Paige glanced at Leah, realizing that Merry wasn’t teaching her anything. She was instructing Leah, her granddaughter.
The girl narrowed her blue eyes and nodded.
When Merry touched the ward tree with her blood, a force hit Paige. It was…less of a force and more of a deep sense of knowing. But what?
Paige waded through the information, the voices and sounds, the memories and emotions. Blood magic was to the soul what a tree was to the elements. A tree used the earth, water, air, and the fire from the sun in order to survive.
Blood used the earth of the body, the air in the lungs, the water of life, and the fire of the heart to keep the body alive.
Paige pressed her palm to the tree’s trunk. It wasn’t solid. Not to her hand.
It was warm and supple.
It bumped.
Paige’s eyes shot open, and she stared at Merry.
The blood witch raised a black eyebrow and frowned.
The bark jumped again, stuttered, and found a rhythm.
Like a heartbeat. Merry had given the ward tree life.
Life. No. Paige’s magick was life magick.
Merry had tied Paige’s life magick to the earth and gave it form.
Paige stepped away. “I think it worked.”
Merry took a couple of steps back as well. “Something worked, anyway.”
Merry wasn’t Paige’s only stop. There was another powerful witch family Paige needed to bring in to assist the town as well: the Blackmans with their door magick.
Eldora arrived with several of her witches. Derrick showed up, along with the new girl.
“I have a few ideas,” Eldora said as she met Paige and Merry beneath the branches of the ward tree. “Phoebe calls them trip portals.”
Paige felt like she’d just stepped into the middle of a conversation. “What?”
Eldora didn’t expound. “Follow me.” She turned and walked toward the Whiskey ward surrounding the house.
It was secondary to the one surrounding the town. It was like a dome within the dome. The Troutdale wards were far supreme to the Whiskey wards, and technically, Paige probably didn’t need them anymore. But they’d been attacked so many times, she wasn’t risking it.
Eldora bent down and set up two rocks about a door’s width apart. She touched them with her hands, and a door opened, inky black and undulating with darkness.
That looked like any old portal. “I don’t get it.”
“It’s a booby trap.” Eldora grunted as she straightened. “Anyone who trips this ward will be pulled to this portal.”
Neat. “Where does it go?”
“Hong Kong. Lovely restaurant.” Eldora rubbed the dirt off her hands. “One of my favorite places.”
“You’ve been to Hong Kong?” Paige couldn’t get past the idea that Eldora lived the life of the Amish. She sometimes forgot that the woman had her own private plane.
Eldora gave Paige a tight smile and turned away.
“Okay. So, this door is just going to stay here? Like this?” Paige struggled to see how this was a good booby trap. “Everyone can see it.”
“Exactly.” Eldora walked out to the left, placing down other rocks, drawing a line along the ground connecting each one.
Between this and what Merry had done, Paige was almost certain their wards would work better.
Each person of their town had offered a piece of themselves into the wards. If she looked at her wards like they were a living creature, the pieces of soul each person had offered created a type of brain, while the trees offered the body. Merry had just given the tree a pulse, and Eldora had provided it with courage and a way to fight back.
All it needed now was guidance.
Paige looked at Merry and then Eldora. “The wards are a—” When she thought about saying what she was about to, she felt like a mad scientist or a god. "They’re alive. Somehow, we’ve created a living thing with what we’ve done with our magick so far. Can we…” She looked at the other two coven leaders, wondering if she was out of her mind. “Can we tell them what we want, giving them—our wards—our magick again but with the intent of giving them the ability to decide?”
Merry frowned but blinked, looking over at Eldora.
The door magick witch shook her head, her brow crinkling. Licking her lips, her dark eyes met Paige’s. “We can try.”
Paige sucked up her courage and smiled. She might not like either woman, might think they both had ulterior motives Paige struggled to see around, but she probably did too.
Together, they combined their magick, which was getting easier with the continued practice, and reached up to touch the wards.
They answered in a thousand voices. They spoke through visions and a mash of memories.
Talking to the wards was like trying to talk to bees or an entire classroom of overzealous children. But Paige needed to get through to them, to the wards. So, she balled her inky magick fists and pushed through.
Merry made another slice in her arm, allowing her blood to leach into the Whiskey ward tree, her lips moving silently.
The wards went quiet and listened.
Paige dipped into her alpha will and mentally shouted her intent: Keep the town safe.
Eldora touched the ward tree with her door magick, and the wards rippled and shivered.
But then the voices leapt with excitement and, like children, they zipped along the surface of the wards in silvery lines of energy, touching each of the doors Eldora had set up. Paige could almost hear the giggles of excitement she felt.
Protect the town.
The wards went still and the tree quivered, a face appearing in the bark.
Eldora let out a surprised screech and took a step back before placing her hand over her chest and glaring.
Suppressing her chuckle, Paige waited for the face to speak.
It sent her a barrage of images of men and women attacking in various ways; rape, thievery, murder, abuse.
