His reaction made Thea wonder if there was something happening between Tony and Mira that would have evoked contempt and rage towards his older brother. Sybil mentioned that there was a possibility for jealousy between the two. She contemplated that for a moment.
Was a romantic feud over a girl that they weren’t even supposed to be with the cause for Tony’s death? She wanted to figure that out, but a small part of her hoped that it wasn’t the case. Otherwise, this would cause a maelstrom of trouble between the fox shifters and wolf shifters.
Suddenly, a small noise interrupted her thoughts. From behind the counter, Thea could hear her phone ringing distantly. She made her way over, setting aside her broom, and glanced at the caller.
Blaine.
She took a deep breath, debating whether or not she should take the call. After spending so much time thinking about it, she missed it entirely. A few seconds later, she realized that Blaine had left her a voice mail. She didn’t hesitate to stop everything she was doing and listen to it, although she had no plans to respond to him just yet.
“Hey Thea. I know that you probably don’t want to talk to me right now, and I understand. I just wanted to apologize for getting mad at you the other day. I don’t know what came over me, but it was wrong and I’m sorry. I never wanted to make you feel uncomfortable. I care a lot about you and I don’t want you getting yourself into trouble, that’s all. I hope that we can talk things over soon. I miss you.”
The phone beeped, telling her that the message had ended. For a moment, she thought about calling him back and talking about everything that happened. She picked up her phone and stared at the numbers, thumbs twitching as she was tempted to dial his number. At this point, she had it memorized.
However, after a long pause, she ended up dialing a different number. One that didn’t belong to Blaine, but someone who was just as important to her.
Hitting the button to call, she held the phone up to her ear and waited for the click that told her that the other person on the line was listening.
“Hello?”
“Aunt Tiegen?” Thea asked, smiling. “I’m sorry to bother you, but I wanted to ask you something.”
“Well, go ahead. What did you need?”
“I was wondering if you were going to be free over your lunch break. I wanted to stop by your office and practice some magic, if that’s alright with you. I’m excited to learn more.”
She could hear Aunt Tiegen laughing over the line. “Of course I’m free. Thea, I’m happy to hear that you’re finally putting magic as your priority. Hurry over, I’ll figure out something to show you while you’re on the way.”
“Perfect. See you soon.”
Chapter 16
As Thea headed to her aunt’s office for her magic lesson, she felt fired up in a way she hadn’t felt in a long time. She was determined to prove to Blaine that she could keep herself safe. She didn’t need some big bad bear hanging around all the time to protect her.
Maybe she wanted to prove that point to herself, as well.
She breezed into the door of the mayor’s office to find her aunt already waiting for her.
“Thea,” Tiegen greeted her with a sharp smile. “You’re on time.”
“Don’t sound so surprised,” Thea answered.
“I am surprised,” Tiegen admitted. “But very pleased to see you’re finally taking your magical instruction more seriously. Is there a reason for the change?”
Under normal circumstances, Thea likely wouldn’t have shared her thoughts and frustrations with her aunt. Tiegen was always good to confide in, of course, and Thea knew her aunt loved and cared about her deeply. But Tiegen had an overprotective tendency to try to solve all of Thea’s problems for her.
Not unlike Blaine, actually.
But, considering Thea was already asking for Tiegen’s help in improving her magic, she didn’t think it would be such a big problem to open up to her now.
So she shared with her aunt what had been bothering her, specifically focusing on how she wanted to improve her abilities in order to look after herself and others.
Tiegen took all of this in with a calm, attentive demeanor. Only when Thea had let it all out did she respond.
“I can assure you that once you get the hang of the different varieties of warding and shielding spells, you’ll be much safer and more capable of taking care of yourself.” She smiled at Thea with a kind of fierce pride. “And keep in mind... wards and shields are just the tip of the iceberg. There’s so much more that I can teach you, if you’re willing to put in the work.”
