Accidental Magic: A Snarky Fantasy Romance (Modern Magic Book 1) Page 8

  “Looks like it.”

  “That doesn’t make any sense. If this thinning happens every year, then why hasn’t he used it to escape before? It seemed like he’d been in that tree a long time.”

  Ryan shrugged. “That’s a question for Zee. And she probably won’t answer it straight.”

  “What did Torix say to you?” asked Jake.

  Sera had never been a good liar, but she was going to give it her best. If Jake knew the context, he was going to become overbearing. She could take care of herself, but the guys deserved to know Torix planned to use Samhain somehow. A half-lie then.

  “He said he would be free on Samhain.” It was really close to the truth.

  Jake leaned back from the table. “Well, at least now we know how long we have.”

  “What do you mean we?” said Ryan.

  Jake scoffed. “You think Torix doesn’t know about you and your close personal relationship with the Fae?”

  “Hey, you guys were the ones who went and got yourselves bound and in their service.”

  Sera held up a hand to stop the back and forth. “Torix is a threat to all of us, and last I remember, Zee owned your ass.”

  Ryan looked away and took a long swig of his beer. Sera understood. She’d much rather be dealing with her mundane problems. On the surface, the whole situation should be absurd, but it felt real in a way much of her life hadn’t.

  Jake’s leg brushed hers under the table as he stretched out, and warmth erupted from the contact. She tried to calm the flush, but judging from the way Ryan was looking at her, she’d failed. Maybe it was fifty-fifty which problem she’d less like to deal with.

  Sera tapped on her water glass and both guys looked at her. “I’m a firm believer that information is power—”

  “Says the girl literally brimming with power,” muttered Ryan.

  She glared at him. “—so I think we should combine all our information.”

  “Isn’t that what we’ve been doing?” said Jake.

  “A little at a time. We’re supposed to find Torix’s minion or servant or whatever to cut off that source of power in some way we haven’t figured out yet. How do we do that? Is there a tattoo or a code word that would mark that person?”

  Jake raised a brow at Ryan. “I’m out of my element here, but I think that’s more of a Hollywood thing. Torix knows who his person is, and as far as I know, there isn’t a cult out there waiting for his resurrection.”

  Ryan shrugged. “I don’t think so. There’s a lot Zee doesn’t tell me, but I think something like that would make it on the list.”

  “Just great.” Jake’s phone rang. He checked the number then got up. “It’s work. Excuse me a minute.”

  Sera tried not to watch him walk out of the room. When she focused on Ryan, he flashed a knowing smile. Screw him and his knowing smiles. “Okay, so we’re looking for an individual person doing… what? What benefit does Torix get from this person?”

  “This answer, I do know. The minion creates chaos which produces negative emotions. The more anger, fear, hate, bad stuff his minion can capture for him, the stronger he becomes. Eventually, once they’ve gathered enough power, they’ll have to call a circle to release him, like a magical place out of time.”

  “Like that place in the woods with the stones?”

  “Like that, but it would have to be near or around his tree. It’s not enough to make a circle physically. The person would have to have enough power to call it into existence.”

  “I don’t know what that means.”

  “Enough belief backed by enough whatever is inside you to make the circle real instead of using a collection of stones.”

  Sera glanced after Jake. “Have you ever met anyone else with power? A human I mean?”

  “In Mulligan, yes. Other places, not so much. It’s unusual but not impossible. We have more than our share in town. Zee says like calls like. I say we’re more forgiving here when people get freaky.”

  Their eyes met and held. It felt like Ryan was trying to tell her something. She remembered Jake mentioning there were some things they physically couldn’t say.

  Sera shook her head. It would have to wait for another time. “We’re looking for someone with power then.”

  “That’s the only way I can see this working, but like I said, there are a lot of people here with varying degrees of power. I don’t know how much it would take to make the circle for Torix. I don’t know what else they would have to do. I don’t know if they can suck up some of his power like a demented sponge. That’s one of my theories, not Zee’s. I don’t know—”

  “Sounds like you don’t know much,” Jake had returned and was leaning against the doorway. “but I bet you have a spreadsheet.”

  Sera glanced at Ryan in time to see him blush. “A spreadsheet?”

  Ryan flipped Jake off but explained, “I may or may not be tracking the people with power in town, levels of ability, skills, how they’re connected… That kind of thing.” He wouldn’t meet her eyes.

  “That seems really…useful right now.”

  Ryan shrugged. “It’s also probably morally questionable since I’m doing it without anyone’s permission. I wasn’t aware anyone even knew about it.” Another glare at Jake. “Zee asked me to start it years ago. She didn’t tell me why, but I suspect it was so she could keep tabs on anyone who might pose a threat. She takes her responsibility to her people seriously.”

  Sera sensed a tone. He sounded admiring maybe? And his blush hadn’t faded yet. Something else to untangle later. “Sounds like we have the beginnings of a game plan. Ryan can bring over the list of all the people in town with power, but then how are we supposed to figure out which one it is?”

  “It might not be someone from town.” Jake pushed away from the wall and ran his hand through his hair. “That call was from the job site on Magnolia. Someone was messing with the equipment. The guys were closing it up for the night, and one of the trucks got loose.”

