havelock,” said Michael, the footman, his voice shaking slightly. Kat couldn’t understand why he sounded so upset when they had been dealing with these magical problems almost non-stop for the past nine months. They’d started out with as many as twenty visitors per day, but more recently it had trickled down to no more than five, thank goodness. Ever since last summer when her cousin Morgan had been elevated to high priest and took on the role of the Seventh—as the seventh child of the seventh child in the seventh generation he was tasked to re-empower all the Vallen—people hadn’t been able to control this increase in their magical abilities.

Normally it would have been his job, as high priest, to help with magical mishaps, but since he was off empowering people throughout the country and enjoying being newly married, Kat was left to deal with problems in London and the surrounding area.

It was almost her job.

When Morgan had been made the Seventh, Kat, as the sixth child of the sixth child in the family, was tasked with being the Sixth, keeping the laws of their people. They were pretty simple laws—do no harm to others and don’t profit illegally through the use of magic. But now she also had to deal with this…

“What is it, Michael?” she asked the footman.

“A woman, Miss. Her hands are on fire,” he said, holding the door for her as she started down the hall.

Kat paused and half turned back to him. “Did you say on fire?”

“Yes, Miss.”

Kat spun back toward the front of the house and walked more quickly. “Oh, dear,” she breathed. As she approached the drawing room, she could smell the heat of fire.

The woman was dressed in scullery maid’s clothing, covered with soot and singed in a number of places.

“Help,” the woman cried as soon as Kat walked into the front parlor where all visitors, regardless of rank, were to be brought. “Oh, please, help.”

The woman held up her hands from which brilliant yellow flames writhed and danced.

Kat approached the woman with a confidence that had grown remarkably over the past few months. Taking her elbow, Kat tried to encourage her to sit next to her.

The woman looked down at the beautiful rose brocade sofa as if it were going to attack her if she dared to sit on it. “No, oh no, I couldn’t.”

“You can, and I need you to do so. Now, please.” Kat kept her voice firm and yet gentle enough so as not to scare the young woman.

Reluctantly, she sat at the very edge. Her crying had quieted to a gentle whimper.

“Good. Now, close your eyes, if you would…” Kat let the word hang in the air.

“Peggy,” the woman supplied.

“Excellent, Peggy. Now close your eyes.” She waited a moment while the woman complied, her tears calming further.

“Now I want you to picture your hands as they normally are—not on fire,” Kat said, infusing her words with calming magic. She made sure to keep a hand on the woman’s arm to keep the connection between them, and strengthen the impact of her magic, but did her best to stay away from the fire l*****g Peggy’s hands.

The flames began to flicker and die.

“That’s good. Now, take a deep breath and keep seeing your hands in your mind’s eye. They look perfectly normal to you, don’t they?”

The woman nodded after taking a deep breath, her crying now completely stopped.

The flames went out altogether, leaving the woman’s hands filthy but otherwise perfectly normal.

“Well done, Peggy! You can open your eyes now.”

She did so with a gasp as she beheld her flame-free hands.

“Oh, thank you!” Peggy said, throwing her arms around Kat’s shoulders. “Thank you, thank you.”

Kat laughed and gave her a squeeze back.

“Oh, I beg your pardon, ma’am,” Peggy said, suddenly remembering her position.

Kat laughed. “It’s perfectly all right. But that’s all you need to do, Peggy. If you accidentally set something on fire, just calm yourself and imagine it without the flames.”

Peggy sniffed and nodded.

Kat took one the woman’s hands and looked at it. “I’m glad you weren’t hurt.”

“Oh, no, Miss, I never get burnt.”

“How excellent! What a special ability.” Kat gave her a smile.

The woman returned it and then stood to leave. “How can I thank you,” she said. “I… I ain’t… I don’t have—”

“Oh, no! There is no need for you do anything. I’m just doing my job.” Kat gave her a bright smile that she wished she felt deep inside and waved Peggy out the door before things got awkward.

“Thank you. Thank you again, Miss,” Peggy said, giving her a curtsey before being shepherded out the door by Michael.

