If he had, I wouldn’t be forced to re-live it again for a group of witches. There was tempting fate with my fickle emotions and inviting disaster. Crying in front of them was sure to earn me reproach, and I didn’t want to hear it. Not after everything I’d been through.
“He managed to explain the gist of it, between lobbing hexes at Imani. She keeps getting him back, and I swear one of these days it’s going to be an all-out duel. Not because they have any problems with each other but because they’d enjoy figuring out who’s best. I swear, witches and their pride sometimes…”
I thought that statement was nicely ironic, considering the person I was talking to, but I’d never admit it out loud. Wandaprobablywouldn’t hex me for pointing out the flaw in her logic, but why tempt fate?
“Have Betanya or Olga come up with anything yet?”
Wanda shrugged one graceful shoulder. “Not that I know of. But I’ve also been pretty busy, myself.”
“You?”
She nodded. “I’ve been taking out the trash. There was a lot of debris on the floor.”
I couldn’t imagine Wanda handling trash, and the image almost made me want to laugh. But then I thought about what the state of Finn’s room had to look like and the idea of even smiling left me. After Frank, it had taken a long time for Finn to feel comfortable expressing attachment to anything. For a miserable stretch, we’d both had to get used to the sound of glass, metal, and plastic shattering against the walls. Anything I bought to replace his smashed possessions would just end up as the next night’s shrapnel. Darla had protected Finn where she could, but Frank had been a mean ghost. He’d terrorized other spooks, as well as the living.
But you aren’t dealing with a ghost, Poppy,I reminded myself.You’re dealing with... something.
The forced pep talk wavered and died as the image of thatthingpopped into my head. It had been too solid and too lizard-like to be a ghost... right? There were spectral animal spirits in Haven Hollow, but they were usually dogs and they were usually confined to graveyards.
Which you live by,I reminded myself.And you’ve seen stranger magic than this.
That thought was also hard to argue with. Ihadseen stranger. A lot stranger, in fact. I’d seen a genuine body-swap. I’d seen our vampire dentist cursed into a duck. I’d seen faerie wars and been pursued by an actual Greek Fury.
“Was anything salvageable?” I managed to croak. The desire to cry kept mounting, and I had a feeling was going to lose the battle against the tears soon.
Wanda’s eyes softened infinitesimally. “It’s all replaceable, Poppy.”
The evasive answer told me all I needed to know. If there’d been anything left undamaged, Wanda would have jumped on it to spare my feelings. She cursed when one fat tear squeezed past my control and rolled down my cheek.
“Oh, come here, you,” Wanda said, seizing me by the wrist.
She all but frog-marched us into the foyer. Maverick and Imani glanced up from their argument to consider us. The lines around Maverick’s eyes tightened when he saw me. If I looked like hell a few hours ago, I probably looked like the bottom of the pit now.
Wanda jabbed a finger at him.
“You get into the kitchen and make Poppy a cup of coffee. Imani, I’d like you to see what you can do for Andre before he goes to sleep.”
Imani nodded and turned toward us, dismissing Maverick from her attention with a flick of her hair. I didn’t resist when she put a supporting arm around Andre and helped him hobble up the stairs. Now that the disaster was over, my knees felt like Jell-O. I was surprised I’d been able to support him from the car to the door.
It was a relief when Wanda pushed me down into a kitchen chair. Maverick forced a steaming mug into my hand a minute later. His flinty stare was something to cling to while I struggled not to sink down into an extended depression nap.
“Just tell me,” I said wearily. “Did anything in the room survive?”
“The bed is dinged up but still functional. Whatever attacked you wasn’t strong enough to rip the shelving from the walls oroverturn Finn’s desk. Any magical paraphernalia Finn had came through without a scratch. It’s my theory that they were too powerfully magical for the creature to touch.”
“Too powerful?” I repeated faintly. “What do you mean?”
Maverick settled into the chair next to mine, never quite breaking eye contact. “I’m saying his powers are growing, and he’s been hiding the extent of it. I don’t know if he’s scared of said powers or scared of how you’d react to them. I think you’ll agree both are a problem.”
I sank a little further in my chair, praying that it was the former, not the latter. I couldn’t deny I’d overreacted in the past. Could Finn still be concerned that I disapproved of his abilities?
To my surprise, Maverick took my hand in his. His skin felt feverishly warm against mine. The chill of the waiting room clung to me like a shroud. The coffee was thawing me bit by bit, but I still felt frozen. Helpless and horrified.
“He’s going to be a powerhouse,” Maverick said. “A young man with serious magical ability. I know it’s not what you wanted or expected, Poppy, but it’s the truth. I know better than anyone what happens when someone like that doesn’t get support.”
“I don’t care that he’s a Magician. It’s not the power I mind at all. I’m so proud of how much he’s grown, but...” A hard knot formed in my throat, choking off my air. It took a few sips of black coffee to loosen it enough to speak. “But I’m just soscaredfor him. Power attracts a certain level of danger, and I could never forgive myself if he...”
Got hurt. Or the unthinkable.All because I’d moved us into this Hollow. It was getting more dangerous out there by the day. I had actualenemiesnow.
