He glanced down at me. “Think you can do it with no one the wiser?”
I grinned. “Sure can. The earth will cover up the scent of my magic which should be faded by the time someone gets outhere to start work. Not that a Lord would closely supervise the manual labor something like this requires. Should be in the clear.”
“Good. Your friend on the other hand…” His voice trailed off. “She got a death wish or something?”
“Moira’s always been brave.”
His sharp look made me laugh.
“And a little insane,” I added. “Though she’s been relatively tame since she came to Joy Springs.”
He pointed at the broken window Moira had disappeared into. “That’s tame?”
I snickered. “You should have seen her six years ago.”
Moira rarely brought up how we’d met, but we both knew one thing: we’d saved each other.
Both of us were self-destructing one action at a time, and meeting each other had brought it home how much we needed another person to rely on. But it wasn’t my story to tell. Moira had been wounded in heart and soul, and I was right at the cusp of coming to terms with the divorce, the attack, and what I’d become afterward.
Looking back, maybe Moira had needed me a little more, but we’d locked onto each other and never let go. If this is what she needed to burn off some steam, I’d sit here and wait for her as long as need be.
The minutes passed by, and Garrett was getting antsy, shifting back and forth on his feet and wringing his hands. “She’s been in there for too long.”
“Tess hasn’t reacted. If anything was about to go wrong, she’d know.”
“She’s a kid,” he scoffed.
“She’s a banshee, and arguably more powerful than all of us.” In some ways, she was. Tess could travel wherever she wished, possess people, predict when someone was about to die, andmore. And I had no doubt she was keeping many things hidden from us.
Garrett’s brow furrowed. “No kidding?”
“Scout’s honor. If she was in any mortal danger, everyone in a four-block radius would know.”
“Huh. I’ve never been around banshees much.”
A light flickered in the house. Garrett’s posture straightened, eyes fixed straight ahead. A dark figure appeared from the same window and leapt off the roof in a lithe motion. Moira touched the ground and went into a roll before popping up and disappearing in a flash of light, almost invisible to the eye.
Seconds later, she appeared in front of us, grinning like a loon. “Done.”
“Ready for the next act?” I asked.
She nodded. “Do your worst.”
Headlights appeared in the long driveway. Tess popped out of existence.
“Hurry,” Moira said, an urgent note in her voice. We were concealed by tree cover, but we couldn’t linger for long.
“Cover me.”
Without waiting for an answer, I closed my eyes and wrapped a tendril of magic around the wisteria roots, whispering encouragement for them to grow, to tangle, to thrive.
Ever since my Chimera magic had merged with my Floromancy, I had to be careful with my power, otherwise it might spiral out of control. After months of practice, I had the amount of pressure needed for a fine operation like this almost down to a science.
The roots responded, winding tightly around Thorvin’s pipes. As they did their work, I sent my awareness to the oak, coaxing it just a little to speed up the natural process of utterly destroying Thorvin’s foundation.
The moment the pressure built, and the first crack appeared, I pulled my magic back and opened my eyes. “Give it twenty-four hours, maybe less.” Dusting my hands off, I stood and shivered. Regulating my temperature wasn’t usually an issue, but it was cold as hell out and burrowing into the ground took a lot of energy.
Moira grinned. “Same. Ready to go?”
