Starlight Magic

Chapter 1-1

One

It wasn’t the split lip, the bruised cheek and accompanying black eye, or the angry red marks on her throat, nor was it the ragged, chin-length bob maniacally chopped in the bathroom of the police station after noticing the blood caked in the long, lustrous raven waves. It was the hollow, haunted gaze without a spark of life that had made her unrecognizable.

Celeste compared the memory of the woman who had looked back at her two months ago to the one scrutinizing her now. The lip had healed and the bruises had faded, and she’d had her hair neatened up by a professional into a stylish bob that suited her face, but the eyes were still as empty. Occasionally, rage would ignite them or a distant grief would claw through the numbness to fill them with tears that spilled silently and unnoticed down her cheeks, but mostly, they remained lifeless, like now. The woman in this mirror was more recognizable than the one in that other reflection but only because she’d become familiar. She caught herself searching for traces of the woman she’d been before that night and found none. That woman was as dead as her husband.

She squeezed a generous puddle of gel into her palm and worked it through her hair until it was all smoothed back from her face. Then, to her ensemble of black pleather pants and matching tank top, knee-high black boots with three-inch heels, she added the final piece—a pair of dark-tinted, oval sunglasses with thin, black wire frames that hid her spiritless eyes. Black on black on black. Utterly colorless.

Like me, now.

With a growl, she spun away from the mirror and strode out of the bathroom, flipping the lights off on her way.

She adjourned to the main living area of the house she’d shared with her college roommate and best friend. The house looked nothing like it had then. When she and Shannon had lived here together, it had been filled with comfortable, plush couches and chairs, fabrics of rich reds, purples, greens, and blues accented with gold and silver in earthy and celestial patterns, and alive with family photographs, the clutter of work, and a wide array of Celeste’s artwork and crafts. Now it was empty but for a small dining table, her computer desk and chair, a small shelving unit with her favorite books and movies, and a couple accent pillows on the window bench. In her old room were a cheap flea market dresser and a mattress on the floor. No TV. If she wanted to watch movies, she played the DVDs on her iMac. In even greater contrast, there weren’t many art supplies on the shelves or in the drawers of her desk, only the bare minimum she needed to fill orders through her Etsy store or to create the images she used for the book covers she designed for self-published authors. Glancing over the meager collection, she winced.

Anyone walking in the front door might assume she was just moving in, but she’d been back in the house a couple days shy of two months now. She should have brought some of the furniture and trappings from her husband’s house, but she hadn’t been able to go back, so she’d told her sister-in-law to do with it whatever she pleased—the house and everything in it. Everything had been Marc’s, anyhow, picked and purchased by him to suit his tastes. The only things that were Celeste’s were her cat, her clothes, her computer, and her art supplies, and Grandma Letty had been kind enough to rescue those from the house in the days following Marc’s death. All her artwork was gone, too. She’d used it to open her Etsy store, and the speed at which every last piece had sold had been the one spark of hope in her bleak existence, and one she’d be relying on along with her freelance design work now that she’d quit her job with Liberty Bay Advertising.

It’s been two months today, she reminded herself for the tenth time in as many minutes. It’s okay to feel hollow today.

But what about every other day? What excuse did she have for them?

A plaintive yowling at the front door answered her. She opened it to let her cat in. He arched his back and rubbed against her legs. When she didn’t immediately bend down to pet him, he put his paws on her knee, met her gaze with his bright blue eyes, and meowed again in a blatant demand for attention. His love kindled a glow of affection in her heart that burned away some of the gloom, and she slid her sunglasses to the top of her head, then leaned down to pick him up, snuggling him close and burying her fingers in his long, black fur. He head-butted her, purring loudly enough to make a semi jealous.

“Yeah, it’s about time to bring you in for the night, isn’t it, Bard,” she murmured. “Don’t want any assholes who think it’s funny to t*****e black cats on Halloween to get hold of you, sweet boy.”

She carried him to the window bench and settled him on her lap. Absently, she stroked him and stared out the window. Sundown changed the sky from the cornflower blue of day to the peach of dusk and was reflected by the Kingston harbor. She watched the ferry depart for Edmonds with its lights glimmering in the still evening and its hull slicing through the glassy waters. More than once, she’d sat in this very window glancing between that view and her sketchpad with her pencil flying over the paper as she tried to capture every detail. Tonight, she only followed the ferry until it vanished around the point, braced herself for the impending parade of monsters, witches, princesses, and superheroes, and hoped the only ghosts who came knocking were the kind made of bed sheets.

Bard meowed again and stood on his hind legs with his front paws on her collarbone to tuck his nose under her jaw. Dutifully, she massaged his neck the way he liked it best and was rewarded with more loud purring.

“Are you sure you’re a cat?” she asked him. “Because you have the empathy of a golden retriever.”

