There was danger involved, and two human girls who didn’t know what happened could be at risk for simply not knowing anything about what they’d stepped into. Ava leaned against the store. She was going to have to find them, and she didn’t even know their names.
As it turned out, she knew someone who was excellent at his job and could find things—he spent time with humans. He’d told her the night before. She couldn’t imagine why Lawson wouldn’t want to help her.
All she needed was an address. She’d find the girls, tell them to be careful, and be done with the whole thing forever. Then she’d never think about that necklace again. Todd’s death still weighed on her. Had he died because she brought him that thing?
One way or another, Ava had to see this event to an end. Then she could get back to her life.
Somehow.
Chapter 6
She stood in the abandoned warehouse and stared at the falling down walls. Why on earth Lawson picked this place for her to go and just talk to nothing so he could hear was beyond her. He’d called it the safest place in the city.
Ava couldn’t see how that could possibly be.
The whole place could be torn down any second. She didn’t know how, in a city that expanded as quickly as theirs, someone hadn’t come along and magically knocked this down to build an instantaneous office building. She wanted to leave, to run, actually.
Ava wasn’t convinced her head could take that kind of activity. Her fear for another headache was the reason she stood there trying to work up the courage to speak to an empty space that would then magically send her message to Lawson, wherever he was.
“Hi, Lawson. It’s Ava.” She cleared her throat. “You said you could hear me. I hope you can, and I hope this isn’t some kind of joke. It’s kind of important. Remember how I told you about that necklace and the humans? Well, I need to find them. The humans, that is. I was hoping you would help me. Thanks. That’s it. Um, have a great night, wherever you are. Hope you’re safe. And, oh, are you the only one who can hear me, or is this being broadcast across a network if Enforcers who now think I’m nuts?”
Ava stood still, waiting. He’d not said he would answer her, just that he’d be able to hear. Finally, giving into the urge to run away, she walked, at a brisk pace, straight back to her car. When she closed the door, she could finally breathe again. Her heart rate slowed. She didn’t know what had frightened her exactly, but she hoped she never had to go back to that place, ever again.
Tea with her parents was a weekly ritual that Ava would have been okay with becoming a monthly thing. Still, they insisted. When Zoe was home, it was at least a chance to see each other and catch up in person. How much longer was Zoe’s honeymoon? Another week?
Lila Blakely, in full on mothering mode, glided into the room in the air, carrying her self-proclaimed world famous chocolate chip cookies. Lila Blakely had never cooked anything in her life. She didn’t even spell food to the table. They’d had staff to work out recipes and make that happen. But ever since Ava was eight years old, at these teas her mother insisted they have even when they were living together, she’d made her own cookies.
They were the most disgusting things Ava ever tasted. Manners dictated she eat one every week, since Zoe’s allergy to chocolate meant she never could. It didn’t make any sense. Why not make a cookie that Zoe could eat too? Yet her mother persisted, and every week, Ava choked down the cookie with her tea, trying not to gag the whole time.
How did a person ruin chocolate?
Lila placed the cookies in front of Ava before she sat down in her usual chair. The Blakely living room had changed very little over time. For as long as Ava could remember, the chairs had sat in the same exact spot, the couch where it always was. Her mother liked everything white and pristine. Maids showed up every day to spell the room with dust that picked up dirt, fingerprints, and other messes two children, a cat—because every good witch family had a cat—and a husband who tended to spill things after his second whiskey caused.
Today, her mother wore a light blue dress with sparkles all over it that showed off her sleek figure and red hair. The other thing that never changed in their life was that Lila never seemed to age. She must have been visiting the spa-clinics where the witches worked endlessly to spell wealthy women into the best physical versions of themselves. Lila would never admit to going.
Ava sipped her tea. Maybe she should start to think about selling product to those places…
Emilio set his tea down on the table, smiling at Ava. “You look better.”
“I feel better.” A night with Lawson’s warmth in her bed coupled with human pain pills had done wonders for her head.
“Eat your cookie, love.” Lila smiled at her. “I changed the recipe. Little less chocolate.”
She put less chocolate in? Ava tried to smile back. The chocolate was all that made it bearable. There was always this aftertaste that Ava couldn’t identify. It was sour. Like her mother used bad milk. Still, she took her required bite and managed to eventually eat the whole cookie.
By the time she finished, Emilio hummed to himself in his regular seat by the window. She loved her father, but he really needed to stop adding things to the tea he drank. Particularly before noon.
Ava rubbed her eyes, her stomach turning slightly, and sat back on the couch. She knew from lots and lots of experience that she wouldn’t be asked to eat anything else.
“What’s your week look like, Mom?”
She waved her hand in the air. “I’m sitting on several committees now to help with the south side of town. It’s really going downhill. The crime, no one has ever seen anything like it.”
The definition of crime varied depending on who was describing it. Ava kept her mouth shut. The south side of town was relatively safe. Ava had no idea, whatsoever, what her mother and her committees were going to do exactly, but she felt sorry for the people on the south side. There were places with real problems but not in this small city. Ava had never been to any of those locations and neither had her family.
