“Yeah,parameters. Like you stay in the car,” Zane muttered, jabbing at his ham. “With the doors locked. And a protection circle. And maybe in a different zip code.”
“I’ll take those parameters under advisement, Zoodle,” she said, a phrase she’d clearly picked up from Cas, and my lips twitched.
She raised her free hand over the table. Her slender fingers stretched and curled, and for a heartbeat, I saw it. The faintest shimmer in the air, moonlight where it shouldn’t be. The effort cost her; a tremor ran through her, and the light flickered out like a candle in the wind.
“See?” she said, breathless. “Coming back already.”
But pallor washed over her face, and she rubbed her breastbone with a grimace. I caught her elbow as she swayed, her collarbones still razor sharp beneath Cas’ cashmere sweater.
“You’re shaking.” I wrapped my arm around her shoulders, pulling her into my side.
“Dark take it, Seri!” Cas barked. “You know you shouldn’t do that! Using your magic before your reservoir refills only slows the process! You’re draining yourself over and over for no reason!”
She flinched at his volume, and I saw his immediate regret at both words and tone.
“We just want you safe and healthy,” I said.
“I know, butIwant to feel useful. I need to feel like more than just something to be protected.” She turned to another page in her notebook, this one with skillful caricatures of each of us, Brumous included, in the margins. “I made a list of ways I could contribute without being in danger.”
“Such as?” Cas rumbled.
“Surveillance.” She tapped the first bullet point, a silver star sticker. “I could use shadow walk to scout ahead.”
“The same shadow walk you’ve used exactly one time, accidentally at that, since we found you?” Zane’s voice might have sounded casual, but Cas and I knew better. “The same shadow walk that knocked you unconscious afterwards?”
“I could stay in the SUV and monitor communications.”
“And if something attacked the SUV?” Cas asked.
“I could help research. Investigate things you recover or look up details about a target before you go hunting.”
“You already are,” I pointed out. “From the lab. Doing a damn good job of it, too.”
“Baby, we’re not sayingnever.” Zane broke into deadass sincerity as her bottom lip quivered and her eyes glossed over. “We’re sayingnot until you’re ready. We’re the experts at this. Trust us to know when you’re ready, and it’s not today.”
“How about we see what happens at the next full moon?” I suggested a compromise. “If your magic stabilizes by then, we can discuss a limited role on a low-risk hunt. We could also adjust the wards for you to practice shadow walking in and out of Evermere. Would you like that?”
As she considered it, turning the pencil over in her fingers, Cas opened his mouth to refuse, but I caught his eye.Give her something.His lips pinched, but he dipped his chin in a tiny nod.
“But only if you promise not to access your magic until it’s fully restored,” he relented.
“That means no shadow walking.” Zane shook his finger at her. “Not even accidentally.”
Her smile blossomed, lighting her entire face, and my shoulders relaxed. Her happiness was worth any risk, any compromise.
“Deal,” she said, scribbling furiously in her notebook. “No unsupervised magic or practicing shadow travel until the next full moon.” She looked up at us through her lashes. “Then reassess.”
The qualifier was there like a storm warning. I knew that look in her eyes, the one that said she’d already started planning her next move…
Which she’d just made, I realized now.
Clever girl.A smile pulled at my lips as I went over to rescue Zane from Brumous.Our clever, clever girl.
2. Whatever This Is
Arabesque Harrow
Austin Cho’s head had fetched a pretty price. The generous bounty on that foolish kitchen boy was going to fund my European shopping spree nicely. I traced my finger over the map spread across my desk, circling cities with the best witches’ markets and supernatural apothecaries. Places where Dark magic flowed like wine and cosmic laws bent under the weight of enough dollars. Places where I could acquire what I needed without leaving a trail back to this pathetic farmhouse I’d claimed as my temporary seat of power.