Thea nodded. “I want to. I know my dedication is spotty. But I do want to.”
“Good,” Tiegen said with a decisive nod. “In that case I trust that you’ve been practicing with Sybil?”
Thea frowned sheepishly. “I’ve been a little distracted.”
To Thea’s surprise, Tiegen didn’t look upset. Instead, she crossed her arms over her chest and leaned against the nearby desk. “This business with the shifter clans, is it?”
Thea nodded. “I just wish I knew more about them. It seems like there’s a lot of history there, but I just can’t seem to access it.”
“Oh, there’s plenty of history. And they’ve been making my job more difficult since I came to office, I can tell you that. It’s far from ideal to have two such powerful clans at each other’s throats. Particularly considering the importance of secrecy, what with the mundane community and all that. And then of course they aren’t all happy that I’m the mayor, considering how Alistair stirred everything up.”
Thea blinked, taking that in. “Dad stirred things up? How do you mean?”
“We can keep talking about this if you want,” Tiegen said. “But first I’m going to need you to put up a shield.”
“What? Why?”
“Because I’m going to attack you, and if you don’t get a shield up you’ll be scraping yourself up off the floor.”
With a little help from her aunt, Thea managed to recite the incantation and pull up a passable shield, a faint pulsing energy that surrounded her. As soon as it was in place, Tiegen sent a bolt of angry white light racing in her niece’s direction.
The light hit the shield and dissipated, crackling out in branching dendrites safely over and around Thea’s head.
“Good,” Tiegen said. “That will have weakened the shield, though. You need to recite the strengthening spell.”
This one, Thea managed to conjure up on her own. Tiegen looked pleased when her next spell dissolved the instant it made contact.
Thea leapt on this opportunity to ask about her father again.
Tiegen huffed a sigh. “I’d have thought your grandmother would have told you.”
“She mentioned that he lived with them for a while,” Thea admitted. “Something about trying to figure out if a human magic user could learn how to be a shifter. But Granny said that according to my dad, the wolves just wanted to exist peacefully with the foxes. She didn’t mention anything about stirring up tensions.”
Tiegen paused. For a moment, Thea worried her aunt wasn’t going to tell her what she knew. She recognized that calculating look on Tiegen’s face, weighing the pros and cons of sharing her knowledge.
However, after a beat had passed, Tiegen let out another sigh. She flung some sort of blue light spell at Thea’s shield, and although the energy blinked out harmlessly, Thea felt something in the spell crack.
She was just starting to summon the spell to reinforce the shield when Tiegen answered her.
“Some of the wolf shifters weren’t happy that a warlock was trying to learn their ways. They saw it as Alistair trying to cheat his way into the clan. I did warn him it would happen... but never mind that.”
“Did any of them... hurt him?” Thea asked, not sure how else to state it.
“He did receive some threats during his time there.”
Before Thea had the opportunity to react to this comment, Tiegen flicked out a finger and sent a s
tartling silver jolt in her niece’s direction. It came crashing through the shield, shattering the protective spell. The next thing Thea knew, she was sprawled out on the floor near the desk behind her, papers fluttering down all around her.
Tiegen stood over her, looking down calmly.
“You’re improving, I’ll give you that. But you aren’t there yet.”
She held out a hand to Thea, who accepted it and allowed herself to be pulled to her feet.
Before Tiegen let Thea’s hand go, she pulled her in closer and said in a low, terse voice, “You’d better be careful about getting into the shifter clans’ business. They don’t forgive easily.”
Chapter 17
When Thea walked through the door to A Stitch in Time, she found Blaine waiting for her. He and Jesse had obviously been mid-conversation when Thea entered, but they stopped and looked up when they heard the tell-tale sounds of a potential customer.
Both quickly eased when they saw that it was Thea who had come in.
“Hey, Thea,” Blaine greeted her, “I brought lunch.” He picked up a large brown paper bag from the local deli and held it up for her to see. “I was hoping we could eat together? Maybe talk?”
