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“Agreed,” Darla said. “I’m with Ayla that she likely beat it back to Canid if she got singled out or there was too much trouble. Either that or she spirited off to her closest sires.”
“Let’s hope that’s the case if we don’t find her. But tomorrow morning, I want us on our way to Everton’s old coven. We’ve already lost enough time, and the Shrouded Shriek has made it clear he knows about us.”
“About that,” Mad Dog interrupted. “Why is he taking such a direct interest in us? Like, all of us know that our relic hunt is important, but his lot shouldn’t have any idea that we even exist.”
Thatwasa good question, although it didn’t sit well in my chest. Something about our whole situation seemed like a setup. If I didn’t know better, I'd have thought our enemy had somehow gotten word of our antics. But that was impossible. The only people who knew were the people in our party and Oren, who’d never betray his captain.
Could… could it be Irina?
That made my stomach twist even more, so I decided to just ignore it. That turned out to be for the better, anyway, and our group split up, once again, with Darla walking up and down streets to see if she could read any leads from the townsfolks’ minds, and Kai to the southern forest edge, then Tristian and Mad Dog to the west.
“Should I take the south?” I said, surprised that Kai would be fine with me running a search on my own. I figured his inner wolf wouldn’t be into that idea, considering how newly mated we were. To be perfectly honest, my own beast wasn’t exactly so happy about it, either.
“No, I want you to stay here and hold down the fort,” Kai said. He managed to say it so matter of fact, which was impressive considering that it was complete and totalbullshit.
“I think Fort Canid is too far for me to keep an eye on any part of it,” I said sharply, but I didn’t know what he expected. He was clearly sidelining me, and I wasanythingbut a pillow princess. I wasn’t going to let him lock me up in the tower of the Blair house just because his wolf was feeling too overprotective.
“You know what I mean.”
“Do I?”
I was ready to throw down for it, I really was, but he sent me such a pleading look that I eased off a bit. I supposed I couldn’t really give him flack for feeling tetchy. It wasn’t like either of us had ever been mated before, and we were also being hunted by one of the most powerful magic users our enemies possessed.
“All right,” I said finally with a sigh. I was definitely treading insubordination, but I was owed a little wiggle room, too.
Once that’d been settled, my companions began to head out. I tried not to pout, as I was a grown ass woman and didn’t need to act like a spoiled teenager, but once I was alone, it was hard to not feel abandoned.
Granted, that vanished soon enough when the Blairs’ daughter wandered up to me, some jam on her cheek. I asked if I could wipe it off for her, as she was six and clearly didn’t need an adult to do everything for her, but she just nodded solemnly while looking up at me with wide eyes.
“Are you really a magical wolf?” she asked suddenly while I was mid-wipe. Goodness, there was nothing technically funny about her question, but the way she asked it tickled me pink.
“Kind of, but most would consider me more of a magical witch.”
“Witch? Like women on brooms with black cats?”
The girl had charm in spades. I’d suspected as much when she first approached us, but it was most definitely confirmed now. If Kai and I had pups, would they be precocious like their father, or dour like me?
Whoa, it waswaytoo soon to be thinking anything along those lines, especially since I was sure I’d have to re-cast the curse soon enough. I’d held off because Kai asked me to, but soon enough, he would see that I brought far more pain than I was worth.
“Yes, like magic,” I said, making sure to keep a smile on my face despite the dip in my mood. I didn’t want the little girl to think she was bringing me down.
“Ooo! Do a trick. Do a trick!”
How could I argue with that?
“Okay, but nothing too dangerous, okay?”
“Whatever you say, magical witch lady.”
Yup, definitely too cute. I just wanted to pinch her cheeks until they were a bright red, but I did manage to contain all of my pinching-related compulsions and instead summoned a small, sparkling magic to my palm.
It was a beginner spell—one of the first that witches often learned. It provided no heat and had no risk of combustion. Itwas just a glittering, wavering ball of light that could be set to fly around in different patterns. It was excellent for those who were still new to practicing their craft because it required focus and had quite visible results as to whether one was improving or not.
Naturally, the little girl was incredibly into the little trick, oohing and ahhing at first, then eventually chasing it all over the house. After a while, I let her catch it, thinking that would be a good way to wind down the spell, but then the little girl screamed that she was a star-catcher and began to run around the entire house to show the little light all of the “cool things her parents bought”.
It was so saccharine sweet, really, perhaps even teeth-achingly so, and despite my internal admonishments not to get carried away, I found myself daydreaming of having a daughter of my own: all wide eyed, too smart for her own good, making little magic spells of her own. Or maybe even a little boy? He’d have thick hair like his father, and paws far too big for him at first that he’d grow into, of that much I was sure.
Get a hold of yourself before you break your own heart.
