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Thank you, but they’re not my husbands, she responded.
What do you think they are then?
Macey didn’t respond. She couldn’t. What were they to her? More than just a fling. More than just her boyfriends. But they weren’t married...right? They’d need a ceremony for that. She pushed the thought away. She’d deal with that one when there wasn’t a massive imposing warehouse to deal with.
I’ll be waiting out here until you return, or the enchantment breaks. But I can’t risk being forced to change forms. A wave of sadness washed over Macey, and she wondered whether it was Cat-Man’s emotions, or whether it was her own reaction to what he was saying. Whatever it was, it distracted her from her concerns of just moments ago.
Of course, totally understandable.
Thank you, kelpie. His voice faded, almost like he was walking away. Though surely that shouldn’t be possible? He was a disembodied voice in her head right now, walking away wasn’t physically possible.
“Earth to Macey.” Jared waved his hand in front of her face.
“She must be really out of it if she’s not calling you an idiot over that pun,” Flint deadpanned and she looked at him to find an amused smile gracing his face. It didn’t quite cover the seriousness in his eyes as he studied her though.
“Sorry, I was talking to Cat-Man.”
“He’s still about then?” Flint raised an eyebrow. If she wasn’t so preoccupied, she might have worried about the hint of jealousy in his tone, but as it was, she was still fighting slightly with her inner kelpie.
“Yes, he can’t risk a shift though.” Nor could she ask him to. That wasn’t her place. “You ready?” she asked her men.
“It’s you we’re waiting on, Princess,” Jared said with a laugh. Macey spun on her heels and stared him down.
“Don’t call me Princess,” she insisted, her face set into hard lines.
“But you are one?” He didn’t seem to quite be getting how serious she was.
“Yes. And I’ve been treated as one since the day I was born. Ex
cept for here, except for now. Can we please keep it that way? I’m just a woman, that’s all I want to be.” Her voice trembled at the end, and she had to blink back some of the tears that were forming. By the waves, what was wrong with her? She was never this emotional.
“You’re hardly just a woman, Macey,” Cam said softly in her ear as he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her back into him. He kissed her cheek as she pushed herself back into him further. “You’re our waffle at the very least,” he pointed out with a chuckle.
“Stop it with the bloody waffles already, you’re making me hungry,” she half-laughed, half-cried.
Macey extracted herself from Cam’s arms and reached out to give both Flint and Jared’s hands a squeeze. She didn’t want them feeling left out.
“Okay, I’m actually ready this time.”
She faced the warehouse entrance and focused on keeping her kelpie completely under control. She wasn’t happy about it, and Macey could feel her whinnying away within her chest, but there was no alternative. Not without causing a flood of Noah-like proportions, anyway. Putting one step in front of the other, she moved into the gloom.
19
It was just as gloomy inside the warehouse, but there was one big difference: there were a lot of flashing lights. Macey tried to time them in her head, but failed each and every time. There didn’t seem to be any kind of rhyme or reason to the gaps between the flashes. Probably because they had nothing to do with the clearly frayed wiring about the place. If she had to take her guess, the electricity hadn’t been working here in a good while.
And that was without mentioning the smell. It was damp. But not the good damp she liked. This was a damp rotting smell, the one that permeated everything and made whoever could smell it want a ridiculously hot shower in which they could scrape off layers of skin. Safe to say she was burning these clothes when she got a chance. It was a good thing her men lived in a magically enchanted house that could provide what they needed. Between them, and everything that kept happening, she seemed to be going through clothes like they were going out of fashion. She tittered to herself. Maybe they were going out of fashion, and this was the universe’s way of telling her as much.
She covered her mouth with her hand. This really wasn’t the place to be making a lot of noise. Not until they were sure of who was in here. And at the moment, she was clueless beyond the fact there was someone. There had to be, or else there wouldn’t be an enchantment on the outside of the warehouse. If she kept telling herself that, then she might even start believing it.
“Flint, you go right, Jared, you’re left. Macey, with me,” Cam whispered and the other two men disappeared into the shadows. Carefully, she and Cam continued further into the warehouse. Macey felt exposed, walking in the centre of the great empty space, and the mysterious flashes didn’t help make her feel any more reassured. Her eyes were starting to hurt from all the light and she noticed she was blinking a lot. If whoever was here was trying to distract them, they were doing a great job.
The other end of the warehouse was drenched in darkness; for some reason, the flashing lights stopped halfway there. For once, Macey was preferring the darkness to light. They continued to walk further, looking around for any clue of who might be here. This place couldn’t be as empty as it seemed, it didn’t make sense. The Staran had brought them here for a reason. But why couldn’t this adventure come with instructions? There was a lot of guessing and wondering recently. Macey liked cold, hard facts, as cold as the water she had grown up in and as hard as.... better stop there.
When they had almost reached the end of the flashing lights, Cam put a hand on her shoulder. “Let me go first,” he whispered and grudgingly, Macey let him. There was no point in arguing, his stoic expression told her that.
While Cam tiptoed into the darkness, Macey looked around for a sign of the other two. Nothing. They were either excellent at hiding or something bad had happened. But surely they would have made some kind of noise? Screamed? Yes, it had to be the first option.
Warily, she stepped from one foot onto the other. Cam had disappeared into the dark shadows in front of her and she was left here, alone, not sure what to do. He said he’d go first, but not that she shouldn’t follow... right?
