I looked out into the barren fall yard beyond the door, the cool air blasting against my cheeks. “Frank?” I whispered.
“Enjoying your day, Mary?”
I turned to find him leaning against the building in a dress shirt, suit jacket, and slacks. A half grin pulled at his lips.
I glanced at my plain sweater and jeans. “You didn’t have to dress up just because we’re meeting at a church.”
Laughter resided in his warm, dark eyes. “I came from work. I took a late lunch break.”
I clutched my hands behind my back to hide my embarrassment. “Oh, that makes more sense.”
Everyone knew that after his mom died when he was a baby, Frank’s father had given him to his aunt and uncle who had adopted and raised him. He now worked for his aunt’s business in the creation and selling of high-quality perfumes.
His smile spread across his face, as if my mistaken assumptions charmed him somehow. But then worry pulled at his brow. “Are you sure this is the right place?” No doubt he was reviewing all the past sermons against werewolves and other creatures given behind its doors over the years.
I nodded. “Come, I’ll show you. But you must be quiet.”
“As the grave.”
I guided him down the side of the pews, watching Collins’s office just visible beyond the raised podium. Thehuman pastor that also gave addresses here never came in on Thursdays.
We’d progressed three-fourths of the way down the aisle when Frank stepped on the old creaky board that I’d sidestepped without thinking.
“Mary, is that you?” Collins’s voice issued from his office.
Oh, hex. Panic washed over me. How would it appear if I were secretly bringing a man into the stacks during my workday? Collins wasn’t the kind of person to give the benefit of the doubt.
The squeal of the pastor’s chair told me he’d risen. His sharp steps grew louder.
Frantically, I reached out and gripped Frank’s hand. He stiffened in surprise, but his warm fingers clasped around mine, as if he didn’t want it any other way.
“Don’t move, don’t speak,” I whispered. I lit my candle, lighting my fae power. Fade.Fadeboth of us, I begged.
Collins came into view. I froze, not daring to breathe. If he saw me holding Frank’s hand, my body as straight as a rail, we’d look as guilty as sin.
Collins’s gaze swept around the chapel, his lips turning down in confusion. “I could have sworn I heard someone…”
Fade.Fade. His eyes landed right on me, then Frank.
I didn’t move. Didn’t breathe. Had it worked? Did he see us?
Pastor Collins shrugged and returned to his office, snapping his door shut behind him.
I sucked in a breath and dropped the candle, then hurried to the hall that led to the basement. We passed through the glamoured entrance. I pulled Frank down the steps before summoning the courage to breathe normally.
He looked at me with wide eyes. “Did you glamour us invisible?”
“More like made him forget me. Same with you. He saw you, but because you had a hold of me, he forgot about you in the same instant that he caught sight of you. It’s my one fae power.”
He ran a thumb over the back of my hand in a soft caress. “You are something, aren’t you?”
My chest lightened, and I suddenly felt as if I walked on a cloud. I didn’t drop our connected grip, and hedidn’t seem to want to, so I selfishly held on and pulled him further into the stacks. “Do you have the wolfsbane plant?”
He nodded, lifting it from his jacket in a small Ziplock bag. “Retrieved it last night. It grows near the stream outside of town. I used to get it for Isabella.”
“Good. I’ve started the potion. We just need to add it in and let it steep for eleven to twelve days, while adding more wolfsbane, witch’s enchantment, and a little bit of fae magic.”
“It will be close.”
