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“There are always rumors floating around in town about what the Hallowells might get up to on our estate,” I said, turning my attention back to the papers. “Most people dismiss the rumors or find them amusing. A few would rather we weren’t around at all.”
“Hmm,” Philomena said, her eyes glinting. “And a few are very, very glad to be around you.”
Footsteps were just thumping down the stairs. I looked up to see Jin ambling in, followed by the twins and then Damon. A smile leapt to my face. This had seemed like a good meeting spot for a talk, since I needed to go through the archives anyway. I’d used trips to the town museum as an excuse to come into town a few times in the last month already. This time I’d actually been truthful.
The old guy who was definitely not my fan took one look at the new arrivals and grumbled to himself. Thankfully, he must have decided he’d come back some time when he could have the place to himself. With a scowl at my consorts, he marched past them and headed up to the main floor.
I got up, and immediately my guys were all around me, arms encircling me, heads bent close to mine. I breathed in their mingled scents and felt centered for the first time in days.
Seth caught my lips with his, the firm pressure of his kiss reminding me of our encounter outside my house a couple nights ago with a flare of my spark. Then Jin was there, his fingertips tracing down the side of my neck as we took our fill of each other’s mouths. Kyler kissed my shoulder and then claimed my lips, swift and eager, when I broke from Jin.
Damon hung back just slightly, his hand hooking around one of mine, until the other guys had eased away. Then he tugged me to him and kissed me hard, as if he were making some kind of point.
The only point I cared about was having my consorts here with me.
But as much as my spark flickered giddily, wanting more, this wasn’t exactly the place for it. They were still counting on me to figure things out so we didn’t have to hide our affection away.
Kyler poked at the box still open on the table. “Have you come across anything you can use?”
“Not so far,” I said, suppressing a sigh. I motioned to a couple of clippings I’d set aside. “There’s a photo and a short article about a big wedding celebration for my great-great-grandmother.” She’d let the staff join in the party with their families, so at least that showed friendliness toward the unsparked. “And a spooky story some kid wrote for a contest that used the Hallowell estate. All made up, ghosts and that sort of thing, but I might incorporate it into my modern witching history I’ll get back to working on some day. There’s been nothing that directly helps our case.”
“Your people must keep records,” Jin said, cocking his head.
I nodded. “When I’m sure I’m not in danger at home, I could go out to Seattle to the main witching archives… or even to talk to this witch in New York who’s researched the more questionable parts of our history, although they’ve already dismissed her as a crackpot. But I can’t explain away running off on some research project while I’m still supposedly getting married in a few weeks.”
That crackpot witchhadcome across a few scraps of evidence, though. She’d claimed someone at the Assembly had disliked her bringing it up so much that she’d been fired. But they hadn’t completely stopped her from talking about it. If I came to the Assembly showing I’d not just found a precedent but actuallydonewhat shouldn’t be possible…
Well, I didn’t really know what would happen. But it was going to have to happen, one way or another, so I’d better be prepared. As soon as I knew how to handle my dad, that was the next step.
“I guess we’d better get down to work, then,” Seth said, taking in the stacks of boxes. “At least five of us will get through the rest faster than you on your own.”
* * *
A couple hours later, we were all a little dusty and a little rumpled, every box had been sifted through, and I still didn’t have any proof that any Hallowell had ever consorted beyond the current witching rules.
After setting the lid on the last box, I sagged against the table with a long exhale.
Kyler rubbed my shoulder. “Hey, it was kind of a long shot anyway, right? I’ll see if I can find anything online to do with witches—I’ll have a much wider reach there.”
“Most of that is fiction,” I reminded him.
He grinned. “Well, I’ve got a pretty good idea of what the real thing looks like now, so I can make a decent effort of sorting through it. I’ll pass anything I find that looks possibly legit on to you the next time I see you so you can check.”
So optimistic, even when I was struggling to prove he had a right to be my consort at all. Spark help me, I hoped their actual welcome into my community wouldn’t be half as hard as I was worrying it’d be.
“And the rest of us will do whatever we can,” Seth said.
“How’s Gabriel settling in up at the house?” Jin asked, and I felt my consorts’ attention suddenly sharpen, waiting for my answer. A tingle passed over my skin. It wasn’t just because they were so concerned about their old friend, I didn’t think.
But there wasn’t much to tell them. “It seemed like it was a little hard for him, coming back to the apartment,” I said. “We haven’t had the chance to talk much yet. I didn’t want to, I don’t know, crowd him or anything.”
Jin laughed. “I don’t think he’ll feel crowded, Briar Rose.”
“Well, come on,” Damon broke in. “We’d better leave so Rose can get home.”
The guys came back to me for quick good-bye kisses, and then they headed up one by one. I’d give them five minutes’ head start and then go up myself, as if I hadn’t been part of their group at all.
Despite his comment to the others, Damon lingered. He waited until the last of the other guys had vanished up the stairs and shut the door again.
