la belle dame sans merci | carlisle cullen

61

Energy had been crackling in the air all day. A distinct static that made it feel like there was something between her bones and muscles. It wasn't painful, on the contrary. Minerva was practically bouncing off the walls.

Bella had been watching the woman move around the shop in complete bewilderment. Jumping from task to task, practically hopping in her step.

"What the hell has gotten into you today?" Bella asked, interrupting a particularly thrilling sing-along to Supertramp's Breakfast in America. It was like night and day to the way the woman had been for the last few months. It wasn't that Minerva had been particularly irritable, she was perfectly pleasant. Bella could always see the gears turning when the witch wore that pensive look, she realized pretty quickly it was better to wait on whatever she had to say.

Minerva was bopping her head to the music when she turned her face from her task, illuminated in a bright grin. "I can't be in a good mood?"

Bella stammered for a moment, "I mean, you can." The girl replied, "You just don't tend to be. What is it?"

"Do you know what today is?" Minerva asked, dropping her rag as she moved to turn the radio down, leaning against the counter.

"Tuesday?"

"Close."

"June Twenty-First?" Bella tried again.

Minerva snapped her fingers, "Now, you're getting it."

"I'm really not." Bella responded with a bewildered laugh, "What's so special about it?"

"Today is the summer solstice." Minerva responded, with an almost dreamy smile.

"So?"

"So!" Minerva responded slapping her hands on the counter, "So, I'm having a very good day."

Bella sat forward a little bit in her chair, "What exactly does it mean? Besides being the longest day of the year."

Minerva did look just a little crazy. Unhinged might have been the better word. Her face didn't usually contort like that: Bella had never seen so many of the woman's teeth in a single smile. There was something off about her eyes that she couldn't quite place, finding it better to just avoid direct eye contact.

"Today the earth is at her full strength." The witch said as she made her way around the counter. Starting the kettle for an instant coffee the human thought she could go without, she went on, "It's abundance, prosperity, consciousness." If Bella didn't know the woman was a bona fide witch, she'd have thought she was bonkers. "My ancestors would keep a fire burning the entire month of June and only let it burn out the morning after the solstice."

Bella's brows furrowed a bit, "Your ancestors were magic too then?"

Minerva's smile faltered a little, as if she'd realized she said something she didn't mean to. "Yeah, it's like an heirloom.. An extremely cursed heirloom."

"So your parents?" Bella pressed on. It wasn't often they could get on this subject, Minerva usually shut it down too quickly but she'd opened herself up to it.

Minerva cleared her throat a little, "My mom." She corrected, "it's maternal."

Bella nodded a little, "So if you have kids?"

"I'd have to have a daughter." Minerva's voice was growing tight, Bella could see her deflating. "I won't though. It stops here. Let's not talk about me." She flashed a quick smile before she turned to the bubbling kettle. "The energy from the solstice is why I'm so wired." It was a swift circle back to the question that started it all go shut it down. "It's like I'm a magnet and it's going thunk-thunk-thunk." She  motioned toward herself with every 'thunk.'