The cauldron sizzled. Lynx waved his hands over it, yellow mist rising from its depths. They streaked toward the boxes, slowly opening them one at a time and setting the items in the correct room before disappearing the box and moving onto the next one below it.
“Sorry. I hope this doesn’t make you uncomfortable,” I said, fumbling around a bit. Nursing had gotten a lot easier since Aspen had turned about twelve weeks, but it had been a struggle off and on leading up to that. Even so, I still lacked the confidence of other mothers I saw who could do it with so much grace and not an ounce of spit-up on their wardrobe.
“Not at all.” Lynx was still respectfully keeping his eyes on unpacking the boxes in the dining area. “Can’t blame a witchling for wanting to be well fed.” He smirked to himself. “Can I get you anything?”
“My coffee would be amazing.”
“Of course.” Doing a few more swishes of his fingers for his casting, more wisps of yellow mist swam out of the cauldron, this time heading for the nursery and my bedroom.
“You seem to have a knack with kids. Do you have any of your own?” I called over to him, trying to not be too loud as I noticed Aspen’s lids flutter.
Thank Goddess.A nap was in sight.
“Nope. Though my sister has two and my brother has four, so I’ve had a lot of practice with my nieces and nephews. Plus, kids are much easier for me to understand compared to adults.”
“Do you get to see them a lot?” I asked.
He was quiet, the usual upturned quirk of his lips morphing into a straight line. “No. Unfortunately they don’t live near here. They are in Oregon.”
“Is that where you’re from?” I felt Aspen pop off my breast and knew he was asleep. Peeking through the neckline of my shirt, I caught him dozing with his open mouth pulled up in a slight smile. I refastened my nursing bra, leaving him to nap in my lap, stroking his cheek with my thumb.
“Yeah, I grew up there.” Lynx headed to the counter, taking a sip of his coffee before grabbing my cup to bring it over to me.
“I’m from there as well. Which community did you grow up in?”
“None actually.” He shrugged. “I was raised in a mortal neighborhood. My mother is one. So are both my siblings.”
“Oh, wow.” It was very unusual for supernaturals to build families outside of the magically blessed community, even stranger to raise supernaturally gifted children there. Thanks to leaders stepping up into what eventually became our own secret government decades ago, we had found a way to live around mortals while still being under the radar for the most part. I’d never lived in the mortals’ territory, but I did visit it plenty of times with Atlas when we both lived in the city. “What was that like?”
“Different, but I’m grateful for it in a lot of ways.”
I eagerly took a sip of my coffee, enjoying the chocolate and hit of raspberry and the fact that it was warm. “A midnight mocha. How did you know?”
“Saros has an impressive memory.”
Well, at least now I could stop calling himthe broody brewista.
“I asked what you got yesterday, and he hooked me up.” Lynx tapped his black to-go cup with mine before taking a sip. Café au Luna’s crescent-shaped logo was stamped on the cardboard band around it. “When it comes down to it, mortals aren’t that different. They have all the same fears and feelings we have.”
“That’s true. I’ll admit, I haven’t had a ton of experience with mortals. I was raised in Arbor Sanctum.” Hidden within Oregon’s mortal capital was our own, the epicenter of supernatural magic in a veiled, thriving metropolis.
“Oh,theArbor Sanctum? My dad grew up there before he met my mom, and I worked in the capital for a while.”
“Small world.” I smiled and took another sip, savoring the warmth as it traveled down my throat. “A hot cup of coffee is very rare around here. By the time I remember I have some and get Aspen to sleep it’s usually room temp if not frigid.”
“Well, cold brew is very trendy,” he replied with a wink that made my gift sizzle in all the right places.
I laughed, then quickly cut myself off, remembering that I still didn’t know where Hazel was. How could I be laughing and enjoying anything without knowing for certain that she was all right?
“It’s going to be okay, Oakley,” Lynx said, grasping my hand gently. He ran his thumb back and forth, stroking the space between mine and my pointer finger. Lifting his hand, he traced along the line of my jaw until I looked up at his face. His sienna eyes shone with such gravity that all I wanted to do was drown in their glittering pools. My heart raced, gift prickling beneath my skin, parched and eager, driving me closer.
I bit my bottom lip, and his lashes dropped to the action, lips parting.
I hesitated. Could my gift be doing something to him?
No.That would be impossible. My ability had been dormant for months. Even if I could feel it layers deep, it didn’t work. Couldn’t work.
Which meant…
