Zay stood on the other side of the car, silent. I knew why. Something was wrong here.
There was an immense sense of emptiness, as if something huge, solid, and familiar had been removed.
It took me a second; then I finally placed what was missing: the well. I couldn’t even catch a scent of the magic I knew roiled beneath the ground.
“Do you not feel that?” I asked.
Zayvion nodded, then walked silently across the gravel to me. He looked calm, but when I touched his wrist, I could feel the heightened awareness of his senses. He was calm. He was also ready for a fight.
I took a second to check our surroundings. The parking lot was about half full and the rush of cars over the bridge and freeway hummed in the distance. The river on the other side of a thin line of trees gave off that clean, rich green scent, and far off, I heard either a boat horn or a factory whistle.
It seemed like a normal evening.
And it most certainly was not.
“The well,” I said, somewhat unnecessarily.
He placed one hand on the side of my face, the other on my hip, and pulled me close. I pressed against him, wrapped one arm around his back, the other up around his neck.
His mind was obviously not on the well. Neither was mine.
He tipped my face up, and bent to me. His lips were soft, catching at my lower lip, pressing, then opening, inviting. His tongue dipped sweetly at the corner of my mouth, then drew into the heat of my mouth. Electric tingles warmed me, and made my toes curl. I pressed tighter against him and kissed him back, taking my time, sharing a long, lingering kiss that made me want more.
He finally pulled away, reluctant, then rested his lips against my ear. “Hell of a job,” he murmured.
I leaned into him, my cheek against his chest, and smiled. I loved a man with good follow-up.
We pulled apart. Holding hands, we crossed the parking lot and walked up the steps to the covered porch that wrapped the building. Zay pulled the door open and we stepped inside.
The delicious sweet, buttery smell of pies baking, and something savory, maybe sausage, greeted us. Even though I’d just had lunch, my mouth watered, and that had nothing to do with magic. Maeve knew how to cook.
Light poured down from the high-vaulted ceilings, making the large dining room feel even bigger than it was. The tables to the left were filled with the early dinner crowd. I knew the arched doorway beyond them led to private rooms, and the well-warded study where Maeve tutored me.
Upstairs were bedrooms, and down in the basement, a grand ballroom with the well pulsing just beneath its marble floors.
Here on the main floor, the girls behind the lunch counter to the right of the room were brewing coffee and plating pies.
“Coffee?” Zayvion asked.
“Sure.” I didn’t know if we had time, but I wasn’t one to go into any situation undercaffeinated.
He strolled off toward the lunch counter and I unzipped my hoodie, scanning the room for Shame or Maeve.
Maeve strode through the arched door to the left. Her red hair was pulled up in a loose bun, ringlets touched with gray falling around her face. She wore a dark green blouse, a tan skirt, and a pair of riding boots, all of which gave her the look of a woman who knew how to use a whip. Which, coincidentally, she did.
She carried a stack of menus in her arms, and gave me a smile and a nod as she walked my way.
“Allie. It’s good to see you. Tea?”
“Coffee, thanks. Zay’s getting it. How are you?”
“Busy. Beautiful weather, today. Walk with me a minute?”
“Sure.” I matched her stride and crossed the room to the lunch counter, where she handed the menus to one of the girls there.
“I have a job you might be interested in,” she said. “Hello, Zayvion.”
“Mrs. Flynn.” He handed me a cup of coffee. No, more than coffee. A latte, which the girls had poured to leave the image of a four-leaf clover in the foam.
Very nice.
“Why don’t you come along, Zayvion?”
It wasn’t really a request. We both knew that. Still, to any outsider, it sounded like chitchat between her son’s best friend and his girlfriend, who Hounded for a living.
We strolled along and Maeve took the time to say hello to a few people at tables and ask them if they were enjoying their meals. I knew those people weren’t a part of the Authority. Despite being involved with supersecret magic users, Maeve was also a successful restaurateur.
She led us through the arched doorway, down the hallway a bit, and into the first sitting room. It was decorated in velvets, wood, and brass, love seats and chairs huddled to make comfortable conversation nooks, heavy curtains on the windows giving the room a deep sense of privacy.
She held the door open as we walked through, and then locked it behind us. With one quick wave of her hand, she cast a ward and activated the Mute spell worked into the wallpaper.
“Thank you both for coming.” She gestured to the seats, and we sat. “Shamus did talk to you?”
“He didn’t tell us much,” I said. “There’s a storm coming, Sedra has called other people from Seattle, and there’s something wrong with the wells.”
She brushed a tendril of hair back up toward the bun, even though it just fell back down to her face. “There will be a meeting tonight among the members of the Authority. To exchange information. To plan for the storm.”
Zay, lounging on a love seat, took a drink of his coffee. I could feel every muscle in his body ratchet tighter and tighter as Maeve spoke.
She walked over to an empty chair and sat. She looked tired. Worried.
“The storm is still a day or two off. At least we think so.”
I opened my mouth and she held up one finger to tell me to shut up. I didn’t know what it was with her and her fingers. She had that motherly no-bullshit way of using her hands as a second communication device and I always fell for it.
I drank my coffee and made a note to ignore her fingers.
“We can’t track them like weather fronts,” she said. “Wild storms are sorely underresearched. One theory is that wild-magic storms are a combination of how the magic in the earth is being accessed and released into the world, and how magic, all disciplines, dark and light, is being used. When things swing too far out of neutral, magic can rise and gather into a storm front-and ride upon a real weather front.
“The other theory is that the magic is wild to begin with, a mix of dark and light that causes nothing but chaos and destruction when it is used.
“You can imagine it has been difficult to test either theory on a large scale in secret. In any case, we do believe a wild storm is coming our way.”
“The gate Mikhail opened?” Zay asked quietly.
“That could be it. There are more things happening in the world that could have accumulated or triggered to set it off.”
“Wait,” I said. “So magic is a ticking time bomb and as soon as someone shakes the nitrogen a little too hard, or mixes in the wrong elements, we get explosions?”
She frowned. “No. It’s a combination of factors. Magic on its own is a part of the natural world. No more destructive than wind, rain, and fire.”
Which was like saying no more destructive than hurricane, flood, and inferno. Spiffy.
“We’ll go over how to handle the storm at the meeting tonight,” she continued. “I want you both there. And Zayvion, if you see Shame, make sure he comes.”
Zay nodded. “I’ll get him there.”
She brushed her hair back again. “Now, what I most needed to talk to you about, Allie, is the well. I want you to look at it. To tell me what you see in the magic there.”
“You want me to Hound the well? Really? For illegal magic use? You people don’t even recognize the law on magic use, so I’m sure you’re not using it illegally.”