With a sigh, she stood and set Bard on the floor, then headed into the kitchen to scrounge for dinner. First she opened a can of food for her cat; he deserved a special treat tonight. For herself, she decided to heat up the grilled chicken risotto left over from last night. Two seconds after she popped it into the microwave, the first knock sounded on the door. She reached for her bowl of candy only to realize the bags were still piled unopened on her counter. She yanked her biggest mixing bowl out of the cupboard below her, tore open the bags, and dumped their contents into the bowl, then hurried to the door just as the trick-or-treaters knocked again. She slipped her sunglasses back into place over her eyes at the last minute as she jerked the door open. There were three kids—a young princess, a younger pirate, and an older kid dressed as the cloaked, masked killer from Scream.

“Trick-or-treat!” they chorused.

“Smell my feet…” the pirate said.

“Dad said we’re not to say that part,” the older kid chided, his voice muffled by his mask.

“Oh, right. I forgot.”

“Sorry about that,” the older kid said. “Hey! You’re Trinity from the Matrix movies!”

“Yeah. I’m surprised you figured it out.” Celeste glanced down at her costume and caught herself smiling at the unexpected connection with another human being. “Aren’t those movies a bit before your time?”

“Nah. My dad and I have watched them together so many times. I love those movies.”

“Me, too.”

She doled out the candy for the trio and wished them a happy and safe Halloween. As they turned to leave, she saw a flash of the Scream killer’s fake knife—the kind with the clear plastic shell filled with rivulets of scarlet liquid to look like blood. She jerked back and closed the door as hastily as she could without slamming it and leaned against it, staring blindly at the ceiling. Her heart hammered against her ribs and she gulped air as her lungs suddenly forgot how to breathe. With a shriek, she ripped the sunglasses off her face and hurled them across the living room, flinching when they struck her computer desk and the lenses popped out.

On wobbly legs, she wandered into the kitchen, then sank to the floor with her back to the counter. Those silent, unfeeling tears trickled down her face as the nightmare of that night seized control of her mind again. How many times had she replayed it? Shouldn’t she be beginning to recover from that trauma by now? Because she wasn’t.

Bard pushed his way onto her lap, and the fluffy warmth of him was a tether to reality. She curled her fingers through his silky midnight fur and hunched over him, appreciative of his steadfast companionship.

Her cell phone rang, and she let out a gasp. Trembling, she reached up to the counter above her head, and her searching fingers found it right where she’d left it who knew how many hours ago. A glance at its screen brought a flood of relief. Shannon.

She accepted the call.

“Hi,” she said breathlessly. “Have you guys made it yet?”

“Yep. We pulled in to Mom and Dad’s this morning,” Shannon replied. The joy tinting her words was a welcome balm. “We’re all over at Bill and Mary Grangers’ house now. They get way more trick-or-treaters than Mom and Dad do, and since we’re only in Washington for a few days, we figured this would be a good way to spend the most time with everyone. I’m hoping you’d like to join us, too.”

“I, uh….” A new wave of panic pounded through her at the mention of Bill Granger. Had he told Shannon? He’d promised he wouldn’t until she’d had time to adjust to being a new mom, but he’d also said he wouldn’t wait forever. She gripped the phone so tightly that her knuckles ached.

Breathe, Celeste. In. Out. In… and out….

If Bill had told Shannon about Marc, she wouldn’t have wasted breath on idle chitchat.

“Celeste?” A note of concern wormed its way into Shannon’s voice. “Are you all right?”

“I’m… f-f….” She tipped her head back, closed her eyes, and pinched her lips between her teeth, hating how her voice quivered with the lie she couldn’t make herself tell. Her breath rushed in with another gulp and she held it as her sanity splintered again. How was there a fragment of her left whole enough to c***k?

“Celeste?”

She let the breath out and shook her head. “No, I’m not all right.”

“Oh, sweetie,” Shannon crooned. “We’ll be there in twenty.”

Celeste started to tell her not to come, to enjoy her evening with her family, but the words refused to cooperate because, stubborn selflessness aside, she needed her friend right now. She wiped under her eyes and forced herself to smile. “See you soon,” she murmured.

It took a couple minutes to get a grip on herself, and in that time, another knock came. She couldn’t bring herself to answer it. When she was able to collect enough willpower to get off the floor, she took the candy bowl and set it outside her front door, then selected a soothing New Age playlist on her iMac, turned the volume up all the way, and retreated to the window bench to wait for Shannon to show up while Enya’s enchanting voice filled the house. Bard, her ever faithful shadow, returned to her lap, and she focused her attention on him, ignoring the memories screaming at her.

Almost exactly twenty minutes later, Shannon stepped through the front door without knocking, immediately strode to Celeste, and wrapped both her and the cat in a hug. Celeste let out a ragged breath, then turned her gaze to the front door as Shannon’s husband entered with their two-month-old son. Even though they’d been on the road all day yesterday and this morning, they’d still pulled together more elaborate and involved costumes than she had. They were a family of sleek lions, and rather than going with store-bought, baggy cover-all costumes, they’d selected fitted tan clothing and trimmed themselves with matching fake fur. Their makeup was flawless. The baby’s costume was handmade and, from what Celeste could see of him, he was adorable.