The Mystic Cove Series Boxed Set (Wild Irish Books 1-4) Read online

  "Gorgeous, isn't he?" Fiona smiled and hummed as she cleaned up.

  "Well, yeah, but he's kind of a jerk too."

  "The best ones always are, honey."

  "What's his story, anyway?" Keelin asked, trying to act casual.

  "Flynn? Ahh, he has quite the story, which I imagine he will tell you in his own time. He's a local fisherman, owns the land bordering ours, and acts as an overall handyman for things that I can't handle on my own. He certainly has been a blessing to me. Surly, though. A good woman could change that." Fiona dimpled up at Keelin.

  "I don't think so. That man is trouble. Who walks the lands at 3:00 a.m.? I don't trust him."

  "Well, this is as much his land as it is ours. It was a lovely night for a walk last night, what with that full moon," Fiona said.

  "Still. It's weird," Keelin huffed into her mug of tea.

  "Why don't you get changed? I have some plans for us this morning." Fiona said enigmatically.

  Keelin took her tea with her to the shower. As she combed through her long hair she couldn't help flashing back to the dreams that racked her after she had seen Flynn the night before. Sweaty skin, arms entwined, and the flames of a fire. It had all been so pagan – so earthy. It was enough to make her blush as she showered and tried to remove the images from her head. She refused to give Flynn more headspace. More importantly, it was time to grill her grandmother about the book and the mysterious dark cove.

  With a nod to the sunny day, Keelin put on cargo walking shorts, a simple tank, and brought out her Wellingtons. She wanted to get a better look at the land.

  "Feeling better, dear?" Fiona had changed and had her own hiking boots on as well as a faded leather satchel that she wore across her body. Soft butter-yellow gloves were tucked in her pocket along with shears.

  "Yes, thank you. I want to ask you about the book that you sent me. And I have questions about the cove too."

  "Yes, yes, of course. Your time for lessons must start. Come along." Fiona handed Keelin a matching bag, outfitted with gloves and shears as well. Keelin opened the bag to find a stack of cotton bags and twine. A small notepad and pencil were tucked in a pocket. She briefly debated bringing her phone and camera but realized that they wouldn't be needed.

  "Have you heard tales of healers? Wise women?" Fiona interrupted her thoughts as they left the cottage.

  "Yes, I looked it up a bit after I spoke with my mother about the book. I can't decide if it is witchcraft or something different. It all seems to blend in and out and weave around."

  "Perfect! That is a wonderful description. It is all woven in and out together. The universal power. There is magick, you know." Fiona peered over at Keelin.

  "Yeah, I mean, I guess." Keelin was going to reserve judgment on that one.

  "Well, you'll hear rumors of witchcraft, and people in town love to gossip. But they speak of things that they know nothing of. I'd love to be a witch. It sounds like it would be a lot of fun. Alas, I am not. I don’t cast spells. That doesn't mean that I am without power, my dear. Nor are you. If you are willing to truly claim your birthright, then I may teach you."

  Keelin stared at Fiona as they approached a rock formation. Piles of mismatched rocks stood in a circle around a patch of dirt. The green hills rolled below them and the waters of the cove were gentle.

  "I guess that I don't really know what you mean," Keelin said hesitantly.

  "Don't you?" Fiona looked at her. Her small frame seemed to grow in stature as she stared into Keelin's eyes.

  "I, uh, well. I've had some moments. Just things that happen. I don't really have an explanation for them. So, I just ignore it. Is that what you are talking about?" Keelin was nervous. Her skin was tingling. She could feel sweat pooling on her lower back under her tank top. She never talked about this. Keelin had built her protective walls at a young age and now she felt like she was being stripped bare.

  Fiona held out her arm. She reached into her bag and grabbed her shears, quickly slashing a shallow cut across the top of her arm. Keelin gasped. "Grandma! Don't do that. Why?" Without thinking, Keelin covered the wound with her hand and applied pressure. She felt a quick sting on her own arm and knew it was fine. She removed her hand as Fiona smiled at her and looked down at her arm, now unmarked. A faint bruise had appeared on Keelin's arm in the same spot that Fiona had sliced her own.