Kat dropped back down onto the sofa once she was alone again. She just couldn’t go on like this. She truly liked helping people, but it had gotten to be too much. Yes, the visits had become less frequent, but this wasn’t what Kat wanted to do with the rest of her life. She had to do something to free herself.

It was Morgan’s responsibility to see to these people, not hers. She wanted nothing more than to have a normal life, be brought out into society, and find a man she could love and marry. Morgan had fallen in love and married last summer, surely it was only fair that Kat have the chance to do so as well?

Surely, it had been long enough since he and his wife, Adriana, had left on their combined honeymoon and trip for Morgan to reinvigorate the Vallen. If Kat wasn’t mistaken, he and Adriana were now back from their wanderings and settling into their new home, but there was no reason why they couldn’t settle into married life here instead.

That was it. She would write to her cousin and get him to come and deal with these people and their magical problems.

She strode back to the library where she pulled out a piece of paper, her pen, and ink. Twenty minutes later, she had what she believed was a well-worded letter—not accusing him of neglecting his duty, not pleading for him to come and help her—requesting him to come to London. She carefully folded and sealed it, and then checked the time.

Just barely eleven. Perfect. Now to put the rest of her plan in motion and visit her cousin Caroline quickly before another problem came through the door.

She took no more than a moment to grab her coat before heading out into the fine spring weather. Happily, her cousin lived very nearby, so there was no need to call for her carriage and await its arrival. She escaped from the house before anyone could stop her.

“KAT, HOW LOVELY to see you!” said Caroline, after Kat had been announced and shown into her cousin’s extremely fashionable drawing room. It must have been recently redecorated in the popular Greek-inspired designs. Kat appreciated the pale blue and gray colors of the sofas and chairs. They perfectly matched her cousin’s eyes, which now shifted to peer behind Kat as if she were expecting someone else to be there.

Kat smiled. “She’s not there. Your mother’s still at Vallentyn.”

“Oh, yes, I know,” her cousin said, her voice soft and a little breathy. “I just…just wanted to make sure. You never know with Mother.” She turned abruptly. “Won’t you sit down?”

“Thank you.” Kat accepted the offered chair.

“Shall I ring for some tea?” Caroline asked, hovering near the fireplace where the bell pull hung.

“Oh, no, that’s all right.” Kat actually could have used a good, bracing cup of tea, but she didn’t want to put her cousin out any more than necessary, and she was about to ask her for a whopping favor.

Caroline accepted this even as she seemed to reluctantly lower herself onto the sofa across from Kat. “Well, then. How have you been?”

“Fine. Busy,” Kat answered honestly.

“You aren’t… I mean, Morgan became the… Mother’s not…” Caroline just didn’t seem to be able to complete a thought. She wrung her hands in her lap.

“Goodness, it’s been so long,” Kat laughed. “But you haven’t been here since the summer, have you?”

Caroline shook her head, her eyes wide.

“Yes, Morgan is the high priest and the Seventh, so everything worked out just the way it was supposed to.”

“Oh, I knew that. I mean, I was here at the time,” Caroline said, trying to sound as condescending as her two older sisters, but happily for Kat she just didn’t have that level of spite within her.

“Of course you were,” Kat said, placing a smile on her face. She couldn’t afford to offend her cousin, not when she was here to ask an enormous favor. “I’ve just written to Morgan. I think he and Adriana have returned from their travels and are settling into Stoneside, so I’m afraid it’s still up to me to fix all the magical problems that arise,” Kat said, answering her cousin’s first question. She was used to her goose of a cousin. They’d grown up together and were the closest in age of her Aunt Vallentyn’s seven children, aside from Morgan, of course, who was exactly Kat’s age.

Caroline seemed to breathe a sigh of relief, although she did so silently. “Of course. I knew that,” she said. “I’d heard Jonathan had given Morgan his inheritance. It was so good of him to take care of the place until Morgan was ready to move in.”

The way Caroline talked about Morgan getting his inheritance made it sound as if he had known about it and decided not to live in the house his father had left him. In fact, he had never even known that either the house or inheritance existed. Only when he’d gone to his brother for guidance when he’d wanted to propose to Adriana had he learned about it. Happily, Morgan’s oldest brother was a kind and considerate man.

