Page 77 of Werewolves and Witches AU

Another silence stretches between us while Rowan types back.

“So, he could be here with us… or there with them?” At my question, his hazel eyes lighten to a brighter gold, and instantly I realise the mistake of voicing that out loud. Stupid, stupid, Milo. Inside thought.

“I’ve just given Operation Tempo the go-ahead to raid his office. As a favour to Guardian, Ms Anna—Janus’s PA—will leave their office door unlocked. Bear and Delilah are on point.” The muscle in Ranger’s neck tics. “It’s oh two hundred there. They have until zero six hundred to locate anything that gives intel on the Luna del Lupo, General Romulus and his brother Remus, yer Lost Colony, or any other evidence of corruption.”

I check the time on my phone. It’s a little after 8:00 p.m. here, so that means that… I count on my fingers… Bear and Delilah will be done long before the witching hour. If I wait until 3:00 a.m. to do this spell cast, which had been my original plan, then not only might Janus learn that his office has been raided and come here to stop me from using the Luna del Lupo to protect the General and his Bloodline, but I might miss my shot at helping Sarah and the Colonists.

“I think we should do my spell now,” I blurt, standing from the table so fast the chair almost topples over.

Rowan tenses but remains otherwise motionless. Taking advantage, I swoop up my empty dish and pick my way back between crystals and cushions to the kitchen.

Depositing the dish in the sink, I head to the pantry to start my search for salt and thyme. Unlike the paltry grocery offerings in my apartment, I’m confident that Rowan will have both… somewhere.

Rowan’s dish clatters when it joins mine in the sink.

Aha! Thyme. And now I remember the salt lives on the counter by the stove.

Herbs in hand, I exit the pantry and turn to find the pensive werewolf leaning exactly where he’d been at lunch when I’d made him that tuna wrap. How can that have been only a few hours ago? Feels like so much longer.

“This spell, how dangerous is it?” That Scottish brogue trickles down my spine.

Wanting to desperately distract myself from how much the alpha in him affects me, I aim for levity.

“Well,” I start, opening a low drawer to find a bowl big enough to submerge my purloined mirror in. “I’m not at the truly dangerous part yet.”

The rumbling growl from Rowan’s wolf is hard to ignore, but still, I manage to free a roasting dish from under the skillet that was used to cook last night’s dinner.

“This spell is more like…” I nudge Rowan sideways so I can half fill the tray with warm water from the tap. “More like a phone call—with a witch lost in time.”

Careful not to spill any, I set the tray on the counter and grind in some salt. Impatience builds at how little salt actually comes out, and I release a growl of my own.

I shake and twist the stupid thing harder.

Rowan takes it from me. “Tell me when.”

Smiling awkwardly at how cool and collected he always is—and how not cool and collected I am—I fix my gaze on his hands.

“I’m hoping that, along with information on the enchantment, Sarah might team up with me. With her on the inside and me on the outside, if we time it just right, we could force the fold in the fabric of time open.”

Rowan stops grinding the salt.

“Oh, ooops. When.”

I plunge my finger into the warm water to swirl it about for a couple of seconds, then yank it out…

“Hot, hot, hot,” I chant, and suck it into my mouth.

“And if it goes wrong?” persists Rowan.

I hold up my cut and burned finger to indicate that I’ll be right back, then dart out of the room to retrieve the mirror from the arm of the sofa. “If it goes wrong, then instead of a phone call it would be more like dropping by for an unannounced visit. Permanently.”

I drop the mirror in the tray of salted water with a splash, and purposefully ignore the death glare I can feel boring into the side of my skull from the alpha wolf beside me.

“Clean, clean, clean. Thinking cleansing thoughts. So clean. And shiny. And not at all full of trapped energy. All the energy is back where it belongs. Clean, clean, clean.”

I hover my eager pinching fingers above the mirror, readying to dive in and retrieve it from the boiling depths, but Rowan reaches in to smoothly lift it out instead.

“I’m not sure that’s how intentions work.”