But I was not about to be cast aside. This was my land. The things and people in this house were mine to protect. The people and creatures who came to this Crossroads were mine to turn away or welcome.
She wasnotwelcome here.
“So direct,” she said. “How repugnant.”
“Stel, you don’t like me, I hate you, so tell me what you want or get the hell off my property.”
From the look on her face, no one had spoken like that to a wizard of her stature in decades.
She narrowed her eyes. “You are an abomination. Nothing but scum sitting on a shallow puddle of magic.”
“Uh-huh. I don’t give a crap what you think about me. Why are you here? On my land? Threatening me?”
“Cardamom Oak,” she said. Because of course he was the reason she was here. “I claim him.”
Wow. That was some archaic shit. “You can’t claim a human. He has free will.”
“He’s half dryad and a wizard. I claim him and the debt he owes me.”
“Card,” I said. “Do you want to go with her?” I knew he was behind me, just on the other side of the doorway.
“No.”
Stel didn’t look pleased with his answer. “This isn’t your choice, Oak.”
The tattoos on my arms flared with heat, but the infinity sign over my heart felt cool and minty.
The first tattoo Card had given me was a lock on my wrist that had helped me ignore the Crossroads magic while I decided whether I was going to become the Crossroads’ keeper or turn away from it forever.
But the infinity sign had been the first actual connection between myself and this magical place.
The magic Card had created, mixed, improvised to connect me to the Crossroads was not as powerful as the magic wizards trained to use, but it was very, very flexible.
It had been given as a gift. To save a life.
Which gave me an idea.
“Card, do you owe a debt to this woman?”
“No. She negated our contract when she tortured me and made plans to hunt down my tree and kill it.”
Well, hell. There was a lot Card hadn’t told me yet.
“Will you accept my protection and the protection of this land?”
“Yes.” He did a pretty good job keeping his surprise out of his voice.
“Good. I give you my protection, Cardamom Oak, dryad-wizard. With this ink, I so seal our bargain. Come forward.”
I could feel him hesitate. Staying inside the house wouldn’t do much to keep him safe from Stel, but I was sure she had a plan to force him to go with her and was just waiting to attack.
I was gambling on Card taking this step forward. I was gambling on him trusting me not to turn him over to the wizard, to the Halls.
And Card, magic bless him, strolled out onto the porch like he was going for a walk along the shore.
“Hey, Ricks,” he said, addressing me first, which was petty and made Stel scowl.
I wasn’t sure this was going to work. I hadn’t tried it with anyone before, but even if there wasn’t a physical representation of my claim to protect Card, I knew will and intent made all the difference with magic—any kind of magic.
