“I’m okay. I spent most of the night going through the books. I haven’t found a way to break the spell.”
“I might have a bead on that.” I dug around in the pastries and chose a chocolate glazed. Took a huge bite and moaned at the flaky, deep-fried, chocolate-covered goodness. I savored, then chewed and swallowed.
“Than says he can break it. Well, they can break it. With the marks,” I held up each hand in turn, “and his card.” I patted my back pocket.
Myra made a rewind gesture with her finger. “Back up. What card?”
I shoved more donut in my face and handed her the card.
“What does Hogan put in these?” I asked with my mouth full.
Jean grinned. “Amazing, right? He told me never to share the recipe. But it’s butter and cayenne.”
“Why does Than have a card?” Myra asked. “No, wait, I don’t care about that. How can this break the spell?”
“He said that, to break the spell, the people connected to the elements used in it have to claim ownership of me in some way. So, the tattoo from the Wolfes,” I held up my hand, “and the love pat from Bertie are their marks showing their claim. If Than marked me or claimed me, then the spell would break.”
Myra turned the card back and forth, held it up to the light, and rubbed her thumb over the letters. “But he can’t do that. You’re the Bridge.”
“Right. That card just means we’re friends.”
A passing seagull screeching out a give-me-the-french-fry call filled the long silence.
“But you’re already friends,” Jean pointed out. Spud found a pine cone the size of a fist and dropped it at her feet. She chucked it out into the field.
“He said if I call,whenI call, he will offer his full services. As if I hired him or something.”
Myra’s eyebrows went up.
“I don’t know what he meant by it either. That’s all he would say. When I pressed, he got all godly and mysterious.”
“Okay,” Myra said. “Okay. That’s…not bad.” She gave me the card.
Jean swiped dirt off her hands, and petted Spud on the head instead of picking up the slobbery half-destroyed pine cone again. “How does a card help?”
Myra picked up half an apple fritter and broke off a piece of it. “The marks left by the Wolfes and Bertie act as protection against anyone wanting to use their power against Delaney.”
“Than didn’t use his power on me.”
“I know. Friendship might be more like…”
“Adoption?” Jean grinned. “Did you just get a new deadly daddy, Delaney? Are we in-laws to Death? Because I’m so going to put that on my social media profile.”
“He didn’t adopt her,” Myra said. “It’s more like he’s offering protection services.”
“Ooooh,” Jean cooed. “Delaney’s got a bodyguard.”
“Delaney doesn’t need a bodyguard,” I said. “But a spell breaker? That I can use.” I tucked the card back in my pocket and started off toward the trees.
“Aren’t you going to call him right now?” Jean asked, matching my stride.
“Not yet. Now that I know I can break this, I want to interrogate our prisoner.”
“Poking demons isn’t a good idea, Delaney,” Jean said. “Unless it’s for sexy fun times, right, Myra?”
“No comment.” Myra finished off the fritter. She was ahead of me, working her way through the brush and trees.
Inside these woods, lay a specific kind of magic. The kind the gods who had first created this vacation space had decided would be warded and hidden and spelled up. A small building was built here.