“Yes. You haven’t had any problems controlling your new powers, have you?” Kat asked.

“Oh, no. My magic is associated with the element of Air. Things got a little breezy at first, but then it calmed down as I got used to it.”

“Good.” Kat looked down at her hands and noticed she was twisting her ring around incessantly. She had no reason to be nervous, she reminded herself. Although she wasn’t stunning like her cousin, she wasn’t so bad to look at. True, her hair was more of a mouse brown, than her cousin’s rich, dark brown. But her eyes were a similar shade of blue and she had the same lithe figure as Caroline. It ran in the family, thank goodness. And she was one and twenty, after all, and well old enough to know how to behave.

She clasped her hands and gave her cousin a bright smile. “I was wondering if you could do me a favor.”

Caroline’s eyes widened.

“I think it’s past time that I was presented to society, and I was wondering if you’d be willing…”

“Oh! You want to finally make your debut?” Caroline said with obvious relief. But then she stopped and asked, “Does Mother know? Is…is she all right with…”

“Aunt Vallentyn no longer holds any sway over me. I am of age so she is no longer my legal guardian. I have come into my inheritance so I have a nice dowry. Really, there’s no reason why I shouldn’t finally enter society,” Kat said with a lot more confidence than she felt.

“You’re certain she won’t mind?” Caroline asked again, skeptically.

“She always told me that I would make my debut after I turned twenty-one,” she answered honestly, if not thoroughly. To tell the truth she had no idea whether her aunt minded or not, or if she even cared what Kat did now that she had taken away her aunt’s powers. As far as Kat knew, her aunt was at Vallentyn Abbey, recuperating from the ordeal of losing her position as high priestess, and quite likely making her eldest son’s life miserable—but that was his problem. He was probably used to it by now, since she’d been doing so ever since his father had died, making him the head of the family—in name if not in deed.

A bright smile spread across Caroline’s face. “Well then, I’d love to sponsor you. Do you want to have a ball? I would love to have an excuse to have a ball. Stirling won’t let me have one just because I want one, but if it were for you…” Her voice trailed off suggestively.

“Oh, absolutely! I would love that!” Kat answered at once. She actually hadn’t thought about having a ball, but if it would make her cousin happy, then she wouldn’t mind—probably, at least she hoped not. She’d never been to a ball, although she had longed to do so her whole life. Yes, the more she thought about it, a ball would be wonderful.

“I’ll let it be known that I’m sponsoring you. It will be fun to have someone to go to parties with, aside from Stirling, of course. Oh, and we’ll have to get you a whole new wardrobe.” A bright smile grew on Caroline’s face. “And, of course, I’ll have to get some new gowns as well. I can’t possibly escort you around in last year’s dresses.”

Society was the one thing that Caroline knew all about—it was why Kat had decided to ask her, of the three sisters, to sponsor her. Kat just laughed and said, “I will leave it all in your capable hands, Caro.”

“Oh, yes!” Caroline said, her eyes sparkling with excitement.

“Excellent,” Kat said, relieved that everything would be taken care of.

“To start, I think we should…”

A knock at the door interrupted her. A moment later, her butler came in holding a small silver tray with a note on it. He gave a short bow and said, “I beg your pardon, my lady, but this just arrived for Miss Haveland. I was informed that it was urgent.”

With a sinking heart, Kat accepted the missive. It was just what she feared. Another magical problem for her to attend to—this one in the outskirts of London, which meant she’d need her carriage.

She swallowed at the lump of angry frustration in her throat. Just when she’d finally begun to do something to make her childhood dream of leading a normal life come true, the reality of her position had to intrude and tear her away. She crumpled the note into a tight ball even as she stood. “I’m so sorry, Caroline. Can we continue this tomorrow, perhaps?”

“Oh, of course! I’ll start making up a list of people who we’ll need to invite to your ball. Oh, and a preliminary menu,” her cousin said as she also stood, her mind clearly completely taken with all that needed to be done to plan her ball.

Kat gave her an impulsive hug. “Thank you! I knew I could count on you. You’re the best cousin!”

Caro laughed. “Not at all. This will be fun.”