Thea couldn’t help but smile slightly at Blaine’s sheepish attitude. Try as he might to put up a tough exterior, he could never completely hide his softer side from her.
“Sure, that sounds nice,” Thea responded. “Let me just set my bag in the back and then we can eat outside.”
After Thea dropped off her belongings she led Blaine back out the front door and to a nearby bench. Blaine let her sit first before he joined her.
He set the paper bag in his lap and dug through the glut of napkins lazily piled inside. He pulled out two sandwiches and held one out to Thea.
“They’re both tuna. I hope that’s okay?” Blaine said.
“That sounds great,” Thea replied. She took the sandwich from Blaine and quickly began tearing through the white paper to the prize inside. Thea’s magical training was not easy, and she’d worked up quite the appetite.
As Thea took a bite, Blaine spoke up as he carefully unwrapped his sandwich. “So, like I said, I was hoping we could talk. About the other day.”
Thea swallowed the partially-chewed bite of sandwich in her mouth, her throat suddenly dry. Even though she felt justified in being frustrated by Blaine’s over protectiveness, Thea knew she’d acted irrationally when they fought.
She lowered her sandwich and stared at it sitting in her lap. Her appetite had waned.
“Look,” she started saying, “I apologize for what happened. I shouldn’t have locked you out like that. It wasn’t right.”
Blaine gently rested his hand on Thea’s knee. “I’m sorry too,” he said. “I get worried about you, that’s all.”
“But why?” Thea asked, her voice rising in volume. “You know I’m working on getting more powerful, and I’m more than capable of identifying a dangerous situation. It’s not like I would ever go somewhere that’s clearly unsafe without some backup.”
“I thought I knew that,” Blaine responded, trying to keep his voice somewhat neutral. “But then you rushed into Marcel’s house after a suspected murderer. Without backup.”
Thea couldn’t rebut that point. She had been uncomfortably close to Sandra with a loaded gun. It was an unfortunately memorable experience.
Blaine continued talking. “It’s not that I don’t trust you. Far from it, actually. You’re incredibly capable of taking care of yourself, and I know that. But even the strongest people need to be careful. I just ... I don’t want to lose you.”
Thea’s eyes widened. She was shocked and touched by Blaine’s candor.
“I’m sorry. It was a split-second decision, and I didn’t think it through.” Thea paused momentarily before continuing. “But it did turn out okay without you, remember?”
“That time,” Blaine confirmed, “but what about when it doesn’t? I’m not saying I have to be around you all the time to protect you, I just want you to be careful.”
Thea smiled and rested her hand on top of Blaine’s. “You’re right. I do need to be more careful. I don’t always think about how my recklessness will affect other people, especially you. I’ll try to do better.”
Blaine looked into Thea’s eyes and smiled back at her. “Thank you, Thea. That means a lot.”
Thea leaned in and pecked Blaine on the cheek.
“No promises it’ll happen all at once, though. I am learning, after all,” Thea said slyly.
“I guess I can’t argue with that,” Blaine replied.
The two ate their lunch, both happier now that the tension from the other day had eased slightly.
Blaine glanced at his watch and said, “Wow, that went by fast. I’ve got to get back to work.” He quickly scarfed down the remainder of his sandwich.
Thea finished her sandwich as well before fishing in the bag for one of their many napkins. She blotted any remnants of food from her lips and wiped her hands before looking up back at Blaine. He’d begun picking up their trash and started walking it to the trashcan a few feet away, but Thea stopped him.
“Hey, wait a second.”
“Huh? Why?” Blaine turned around and asked.
“You’ve got something,” Thea said before grabbing the bag from Blaine and grabbing a clean napkin. She wiped a stray piece of tuna from his chin and tossed the soiled napkin back into the bag.
“Did you get it all?” Blaine asked, his cheeks blooming with the soft pink of bashfulness.
