by Nicole Hall
“Holy shit, Sera.”
She grinned. “Do you like it? I was going for surfer meets pin-up model.”
It took him a second to shift his eyes from her hair back to her face. “I didn’t know Loreal offered that color.”
“It’s in the limited-edition section.”
“Can you change it back?”
Sera pictured herself brunette again, to be safe, and let her focus go. She didn’t need to see Jake’s face to know her hair had changed back. Letting go of the magic was like taking her bra off at the end of a long day.
Jake released her to reach out and pull a lock of hair through his fingers. It was the least sexy thing she could think of, but she felt that slow glide all the way to her toes.
“I didn’t really think it would work,” he said softly.
Sera lifted a brow. “That’s not what you told me.”
He met her eyes. “I had every confidence you’d figure out how to use your power, but I’ve never seen a non-Fae do a glamour. Up until three minutes ago, I’d thought it was a species thing.”
“Well, it was fun, but not exactly helpful against Torix. If you’re ready to stop petting me, I’d like to try making a shield now that I have an idea of what I’m doing.”
Jake dropped his hand. “Did the touching help?” He looked almost hopeful.
“I don’t know. I wasn’t quite doing the right thing last time, but I get it now. At least I think I do. Why don’t we try it without touching to test it?”
He nodded and took a few steps back. The second time was much faster than the first, and the third time she was able to change the color several times without going to her special magical powder room. There was a spot in her mind that felt familiar, where she could press the image and it would hold and take shape. As long as she went back to that spot, the glamour worked.
“Guess that answers that question,” he said.
Sera shook her head. “Not really. It did help the first time. Before when I…accessed it, I had a lake of power, but now it’s a rusty faucet where I’m stuck with a trickle. I don’t think it takes much to change my hair for ten seconds.”
The bond seemed to give her greater access that she couldn’t get to on her own. It was frustrating and reassuring at the same time. If she couldn’t go big, she couldn’t accidentally hurt anyone. On the other hand, she’d done some pretty hefty magic without meaning to already, and the faucet hadn’t seemed to stop the flow at all.
There was a shivery part on the inside of her that was freaking out over the whole thing. She was used to taking information and running with it, but magic is real and oh, yeah, you have a lot of it was still settling. Wizard boarding school was definitely the better way to go when learning how to use magic. But she’d never gotten her letter dammit and now she had to figure out a way to not get anyone killed all by herself.
Jake must have been waiting for a sign or something because he stayed on his side of the kitchen all the way up until Sera started taking deep breaths to ward off the panic. He didn’t move particularly fast, but Sera was caught off guard when he pulled her against his chest and held her tight. Her clenched back muscles relaxed, and her head flopped down on his shoulder.
“I am not prepared for this. I didn’t even go to college. Why isn’t there some kind of handbook?”
He was silent for a second. “Did you ask Zee if there was one?”
She pulled back enough to smack him on the chest, then slid her arms around his back. “I don’t even know what I’m supposed to do. What if I hurt someone?”
“There’s always the chance people could be hurt. You’ve got to decide if the risk is worth the payoff.”
He was talking about more than her dubious magic practice. Wrapped in his arms, everything seemed to connect to their relationship, and the bond between them wouldn’t let her get some distance so she could find her footing. Half the time she wasn’t sure she wanted to find it.
Sera buried her nose in his shirt and took a deep breath. Why did he always smell so good? Like tacos and dryer sheets and home. Was the risk worth the payoff? Was Jake worth losing her independence?
At the first sign of difficulty, she’d let herself lean on him. Was she already losing it?
Sera shuddered and pulled back to stand on her own. “That took more out of me than I thought. I need to head to bed. Next time, I want to try doing it without any physical contact. I need to be able to control the power on my own.”
Jake searched her face, but she wouldn’t meet his eyes. “Okay. Same time tomorrow night?”
