“Can we reverse it?” I wondered.
My aunt’s mouth twisted to the side as she contemplated the best course of action. “The elementals, perhaps. The shifters, unlikely. For the elementals, we just need to dampen the magic in their blood, but the shifters have literally had their molecules rearranged. It’s jarring on the psyche doing that change once, to repress it would likely sentence them to death.”
“Do you have what you need to reverse it?” Robert asked.
My aunt raised a brow, rolled up the sleeves of her frumpy cardigan, and smirked at him. “I was born ready to fix my sister’s fuck-ups, Sheriff.”
Robert darted a look at me. Yup, she’d spilled the fact that my family was behind this particular fuck-up.
“Later,” I muttered as we emerged from the curtains.
“They are remarkably calm,” I said, noting the slightly sleepy look on everyone’s faces.
Robert ran a hand over his head. “We might have hot boxed the room to stop them accidentally killing each other.”
I blinked. Mr Right and Proper using illegal drugs? Wow. That must be the smell I’d picked up on when I first came in.
My aunt nodded. “Very smart, the drugs would likely have dulled their newly-formed connection. That’s a good thing, it will be easier for us to suppress it.”
“Us?“ I wondered how I’d been roped into this.
“Of course. And the sheriff—I’ll need to channel three of us.”
“I’ve got about as much magic as Magic Mike,” he grumbled.
“There’s a lot of magic in those strapping young men. The way they gyrate—hot damn.”
I choked on air, making Aunt Sophia roll her eyes. “I’m aging, not dead, grandniece.”
I shook my head, trying to dislodge the image of my aunt and the cast of Magic Mike having a dance session. Nope, no, definitely not. Too late, the memory was burned in there now. Damn it. I would need therapy.
“Hold hands,” she instructed as she held both of hers out, I grasped it and Robert’s, he completed the circle and eyeballed me.
“I specifically said to keep me out of your supernatural shenanigans,” he grumbled.
“You called me, remember?”
“Shush, I need to concentrate,” my aunt commanded.
A yank on my magic made me bristle. “Don’t fight it,” she muttered.
I gritted my teeth and allowed her access, Robert flinched as she pulled from him too. The newly-emerged elementals in the room fell into a hush as they focused their attention on the three weirdos holding hands. My aunt began chanting in a language I wasn’t sure of. Russian, perhaps?
She dragged our hands up in the air and we followed. A swell of power pulsed in the center of us and then exploded. Our hands broke apart and our asses hit the floor. I looked behind me, finding every other person in the room out cold, except me and Aunt Sophia.
“Please tell me they aren’t dead,” I whispered.
“Don’t be ridiculous, I am not Eloise. My magic is more precise, I don’t accidentally murder entire towns because I miscalculated.”
Miscalculated? Peach Tree had been a failed test, and now that she had the Red Dragon, she’d decided to give it another shot. We’d scorched her crop of Datura, and she’d gotten creative, somehow delivering a powerful spell to these innocent folks. She’d made herself a mini army of elementals. They were untrained, which meant they’d be looking for guidance, leadership—and that’s where Eloise would swoop in and gather them into the tender embrace of The Order. It was both brilliant and diabolical.
I rolled and got to my feet, then held out a hand for Aunt Sophia. She slapped it away and rose of her own accord.
“I’m old, not dead, we covered this.”
And now my mind was back to Magic Mike. Thank you, universe.
Chapter Twenty-Six
