by Nicole Hall
The garage was meticulous. His dad may have taught him the woodworking skills, but his mom had instilled a sense of order and cleanliness that had somehow missed his sister completely. There were several projects in various stages of completeness tucked away in bins under the counter, but Jake wasn’t feeling any of those. He wanted something new.
He ran his hand along a piece of mahogany the same color as Sera’s hair that he’d been saving for something special. Maybe a Celtic knot around a dragon. Or a phoenix. He’d seen the tattoo peeking out from under the shoulder of Sera’s tank top. It was something new.
Before he had a chance to do much more than gather his tools, his phone rang. His heart sped up, but it wasn’t Sera calling him back over. His mom’s number flashed on the screen.
Jake squinted at the clock, 10:48 pm in Texas, so… really stupid early in Norway, but his mom had always been up with the sun. He wondered how she was dealing with a place where the sun never went down.
“Hey Mom, what’s up?”
“I saw the most marvelous thing.”
“Another moose?”
“No, honey. Although that would also be marvelous.”
“I’d really prefer if you stayed away from the moose, Mom.”
“Noted, but they’re really very gentle creatures.”
Jake rubbed his eyes with his free hand. “Don’t make me have another talk with Dad about boundaries. It feels super weird.”
“I’m not sure when you forgot that we’re your parents, not the other way around, but we can handle ourselves.”
“I know. What’d you see?”
“A troll!”
Jake shouldn’t have been surprised. His mom was essentially a fairy-tale princess, attracting all kinds of animals and potentially mythical creatures. Considering the afternoon he’d just had, he wasn’t sure he should discount that she’d actually seen a troll. If trolls were going to be anywhere, he’d bet they’d be in Norway. It was something he’d have to ask Zee about the next time he saw her.
He belatedly tuned back into the conversation that his mom had continued without him. “—said it was a mossy rock, but I knew better. Your dad told him, and now we’re staying in Oslo for another couple of weeks with this adorable couple at their Airbnb. She says they’ve been together for fifty-six years, started going steady in upper secondary, that’s high school for us. It made me think of you and Sera your senior year. I heard she’s moved back to town.” She paused for a breath, but Jake wasn’t fast enough. “And she’s single, no kids. It’s such a shame. A sweet girl like that, well I guess she’s a woman now isn’t she, but a woman like her should have a family to wrap her in love.”
“You’re not subtle, Mom.”
“All I’m saying is she’s had it rough. Her sorry excuse for a mother…”
“Last I heard she was a successful lawyer.”
“Yes, but a terrible mother. It was so obvious before that she was love-deprived. Sera, not her mom. She soaked it up like a sponge. A love sponge.”
“Please don’t ever say that again, Mom. I’m begging you.”
She ignored him. “It was too bad she had to leave Evie and go back to that harpy.”
“I’m sensing a story here that has nothing to do with Sera.”
There was a shuffle on the other end of the line. “No one was ever good enough for that woman. Not even her daughter.” Jake could hear her tsking in the background, but then she changed tacks. “I was so sorry to hear about Evie’s passing. She was such a beautiful soul. Will you give Sera my condolences?”
“Yeah, I will.” Evie was a force for good on everyone she met. Jake shook his head. They had to find a way to free her from Torix. “She asked about you, by the way.”
“Of course she did. She’s a good girl, and she’ll make a wonderful mother.”
Jake groaned. “Not this again, Mom. I’m only twenty-five. I have plenty of time to make babies later.”
“You’re right. You should focus on your relationship with Sera first. Make a strong foundation, then babies.”
Jake groaned again for his mother’s benefit, but rubbed at the mild ache in his chest. He’d felt pulled to Sera before the binding, but now it was a physical sensation. “There’s nothing going on between Sera and me.”
“Mm-hmm. This is my skeptical voice, just so you know. I remember you two before. You thought you were so sneaky, but a mother knows.”