“Almost,” Thea responded. She lifted herself on to the tips of her toes and surprised Blaine with a kiss. The two separated and she lowered herself back down. “There, got it.”
Blaine grinned, his cheeks now fully blush. “Thanks,” he replied. He quickly tossed their garbage and returned to Thea, tenderly grabbing her around the waist and pulling her in for another kiss.
Now it was Thea’s turn to blush.
“I think we’ve both got to get to work. I can’t leave Jesse alone to run the store all the time.” Thea said as she wrapped her arms around Blaine’s shoulders.
“I guess you’re right,” Blaine responded. They embraced each other a moment longer before separating.
“I’ll call you later, okay?” Blaine asked.
“That sounds wonderful,” replied Thea. They went their separate ways; Blaine to his car, and Thea through the entrance of A Stitch in Time.
Chapter 18
That evening, Thea enlisted Sybil’s help to practice her shielding reflexes.
They set up in the living room. Thea gently moved the coffee table out of the way before they started. She couldn’t help but remember the mess she’d made of Aunt Tiegen’s desk when that spell had sent her flying, and she didn’t want to risk a repeat with Granny’s considerably more fragile tchotchkes.
“I’ll bet your aunt was glad you came in to practice with her,” Sybil said as Thea assumed the defensive stance Tiegen had shown her.
“She was,” Thea admitted. “But she was less glad when I fell on my rear end. How do you want to do this? Can you even send attack spells at me?”
“No,” Sybil said. “But I can feel your magic with my own. Test out the defenses and vulnerabilities. And I can always help you run through your incantations.”
“Too bad you can’t do flashcards with your paws,” Thea remarked.
She felt tense, but something about reaching for her magic calmed her. Almost like submerging her body into cool water on a dripping hot day. She started to chant the words of the spell, fumbling only once or twice, at which point Sybil gently corrected her. It took her longer without Tiegen’s guidance, but after a couple minutes had passed she managed to bring up a well-grounded defensive shield.
It wasn’t visible, or even audible, but it felt like a presence in the room. It had a gravity of its own, like something heavy on a mattress that tilted everything else toward it.
“How’s that?” Thea asked Sybil. “Stu
rdy?”
Sybil’s eyes flashed as her own magic checked the spell. “Sturdy,” she confirmed.
“I think it’s easier here at home,” Thea confessed. “Ironic, isn’t it? My shield is stronger when I’m already feeling comfortable and safe.”
“That’ll improve in time, dear.”
It was Granny, speaking from the doorway. Thea dropped the shield and jumped, startled, as she and Sybil both turned to face her.
Granny smiled and waved her hand. “Oh, no, don’t mind me. I’m thrilled to see you practicing. You’re doing well.”
She made her way over to the sofa and sank onto it. Sybil jumped up next to her, and Granny rewarded her with a firm scratch between her ears.
“You went to your aunt’s to practice, did you?”
Thea didn’t know whether Granny guessed as much, or if she’d heard about it somewhere around town. Granny really did know just about everyone in Ardensville, so the latter was certainly possible.
“I did,” Thea said. “She mentioned something about my dad and the shifters. How there was evidently some tension between him and the wolves, members of the clan who didn’t want a human trying to learn shifter magic. Aunt Tiegen even mentioned threats, though when I asked about those she didn’t have any specifics. I was curious if you knew anything about that.”
Granny paused, considering. “Nothing I can recall,” she said.
“So you don’t think the shifters had anything to do with my parents’ disappearance?”
Granny sighed heavily. Thea knew it still hurt her to think about her vanished daughter, Thea’s mother.
“I do know that not everyone in town liked your mother and father,” Granny admitted. “But frankly I doubt whether any of the shifters were powerful enough to get the drop on Selena and Alistair Beal.”
“Not even working together?” Thea asked. “As a... you know, a pack?”
Adventure Magic (Tabby Kitten Mystery Book 3) Page 6