  Keelin's head was hammering. It always happened this way. She moved too fast. She didn't think. What would her grandmother think of her? People always freaked when this happened. This was one of the reasons she rarely had long relationships. Most men couldn't handle or understand what she was. She didn't even know what she was.

  Fiona smiled at her and gently laid her hand on Keelin's bruise. The pain lessened and her headache disappeared. Keelin looked down to see that the bruise had faded away.

  "You're a healer, my dear. A natural. And it's time you learned how to harness and manage your power or you will cause yourself great damage."

  "A healer? For real? I thought that was all an old wives' tale." Keelin felt foolish as she said it. How could it be old wives' tales when she had just seen it with her own eyes? How long could she refuse to acknowledge what she was?

  Fiona ushered her into the circle. "As you know, with any power comes responsibility. There are rules to be learned. Lessons to begin. Medicines and natural earthly remedies can enhance your healing. The universe has a great and resourceful power which you must harness. The Celtic history of healing is a rich and powerful one. We respect nature, animals, and the universal energy. Celtic healers have long believed in the power of natural remedies combined with harnessing the universal energy available to all of us. Some of us are more inclined to this gift than others." Fiona nodded at her and pulled out several small bags of herbs.

  "There are, however, dark energies that can harm you. This is why you must learn simple ways to protect yourself. When learning, I ask that you work within a circle of protection. We issue our prayers here and we set our intention to use our powers for the highest purpose of helping others. We are healers. We have a responsibility to others, and to ourselves. Sometimes, with this gift comes the ability to see certain things. There will be times where you get flashes of what will come. Or you can catch a thought of someone else's. These are natural intuitive abilities that we all have – yet they are slightly tweaked for us. This is a legacy to us from Grace O'Malley."

  Keelin couldn't even deny what her grandmother said. When a soul meets its own truth for the first time there are no walls that can be put up. No shields. This resonated in her as purely and deeply as the air she breathed.

  "My mother?" Keelin asked.

  "Your mother, God bless her, has her own powers. She is not a healer and was often embarrassed or scared by that which she refused to learn. Your mother is empathic and has a strong ability to read people's feelings and decisions. It is what makes her an excellent real estate agent yet not a good healer. If she absorbed all of the emotions of those who were sick she would literally crumble upon herself. She learned to shield her emotions at a young age, but this world scared her and she fled to protect you. What she refused to see until you were old enough was that you can't flee from what you are. I could no more stop you from healing than you could stop her from dyeing her hair blonde."

  Keelin smiled. It was true. Her mom went into New York City every month for the perfect Fifth Avenue blonde. She claimed that Boston hairstylists couldn't even get it right.

  "I, I've always done this. I didn't know why. It scared the shit out of me. I remember when I was young and a car hit our cat. I was so distraught that I picked him up and ran with him to our house. I could feel his pain; his two back legs were broken and I was certain the vet would put him down. I held him and wished with everything I had that he would be okay. I cried, and cried, and prayed. I covered him with my body and held him and everything went black. I came to and my mom was shaking me awake. Our cat was running in circles around me. I was on the floor and b
egan throwing up. I was sick for two weeks." Keelin hadn't thought about that in a long time. Her mom had refused to speak of it with her until she had brought it up during their recent talk. It had scared her at the time and they had come to a silent agreement to discuss it no more.

  "Ah, yes. Raw power unchecked. Your love was true and your intentions pure. You were able to heal your beloved cat yet, without protecting yourself, you took the pain into you. Sickness has to go somewhere. If you don't learn to direct it outward, you will absorb it and it will poison you. Had you done this with someone deathly ill, you very well could have killed yourself." Fiona walked around the circle as she talked, tidying up the center and snipping off leaves from plants that hung into the circle. She tucked a few pieces into her bag and pulled out the book.

  "Are you ready for your first lesson?" Fiona asked.

