The Magician's Witch

Hot and Cold

Eilis was halfway between dreamland and waking up. She heard a voice...a familiar voice...whispering her name. It was low and sweet. She smiled in her sleep. She felt lips touch her forehead. She sighed. And then the voice was gone.

She woke a few minutes later. At first, she felt confused. She was in her bed, in her bedroom, but something about the atmosphere had shifted. She groaned and turned over to face the window.

She saw it then, on the opposite pillow—a perfect Persian rose, in the first blush of its bloom. It was the wrong season for roses, yet there it laid.

Eilis lifted the delicate flower and brought it closer to her sleepy eyes. She realized then that it was made of silk, but it was the most realistic-looking fake flower she had ever seen! Eilis grinned, knowing who had left it for her. She sniffed it playfully and then flinched when her nose detected the scent of fresh rose petals!

Eilis laughed to herself. "Of course, you made it smell like a real flower," she said to the empty air.

Eilis' head was in the clouds as she moved through her morning routine. She couldn't make herself stop smiling.

I must look like an idiot, she thought to herself.

She practically waltzed out to the terrace. Behzad sat there in somber silence. Eilis sat down, too cheery to trouble herself about his glum mood. She helped herself to the Turkish coffee sitting in the urn on the table, reaching for the bread and feta cheese, adding cucumbers and tomatoes to her plate. She dug in, famished.

"You are going to break his heart," Behzad foretold in a detached voice after a few minutes.

"Excuse me," Eilis asked, only half hearing what he had just said. She ate a piece of cucumber and turned to him.

"You are going to hurt him," he restated.

Eilis frowned and then rolled her eyes at him. "You and your dire predictions. I am not setting out to hurt Erik, Behzad. Besides, I do not see how anything happening between Erik and me is any of your business."

Behzad leaned forward, his mocha eyes dead serious. "You are a loose woman. The man already has enough sin stacked against him without you tarnishing him further."

Eilis grew hot. Her eyes blazed. "Do not speak to me about sin and tarnish," she hissed at him. "I will not be lectured by the man who would have arrested me for stopping a public death by stoning. And do not tell me that you have remained celibate since your wife died."

She shoved away from the table. Behzad reached for her wrist to stop her from leaving. She turned a baleful glare on him. He held her arm tighter.

"Mock me all you wish. I was a married man, and I did not touch a woman until I brought my wife to my bed. And while I may seek comfort in the arms of other women now that she is gone, none of them can take her place."

Eilis tugged at her wrist, but he kept her restrained. "Erik has many demons to fight. Do not add to his litany of offenses which will cause him strife. I may not be a Christian, but I know there are certain lines one must not cross."

Behzad let go of her wrist and sat back, assured that she had heard him.

Eilis scowled at his remark.

"Tell me, Behzad." Her voice rumbled in her chest as she looked him dead in the eye. He didn't look away, although his eyes were fidgety. "If you had known that your wife would be taken from you so soon, would you have dismissed her? Or would you do it all over again for just a few more minutes with her? Do you think she will forgive you for sleeping with other women who aren't your wives? You are just using them for sex, which means you are just as loose as I am...more so, in fact, because I have only ever slept with one man. How many women have you slept with, Behzad?"