It was on the tip of her tongue to tell him no. That she’d do it on her own, but whether she liked it or not, he’d helped her pull that rusty faucet inside of her wide open. “Yeah, that should be fine.”
“It’s your turn to make dinner. I suggest steaks. Ribeye. Medium rare. And don’t forget the potatoes.”
Sera couldn’t help her smile. “So bossy.”
“Is that a yes?”
“Go home, Jake.”
He went, but Sera knew she’d only bought herself time. Maybe if she was lucky, Torix would eat her and she wouldn’t have to deal with complex emotions and human relationships.
The next week went by faster than was comfortable. Sera spent her days wandering town, talking to people she hadn’t seen in almost a decade. They greeted her as if she’d been gone for a long weekend. It was a lot of the same people she’d been afraid to interact with before. Some had moved away, some had died, but everyone who remained remembered her fondly. Sera was surprised to find that she remembered them fondly too.
She’d spent a lot of years feeling like an outsider in her own home, first with her mom, then with Will, but this town accepted her with no caveats. Plus, now that she was sure she wasn’t crazy, her natural confidence wasn’t buried under fears and pills. Too bad it took her grandmother becoming trapped and a dangerous Fae causing havoc to get her to this place.
And Torix was causing havoc.
The gossip tree was alive and well, so everyone was talking about the strange increase in vandalism and minor crimes. They mostly blamed teenagers or out-of-towners, but Sera knew better. One of the things she’d been working on was a way to detect the traces left behind when someone used magic. She’d gotten the idea from the way the sprites appeared each night at magic practice. They seemed attracted to the use of power.
She’d realized that if she shifted her focus when looking at something, like staring at a magic-eye picture, she could see tiny sparkly residue. Hers was usually gold, and she’d seen a variety of other colors, but she hadn’t figured out their significance yet.
All the places that had been vandalized showed various traces of magic, some more obvious than others, but always in a dark blue, almost black. She’d been testing it with her own power, and the concentration seemed to be based on the amount of time that had passed since the magic was used.
Sera may have been a novice at using the power, but she’d had years of experience trying to figure out things no one else seemed to notice. Magic seemed to be following rules, different ones from the rest of the world, but still rules, and she was good at figuring out the subtleties.
Sera had settled into a routine of morning coffee at Java Junction. It was her second cup, since waking up demanded an immediate pod of liquid goodness, but who was counting. After that, she browsed the various antique stores in search of people to pump for information.
Jake came over every night. It wasn’t getting easier. He must have picked up on more than she’d thought that first night because he was being careful to avoid unnecessary touches. The worst part was that she missed it. It was second nature to touch Jake, his body hadn’t ever been off-limits to her, mostly because he was what Evie called touchy-feely. He craved contact. But for her, he’d pulled back without being asked.
She’d made the rules, but now she regretted the distance.
They took turns making dinner, or in Jake’s case, ordering dinner. He he
lped her clean up, always left when she started yawning, and never let the conversation get too serious. If she didn’t know him so well, she’d have thought he’d lost interest, but she could see it in his eyes sometimes. That look that said he had more to say but he was keeping it back for her sake. Not to mention there was that simmering connection between them that never went away.
However, even after all their work, she’d found that she could make a shield if she was touching Jake, but not without him. She’d concentrate, and he’d wait a minute then start flinging mini-marshmallows at her to test it. With her hand on his leg, a transparent shield appeared swirling with golden color. Any attempts on her own fizzled into failure and resulted in her getting pelted with marshmallows. They’d also gotten nowhere in trying to find Torix’s helper monkey. There was a lot of failure going around.
On day six, Sera was in her usual spot at the coffee shop. She sipped her mocha and watched through the window as people walked by. It took a second for her to realize that someone was waving at her from the other side of the glass. The woman’s face wasn’t immediately familiar, but then the multiple layers of skirts and the trailing wool scarf in eighty-degree heat jogged her memory. Janet something-or-other was one of the few new people in town, having moved there several years before. She ran the boho shop where Maddie worked. It had to be her.