But Lawson certainly had…
What did it say about Ava that she hadn’t?
And why did Lawson think there needed to be a safe place in town like that warehouse? Was there some seedy side of town she wasn’t aware of? What was he doing? Kim had said they lived in danger. Was he somewhere at risk right then?
“Ava, what are you thinking about?” Her father laughed. “You have the strangest look on your face.”
She blinked. “Oh, no, nothing. Do you guys think you’ll get the funding for the new holiday?”
Ava met her mother’s gaze across the table. Or at least she tried to. Whatever her mother was thinking about, it wasn’t their tea at noon. Ava hadn’t been the only one whose mind was somewhere else entirely.
Ava hadn’t been on a date in a year. Arguably, since she and Mitchell had been together for a decade, when they went out it didn’t really count as dating. When exactly that became the truth, she wasn’t sure. But she hadn’t dated in a long while.
She tried to process what was happening. Right then, she was sitting next to Melanie and across from Luke, her date, who was in turn seated next to Nathan, Melanie’s date. Ava had put on a short, black dress, and she was trying to make small talk with a man she’d never met before. He was a Healer and had moved to their area the year before.
If he knew her family was important, it didn’t get mentioned. If he had any prior knowledge she was powerless, he didn’t indicate either.
Melanie laughed at Nathan, and he practically glowed at her attention. It was a good thing Luke was such a talker—about himself and his career, mostly—because Ava couldn’t think of one darned thing to say.
Ava nodded where appropriate, sipped her drink, and said things like uh-huh that sounded more like mmhmm. Luke didn’t seem to notice. Or maybe this was common. Maybe she wasn’t supposed to speak a lot on her first few dates. Most women her age knew these things. But she’d never been casual, a
lways serious, and she over thought every move and sound she made like they were automatically wrong.
“Well, no.” Melanie put her hand on Ava’s. “But Ava here does. She owns her own store. I work for others—for now—but Ava has made it happen, living the dream.”
With her cheeks as hot as lava, Ava could have punched her best friend. Why had Melanie brought attention to her? She had been doing just fine without having to utter a word. The evening was passing just fine.
The restaurant was noisy. She didn’t have to speak. “Well, yes. I mean for a while now. I have. Yes.”
Luke put his hand on her arm, his thumb touching her skin with a stroke. “I’ve always wanted to go in there. Now, I’m going to have a reason to come in. I’ll get to look at your beautiful face.”
Her cheeks got even hotter “Oh, well, now…”
“Right.” Lawson’s voice interrupted the dinner, and she jumped in her seat. He stood next to the table. How and when had he gotten there? “Her store is well done, and her face is extraordinary. But you’re done looking at it tonight.”
Melanie stared open mouthed at their unexpected visitor. “Lawson?”
He nodded. “Melanie.” Lawson put out his hand to Ava. “Come on. Now.”
Ava accepted his offering; she didn’t dare not. Standing at the edge of their table, he was much more the Lawson at the wedding than the Lawson who spent the night in her bed.
“Ava,” Melanie called out to her, and Ava shook her head. She wasn’t afraid of Lawson, but she wasn’t going to argue with him right then either.
They exited the restaurant at a brisk pace, and they were no sooner out the door than Lawson floated above the ground, yanking her with him. They flew together down the block, fast. “Where are we going?”
“I’m putting some distance between me and there.”
That didn’t seem like a real answer. “Why? What’s going on?”
Lawson shook his head and floated down to the floor. “You came and spoke at the place where I told you to. I heard you. I came to speak to you about it—about the lunacy of you thinking you should have any more to do with this necklace business—and you’re on a date.”
She blinked. “How did you even know where to find me?” She’d no sooner asked the question than she wished she hadn’t. “No, don’t tell me. I don’t want to know. If you have some ability to track people or know where they are magically, I don’t want to know. I just don’t. What are we doing out here? Why did you drag me away?”
“Because I have to tell you that you need to stop this necklace business. You absolutely cannot keep investigating it. I will handle it. Stay away.”
Ava’s head spun. “So let me get this straight. You dragged me out of a very nice restaurant, from my date—I was fourteen the last time I had a first one by the way—so that you could tell me that I can’t do something I have every right to do and you have no right to tell me I can’t?”
The last time she’d checked, Enforcers didn’t have that particular right.
They could go ahead and arrest her if she did something wrong, not actually stop her from doing it in the first place.
Lawson pointed a finger at her. “I don’t want you to be hurt. You’ve already been attacked and ended up in the human hospital. Stay out of this. As soon as I’m done with the hexer, I will take care of it.”
She shook her head. “As you said, I was hurt. Those unsuspecting girls could be next. I will not sit around and let that happen. Go get your hexer. If you don’t want to help me, then don’t. I may be powerless and weird, but I am not going to be ordered around. Period.”
Lawson took two steps back and ran his hand through his dark hair. “What were you doing on a date?”
“Excuse me?” What direction was he taking this conversation?