“I don’t want to talk about my sex life with you, Mom. Besides, she’s been back a day. I think I can afford to give her time to at least unpack before I propose and attempt to fill her with grandbabies.”
“Don’t take too long, you’re not getting any younger.”
Oh my god, seriously? Time for a subject change.
“I think maybe Maddie is seeing someone,” Jake blurted. I’m a bad person.
His mom gasped. “She told you that? For how long? Do you know him? Is it a him? You know I’ve never been entirely sure with Maddie.”
Jake pinched the bridge of his nose, then sank down into his work chair and made random circles on his notepad. “I’m pretty sure she’s into guys, but now that you mention it, we’ve never directly talked about it.” It didn’t matter who his sister loved, but she was his baby sister, so he made an abrupt one-eighty from that line of thought. “She didn’t actually tell me she was dating, but she’s been happier than usual. You know how she gets. And she’s been over mooching food a lot less.”
“It’s not mooching. We told her she would always be welcome at the house.”
“It’s my house now, Mom, and my food. She always goes for the good stuff. I’ve had to start hiding the steaks.”
“Pssh, she’d never go through the effort of making a steak.”
Jake snorted. “Okay, yeah, but I have to hide the chocolate…and lasagna.” He added bitterly.
She laughed. “Now, that I believe.”
Jake was silent for a moment as that made him think about belief and all the stuff Zee had said this afternoon. He’d learned not to trust the Fae to be straight, but the incident with Sera and the binding made things pretty fucking serious.
“Do you need us to come back?” His mom was way too perceptive.
“What? No,” he barked, then tried to soften the abruptness. “Besides, I don’t want you to miss the igloo light thing you have planned next month.”
She hesitated. “It was non-refundable, but my children always come first. Are you sure? I can feel that there’s something…”
“Please stay in Norway, Mom.” He needed her far away from Mulligan if things didn’t go well with the Fae. On second thought, maybe he should send Maddie to her. Bonus, Maddie would hate Norway.
“Okay, we’ll stick with our schedule. For now, anyway. Anything else to report?”
Jake flipped through the pages of swirls and lied to his mother. “Nope. Everything’s great.”
“Well get some sleep, honey. I’ll try to call again next week. We love you.”
“Love you too, Mom.”
It was easier to lie when she couldn’t see his face, but she was usually able to figure him out anyway. He tossed the pad back on the counter and picked up the wood. Maybe he was getting better at lying? He started sketching a phoenix in the center and tried to shake off the feeling that he’d been lying to more than just his mom.
4
SERA
Sera opened her eyes to a blinding light and quickly shut them again. Either there was a sprite sitting on her face or the sun had already reached her windows. She groaned. That meant it was afternoon and she’d slept all day.
She flipped over and checked her phone on the nightstand. 4:03. Late afternoon then. Her stomach growled aggressively, and she realized that she’d failed to eat the day before. After Jake had left, her energy levels had dropped to nothing. She’d crawled up the stairs and into bed, where she’d proceeded to have dreams alternating between happy naked time with Jake and fighting off a tiny evil fairy that looked like
Will with a flyswatter.
It wasn’t quite a nightmare, she’d have loved to squash him flat, but Torix’s voice kept echoing her mind. Come Samhain, I’ll find you myself. She shivered, not entirely sure it had only been a dream. And what the hell was Samhain?
She dressed in her last set of clean clothes, brushed her teeth, and pulled her long hair back in a ponytail before she admitted that she wanted to linger on the sexy Jake dreams. Seven years had changed a lot, but not her body’s reaction to him. Will paled in comparison in every single way, and Sera was feeling bitter about each wrong decision she’d made that had led her to him. Nothing like trusting someone to take care of you then having them turn around and drug you into compliance. And while it wasn’t the same, being bound to Jake almost against her will was rubbing her the wrong way.