Sera wiggled her fingers back, and Janet pointed to the other chair at the table. Sera sighed, but smiled and nodded. It was prime wallowing time, but that wasn’t a good reason to be rude. The smell of sandalwood wafted ahead of the woman as she sat at the table and started taking off layers.
“Whew, you can really feel Autumn coming in,” Janet said.
Sera snuck a glance around the shop at the other patrons in shorts and tank tops. “Sure. Halloween is almost here.”
“Halloween Eve. Or All Hallow’s Eve… Eve. That one doesn’t really roll off the tongue though.” Janet placed both hands on the table, one on top of the other, and smiled.
Sera waited, then realized that the woman wasn’t going to say anything else, like why she’d wanted to sit there. They’d met briefly once a few days before when Sera had checked out her shop. Maddie must have mentioned Sera to her because Janet had acted like they were friends. It had been an awkward conversation, but nowhere near as awkward as the current situation.
“So… how has your day been?” Sera winced inwardly at the inane question. She was so bad at small talk. It was another of Will’s complaints. He’d felt he had to do all the talking at the prestigious social events he dragged her to, but he also never let her speak, so now that she thought about it, what the hell was he complaining about? Regardless, when one is basically a social outcast, there are some skills that get rusty. Case in point, she hadn’t been paying attention to Janet’s answer. She’d been staring at the rows of silver hoops that climbed all the way up her ears.
“—but Henry always gets cranky when his chi is unbalanced.”
“Sorry, who’s Henry again?”
“Oh, you remember Henry, my iguana? His tank is in the back of the store behind the sacred crystals. He likes the prisms they make when the sun sets.”
“Right. Of course.”
“But when I let him out to stretch, he hid under the local honey display. It was terrible. He simply refused to come out. You know Maddie is the only one he listens to.”
Sera didn’t know that. She took a big sip of her coffee and nodded to avoid answering.
“It’s too bad Maddie’s been absent the last few days. Our schedule is fluid, but it would be nice if she showed up to a few of her shifts at least.”
“Maddie hasn’t shown up to work?”
Janet tsked. “I don’t like to think of it as work so much as spreading positivity through material goods.”
“That’s very… open of you.”
Janet beamed. “What a wonderful thing to say. I can see why Maddie likes you. Be a dear and tell her there’s no hurry but I could use her help if she has the time.”
“I—” Janet was up and gone before Sera could explain that she’d seen Maddie once since she’d moved back. That was one strange woman. Janet offered a hearty wave as she passed the window outside.
Sera took a deep drink of her coffee and considered her options. Janet clearly expected her to see Maddie soon, and Jake had mentioned where Maddie was living. Jake had also mentioned that Maddie was becoming increasingly flaky and he was worried about her. Missing shifts at work, even a workplace as forgiving as Janet’s shop, seemed exceptionally irresponsible. Even for Maddie.
Maybe she was sick. Or worse. It wouldn’t take long to check on her.
8
SERA
Mind made up, Sera finished her coffee and gathered her things. Maddie’s place was on the edge of town, like hers, but on the other end. She needed to have a conversation with Maddie anyway. It was past time that they talked about the incident from seven years ago.
Sera didn’t pass anyone going up Maddie’s street, and she could see why when she parked. There were three properties on the road that jutted into the woods. One was at the turn off, then Maddie’s, and Sera could see another place through the trees a ways.
The driveway was all dirt and empty. The house looked like frat boys had vacationed there. This must have been one of the rental properties the town had tried to set up. Turned out no one wanted to vacation in a little town in the middle of the woods in east Texas. Jake had told her they’d sold them off to residents, most of whom still use them as short-term transitional rentals.
