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He inwardly cursed his body’s response to her teasing, then ignored her altogether. Pearl didn’t mind, wriggling as she normally did, and driving him crazy. She only stopped when he placed his hand on her back—yet another unwanted distraction as his fingers itched to move and feel the curve of it. Instead, Henry held himself as rigidly as ever and waited for her to settle down.
“For the nth time, please keep still.”
“I don’t understand what the big deal is if I move around,” she complained. “We’re bubbled.”
“My bubble’s weak.”
She gasped. “Henry admitting something about him is weak?”
“It’s a light bubble,” he corrected. “To conserve energy.”
And the bubble’s not the problem. It’s your damn body brushing so carelessly against mine as if it doesn’t care about the friction it’s creating.
He gritted his teeth, driven to frustration for resorting to curses, but unable to stop it. To his relief, she finally stopped wriggling as her elbows dug into their ground blanket.
“Fine. Whatever. I’m behaving now. I’m a good girl.”
“It’s been another week,” he said, trying not to let his mind stray toward how that particular conversation would have gone. “Sometimes I feel like this shadow is playing with us. If I find out it’s some ploy from a villager to mess with us…”
“That’s a valid thought, especially since I can’t be the only one who thinks you guys are conceited…but hold that thought.”
He opened his mouth to defend himself, then shut it when a gleam entered her eyes. He followed her line of sight and spotted the shadow exiting his house just as she pushed off the ground and sprinted forward.
“What are you—”
“Catch up!” she called out, already taking her potion out of her pocket while she moved. Henry took in her determined form before he was racing after her, then running side-by-side with her as the shadow glimmered ahead of them. When the glimmer faded, they combined energies and threw the next potion, then a few more ones until a glowing trail became visible.
“Can others see this?”
“It will disappear in a few minutes, and I’m not the most athletic person,” she mused. “Why don’t you—”
Henry shot energy into his feet, grabbed her waist, and hauled her to him as he doubled his speed until they were both a blur. She startled, but clung to him, letting him take the lead without question. He didn’t stop to analyze that trust, his attention locked on the trail and noting how fast it was disappearing. When it led them to a dark field leading to an even darker forest, one he had never visited before, her body stiffened.
“Henry, stop. This is—”
Too late, he had crossed a barrier he didn’t see and felt the jerk in his energy. It cut off. He stopped in his tracks, looking around, but the shadow was gone—and a barrier had shot up around them, eliminating the option of getting out.
“Private property,” Pearl hissed, her gaze sweeping over the magical barrier before it latched on to the lone cottage in a corner. “Not just private property…”
“I know,” he said, taking her hand and squeezing it to keep her quiet. “No magic. It won’t work here.”
Not when the Council was the one that had erected this barrier in the first place.
The cottage was a simple brick structure with flower boxes under the windows and a vegetable patch in the front yard, but that was where the normalcy ended. He scanned the rest, from the web of ivy swallowing the forest patch at the side of the cottage to the pock marks scattered on the ground and nesting bones. She squeezed his hand in turn.
“He traps animals for food because he can’t get out. He uses the bones to lure more animals in and keep himself stocked for the cold weather. I knew his wife. I’ll handle him—”
The words died when they felt the shift of energy and found themselves staring at the barrel of a gun. Pampei Magoo held it from afar, but magic extended the weapon so that the end was inches from their faces. The man looked as ordinary as his cottage, but with violet eyes that seemed to look into his soul. Henry schooled his expression and moved to block Pearl, but she caught him off guard when she sidestepped his body wall and confidently sashayed toward the man and his gun.
“Hello, Mr. Magoo,” she greeted, ignoring Henry’s next hand squeeze and tugging on their joint hands. Not wanting to leave her behind, he reluctantly trailed after her. “I haven’t seen you in a while.”
Pampei studied her face, scanning her from her chin and resting on her eyes. Recognition flickered.
“Miss Sutton. I remember you.”
She grinned. “Of course, you do. I’m the one who gave you those potions to treat your wounds when you accidentally shot your foot. I see they’re healing well. You look well.”
Pampei didn’t acknowledge the memory, his attention shifting toward Henry. There was that quick scan to his face, too, and the same recognition, but this one was accompanied by a cold spark in the atmosphere.