  Still adjusting to the shift in her world, Keelin could only nod. This was not how she had expected her summer to turn out.

  "All healers must learn to protect themselves. You are a source of light and universal energy that allows you to heal others. However, there will always be dark energies that seek to take your light as well as the fact that you can't heal without directing the pain or sickness somewhere. Without proper protection, you'll kill yourself or allow a dark energy to break through and latch on to you."

  "Okay, this is totally creepy. I don't want to get involved in any of this." Keelin stumbled out of the circle. Her breath hitched as she started to walk the path back. Dark energies were too much for her. She felt the long dregs of panic begin to claw at her stomach. Was her grandmother talking about demons? The devil? Heat flashed through her and Keelin broke out in a sweat. She had no frame of reference for handling any of this. Science didn't address demons and Catholicism shunned them.

  "You can't ignore what you are, Keelin. You'll die. You must either give away your power or use it."

  The words stopped her. Their truth resonated deeply in Keelin. She had a choice to make. Keelin stared at the water and trembled at opening the door to what she had kept locked away for so long. She was scared to lose her tightly knit control over what and who she was.

  "You'll be safe, Keelin. But you must learn." Fiona's voice was gentle.

  Keelin turned. Her grandmother stood in the circle, her white hair whipping in the breeze. Her weathered hands held bunches of herbs and a leather cord wrapped around a crystal. Destiny came in the strangest of forms, Keelin thought.

  "Why do you say that I will die?" Keelin needed to know.

  "If you have a child, and your child becomes ill, you will give everything you have to save them. Without proper training and protection you will die in protecting what you love. This goes for your one true love as well. Your purity of love will make your strength of healing the highest it can be and in exchange, you will give your life if you remain untrained."

  The thought of being a mother slapped at Keelin. She had always rebelled against it. Yet…yet something tugged in her. Deep down. It was hard to argue with the absolute truth behind Fiona's words.

  "Okay, I will stay and I will learn protection. But you really scared me with the whole dark energy talk. I'm not into that voodoo, conjuring spirits stuff." Keelin wanted to be firm on this point.

  Fiona laughed and gestured for Keelin to join her in the circle.

  "Where there is light, there will be dark. You can't change it any more than you can ignore it. All you can do is learn to protect yourself the best that you may. To ignore doing so is unconscionable."

  Nodding, Keelin stepped back into the circle.

  "Now, first things first. Draw a circle, step into a circle, build a circle with small stones, sticks, chalk, twine…anything around you. A circle is an age-old sign for protection and safety. Yes, the witches use the same and it is for good reason. Do not ignore me on this one particular aspect."

  Keelin pulled out her notebook and began to take notes.

  "Circle, got it. What next?"

  Fiona began to rattle off simple prayers for protection.

  "You always want to ask your angels and light bearers for their help and protection. They are here for you."

  Keelin nodded diligently and continued to write.

  Fiona handed over the leather necklace with a stone attached.

  "Wear this when you are doing healing work. It helps to absorb and deflect any negative energy. It will also help you to channel your purest form of energy towards the work you are doing."

  The leather cord was knotted and wrapped in an intricate braided pattern and it circled a crystal that was easily the size of her palm. The clarity of the stone belied the strength it held. Keelin admired the craft with which the necklace had been made. The beauty of the design reflected strength and delicacy at the same time.

  "Thank you, this is lovely."

  "It was Grace O'Malley's."

  The enormity of what Fiona said struck her. The crystal warmed in her palm and she was flooded with emotions of hundreds of years past. Flashes of battles at sea, giving birth, and chanting around the cove whipped through Keelin's mind. Her stomach heaved as powerful emotion swamped her. Keelin grabbed Fiona's hand and Fiona steadied her.

  "That will happen sometimes when a stone first connects with its new owner. It recognizes your blood."

  Keelin was dizzy and her vision blurred for a moment. Slowly, the panic drained from her and she was left with a softly knowing power. Confidence soothed her like a cool balm.