Now that she knew the truth about magic, she wondered if the Fae had been punishing her. The glimmers she’d tried to explain had been sprites, and it seemed some people could see them and some people thought she was crazy. She was unclear if it was the sprite or the person who decided what was visible. The idea that magic was real… well, it hadn’t truly sunk in yet. It was all so far-fetched that she wanted to ignore the whole thing. Mundane issues like breakfast and coffee jumped well above learning to turn mice into horses or whatever magic was good for.
Halfway down the stairs, Sera remembered that there was no coffee in the house. True punishment at its finest.
A look out the window confirmed that Jake’s truck was gone from his driveway. The mower was put away, and his yard looked more or less finished. There were a couple of sections that were significantly shorter in a circular pattern. She guessed that was from him trying to keep an eye on her and Will. There went her brilliant plan of begging Jake for coffee. Maybe it was time to venture into town. She needed to get some food besides coffee anyway.
Wilson Market was still the de facto place to get groceries. Mrs. Wilson nearly threw her back out pulling Sera into a hug when she tried to check out, and Mr. Wilson insisted on carrying her bags to her car. She smiled when he suggested she come out for dinner, but didn’t commit. Who knew how long it would take to deal with Zee’s assignment.
The sun was already setting behind the one-story buildings that surrounded the square when she pulled into Rosie’s Pizzeria. Cheerful lights blinked in the window as the businesses started rolling up their awnings for the evening. Normal lights, not the sprites she’d gotten used to seeing everywhere. Glimmers had followed her around the market, the liquor store, through the single stoplight, and gathered in the square behind her, but none ventured into Rosie’s. Huh.
She’d managed to avoid thinking about naked Jake for the last two and a half hours, but she couldn’t avoid that she’d sort of promised him dinner. Seven years ago, they’d spent a lot of time at Rosie’s. As far as they could tell, no one named Rosie had ever worked there, but they made the best New York pizza in Texas.
It hadn’t taken long for the news to get around that Evie’s granddaughter was back in town because Jim Hogan wasn’t surprised in the least to see her in the restaurant. He rang up her regular without asking, and threw in a slice of her favorite cheesecake as a welcome back present. It was almost like no time had passed at all.
Back at the house, she put away the groceries while cleaning out the expired stuff. It brought up vivid memories of doing the same thing with Evie. Two days ago, all she’d wanted was to settle into her grandmother’s house and start a new life for herself. She wasn’t sure what she was going to do for a job once the trust ran out, but she’d always found something. Waitressing, temp work, retail…anything that didn’t require a commitment. College hadn’t worked out for her, but she was smart and organized, and she’d be a valuable employee. Especially now that she knew she wasn’t crazy.
It was supposed to be simple. House, job, future. She hadn’t considered Jake, or Will, or a town that didn’t forget, or magical forest creatures with ulterior motives, or Evie. Or Evie.
Sera stilled. More than anything else, she wanted to rescue Evie. The best way she could see to do that was to learn as much about magic as she could… and figure out a loophole that a powerful Fae hadn’t been able to come up with in generations, with magic that she couldn’t learn or use on her own. Suuure. No problem.
Guess it’s time to confront Jake.
Armed with a six-pack and a steaming pizza box that smelled like heaven, Sera crossed her yard toward Jake’s house. If he was nice, she’d consider sharing her cheesecake with him. The traitorous part of her brain insisted it would be a lot more fun if he was naughty, and now she desperately wished she’d only had nightmares the night before.
Sera half expected him to answer the door shirtless, but he was in jeans and a dark tee that made it hard for her to look away from his brown eyes. He leaned against the doorjamb and crossed his arms. Relaxed was his default, but his smile looked distracted.
She held up the pizza box. “Dinner, as demanded.”
Jake’s grin widened. “Rosie’s.” She could see the effort it took to put away whatever was bothering him as he stepped back and motioned her in.
Not much had changed. The couch was new, as was the big flat-screen over the mantel, but it looked like his parents had left most of their stuff behind when they left for Europe. She guessed he hadn’t even noticed. It seemed both of them were living steeped in the past.
