by Nicole Hall
This one felt different. With her sight, she could see the traces of the magic on the items, all different colors, from different sources, but this one was familiar. The magic was turquoise, a swirling mix of blues and greens, and the pendant was silver shaped into a swirl around a blue stone. Real silver, she’d bet. It had a distinct feel, and somewhere in her reading the last week, she’d seen something about conduit metals, including silver.
Beyond all that, she’d seen it somewhere before.
Sera stroked one finger down the stone and a vision slammed into her. Evie, bent in the garden behind her house, her fingers deep in the earth with the necklace swinging free from her loose top. She snatched her finger back and realized what she was seeing. Objects from other people with power who didn’t know better. She’d been right; Maddie had collected a house full of magical batteries. But why?
Sera searched with her power, but she didn’t sense any other magic beyond the items and the shield. Her eyes lingered on the closed door to Maddie’s bedroom. She’d already come this far, what was the harm in going a little further?
It was the picture of Maddie and Jake, laughing and mugging for the camera that stopped her. She hadn’t noticed it until she’d come around the table, but Maddie had put it right next to the bedroom door on a small folding tray. It was a scene she recognized; Jake had the same picture at his place. The white frame showed signs of wear, like it had been placed face down more than once.
They looked so happy, and Sera knew it had been taken the summer before she’d met them. What was she doing, snooping on Maddie? This wasn’t who she was. Maddie had been her friend once, and Sera intended to honor that. She looked around one more time and backed toward the door. So what if Maddie collected magical trinkets? Maybe they were gifts. The shield was certainly weird, but Maddie might not even be aware of it.
Sera’s inner realist snorted and questioned her judgement, but this was Maddie. Maddie, who didn’t have any power, and could barely hold a job. Who regularly mooched off her brother, and with whom Sera had spent a night that changed her life. Everyone deserved their privacy, and Sera owed Maddie more than most.
She shifted the curtain and looked out for the wolf. The tree line was empty. It didn’t mean the wolf was gone, but out of sight made the run to her car a lot more appealing. She opened the door and stepped through the shield with no effort. It seemed to be meant to keep people out instead of in.
Her senses and power stretched wide to search for the wolf, but either he was gone or she wasn’t very good at that particular skill yet. It could be both. She took the chance and sprinted to her car.
With the doors locked and the car started, Sera pulled out her phone and called Jake. She probably should have done that in the first place, less possible felonies that way, but she was getting restless. The phone rang four times then his voicemail picked up. She ended the call without leaving a message. There was no point in worrying him. She was safe, the wolf was gone, but Maddie was definitely hiding something.
Sera drove slowly through town, expecting to be pulled over any second for breaking and entering. Technically, she hadn’t broken anything, only entered, but it seemed like that might be a flimsy excuse if faced with handcuffs and prison food. Logically, she knew no one would notice her trespassing, but her hackles were raised and she still felt like she was being watched. It was strong enough that she bypassed her own driveway to pull into Jake’s. Sera felt like the car offered some measure of protection, and she didn’t want to go back to sitting in her house alone twiddling her thumbs. Much better to do it at Jake’s house.
When all this was over and Evie was back home, she’d have to start deciding what to do with her time. She needed a job. Even if Evie offered, she couldn’t live off her grandmother’s generosity forever. The street was deserted, but Sera reached out with her power to check anyway. A couple of angry squirrels in the trees between their houses, but no people in the vicinity. As she closed down the net, several sprites floated out of the woods toward her car.
For some reason, she’d assumed they simply appeared when magic was nearby, but they were definitely moving in a straight line toward her. She hoped she never had to secretly use her power in public or those little buggers would give her away.
Jake’s truck was gone, but it was mid-day. She hadn’t expected him to be home. Why had it seemed better to wait at Jake’s house than her own? She’d be alone either way. The sprites had passed her car by that point and started drifting up to his door. Okay, decision made. The sprites wanted Jake’s house, so Jake’s house it would be.
Sera yawned and wished she’d grabbed a second coffee from the shop before she’d rushed out. Late nights and a lot of power expenditure was taking its toll on her beauty rest. Feeling silly, she eased open the car door and pre-locked it before slamming it and dashing up the steps into Jake’s house.
It would have been really awkward if he’d locked his door, but like his sister and most of the town, he’d left it open. With the solid wood behind her and the cheerful glimmering of the sprites in front of her, Sera was able to relax for the first time since Janet had waved at her through the coffee house glass. She had so many questions, and every time she answered one, six more popped up.
Would Maddie know she’d been at her house? Why was she collecting magical objects? Who’d put up the shield? Sera listened to the house settle and let that last question come to the front of her mind. What kind of person would it make her if she planned to snoop through Jake’s house like she’d done his sister’s?
A prudent one, she decided.
She was still leaning against the inside of the door when a shuffling sound from the front porch broke through her attempts to rationalize her poor decision-making. Her first thought was the zombie bunnies had found her. The image wouldn’t leave her alone, even after a week.
A brisk knock vibrated the wood next to her head. Sera weighed the consequences of answering Jake’s door when he wasn’t around. In a town that size, news would spread like wildfire that she was making herself at home. She was ninety-eight percent sure that Jake would be cool with it, but that last two percent kept her still and silent huddled against the door.