Paige went through each of them, pulling the wards away from the common ones, the ones the wards could misinterpret. She didn’t trust the wards to know the difference between abuse and a parent getting her child’s attention. Paige was known to rap her knuckles against Leah’s head a time or two. That wasn’t abuse, though she was certain there were some who would think it was.
She was concerned with people coming into their town with rifles, people who looked like they were military.
People intent on harming those the wards were bonded to.
The wards hummed, the sound growing louder and more intense. Paige’s eyes watered, but she remained firm, hoping the wards would stop soon.
With a final, silvery shudder, the hum ceased and the presence of the wards’ “intelligence” fluttered away, seeking, watching, protecting.
Releasing her magick, Paige turned to Merry and Eldora. “I think we did it.” Paige tried to keep the surprise out of her tone. She was actually kind of impressed.
Merry smiled at Paige, looking pleased with herself. “I’ll have the plane ready by the evening.” She turned to Eldora. “I don’t have a car.”
Eldora gave Paige a surly look. “You can use conventional means sometimes.” Then, she used her inky black magick to cut open a door.
Merry stepped through the door, and it flashed with a black light again.
Eldora sent out a magick pinging sound Paige had never heard before. “We need to work on your door magick.”
“I agree.” But, unfortunately, there were a lot of things she needed to do first. “When I get back?”
Derrick and the other woman appeared around the corner of the Whiskey house, in deep discussion.
Eldora smiled, pleased. “And Leah?”
“You enrolling your kids in our schools?”
“Phoebe is working on that as we speak.”
“Excellent.” Who was Phoebe to Eldora anyway? No. No. She didn’t need to know. She had a town—all the paranormals to save and she needed to check in with Red Star, something she’d meant t
o do earlier and had forgotten. She turned around to shift and fly out of there. “Coordinate with Leah to see what times she has free, and I’ll make sure she knows to make it happen.”
“Thank you.”
Except that Paige really didn’t trust Eldora just yet. “If you try anything…”
Eldora nodded, her dark eyes clear but free of malice. “I will not.”
Paige hoped so. She shifted into bird form and headed toward Red Star Headquarters.
Paige wondered if she would ever be able to step foot inside this building and not feel like she’d been booted, like someone had pushed her out—her husband, even though they weren’t officially married yet—and had taken her place.
But Dexx was doing a good job at keeping the order.
He’d fought it. He’d wanted to just be the guy who chased after demons and had refused to do his paperwork. And Paige had tried to give him that life.
But he’d quickly discovered that the Red Star Division was more than just a job. It was more than just a thing to do to help pay the rent.
She’d brought the people together, but he’d made them into a team dedicated to protecting the paranormals and enforcing the laws on them to ensure peace within their town.
The cubicle walls were still lined with greenery, making it feel less like a police bullpen and a little more inviting. Of the people on the Red Star team, only one was a legit police detective.
But they were all busy, and she didn’t have the twins with her, so they looked up and said hello with their faces, but they didn’t get up and greet her.
Which was okay.
Dexx was in the office—in what had been her office. But it was most definitely Dexx’s now. There were shelves up with… things. She didn’t know. A lot of cars and car parts. The man obsessed over those. Well, cars and guns. And knives. And swords. Okay. So, he had a little depth.
He saw her coming and got up, meeting her at the door and wrapping her in his arms.
Those arms could put her soul back together.
“You feeling better?” he muttered into her hair.
“Yeah.”
He pulled away and studied her with his green eyes, Hattie—his spirit animal—flashing through a little. “Really?”
“Yes.” She pulled away from him and took a seat. “I need to talk to you about a few things.”
Dexx usually took the seat next to her, but this time, he took the chair behind the desk. Power move. “You’re not letting them in, are you?”
“I am.”
He clenched his jaw and bared his teeth.
“But I’ve taken precautions.”
He looked around, pissed. “Really.”
“Yes. This isn’t just me. There’s an entire council.”
“Oh, I know, but I also know how you get things the way you want.”
Ouch. But she let that pass for the moment because it was a loaded can of worms. She walked him through what she and Eldora and Merry had done and then took in a deep breath for the next leg of this conversation. “I’m flying to D.C. tonight.”
Dexx licked his lips angrily as he fell back into his chair. “I’ll take care of the kids, I guess.”
“I, um…” This next part was going to be the fight. “I’m taking them with me.”
He sat forward, folding his hands over his desk. “Over my dead body.”
“Don’t be dramatic.” But she thought she understood where he was coming from. He was the dad and she was endangering them.
“Dramatic?” His eyebrows shot up, and the hand on his desk flexed with cat claws. “You’re trying to tell me that you’re taking our kids out of the safety of our town, and I’m the one being dramatic? You’re being stupid.”
“It’s Washington D.C., Dexx. What the hell’s going to happen there?”
“Anything!” He slammed his non-clawed hand onto the desk. “They’re the fucking government. They can do whatever the fuck they want to there.”
This wasn’t the time to get into a debate on government. “I’ll be okay. The kids’ll be fine. If we get into trouble, I’ll get us out of it like I always do.”
