Jaak nods. “Protective magic often is. At least mine is. Your abilities are getting stronger if you’re able to sense the wards. I’m sure you’ll feel the house now as well. It’s not as strong as the wards, but with some work we can reawaken it.”
“The house, right. Oh my gosh, I want to see.” I rush up the stairs towards the house but the second I put my foot on the porch I’m hit so hard by an invisible hand that I nearly trip and fall. I catch myself and stumble forward to bounce off the front door with a groan.
“Meadow! Are you all right?” Jaak comes to me and I wave him off.
“Yup, I’m fine. I just got open hand slapped by the house, I think.” I rub my arm from where I hit the door. At least I didn’t break the door like I did Mort’s earlier. I knock my knuckles on the door. “What the heck? I felt sorry for you earlier and you slap the shit out of me?” I ask and then motion towards Jaak. “And in front of my husband? Not cool, house. Not cool at all.”
There’s a slight shudder. The house feels like it moves and then I hear the door click unlocked and it swings open.
I put my hands on my hips. “Is this you making up for the slap?” The lights in the entryway come on and I nod. I wag my finger at the house. “I’m momentarily appeased but you’re not off the hook.”
Jaak chuckles and leans against the doorframe while I walk inside. “Still worried about not being able to save the world with your magic? I see you coming into your strength just fine.”
“I think the house whacking me is different than the head mage trying to whack me, but I kind of see your point.”
“Good. Now stay here while I strengthen the wards. It won’t take long with the power I sank into them earlier. Maybe you and the house can make amends.”
“Yeah, okay. I’ll see about dinner,” I tell him and then rise up on my toes and give him a kiss. I mean to kiss his cheek but Jaak turns at the last second and it’s our lips that meet. He wraps his arms around me and pulls me to him. His touch isn’t as gentle as it was before, but it’s still not near enough what I know he’s capable of. He’s still holding himself back. I press myself against his chest and deepen the kiss to test the hold he has on himself but when I look up at him his eyes are brown.
Not a single speck of silver to be found.
Dang it.
I drop down to my toes with a sigh. “I’m going to get your Minotaur to come out and play.”
He narrows his eyes at me and then moves me to the side so he can grab the door handle. “No, you are not.”
“Am too.”
“Meadow…”
“Fine, fine, I’ll go see about dinner.”
“Thank you. I won’t be long. If you need me just call.”
The door shuts behind Jaak and I stay there for a second looking at the door before I sigh and start walking. I sort of remember where the kitchen is but this morning feels so long ago. Did we go through it to get to the backyard?
I walk down a hall and take a turn just to end up in a parlor. “I’m lost in my own house,” I say. The second I say the words the house shudders again and the light in the hallway turns on and off. I walk to the hallway and poke my head out. The light there flashes once before it goes steady again.
“That’s you right? Benevolent house magic? Non slapping house magic?” I ask. The light flashes again and I step out into the hallway. “Can you help me get to the kitchen?”
A door I walked past swings open and I go for it. Everyone I know would be yelling at me to go back to the foyer and wait for Jaak, to play it safe in the name of, well, safety. Playing by the rules never got me anywhere good, though. I followed every last rule and I still ended up with a knife to my throat in the middle of the night on my wedding day.
That was then. Things are different now.
I take a deep breath and stop in front of the open door. There’s another hallway through it and one by one the wall sconces turn on to show me the path forward. “I’m going to trust you not to suck me into a portal or lock me in a room, so I want you to know this is a really big moment to make up for earlier.”
I go through another door and I’m in the kitchen. It’s a big kitchen, much nicer than any kitchen I’ve ever been in. Marble counter tops wrap around the length of the room and there’s a huge double sink with an elegant brass faucet with a big window above it. To the left of me is a massive stove at one end, with a shiny hood that extends up to the ceiling. At the center of the kitchen there’s an island and it’s marble topped with a butcher block cutting board resting on top. There’s a few stools at one end of the island counter and to the right of that I see a door that I think is a pantry. A metal fridge sits beside the pantry door and I head right for it but that's when I realize I made a big mistake when it came to dinner.
“We don’t have any food,” I groan but when I go to test out the fridge it’s packed full of food. Fresh meat and veggies, cheese, milk, the whole thing. “What the…” I look at the fridge and then head right for the pantry door. I open that and it’s just as stocked as the fridge. I thought I might have to figure out how to conjure something, anything but I don’t have to. Maybe Jaak did this?
Unless…what if it wasn’t Jaak? I think for a second on the magic food. If Jaak did this he would have said something. Besides, if it was him I don’t think he knows what cheesy chips are. There’s a bag of those and even white cheddar popcorn. I pick up the bag with a laugh. All my life popcorn was either buttery or caramelized and sweet. They made the sweet kind during our Winter Celebration. It was a hit with the Outsiders, but I’d never cared for it.
Cheesy popcorn, though? This is innovation.
I bring the bag of popcorn with me into the kitchen and open it up to test it out. I eat a few pieces of the popcorn before I toss back a handful.
Cheesy popcorn is bliss.
