AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“No, sorry. What with all the Canberra business, it completely slipped my mind.” He studied me shrewdly for a moment. “Why? Haven’t the problems the wellspring was causing settled down now that you’ve returned?”
“To an extent,” I said, “but there’s not as many wild threads floating about as usual, and it worries me.”
“It could simply be that all the protection and containment spells we’ve looped around it are finally having an effect.”
I was shaking my head before he’d even finished. “It’s more than that. There was an odd sense of urgency in the thread that came to me yesterday, and I’ve got a bad feeling there’s something going on we need to know about.”
“I’ll get straight back to reading it, then,” Eli said, “but have you tried talking to Katie?”
I shook my head. “Haven’t had the time, to be honest.”
“Might be worth finding the time,” Ashworth said. “If thereissomething going on with the older wellspring, then surely she’d know about it, given her merger with the newer one.”
“Make sure you take plenty of water with you,” Ashworth said. “It’s a hell of a walk getting to that place, and we don’t want you getting heatstroke.”
“Not that either of us actually know what sort of walk it is,” Eli added wryly, “given we never really got that far.”
That was because a Marin werewolf had heard them way before they’d ever gotten near the wellspring, despite the fact they’d been using a spell to cover their presence. Even if the wolf hadn’t been near, I personally doubted either Katie or Gabe would have let them enter the clearing—the pair protected their haven fiercely.
I kissed them on the cheeks and then quickly scooted out the front door to avoid letting much cool air escape. Dark clouds were gathering, blown toward us by a strengthening wind, suggesting the storm would hit us later tonight.
I jumped into the truck and started her up to get the air-con going again, and then reached out to Belle.How busy is the café? Do you need me there?
It’s calmed right down now that we’ve been eaten out of cake again.Her mental tones were dry.Why? What do you want to do?
Thought I might head up to see Katie. I want to talk to her about the wild magic.Meaning I was totally ignoring the advice just given, but I couldn’t escape the notion that it needed to be done sooner rather than later.
What’s wrong with the wild magic?
There’s not much of it about at the moment, and the stuff that is holds an undefined urgency.
Maybe it hates foliage-killing, flesh-freezing snakes as much as we do.
I laughed.Well, anything with any sort of sentience would.
Are you going to come back for the SUV?
You don’t need it to go home?
Monty’s picking me up in an hour. He’s planning to let me run into the fish and chip shop while he keeps the rattletrap and the air-con running.
I snorted.How very generous of him.
His words exactly.
I grinned.Leave me a list of anything you don’t get done, and I’ll finish it tonight.
I thought Aiden was coming around?
He is, but not until later, so I’ll just head straight to the wellspring. It’ll save a little time.
Ah, okay. Drive carefully on that damn road, though. Aiden won’t be pleased if you write off his truck.
Surely even I couldn’t be unfortunate enough to roll a vehicle off that road a third time.
She groaned.Did you have to say that? You know fate can never resist a challenge.
I laughed again.Okay, so maybe I will drop by and grab the SUV. It’s full of bullet holes anyway, so if I do roll it, it’s not going to do too much more damage.
