“Hi,” I said with a little wave. “I’m Bec.”
“Hello, Bec, I’m sure you already know I’m Elena,” she said with a regal nod of her head. “Danzig, Marduk, it’s nice to see you both again. I can feel that you have questions. You are welcome in my home.”
She turned and walked back into the house, leaving the front door wide open. I looked over at Danzig.
“How did that tiny woman give birth to Mason?” I whispered. “The man is massive and she’s so small.”
Danzig snorted, then put a hand at the small of my back and urged me to walk forward. “We shouldn’t keep her waiting.”
The inside of Elena’s house was as colorful as her garden, but also neat and tidy. There were already four cups on the table and a teapot with steam curling up from the spout.
“Sit,” she said in a soft, commanding voice. We all took our places with me between Marduk and Danzig. She poured tea for all of us and then pushed the cream and sugar at Danzig and honey to me.
I wasn’t going to ask how she knew what we liked in our tea. As if she could hear my unspoken question, she put the teapot down and gave me a little smile.
“Bruja,” she murmured. “I simply know things.”
“We’re hoping you know some things about defending against a casket druid,” Marduk said.
She sat down with a frown. “I’ve felt his presence but hoped he wasn’t causing trouble. I wish I’d informed everyone, but I hesitate to act against someone until I know they’ve done wrong. Some creatures are born with impulses, but they fight every day to live among us peacefully."
“This guy isn’t peaceful,” Marduk said.
“I can tell,” she said, her eyes losing focus as she stared into the distance. “He unleashed enough power against you that it would’ve killed a lesser creature. It’s lucky that it was you and not a shifter, pixie, or even a gargoyle. They would’ve all died after the first blast.”
Marduk grunted. “I’m not surprised. That hurt.”
Elena refocused and gave him a nod. “I can see the scene playing out. He’s manipulating the void beyond when even other casket druids usually won’t. This won’t end well. He needs to be stopped. The last time a casket druid tried to do what he's doing, it was in Tunguska.”
The name sounded familiar. “Wasn’t that the place where a meteor caused a bunch of damage?”
“That’s what the humans decided happened,” Elena said. “But we know it was a casket druid. We were lucky there was a quorum of Russian packs, slithers, and several gargoyles that managed to capture and transport him to Tunguska before he became so unbalanced that he lost control of the void magic he was controlling. Five individuals lost their lives, but they saved so many.”
It struck me that there was a whole history I didn’t know about. I glanced over at Danzig and then Marduk as I spoke.
“We need to sit down some evening, and you guys are going to give me a basic history of all things magical.”
Marduk laughed. “That’s going to take a lot of evenings.”
“Fine,” I said. “I want to know everything you know.”
“I can promise it’ll be more fun than studying law,” Danzig said, then took a sip of tea.
“I applaud you for wanting to know more,” Elena said.
“I don’t understand people who don’t want to know more,” I admitted. I would never understand the incurious.
“There are a few things I can do to help you with the casket druid,” Elena said, getting up from the table and going through a door to a back room. She returned with a wooden disk on a black string and held it out to me.
“This is a passive shielding spell,” she explained. “It will only protect you from attack. It won’t give you the same immunity as Danzig and Marduk, but it will keep you safe from one major attack.”
I felt both men relax a little as I took the item and hung it around my neck. I didn’t feel any different.
“Tuck it under your clothing so it’s against your skin,” she instructed. “When it’s no longer working, the charm will break in half.”
“Thank you,” I said, shoving it under my shirt. “Can I pay you for this?”
“Of course,” she said. The guys started to grumble, but she held up her hand and silenced them.
