Spellbound by Cate Tiernan Read Free Book Online Page A

it.”
    “Anyone else coming?”
    “Well, no.”
    “And you’re not calling it a date?”
    “Would you like to come or not?” he asked stiffly. I bit my lip to keep from laughing.
    “I’ll come,” I said, and hung up. “I think Hunter just asked me out,” I told Mary K.
    “Wow,” she said, grinning.
    I skipped upstairs to take a shower, wondering how, when my life was so stressful and scary, I could feel so happy.
     
    Hunter picked me up in Sky’s car twenty minutes later. My wet hair hung in a long, heavy braid down my back. I offered him a Diet Coke and he shuddered; then we were on our way to Kaaterskill.
    “Why did you care if this was a date or not?” he asked suddenly.
    I was startled into an honest reply. “I wanted to know where we stand.”
    He glanced at me. He was really good-looking, and my brain was suddenly bombarded with images of how he had been when we were kissing, how intense and passionate he’d seemed. I looked out my window.
    “And where do we stand?” he asked softly. “Do you want this to be a date?”
    Now I was embarrassed. “Oh, I don’t know.”
    Then Hunter took my hand in his and brought it to his mouth and kissed it, and my breathing went shallow.
    “I want it to be what you want,” he said, driving with one hand and not looking at me.
    “I’ll let you know when I figure it out,” I said shakily.
     
    The antiques fair took place in a huge warehouselike barn in the middle of rural New York. There weren’t many people there—it was the last day. Everything looked kind of picked through, but still, I enjoyed the time with Hunter, the time without magick involved. My mood got even better when I found a little carved box that would be perfect for my mom and an old brass barometer that my dad would love. Two Christmas gifts that I could cross off my list. I was woefully behind on my holiday shopping. Christmas was coming up fast, and I’d barely thought about it. Our coven was planning a Yule celebration, too, but fortunately that didn’t involve any gift-giving.
    I was engrossed in the contents of an old dentist’s cabinet when Hunter called me over. “Look at these,” he said, pointing to a selection of Amish-type quilts. I’d always liked Amish quilts, with their bright, solid colors and comforting geometry of design. The one Hunter was pointing to was unusual in that it had a circular motif.
    “It’s a pentacle,” I said softly, touching the cotton with my fingertips. “A circle with a star inside.” The background was black, with a nine-patch design in each corner in shades of teal, red, and purple. The large circle touched each of the four sides and was of purple cotton. A red five-pointed star filled the circle, and a nine-patch square was centered in the star. It was gorgeous.
    I glanced at the middle-aged woman selling the quilts and cast my senses quickly to see if she was a witch. I picked up nothing. “Is it Wiccan?” I asked so only Hunter could hear.
    He shook his head. “More likely just a Pennsylvania Dutch hex design. It’s pretty, though.”
    “Beautiful.” Again I ran my fingers gently across the cotton.
    The next thing I knew, Hunter had pulled out his wallet and was counting out bills into the woman’s hand, and she was smiling and thanking him. She took the small quilt, barely more than four feet square, and wrapped it in tissue before putting it into a brown paper bag.
    We headed back to Hunter’s car. “That’s really beautiful,” I said. “I’m glad you bought it. Where will you put it?”
    We climbed into his car, and he turned to me and handed me the bag. “It’s for you,” he said. “I bought it because I wanted you to have it.”
    The air around us crackled, and I wondered if it was magick or attraction or something else. I took the bag and reached my hand inside to feel the cool folds of the quilt. “Are you sure?” I knew neither he nor Sky had much income—this quilt must have put a huge dent in his