“No. They want to ki—”
“We need to show them that they’re safe with us around!”
“So, you’re going to masquerade our babies around the media like circus pets?” His left eye twitched. “Is that it?”
When he said it like that… “No.” Yes, but maybe not like circus pets. “We need to educate these people, to let them see that we’re normal… people.”
“They don’t care,” he growled.
Paige didn’t want to admit it out loud, but she knew he was right. How many other groups had tried the same thing, appealing to the human nature and the hearts and souls of others? Sharing pictures of their babies who had been shot or killed while in their own yards or while watching TV on their own couches?
People struggled to remain empathetic. The overwhelming weight of the stories had made it easier to turn that off, though, like a switch. They might care. They might not. They could invest in others. Or they could save their energy stores and invest in themselves. “I have to try.”
He gave her a cool glare, working his jaw. “Do I have any say?”
Paige swallowed. The right answer here was yes, but she’d already made up her mind. She wasn’t going on a mission without her babies. The same babies she’d literally just pushed out of her frelling body not even a week ago. She’d already sacrificed too much of being a mom so she could have a job. “I love you.”
Dexx growled and glared at his desk. “Yeah.”
The conversation was done.
Paige hated leaving it like this, but she knew they’d be okay. And maybe she wasn’t right. Maybe he was.
But she was done leaving her kids behind in order to save the world. At some point, she was going to have to stop sacrificing her mom time.
She just wished the world had waited to explode for another month. Or year. Or… ever.
But the world didn’t care about her at the moment.
7
Dexx made it really hard to stick with her plans. His bad mood was rather pervasive, and he wasn’t giving it up.
The mayor had decided to call a town hall meeting before Paige left so she’d have a “better understanding” of the town’s need before she went to Washington D.C. and messed everything all up. Paige still didn’t believe she might actually meet the president, but Merry informed her not to worry. She had that under control.
It was easy for Merry to say. She wasn’t the one about to meet the president of the United States and issue the demands of the entire paranormal nation.
Which… what the hell was she thinking? Who did she think she was? She was a nobody. Okay. A powerful nobody, but still. She was a police detective from Texas. She didn’t know everyone.
It was difficult to remember that she was what the paranormals needed because, as a nobody, she’d won against some pretty powerful foes. That meant something, especially now. Perhaps this was exactly what the Elders had been grooming her for when they’d been sending her across the United States to deal with the paranormals when issues arose.
While the town was busy with their meeting, a few key people were already at work getting the town the supplies Mayor Suzanne West had said they needed. Paige didn’t have to be a part of that, which felt really weird. She was used to being the person who did the things.
And now she was the person who came up with the ideas and delegated.
What had her life become?
Late to pick up the kids, again, she didn’t speed. The kids were used to this by now, and the twins were once again asleep in the back seat. Paige wanted to cry on the way to the high school. She wanted to rail at the world for making Dexx angry with her or for being forced to choose her kids over the world again or at the danger she was inflicting on this town.
But she didn’t. She pulled up to the curb and smiled as Mandy and Leah piled into her silver sedan.
Leah called navigator, but Mandy already had the back door open.
They left the school in search of Danny Miller, the reporter who’d kind of been following her since Denver. He was at his new office, which had been abandoned after the battle with Sven. He almost immediately volunteered to hold one of the twins, so she gave him Ember, who could sleep through anything.
Danny smiled down at Ember’s furry form. “I’ll do what I can to help, but I usually give news. I don’t build news channels.”
“I understand, but silence is the best way to keep us in line, and we can’t afford that.” Paige stared down at Rai, who was sleeping curled up in her car seat in the form of a kitten. “We need to get to the word out. We need to make sure that the real news is getting out there.”
He nodded, his dark-rimmed glasses sliding down his nose a little. “They offered you a position in government?”
As if government positions were like royal titles that could just be handed out—not that they were done that way in reality. Were they? Did people have to be voted into all of them? “No. I don’t know the first thing about politics, and it hasn’t been offered.”
“Then why are you the one leading the charge?” He pulled out his phone with his free hand.
She sighed as he scrolled through his apps. “Is this an interview?”
“Maybe.”
She wasn’t ready for this. What if she said the wrong thing? Which she did on a semi-regular basis. “Look, I’m just a normal person trying to do what’s right.”
“So why you?”
“Because everyone else said no.” She probably shouldn’t have said it like that. But she’d tried giving it to others. “They have people they’re responsible for. I… I mean. I don’t have a coven. I don’t have a pack. I don’t have a police force.” Anymore. “I have a family, so I have the time.”
His brown eyes didn’t hold any judgement. “Even though you should be on maternity leave.”
She snorted a laugh. “We pride ourselves on our slavery of service. Who gets maternity leave? Canadians. Canadians get maternity leave.”
He chuckled and ducked his head. “Are you taking them with you, then?”
She released a long breath. “Yes, but can you keep that to yourself for now? I—” She shook her head. “Dexx is a bit pissed about that.”
Whiskey Storm (Whiskey Witches Midnight Rising Book 1) Page 6