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At that moment, the bushes near us parted and Bran broke through into the clearing. “Did you—oh, hell!”
May was right behind him and she let out a yelp, stepping back. “I take it he’s our problem?” She pointed to the elemental.
Grams and I both nodded. May held out her hands, and a slow steady energy began to flow from her into the clearing. I wasn’t sure what she was doing, but in seconds, my energy went from frantic to calm, and the elemental backed up a step, looking at us closely.
Grams hustled over to May’s side and, with a knowing look, took hold of her hands. The moment the two older women touched hands, the energy in the area changed. It shifted, stronger, and I realized that May was buoying up Grams, she was infusing her own energy into Grams so that Grams could direct it. Basically, May was acting as an amplifier.
Grams turned to the elemental, who was looking around. I could feel it—anybody who worked with earth energy could have—and it felt confused. The anger shifted as puzzlement took over. I suddenly felt sorry for having woken it, and I sent out a wave of apology toward it.
The elemental looked in my direction, took a couple steps, then stopped again. I sent it the one suggestion I could think of—to return to sleep. Grams and May caught hold of the energy I was projecting and they put all their force into it.
After a moment, the elemental turned back toward the crack in the ground and began to liquify, like Terminator 2, it oozed into a viscous river of mud, sliding back into the fracture and vanishing from sight. Another minor quake shook the ground, and the crack sealed once again, with little sign that anything had happened.
Yet another moment and the creature was gone, leaving the air clear and the energy of the forest at rest.
I dropped to the ground, breathing deeply. “Thank gods. I didn’t mean to wake it up—I was just searching for signs of an elemental like Grams told me to.” I wasn’t blaming her, but, when I thought about it, none of this would have happened without her coaching.
“My fault, and I take responsibility,” she said. “We should have started out in a controlled environment. I didn’t expect anything like that to happen—in Scotland, the elementals run deep, but the older ones, the bigger ones, tend to stick near sacred sights. I had no clue they’d be randomly scattered in the forests here.” Grams shook her head. “I have to apologize. I should have assayed the situation first.”
“Well, no harm, no foul. We’re all safe and the rumble didn’t break anything in the house. It did, however, scare the crap out of me,” May said.
“And I’ll bet it’s going to confuse some of the seismologists. That was big enough to feel for a ways. Though, we’re on a bunch of fault lines in this area so they may just take it in stride,” Bran said. “We were just coming over early to offer to bring dessert before you order the takeout for dinner.
“You know, let’s just order everything. We all need a break, and right now, I think we just need to chill,” I said, wrapping an arm through his.
Bran kissed the top of my head, then he motioned for the three of us women to return to the house. “I’ll pick up your gear and bring it back safe, if you’ll trust me. Go home, get warm. I’ll be there in a few minutes.”
As we gratefully headed down the trail back to my house, I wondered what was going to happen next, although part of me was afraid to think about it because the last thing I needed was to jinx myself.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
We were halfway through dinner when the doorbell rang. Bran answered. It was Von, with James and Kells behind him. I fixed them lattes, and we had ordered plenty of doughnuts for dessert so I made sure to bag them a couple of doughnuts, as well.
Von sat, more than a little stiff, on the edge of the sofa while Kells and James stood near the door. “I hope they found out the cause of your fire,” he said to Bran.
May sighed. “They did, indeed. We didn’t have a chance to tell you—Elphyra and Morgance—but the determination came in shortly before we met you in the woods. Arson, as expected. Someone poured gasoline on several rags and started them alight around the edges of the barn. Whoever it was didn’t care about the animals inside, or anything of the sort. They just decided to burn it all down.”
“We found a barn to house the animals,” Bran said. “But rebuilding will take a while. First we have to clear away the remains. We found a company who will do it before they rebuild, but it’s pricey. We have the money, but it’s going to take a bite out of our savings.”
“Bran and I are both contributing. We own the land jointly,” May said. “Or rather, it’s portioned out so that I own one acre and the house, and Bran owns the other four acres. That way if he ever wants to build his own home, he can do so on his land proper.” She turned to Von. “Thank you, by the way. I don’t know if I got a chance to thank you last night, but you saved our land and—quite possibly—our lives. You saved the farm animals, for sure.”
“We were hoping you didn’t lose any,” Von said.
“Actually, we did. We lost several chickens, but all the others got out. I just wish I knew what was going on,” she said.
“Well, we’d best be getting to our patrol. Oh, Elphyra? Kyle asked me to have you call him when you’re able. It’s not an emergency, but he has an update on Lord Faron.” Von motioned to the other two men. “Come on, let’s get to business.”
As they headed out, I turned to May. “I still think your fire has to be linked to whoever is targeting me. Though, for the life of me, I can’t think of who could be after both of us.” I turned to May. “The woman in your readings—can you do a reading and see if she’s connected to Bran, as well?”
“I hadn’t thought about that. Good idea. But given I’m involved now, because of the fire, would you read the cards, Morgance?”
“Of course,” Grams said.
We followed her into the kitchen after she stopped in her room for her cards. Fancypants was right behind us, and he perched on the edge of the table. Grams laid out five cards and she studied them. They didn’t look like tarot cards to me, but instead, like some oracle deck based on plants. After a moment, she held up the Heather card.
“The goddess is speaking. This reading is coming from her. The next card, Briar, tells me that this is a tangled web. Your situations are indeed, tied together. The thorns of the briars indicate someone is deliberately ‘jabbing’ you both…though to be honest, I get the sense that it’s Bran and not you, May, who’s the recipient. Bran and Elphyra.” She turned over the third card. “Belladonna. The jealousy card—jealousy, anger, envy, ill-wishes. This card can bring about greatness in terms of power, or it can consume.”
“Jealousy? Who would be jealous? Bran’s not dating anyone, and…while I’m dating Faron—or was—it’s not like I was seeing anybody else before I met either him or Bran. Could it be one of Faron’s Packmates?”
