Page 19 of Magical Midlife Conclave

Nessa nodded. “What’s funny is, Niamh and I largely do the same thing in this respect, but she does it with words and I do it with energy.”

“It took me four hundred years to get where I’m at,” Niamh replied. “You’ve been at it less than a year. I’d say you got the better magic.”

“Except I don’t get to change into a nightmare alicorn and fly so…” Nessa toggled her hand back and forth.

“Well, I mean…” I shrugged. “Nessa, you did it with words and actions before this. You manipulated your fair share of mages.”

“True enough. Energy just makes it easier. But check this out.” She beamed at me again. “That isn’t all this magic can do.”

“When you’re powerful in it, at least,” Phil said.

“Right, if you have enough power, you can seriously flex with this magic if you learn how…” Her blush crept back in. She must’ve been thinking about Tristan in some capacity.

How freaking cute! I was swooning just watching it all unfold. I hoped she gave in to him. He’d really come a long way since we’d all first met him.

“Are you paying attention?” she asked me.

“Yes.” I entwined my fingers in my lap dutifully.

Austin came down on the other side of the bar. “Wine, Jess?”

“C’mere, Austin Steele. I need to talk to ya before the other two get here,” Niamh said.

“Text Tristan to stall. I’ll be right there.” Austin served me up some wine and then took two more orders.

Niamh grumbled but did as he said.

“Right, so you know that Ivy House is at a nexus in the ley lines, right?” Nessa went on.

I twitched up my eyebrows. “No? Ley lines like…the magical river…thing that Momar used at Kingsley’s?”

Nessa glanced at Niamh. “I thought you filled her in.”

“Sebastian said she didn’t need to know yet.”

“Oh.” Nessa rubbed her temple.

“For her own magic, like,” Niamh clarified. “He didn’t want to confuse her. Ye’re fine to tell her this.”

“Oh,” Nessa said in a much more upbeat way. She was clearly excited about this new facet of her magic. “Okay, well yeah, Ivy House is positioned within a large nexus of power. There are small and large ones, often existing at sites with ancient construction, dramatic geography, metaphysical locations, things like that. Then the ley lines travel in straight lines, connecting all those nexuses. If you look at a map of them all, there are grids and triangles and star patterns. Each of those patterns have a different relationship with energy.” Her eyes started to glitter. “Some texts mention that the right magic teamed with the right connecting patterns, teamed with a solar event, can create portals. You could actually go from one nexus to another.”

My brow furrowed as I glanced at Niamh, then back to Nessa. “Are you serious? A portal, like…teleporting?”

“The hint is in the name,” Phil said dryly.

Nessa shrugged. “I’m researching it, but wouldn’t that be awesome?”

“But she wouldn’t get all her mountains of snacks when she traveled by plane,” Niamh drawled.

I ignored her. “Yes, it freaking would!”

Nessa’s smile stretched. “Right? Anyway, in answer to your question, Kingsley had a ley line passing close by. Momar was able to pull the power from the ley line into his mage-made infrastructure. That’s why it took so many people to bring it to life. If it were on a nexus, it would’ve been ten times easier and faster to make that same thing happen.”

Cold ran through me. “Do we have a map? We’ll want to see what packs are on a nexus.”

“I’m looking into it, don’t worry. We all have different jobs, Jessie. You don’t need to worry about this right now.”

I took a sip of my wine. She was right. We had too much going on to all do everything. We had to divide and conquer.