Another knock, followed by the last voice she expected.
“Hello? I know Sera’s here. Her car is in the driveway.” It was Will. A quiet curse then the doorbell chimed in the hallway. “Sera. It’s inappropriate to hide in another man’s house.”
He was so far out of line she was surprised he was still in the state. On the one hand, it was a little humiliating to be hiding in Jake’s house, she could take care of herself, but on the other, it was entirely none of Will’s business what she did or who she did it with. If she decided to have crazy monkey sex with Jake in the town square, she’d damn well do it. And after a week of hands off, the idea wasn’t as far-fetched as it probably should have been.
Will’s footsteps went to the edge of the porch, paused, then came back to the door. He was muttering, but she couldn’t make out the words. Maybe if she showed him in no uncertain terms that he was out of her life… she’d bet Jake could help her with that. He paced back and forth again. Sera sighed and eased over to the window. She needed to make sure he wasn’t doing something dumb.
The first thing she noticed was the bottom of Will’s pants. He was standing in front of the window with his back to the house. The second thing was his stupid fancy car parked in the street. The third thing was the wolf in the woods, his teeth bared.
Her breath came in a quick gasp, and for a moment, she desperately wished Jake was there. No! I can do this. She had to fight down a surprising amount of panic though. Not for her, but for Will. There was a solid door between her and the wolf, but Will was outside with it, and he was stubborn enough to stand on the porch yelling for her while the wolf chewed off his leg. She didn’t need a stubby, legless Will on her conscience.
She needed a solid distraction that would work on someone completely obsessed with hi
mself. Her gaze flashed to his fancy car again for a second before fixing back on the wolf. It was staying under the trees for now, but the fur on its back was spiked up. The distraction would have to be the car.
It was something she hadn’t tried in her short experience with magic, but she was pretty sure she could nudge the car hard enough to set off the alarm. Against her better judgement, she stopped watching the wolf and focused all her attention on the car. Sprites drifted in front of her as she opened herself up to the power and visualized a glowing ball in the yard. It took a second, and was so bright she worried Will might see it, but it was there.
Sera drew in a breath and pushed the ball with all her power as she exhaled. It slammed into the passenger door, and the car shook a little with the force. The alarm immediately started blaring, and Will cursed again before heading down the path to his car.
To her great relief, the wolf slunk back into the trees instead of charging across the street. Two birds with one magic ball. Score. Her muscles were screaming from the awkward position, so she finally slid to the floor. What a day.
Some small part of her was disappointed that she hadn’t just let the wolf eat Will. It would have solved a few of her problems at least, but that kind of disregard for human life wasn’t in her. Sera sat on the floor, her back to the door, and watched her hands fade back to their usual color. If everyone who used magic started glowing like a night light, why hadn’t they found Torix’s servant yet? Zee hadn’t glowed. Also, Will hadn’t seen the magic ball. Jake could see it though, and he didn’t have any magic. This isn’t making a lot of sense.
Her phone buzzed next to her on the tile floor, and Sera nearly smacked her head jumping away from it. It buzzed again, and she considered not answering. If it was her mom, she was going to say some very bad things about her taste in men. Will’s reaction to their divorce was not rational.
A rising sense of anxiety that made no sense whatsoever made her pick up the phone. It was Jake.
“What’s wrong?” He asked as soon as she hit answer.
“Why would you think there was something wrong?” It was habit to deflect. Why ask for help when she’d already taken care of the problem?
“I felt it. The bond damn near yanked me off my feet in the middle of a conversation with one of my crew leads. What’s wrong?”
Sera ran her hand along the grout lines in the floor. The tile was different from when she’d been there as a teenager. He’d probably done the work himself.
“Sera, talk to me. Let’s start with where are you?”
She was sitting in his foyer, hiding from a lot of things. “Your house. Will was here… and the wolf.”
“Are you okay?”
The anxiety ratcheted up as she hesitated, and Sera realized it wasn’t her anxiety. It was Jake’s. That’s new. “I’m fine. I had the pleasure of hitting Will’s car with a magic ball, and the wolf left me alone.”
“I’ll be there in five minutes, don’t move.”
Relief flooded her, but it wasn’t hers. Like the anxiety hadn’t been hers. She checked her shields, but they were intact and strong. It must be the bond. She’d reached for him when she’d seen Will and the wolf outside. Great. Her moment of weakness must have snapped something into place and now they had a shiny new set of weirdness to contend with.
Sera checked outside again, but the wolf was nowhere to be seen. She told herself to get up and go into the kitchen or sit on the couch, anywhere except splayed on the floor in front of the door. It was bad enough she’d come to his house, she didn’t need him convinced she needed rescuing. She wanted him to see her as strong and in control. Cowering in fear kind of gave the opposite impression.
Jake was true to his word. He was home in less than five minutes. Sera was in the kitchen making tea when he burst through the front door. Another good reason to not be sitting there.
“Sera?”
“In here.” She set two cups down on the kitchen table. “I’m fine, or at least I would be if you’d calm down. I have enough of my own anxiety, thank you.”
