“It is,” Max said with a laugh. “I think in some ways it’s better than the more popular superpowers out there.”
A thought occurred to him, and he went on, “It never worked with you, though. Not that I wanted you to ignore me!” he added quickly. “Just, when we very first met, I didn’t want anyone at all to see me. But you saw through it all without even trying.”
He could see now that it was almost certainly because she was his mate. And maybe that meant that the other people who had been only somewhat affected by his powers were shifters, given that Levi was a shifter and he’d had that kind of strange reaction? Although that would mean that there were an awful lot of shifters in this town.
It must be that they’re shifters – they can’t all be my mate. That would be way too much of a good thing. Poppy is more than enough for me.
Poppy smirked a little. “Is that because I’m just so wonderful and amazing?”
He grinned back. “Of course.”
“Right answer. You’ve earned yourself a macaron.” She held her phone up to the dented, scuffed box, squinting at the label inside. “Looks like they’re all seasonal flavors – gingerbread, eggnog, candy cane, spiced apple and custard. I already had one of the candy cane ones. What flavor do you want?”
“Nog me,” he said, and Poppy pulled out a macaron, before placing it between her teeth and leaning forward, passing half of it to him with a kiss while gently biting off the other half for herself.
“How was that, Aubrey?” she asked teasingly. “Exquisite?”
Max laughed, only a little embarrassed. “Sure, let’s go with that.”
He didn’t really want to think about how the delicate shell crunched, or the texture of the filling, or what its flavor profile was – mostly, he just thoughtthat’s really good. While he liked his job, sometimes he found it intruding upon everything he ate, even outside of work. For now, he was happy just to enjoy the macaron for its own sake. And the next macaron, too.
He was about to make a start on macaron number three when suddenly his ears caught a sound outside the cabin – he didn’t think that he would’ve picked up on it normally, but it seemed like there were a lot of things about himself he was going to have to relearn.
That was a footstep.
His manticore agreed, on high alert, all its earlier fractiousness gone.
“Wait here,” he murmured, standing up and picking up the rusty ax. Poppy turned off her cellphone light, and said nothing.
Another footstep crunched in the snow outside, soft but unmistakable.
Peering through the dirty window, Max could see shapes moving through the trees, too distant to identify in the darkness.
He opened the door, tension running through his body, his manticore ready and waiting. Together, they would do whatever it took to protect Poppy.
What hewasn’tready for, he had to admit, was an enormous winged creature coming in for a quick landing right in front of him, plopping down almost vertically into the snow.
His manticore bared its fangs, starting to force a shift before Max was even aware of what it was doing, and it was only by sheer force of will that he managed to hold it back.
Wait! Just one moment! I think I know who this is.
The creature stretched out its wings, raising its lion’s head – and if Max had somehow not managed to recognize the chimera, he certainly would’ve managed to recognize the figure perched on its back.
“Oh! Max!” Margot exclaimed, hopping down lightly. She blinked her enormous eyes. “You’ve grown a mustache! That was fast.”
Max sighed, and did his utmost not to rub at his face – probably all he would do at this point was smear the ink around. Behind him, he could hear Poppy laughing.
The chimera shimmered and shifted, revealing a concerned-looking Levi. “Is everything okay here? Margot detected some pretty intense magical activity again.”
“Yeah, I think so.” Max peered around Levi, looking out into the forest. “Except that I think there’s someone else nearby.”
“Oh, it’s just us,” came a voice that Max immediately recognized as Kieran’s, and he emerged from the trees, Natasha at his side. “We saw that note sticking out from under Poppy’s door with the coordinates listed, and became concerned.”
“Especially since once we pulled the notebook out, we could see that it was accompanied by threats to kill,” added Natasha.
Max wasn’t quite sure what they were referring to, but he had to assume that that was how the fae had lured Poppy here. So much had happened in the past few hours that he thought it was going to take them a week to work it all out.
Beyond that, he noticed a tickling in the back of his mind that he’d never felt before – and now it seemed to be pulling in two directions, toward Levi and Kieran. It took him a moment to work it out.
