Finding Her A-Muse-Ment by Rebecca Royce

Chapter One
    I syllus stared at the woman he had adored since coming to consciousness next to her on her eighteenth birthday. Susan Charlie. Better known to the public as Charlie Preston, whose books had appeared on the New York Times and USA Today Bestseller lists more times than any other living author.
    Susie was how he thought of her.
    She stared blankly at the computer screen in front of her. Her hands weren’t even poised over the keyboard, indicating that she wasn’t attempting whatsoever to put a word on the page. To her left sat a pad of paper. Using the older methods hadn’t stimulated her creativity. On the other side of her writing desk was a solitary goldfish sitting in a small portable fish bowl. She called the creature George.
    Sometimes she spoke to George, but that was it. Other than that, she didn’t communicate with anybody directly. Not anymore.
    Isyllus rubbed his eyes. If she didn’t start listening to him again, if she couldn’t use his presence—that was, granted, unknown to her—he would be sent away.
    Never to return to her side .
    He couldn’t have that. Not when they’d done so much work together, created such a brilliant collection of characters that they made people feel things when they read her words. Not when he’d fallen in love with her.
    He gulped. Isyllus knew better than to even think those words. Muses did not fall for their charges. Humans lived and died. When their natural endings happened, muses were sent to spark more creativity in a new artist. Loving a human could bring only pain.
    She’d never see him, never understand he’d sat next to her during her most poignant moments of creative bliss and applauded her true talent.
    None of that even mattered. If Susie didn’t start doing what Susie did best, very shortly the Fates would send him to someone who did. That could be anywhere, anytime. He’d never see her again.
    “Susie.” He bent down next to her. “I need you to hear me.”
    It used to be that he spoke and she reacted on the page, even without knowing that she had. She could hear him. He waited a beat to see if she would.
    Susie leaned back in her chair, her eyes still a blank page. Nothing. Just like it had been for days.
    “You can’t stay in this house anymore. You have to at least go outside.” He pointed at the window. “It’s a beautiful day, the middle of summer. Not even the slightest bit of humidity. The kind of day you dream about.” He waved his hands in front of the computer. “Leave this. You can do it later. Go see people. Speak. Laugh. See a movie. Do something other than sit here.”
    Her creativity had wavered the second she had shut herself off from the world. Isyllus couldn’t figure it out. Nothing had happened, not that he could tell.
    Susie sighed and looked out the window.
    “Yes.” He pointed at the outdoors again. “You need to go there. Outside. Now.”
    She didn’t budge.
    “Damn it, Susan.” He knew better than to shout. It didn’t help. Yet, he couldn’t help himself. Isyllus never cared before Susie and he had two thousand years of helping people before her. This time it mattered. In his bones, he felt he was meant to stay with Susie for her time on earth.
    He stalked over to the computer. There was one more option. The brochure had arrived earlier in the week. She’d put it on the counter with everything else she discarded. Her bills were paid automatically online. Isyllus doubted she even knew where her checkbook was anymore. It happened to be lying in her sock drawer.
    Groceries were delivered. E-mails were exchanged if someone needed her for business. She hadn’t bought new clothes in years. Everything could be done from a distance.
    Except healing and fun.
    He stared down at the brochure again. Wiccan Haus . The name made his brain tingle. This was the same sensation got when they worked on one of her stories, particularly Night’s Love , her most popular series. Going to the Wiccan Haus would be a very