“To be clear, I’m always grateful for pizza, but what made you head out to Rosie’s?” Jake asked as he led the way to the kitchen.
Sera put the food and beer on the table and went looking for plates. “I was already in town, and I figured why not.”
Jake sat down and pulled out the first slice. “Ah, beautiful, it’s been too long.”
Sera’s head jerked around, but he wasn’t talking to her. He was chewing with his eyes closed, lost in cheesy bliss. A warm feeling spiked through her. Now is not the time. Sera tried to convince her traitorous body.
The dishes were where she remembered them, in the cabinet next to the fridge. She grabbed a glass of water before heading to the table in the hopes it would cool her down. He’d already finished his first piece and was halfway through his second when she finally joined him.
“I have questions I want you to answer.”
Jake swallowed and stole her water glass to take a swig. “For this, I’ll tell you every secret I have.”
“Why didn’t you tell me before?” Her voice broke on the last word. It wasn’t the question she’d intended to ask, but her brain had spit it out without warning.
For the first time since he’d opened the door, his eyes locked on hers. “Zee is very specific about who knows about the Fae. I agreed not to share their secret, and then I couldn’t. If I tried, my mouth stayed closed. Literally. You felt their magic. You know how hard it is to fight it.”
“I guess I’m on the approved list now. How did you find out?”
His lips tipped up. “They needed a builder. I can’t say more than that.”
“What about Ryan?”
“What about him?”
“How did he get involved? Why did they send him after me instead of you? How well do you know him?”
Jake put a slice of pizza on her plate. “Eat. I’ve known Ryan since high school. He moved to town not too long after you left. Smart guy, real into computers. Solid. He once defended Maddie against some meatheads on the football team.”
Sera blew on her pizza before taking a bite. “You were on the football team.”
He shrugged. “That’s how I knew they were meatheads. Anyway, it was impressive since they had at least sixty pounds on him each, but he talked them down and walked away with Maddie. Far as I know, they never even tried to retaliate.”
“Must have been nice for Maddie.”
He pushed his plate away after a third slice. Not that he’d ever slowed down enough to use it. “Yeah, although I was never convinced she didn’t start messing with those guys first. I don’t
know when Ryan found out about Zee, but they’ve definitely called him in for tech support before.”
“Support for what?”
“Wi-Fi, the time I knew about. You’ll have to ask Ryan if you want more info than that. Or Zee, but she’s really good at telling you what she wants you to know and nothing more. As for why they sent him, I have no idea.”
Sera opened her mouth to argue but he held up a hand. “I really don’t. I don’t even have a guess. I’ve seen a summons exactly once before, and it involved Mr. Hogan. Honestly, I think they wanted pizza delivery, and you know how he feels about that.”
“That… makes a disturbing amount of sense. You think we can trust Ryan?”
“Yes.” Jake crossed his arms again and leaned back in his chair. “What else?”
Sera chewed silently for a moment, then swallowed. Now or never. “You let me go. It hadn’t been twenty-four hours, you abandoned me for a whole day, and then you didn’t even try to call.”
“What?” Jake leaned forward and braced his arms on his thighs. “That’s bullshit, Sera. As I remember it, I left you a note, spent the day walking on air at pre-season practice, and the next day when I came home from work, you’d moved away. No goodbye, nothing.” He laughed without any humor. “I did call. I even tried to follow you. I got your mom’s address from Evie and planned to drive out there in my shitty old Corolla one weekend. My parents thought I was crazy. Evie convinced me I should at least call first. I was dying to talk to you, but your mom answered. She wouldn’t let me talk to you and told me in no uncertain terms that if I showed up she’d have me arrested.”
Sera shook her head. “What? It wasn’t—”
“I was going to come anyway.” Jake reached over and took one of her hands, playing with her fingers. “But something she said finally stopped me. You were having nightmares. You’d wake up screaming my name, terrified. I’d bust through a thousand doors to get to you if you needed me, but I wasn’t going to be the reason you were afraid.”