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“Just so you know, I didn’t know what you were doing, Riley. I wasn’t allowed to look into you or ask anyone any questions. I could only guess.”
“I went off for a few months. Hunted a lot. Howled in grief a lot.”
Her lip trembles.
“But then I came back and tried to focus on my pack. I got appointed to the council and it probably saved me. I threw myself into it. Found out Tyson’s alive and that helped, too. Gave me hope.”
She smiles. “I…” she swallows. “I might have helped with that part a little bit.”
“Yeah?” I ask.
“It’s not in there but…” she gestures to the jar. “we turned the volume up on all your scents to make him want to come to the village that day. So he’d show himself.”
I caress her face and she leans into it. We hold one another’s gaze for a long moment before I turn my attention to the jar.
Inside are many folded pieces of paper. Mostly white, but some pink, yellow, and one blue. Some are Post-it notes. Some are lined or unlined sheets of paper. I dump them onto the bed between our plates, unfold a white one and read aloud.
“Helped Ronnie with locator spell to find an abducted child. Ransom was due two hours from the time we found him.”
My eyes meet hers. She looks down at the plate.
I lift a slice of toast and hold it out. She reaches to take it, but I pull back and instead touch the corner to her mouth.
“I’m feeding you breakfast,” I say. “I’m taking care of my mate right now. You got a problem with that?”
She shakes her head, looking bewildered.
I hold it out again and she takes a bite.
I set it down, wipe the crumbs from my fingers on my pantleg before folding the piece of paper up again and dropping it into the empty jar. I reach for another piece of paper.
“Kept bad guys away from girl in danger. Chicago.”
She moistens her lips and elaborates, “She’s going to do great things in her life. Vivi saw it, saw she was in danger, and we were really close by, had gone on a girls’ shopping and theater trip. We intervened to keep them from getting her. They were human traffickers. We also kinda helped them get caught on another occasion.”
“Good,” I remark and pass her a cup of coffee, then put the paper into the jar and pick up a yellow Post-It. I unfold it.
“Redirected love letter from wrong house. They will have two babies. One baby will grow up to be a veterinarian and save many pet lives.”
I smile, put the paper in the jar, then lift a pink piece of paper.
“Saved lives by containing entity in Drowsy Hollow woods. Helped facilitate journey to fated forever love.”
I give her a pointed look. “Same woods where you and me met?”
She nods. “Aunt Lyrica died that day. It was a race against the clock to get here on time. I was gonna fail so we did a different remote spell and… it worked out. Mostly.”
“I know who this is. We stay out of those woods after dark in the fall. My grandfather was chased as a young wolf by that… thing… and was lucky to make it out of there.”
“Aunt Lyrica helped him get out of there,” she says. “I saw it in one of her ledgers. He needed to get out of there otherwise there wouldn’t be you, wouldn’t be Tyson, you get the idea. This is why it’s so important my coven keeps their magic. The effects are far-reaching.”
“I can see that,” I say.
She pulls her lips tight and eyeballs the plate. I lift up some bacon and she takes a bigger bite than last time and chews it while watching me lift another piece of paper.
“I give thanks to your Aunt Lyrica for it.”
“I miss her. It was a blow, losing her. It was also quite a hairy experience trying to get things under control with those woods.”
“So you’ll do it again this year?”
“Not exactly. Things have changed. I can’t get into it, I don’t think. I may need guidance from Aunt Mimi on what I can and can’t tell you. Sometimes when someone finds out about our magic or when they learn they benefit from it, they have to pay a toll for the knowledge.”
“Your Aunt Mimi might have a problem with me,” I warn. “I wasn’t exactly… polite when I met her. Or when I knocked on the door to her house. She didn’t look pleased, either, when she saw me tracking her around her town. ”
She nods. “I know. She raised me since I was twelve and is the closest thing I have to a mother. She’s the elder and leader of our coven, mostly retired now, but she still dabbles a little.”
