He had seen something when he touched me.
Somehow, he’d managed to pull a memory of mine. My guess was something from the hours since we’d last seen him due to the strange blend of hues and flavors coming off him. It felt like a flare of jealousy mixed in with…something else? I should have asked Lynx more about how people’s emotions presented themselves instead of just fumbling through it.
I brought the coffee cup to my lips and took a sip, savoring the sweet raspberry with its tart undercurrent as it hit my tongue. How did he always manage to have the drink at the perfect temperature?
There probably was a spell for that.
He joined us on the floor, leaning against the love seat.
“So Hazel is in Celestial Haven?” I asked, eager to find my sister.
“Yes.” Saros picked up his coffee, taking a sip and releasing a sigh. A heaviness settled over him, like a blanket of exhaustion hovering over his aura, but he had worked a full day at the truck and now had his second job, well really his first, to contend with. I suspected his work didn’t end until he found who or what he was looking for. “Her presence is near. I’m wondering if she could even be somewhere on Starry Night Lane.”
“This close?” Lynx asked, brow furrowed in confusion. “Wouldn’t any of the neighbors be acting stranger than usual if she were here somewhere?”
“The connection I got from Oakley’s tattoo was very strong. That makes me think the tether between them isn’t extended too far.”
“Do you want to try again?” I asked, feeling better than I had prior to him doing the spell this morning.
“No,” Saros and Lynx said in unison.
Well then.
“But we can’t exactly go house to house without arousing suspicion. It would have been ideal to do it when we’d had the moonluck and everyone was out at the Wellses’ place.”
“I might have an idea,” I volunteered, and their attention snapped to me. “I was invited to the blackout bash.”
“You were?” Lynx asked. “How did you manage that?”
I shrugged, then placed my cup on the coffee table before standing up with Aspen and taking him to his room to put him down for the night. “Aurora came over to Ivy and Jade and invited me along.”
When I returned from the nursery, the two were whispering to each other, bickering over something from the feel of it, though even that was starting to get fuzzy, the effects of the transference already beginning to wane.
“That could be perfect,” Lynx agreed, cutting off whatever he and Saros were talking about when he noticed me standing there.
“That’s what I’m thinking.” I picked up my coffee cup, taking another sip and humming with satisfaction. Ribbons of fuchsia curled around me, the smell of freshly baked brownies wafting through the air.
I looked them both over. Lynx was all smiles while Saros’s jaw was pulled taut, lips pressed together.
“How so?” Saros asked, not seeming to be on board with this idea.
“We’ve been wanting to get a better idea of what goes on at the blackout bash, especially since every disappearance has coincided with the new moon.”
I shook my head. “That can’t just be a coincidence.”
“If it’s not, you really want to put her in danger?” Saros replied with a glare in Lynx’s direction.
“Isn’t there some sort of spell you could do or a listening device, camera, something you could strap to me?”
“A magic one would be ideal, but that could take too much from you, considering your current state. We have other options, though,” Saros said, tapping his fingers as if listing them off in his head.
I took a deep breath, steeling my resolve. “Then let’s do it.”
“Perfect.” Lynx clapped his hands together before Saros could continue on, his pleasant way of cutting the conversation off. The air hung thick between them. I was pretty sure they were going to have a fun conversation when they left.
Glad I was missing out on that.
“One of us can do some recon while the other stays in the truck nearby in case Oakley needs back up,” Lynx suggested.
