Her words burrowed their way into my heart, leaving a tiny kernel ofsomethingin their wake. It emboldened me to ask her for something that I had been dying to see again.
“Can I see your magic again?” I asked, changing the subject entirely. My eyes were glued to her so that I could watch for any hint of reluctance.
The guys had been strict about her use of magic, probably afraid that she’d accidentally light the house on fire or some shit, so the last time I’d seen it had been in the living room.
My mother always believed in magic, regaling my younger self with stories about people who used to use magic and how it had died out as time went on. Ever since Juneau had fallen into our laps, that piece of my childhood seemed to reawaken inside me, bringing with it an intense wonder at how she could conjure up fire from nothing.
Juneau didn’t seem taken aback by my question. Instead she smiled and brought her palm up in between us, closing her eyes in order to focus. After a moment, a small flame blinked into existence, floating over her hand. Juneau’s sudden grin was illuminated by the fire’s warm, golden glow.
“Don’t tell the others, but I’ve been sneaking into the backyard at night to practice,” Juneau told me in a hushed whisper, her eyes glittering with mischief as she shaped the flame into a ball and then into something that looked like a flaming horse.
“It’s amazing,” I breathed, my eyes glued onto the flame as she manipulated it. “I wish that I could have you in my room at night.”
Juneau’s expression shifted to surprise and I realized how my words must have sounded.
“As a nightlight,” I hurried to say, blushing for what felt like the first time in my life. I had never been one to become flustered before, and the emotion made me uncomfortable.
“A nightlight?” Juneau asked as she reached down and picked up my hand. She flipped it so that it was palm up and set the flame above my palm, her brows furrowing with concentration to keep it alight. “Why do you need a nightlight?”
“I uh…” I swallowed heavily. I hadn’t meant to tell her about that, but I’d been so preoccupied with the fire that it just slipped out. “I can’t sleep in total darkness, it makes me feel claustrophobic.”
When I was small, one of Tug’s punishments was to shove me under the floorboards in his bedroom closet. Ever since then, darkness made me panic in a way that was both violent and terrifying. The few times the rest of the pack had seen me when I woke up in the dark had made them flinch away from me for weeks afterward.
“I wish I could have something like this all the time,” I confessed as the flame shriveled until it was gone, the only remnants that it had existed at all came from the warmth still lingering on my palm. “Then I wouldn’t have to ever worry about batteries or the power going out.”
Juneau looked like she wanted to ask something. Her blue eyes held a note of the same kind of sympathy that would normally have grated on my nerves, but instead made me want to spill all of my dirtiest secrets to her.
She pulled her bottom lip in between her teeth before opening her mouth only to be interrupted by the door of the house opening.
“Juneau!” Doc called from the back porch. “The BBs are here with some new things for you to try on.”
“Okay!” Juneau shouted back, her eyes still on my face.
“You better get back inside,” my words were gruff as I leaned away from her, our soft moment broken.
She stood reluctantly and started to walk away. Halfway across the yard, she paused and turned back to look at me. Even in the dimness of the backyard, I could still see the pink in her cheeks as she spoke again.
“If you ever need a human nightlight, all you need to do is call. No one should ever feel afraid of the monsters that hide in the dark when they have people around to turn on the light,” she said before she turned and hurried into the house, her golden curls bouncing as she ran.
I watched the door she disappeared through for a long time, feeling a bit dumbfounded. She didn’t know anything about my past, and had never experienced a life like I had… so why did she know exactly what to say to make me feel better?
I kneaded a fist into my chest as that tiny kernel ofsomethingpulsed with a warmth that reminded me of the flame that she’d just created for me.
Then the sound of flapping wings drew my attention away from my thoughts about the strange omega.
“Oi, you ladies better not be fucking fighting again!” I stood from the bench and hurried back to the coop, intent on breaking up the WWE pigeon smack-down that was undoubtedly happening inside. I would have to deal with my feelings about Juneau Wilde later.
Chapter Sixteen
“Areyousureyou can’t tell me where we’re going?” I asked blindly as I held onto Podcast’s hands, letting him pull me carefully up the stairs. It had been a week since our trip to Wilde manor and I’d spent most of it trying to learn how to act like I was someone from the future.
Between learning the basics from Doc, sign language from Podcast, and what they were calling ‘media training’ from Storm, I often collapsed into bed at the end of the day too exhausted to do much of anything else.
My speech had even started to relax as I watched all of Storm’s favorite television shows. We were watching a show called The Office, and while most of the jokes flew completely over my head, I still enjoyed watching Storm laugh at them.
He was definitely the quietest of the pack, but not in the way that Bat was quiet. Bat was broody and intense, but Storm was, quite literally, like a warm rain.
He was also damp most of the time as it had been raining nearly every day. I could often hear the screen door to the backyard slamming followed by Doc or Rex yelling at him to not track water inside.