The porch leaned heavily to one side, and Sera seriously doubted if it would hold her weight. Rusty cans littered the yard taken over by weeds and dead grass. The window to the left of the door was boarded up, but the window to the right was open. She could hear beads inside clacking together in the breeze. Weirdly enough, the ever-present crickets were silent.
The town was pretty safe, but most people didn’t leave their windows open during the day if they weren’t home. Maybe Maddie parked behind the house and went in the back door. If there was a back door. The whole place looked like it was at most two rooms.
Sera slammed her car door and followed the dirt trail around the house. Instead of turning toward the back, it continued on in a straight line to the woods. The trees rustled and something made a chittering noise, but the house was silent. She tore her gaze away from the pines and confirmed that there was indeed no back door.
To her surprise, the steps were solid and the porch barely squeaked. Sera couldn’t believe Jake let Maddie live out here. Why wasn’t she in the house with him? The beads clacked again and the curtain drifted to the side enough for Sera to peek inside.
After the brightness on the porch, the dimly lit room was hard to make out. She got a glimpse before the curtain fell back into place, but it was mostly large shadows. Sera was uncomfortable sneaking around and looking in windows. It was ridiculous, but it felt like someone was watching her from the woods. Her shields were solidly in place and nothing else felt off. Just in case, she pulled her cell phone out of her bag and pulled up Jake’s speed dial.
The planks groaned when she stepped up to the door and knocked. There was no sound inside, but Sera knocked again, to be sure. The beads clanked, but it was clear no one was home. Sera turned around to leave and saw the wolf sitting at the edge of the trees, tongue lolling out. He could have passed for a big dog, but she knew what those teeth looked like when he snarled.
The wolf yawned wide and cocked his head to the side like he’d done in her dream; he was definitely watching her. Slowly, she reached back for the doorknob and prayed that Maddie was as complacent as the rest of the town. The moment she came in contact with the knob, she felt a static shock. She kept the wolf in her sights in front of her, and tried to open the door behind her back. The knob turned easily under her hand, but the door seemed to be stuck on something. Sera took a step back and shoved. The door opened, but a hard wall stopped her backward momentum.
It felt smooth, like river rock, and completely solid to her hands, but she could feel the breeze coming out the door now that it was open. Sera glanced behind her briefly, then back to the wolf, who hadn’t moved. Whatever it was, she couldn’t see it. She reached out behind her with her power. It was flat and almost even, with a slight depression in the center of the doorframe. All at once, she knew what it was.
A shield.
What was Maddie doing with a shield around her house? Sera slapped a hand against the invisible force, and the wolf perked his ears up. She needed to get inside. The depression was probably where Maddie went in and out, so Sera visualized it opening like a zipper up from the ground.
The shield collapsed, and Sera fell into the house. She scooted back far enough to kick the door closed, then tried to calm her racing heart. Unless the wolf had suddenly grown opposable thumbs, he’d be stuck outside. By the time her eyes adjusted to the dark, her pulse had returned to normal.
Sera had expected a lot of Ikea furniture and hand-me-downs, but Maddie was full of surprises. The inside was meticulously clean, and the furniture looked new, what little of it there was. She’d been right, two rooms. A kitchen-living room combo and a doorway that probably led to the bedroom. The entire room was filled with sprites.
There was a round kitchen table in the middle of the space with two chairs. No couch, no tv, not even a throw pillow, but there were bookshelves everywhere covered in stuff. Sera stepped gingerly around the table and approached the closest bookshelf to get a better view. There were books on witchcraft, paganism, mythology, even the Fae. Some of them weren’t labeled and looked really old. Around the books, Maddie had put trinkets with bits of feathers or dried plants. A necklace on a leather cord caught her attention on the bottom shelf.
Sera stopped short of touching it. Even from a few inches away, she could feel waves of magic emanating from it. Her hand glowed as she ran it over the bookshelf, brighter over some objects, dimmer over others. The bright objects were filled to the brim with unused magic, like batteries. Sera returned to the necklace.