“Dec and I can guard you while you work,” Carter said.
“I feel so useless,” Hester mumbled.
I turned to reassure her, but Declan was already there, his arm around her shoulders.“You do something every day.I’ve seen the way you watch over them, making sure they’re all right, that no customers are being disrespectful.You’re like their fairy godmother.”
She huffed a laugh.
Warding the car didn’t take anywhere near as long as the house, property, and greenhouse.We needed to make sure the whole family was safe in their home.I also wove in a spell against the Swans and black magic.
On the drive home, Declan put my seat back and covered me with a flannel coat he had in the back seat.The coat was huge, so I used it like a blanket.
“Are you okay?”he said.“I can hear your teeth are chattering and it’s sixty degrees out.”
I nodded, the coat covering half my face to help warm me up.“I think I’m just tired.”
Declan’s phone rang through the screen on his SUV.Osso.Tapping the screen, he answered with a “Hey.”
“Oh, good,” Osso said.“I was at the gallery and your place.Are you home?”
“We’re driving home now,” Declan replied.“Why?What’s the problem?”
“Good.Don’t go home.Go to Orla’s bookstore.She says she found something in the woods we need to see.”
Declan glanced over at me.“Now’s not good.Arwyn is worn out.She needs food and sleep.”
I pushed down the coat, so it wasn’t covering my mouth.“Did Orla say what it was?”Orla was an owl shifter we’d met recently.She was a member of a supernatural group Declan and I were a part of.We worked with Detective Osso, his cousin Officer Garra, and an assortment of other supernaturals to hunt down and deal with supernatural criminals.We couldn’t leave it to the human police to catch and punish vampires or the fae or whatever.That was where we came in.Orla was new to the group but was proving to be extremely useful.
She owned Night Owl Books, a bookshop in a converted Victorian mansion butted up against the woods.As she was nocturnal, the bookshop was only open from eight at night to six in the morning.It was an insomniac’s dream.
“No.She didn’t say,” Osso replied.“She said it would make more sense if we saw it ourselves.”
“I’m okay,” I said.I checked the time on the screen.“It’s only a little after ten.I’m fine.”
“You’ve been working since six,” Declan argued.“You need sleep.”
I patted his arm.“And I will.Afterward.”
He growled, said, “Fine,” and stabbed the screen to end the call.“It’s too much,” he finally said.“Everyone treats you like you’re on call twenty-four-seven.This is going to get more difficult as you get farther along.”
“Who would you have me say no to?”I cut in.“Should I let Frank die so I can nap in peace?Should I let all those horribly murdered people remain hidden and forgotten so I can get some rest?Maybe I’ll sit back and let the Swans use their black magic, profaning the Goddess’s gifts, while they attack our home.”
I threw my hands up in frustration.“Telling me to stop doing so much without taking into account the real problems that have to be dealt with is going to make flames pop out of my head.”
He was quiet for a long time.“I don’t want you to combust.”He reached under the coat and took my hand.“I see all the pressure piling up on you and it kills me that I can’t take it on for you.I don’t have your gifts.I can’t do what you do.Apparently, all I can do is nag and add to the pressure.”
He drove through the neighborhood nearing the forest, then turned up Orla’s long drive to her house on the hill.
I squeezed his hand.“It’s notallyou do.I know I’m a pain?—”
“I’m not saying that.I love you.And I worry.”
“I worry too,” I whispered.“But before, it was always me alone in the night worrying.Now I have you to make sure I eat and sleep.You hold me so the nightmares don’t chip away at my sanity.You’re what makes this new life of mine worth living.”
I brought his hand to my lips as he parked.“I’ve lived longer than any Cassandra I’ve ever heard of.I’m actually having my own child.I’ve seen and experienced so many horrors, but having you gives me the light my life was missing.I need to use my gifts.I can’t turn them off.It runs through my veins.Having you here, though, afterward, loving me, taking care of me, it means the world to me.So don’t call it nagging.”
On a sigh, he leaned over and kissed me.
We both jumped at the rap on his window.Declan growled loudly, his eyes turning gold.