  "It's a beautiful feeling, Keelin, yet a responsibility as well. Always tread carefully with your abilities," Fiona warned. "Now that you have learned some basic protection skills and the amulet has recognized you, we can go to the cove."

  "Really? I can't wait." Keelin bounced on her toes. The cove held so many unanswered questions. She was itching to get her dive gear and to get a closer look at what lay under its waters.

  "Can we go back so I can get some of my equipment?" Keelin asked.

  "Not today, Keelin. You need to be accepted by the cove first or you will know its wrath."

  "Okay, so, come on now. Mom told me some of the rumors but is it really haunted? Is there treasure? Why can't people go there?" Keelin's inquisitive mind had a whole list of questions for Fiona and she peppered her with them as she tagged along behind Fiona.

  Fiona stopped walking and turned to look at Keelin.

  "You must always respect the cove. It is from there that your powers come. You are a part of it as much as you are a part of this earth. Haunted, not haunted, treasure or not – you must always respect it. The cove will do as the cove does. You can no more examine it and categorize it than you can predict it. The cove simply is."

  "There is no way that I can believe that. There is an explanation for everything," Keelin said as she stared into Fiona's stubborn eyes.

  "Keelin, if you do not take proper respect and let it be – you will be hurt or die. I cannot be more serious about this point." Fiona's breath began to wheeze and Keelin realized that the old woman was starting to panic.

  "Okay, okay. I got it. Respect the cove. I will do as you say." Keelin ran her hand gently down Fiona's arm. She would reserve her opinions on the cove for later.

  "The cove has a long and varied history. I'm sure your mother filled you in on most of it. All I can say is that the cove has power. Whether the chalice lies there or not, the cove will reveal its secrets to whom it chooses. Some come here for help in becoming pregnant. Others come to take the water for healing those who are gravely ill. Only those who properly respect it will walk away unscathed. You can only enter these waters with a purity of purpose. Treasure hunters are often hurt or killed. Grace's Cove is as close as you can get to sacred waters. Grace O'Malley made her living on the water and while she was a ruthless woman, she pledged her heart to the sea, and the sea alone. Her greatest gift to it was coming to this cove and enchanting it. At the end of her life, she came here to rest in these waters."

  Keelin had always loved folklore, es
pecially those tales related to the sea. Pirates, sirens, and mythology always enraptured her and left her usually logical mind daydreaming for hours. She had a fiercely romantic side that often left her in tears.

  "She came here to be at one with her only love she could trust – the sea," Keelin murmured. Her eyes pricked with a soft sheen of tears. There was something so very sad about how Grace O'Malley chose to end her life yet, at the same time, it was strangely romantic. Keelin understood the call of the sea. The sea was a tempestuous woman, roughly angry one day, silkily soothing another. No other natural phenomenon reflected their moods as deeply as the sea. It was beauty. It was wrath. It was everything. Keelin could identify with Grace's last wish. To become a part of – one with – the sea was enchanting. Keelin's blood hummed at the thought.

  Fiona led Keelin over a rocky path that wound through the pastures with the punk-rock sheep. The gentle breeze picked up speed as they neared the cove and the seabirds circled looking for their lunch. They approached the edge of a ledge and Keelin gasped as her soul sang.

  Chapter 9

  The cove stretched before them, its waters a crystal blue hugged by jagged cliffs. The steep cliffs cupped the water and allowed a small opening for boats in the exact middle of the cove. The cliffs tapered in a perfect half-circle, meeting at a small sand beach, hundreds of yards below them. A small path crossed the cliff below them, switch-backing down the steepness of the ledge. The cove was impossible in its beauty, untouched in its rawness, and so quietly alone. There should have been people on the beach, dogs running, and kids splashing in the water. Nothing marred the beauty of the beach. The birds flew over, never dipping into the water. The hum in Keelin's blood increased.

  "Welcome to Grace's Cove. You'll be safe walking along the path. It isn't until you reach the beach that you should be concerned. We'll begin our protection at the beach."

  "Grandma, do you hike this by yourself? This is not an easy climb." Keelin's breath huffed out as she began the walk down.