Lawson two took steps toward her and then two back again. “We were just together. We spent the night together.”
“Yes, that’s true. But we didn’t discuss any kind of relationship whatsoever. You were gone the next morning, like you’d never been there. You never said, hey I’m staying here because I want to be in a relationship with you, Ava. I didn’t even know if I’d ever see you again.”
He shook his head. “All right. I thought I had made my feelings on that subject pretty clear. But maybe not. You’re not the only one who doesn’t date. That being said, it is my business if you want to throw yourself in harm’s way over this necklace. Stay away from there.”
As though he had the right, he picked her up and dropped her down outside of her apartment. The flight was silent. Had she been wrong to go on a date after they’d spent the night together? How would she have felt if he’d been on a date?
Those questions kept her up the rest of the night. She had to look into the necklace. End of story. There were two human girls that Lawson had never met, never spoken to, and she had. He had a huge job chasing a serial hexer. But Todd was dead and that might be her fault. She couldn’t let two humans die too.
Not when she could do something about it.
* * *
Dawn came early, but it didn’t matter to Ava. She wasn’t going to open the shop, and she hadn’t given anyone any notice about it. This was very unlike her. Should any of her friends and family hear about it, she was bound to catch flak for worrying them. However, obsessing the entire night before had elicited two decisions.
The first was that she had to do something about the necklace situation and that was what she intended to do with her day. The second was she really did owe Lawson an apology. Sure, they’d had no formal discussion about things like dating. But she’d let him sleep in her bed, and although she knew little about him, she’d garnered enough information to understand he was a serious person who didn’t take things lightly.
To say she didn’t know he had feelings of some kind for her would have been to lie to herself. The idea of dating had somewhat overwhelmed her, and she’d given it a go without considering what she was actually doing.
She was also going to have to explain things to Melanie…
Helping the humans couldn’t happen at the crack of dawn, which was why the first thing she did after making herself as cute as possible in a black skirt and blue top was to head out to Lawson’s abandoned warehouse.
He’d not been lying. She could absolutely get his attention by speaking aloud in the strange building.
This time, her need to flee wasn’t present, which seemed odd since it had been such a strong incentive the first time. Maybe it was just not as scary with the sun shining brightly in the morning sky, greeting the dawn.
“First off, you didn’t tell me if others can hear this, so I’m going to hope they can’t because this is kind of personal. But I do owe you an apology. I did know we’d started something that night. And I acted like I didn’t. This is on me. I’m… not good at this. I don’t know how to date. I thought I had to see a lot of people, maybe I do. I was stupid once. I let a man drag me around for ten years. He wasted a tremendous amount of my time. I’m going to do lots of stupid things. That being said, you don’t get to hoist me out of a date and drag me out and then order me around.”
She rocked back on her feet. “Anyway, sorry. I won’t bother you again. I think between my being dumb and you getting all alpha dog domineering, we had better cut this out before we make each other nuts. I hope you’re always safe. Bye, Lawson.”
Ava tried not to think about how her shoulders had slumped when she spoke her apology and goodbye. The truth was she found Lawson fascinating and exciting. He didn’t seem like the type of person who would make promises he couldn’t or wouldn’t keep. He tried to make the world a better place and put his life at risk to do so.
He was handsome as sin, and his smile could light up a room.
She liked how he looked at her, how he did things for her without making her feel inept, but more as though he simply wanted to.
That was all over. And it hurt just a little bit more than it should have. Their br
ief re-acquaintance had only lasted a few days. She’d never know what they could have been. Ava knew all about regrets. She was good at swimming around in them, and this was going to go in the pool with the rest of them.
What never was and might have been…
The train station wasn’t bustling at ten in the morning. She’d picked a good time to show up and speak to the manager of the ticket booth. Any earlier, he’d be stressed and any later, he’d be hungry. Her mother handled things like that most of the time. Lila thought about when a person would be most likely to want to be helpful.
Ava knocked on the door and waited. It would have been easier to magically open the door or even pull it open and walk in, except the place had been obviously human-proofed. This happened to Ava whenever she went somewhere official. Witches didn’t need door handles, they could spell the door right open. Most places still had handles. But the official buildings made a point to not contain them.
The government didn’t want humans showing up, and they didn’t want to acknowledge people like her existed.
It took a moment, but a young man who looked like he was barely out of witch school pulled open the door. He blinked rapidly as he looked at her and color came to his pale cheeks. She could feel his pain. Being a redhead meant every emotion she ever felt displayed itself on her cheeks, too. Okay, he liked her.
Rather than ask to see his manager, she thought maybe he’d be a big help instead. “Hi, there.” She smiled broadly.
“Hello,” he said, taking a step back. “Can I help you?”
She stepped inside the office, even though he hadn’t invited her in. “I sure hope you can, sweetheart.” Yes, she was probably going to get into huge karmic trouble for flirting with this young man. But karma had never been all that kind to her. Maybe she’d screwed up badly in a previous life. Grow up rich but with no powers so that the most judgmental people in the witching community constantly surrounded her…
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