He stopped in the doorway, and Sera was struck again by how much he’d filled out. He was wearing a grey Henley with the sleeves pushed up to his elbows, low slung jeans, and the same work boots she’d seen the first night she’d been back. His shoulder to waist ratio put Chris Evans to shame. Aaand… she was distracting herself from the jumbled emotions she’d been feeling through the bond.
“Did you see the wolf outside?” she asked.
“No.” He walked to the table, but instead of sitting down, he pulled her into his arms.
“Jake? Are you okay?”
“I felt you panic. I thought you were in danger, and I was too far away to do anything about it. I ran all three stop signs.”
She let him hold her. Who was she kidding? This was why she’d come to his place instead of hers. “You rebel. Next thing I know you’ll be jaywalking with abandon.” He was warm, and he smelled wild. She rested her head on his chest and breathed him in. Right now it was pine and mint and something spicy.
“Are you sure you’re okay?”
Sera pushed down irritation along with the tingles that spread with his touch because she could sense that he was still freaked out about the situation, not questioning her ability to take care of herself. “I swear I’m fine. Will never got confirmation I was here, and the wolf never approached either of us.” Sera frowned. “But it looked like he was going to attack Will.”
Jake snorted. “Good for him. Maybe I’ll get him a treat next time.”
Sera pulled back to look him in the face. “And how do you think Zee would respond to a stranger being mauled by the demon wolf running around in the woods? Or the people in town who are aware that there’s more here than small-town charm?”
“Those are good points, but I still say he deserves a bite in the ass.” He brushed a kiss against her temple, then released her to sit at the table. “Not that I mind, you’re always welcome, but what are you doing here?”
“I…” Sera could feel herself blushing. There was no way she was going to tell him that she’d gotten spooked by an invisible watcher, followed some sprites, and come running. “I went by Maddie’s place.”
“And…”
Sera sat opposite him and picked up her tea. “And have you been inside her place?”
He shrugged. “Once, right after she moved in. I helped her put together a bunch of bookshelves.”
“Has she ever shown any signs of power?”
Jake’s face closed down. “No. Why? What happened at Maddie’s?”
“First of all, don’t give me that look. I went because I was worried about her. Janet cornered me at the coffee shop and mentioned that she’d missed a bunch of shifts.”
Jake sighed. “Dammit. Does Janet plan to fire her? She’s barely scraping by as it is, and I can’t get her to understand that she can’t keep using this place as a safety net.”
“No, actually. Weirdly enough, Janet was fine with the missed shifts. She just wanted me to ask Maddie to come in when she has the chance because she needed some help with something. Apparently, Maddie gave her the impression we were friends.”
“Aren’t you?”
“I mean, we were, but not for a while now, and I got a little bit of a hostile vibe the last time I saw her.”
Jake grinned. “When I had you under me on the couch.”
There went the blush again. Sera wasn’t normally a blusher, so this was obviously somehow Jake’s fault. “Yeah. Anyway, Janet happened, Maddie and I are apparently besties again, and I’ve had no luck lurking around town looking for random signs that someone is using their power for evil.”
“So you went for coffee?”
“Coffee always comes first, don’t be stupid. After coffee and Janet, I went to Maddie’s.” This was the part she was unsure about. Jake was protective of his sister, and she didn’t want to get him all agitated. Talk about hostile vibes. “There was a shield around her house.”
> Jake leaned forward. “A shield? Like the one in your head or the one you can’t do?”
“The one I can’t do. I bounced off of it when I saw the wolf and tried to go through the door.”
He held up a hand. “Back up. The wolf was there?”
Sera fiddled with the mug. “I was on her porch. She didn’t seem to be home, when I turned around the wolf was watching me from the edge of the woods. The strange part is he was sitting there like he was waiting to be pet. It wasn’t aggressive.”
“Sera, that wolf is not a dog. Do not try to pet him.”
“I know. That’s why I tried to go into Maddie’s house. It was closer than my car, and I didn’t want to take any chances. No one around here locks their doors, but I hit a solid wall of invisible power.”
“I’m glad the wolf left you alone long enough for you to get to your car. Next time call me and I’ll go with you. Who do you think did the shield?”
Sera was tempted to take the out he was unwittingly offering. He assumed she hadn’t been able to get in, not a bad assumption considering her luck with shields thus far, but she wasn’t going to get any answers keeping everything to herself. Even if Jake shut down, he deserved to know what Maddie was doing. “I don’t know who made the shield, and also we sort of skipped a part.”
“What part?”
“The part where I figured out how to get past the shield and invaded Maddie’s privacy.”
9
SERA
She waited for the cold anger, but none came. Jake crossed his arms and leaned back.
“You were trying to get away from the wolf. Not exactly nefarious motives.”
His belief in her better side warmed her, but he hadn’t heard the rest of it yet. “Yeah, but I wasn’t hiding once I got inside. There’s magic all over Maddie’s place, not only the shield. Those bookshelves are full of books on magic and the Fae and one on orienteering that doesn’t seem like her, but whatever. And stuff. Magical stuff.”