  “What do you mean ‘got loose’?” Sera asked.

  “It was switched to neutral and pushed from the front so it rolled backward down a hill toward the site. Jimmy noticed in time and managed to get it stopped before it could do any damage, but it could’ve been a lot worse.”

  “Are you sure it wasn’t someone forgetting to put it in park?” Ryan asked.

  “No way. My guys know their jobs, and the truck was there for most of the afternoon before it started rolling. They said there was a new guy hanging around the site. He was asking questions about me, trying to be all casual, but he stuck out because he was wearing a suit. You know there’s nothing over on that side of Magnolia where you’d need a suit.”

  A sinking feeling invaded Sera’s gut. “You’re thinking it was Will?”

  “I think we need to consider all the possibilities.”

  Ryan raised his hand. “Who’s Will?”

  “My asshole ex-husband.”

  Ryan blinked. “Is it possible he could be the one working with Torix?”

  Sera shook her head no as Jake nodded. “He’s a dick, he’s self-centered, and he’s stubborn.”

  Jake’s jaw tightened. “Don’t forget abusive.”

  Sera ignored him. “But he’s never shown any signs of power.”

  “He could be hiding it.”

  “He tried to convince me, and the court, that I was unstable because I saw little golden lights that no one else did.”

  Jake gritted his teeth. “I knew I should have punched that guy.”

  “It’s easy to look back and see what was happening now, but at the time, I seriously questioned my sanity.” Sera cleared her throat. “We can talk about that part later.”

  “You can bet your sweet ass we will.”

  Warmth filled her, and she had to question how low her bar had sunk for compliments. “The point is that I don’t think it’s him.”

  “Well, I find it hard to believe that one of my neighbors would try to flatten my guys for fun all o
f a sudden. Who else could it be?”

  Frustration coursed through her. Sera had lived most of her life with people not believing her, sometimes even herself. Jake held her gaze from across the room, and Sera pressed her lips together. The best response was always to stop trying to convince them and do what she was going to do anyway. Jake could believe what he wanted, but Sera knew Will didn’t have any power.

  Ryan glanced back and forth between them. “I wasn’t going to bring this up, but since we’re talking about vandalism… Someone broke into the school today.”

  Jake finally broke eye contact to stare at Ryan. “Wasn’t school open today? How do you break in when the doors aren’t locked?”

  “The science lab was locked. The 4H kids let the science classes borrow their prize rabbits to study genetics, but there weren’t any labs scheduled today. When the kids went in there to feed them, all but one of the rabbit cages were open.”

  “I have a bad feeling about where this is going,” said Sera.

  Ryan shook his head. “That’s the thing. Nothing bad really happened. There were three missing rabbits, but nothing else. And there was some valuable stuff in that lab. As far as anyone can tell, someone picked the lock and could have helped themselves but didn’t. Just let the rabbits go. Or took them.”

  “What about security cams?”

  “You’ve been to the school, Jake. Do you think we have money for security cams on the rabbits?”

  “What does the administration think?” Sera asked.

  “That it was probably the student club that keeps protesting the use of the rabbits in the labs, but they seem more likely to start a petition than to pick a lock, especially since they were borrowed from the 4H kids.”

  Sera held up a couple of fingers and ticked them off. “We have a trapped evil fairy, his servant slash minion, a runaway truck, three missing rabbits, an entirely useless magic-user, and a not very forthcoming fairy queen.”

  Jake held up a finger. “You forgot an asshole ex.”

  “Can’t forget him. And a list of most of the people in town with power. I’m going to be honest, a few of these don’t sound like they’re connected.”

  Ryan chimed in. “There’s something else we’re not talking about.”

  “I’m considering my grandmother a whole different issue.”

  Ryan flashed her a quick smile. “Probably for the best, but that’s not what I was talking about. I’ve been watching the people in this town for a long time, and I’ve never seen or heard of anyone who could do what you did in the woods.”

  Sera looked down at her hands. “I don’t even know what that was.”

  Ryan looked serious. “You’ve never had full access to your power before, so that makes sense, but no one else has ever needed an anchor. And definitely not strong enough to need to be bound to it.”

  “Hey,” Jake protested.

  “Sorry Jake, but for the purposes of this conversation you’re an it. Why you, Sera?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “You have to know something.”

  “I don’t.” Sera pushed away from the table and paced to the back door. “I don’t know anything about anything. I came here because I don’t know how to be a normal functioning adult. Turns out I’m not, so that’s a relief, but I’m still just fumbling around in the dark. I don’t know why I am the way I am.”

  Both guys were staring at her hands, so Sera looked down to see herself glowing. Again. Dammit! She shook them, but the glow remained, so she held them up. “See, what is this? I can’t even be upset without weird stuff happening on accident.”

  Ryan didn’t move, but Jake came closer and wrapped his hands around hers. “Take a deep breath. It’s going to take practice like any other skill.”

  Sera stared at his shirt and breathed in and out a few times. The scent of pizza mixed faintly with grass and sawdust. The combination was a comforting reminder of better times in that kitchen. When she peeked at their hands, the glow had faded. Her hands looked strangely tan, but she wasn’t creating her own light source anymore.

  “Thanks.”

  His hands slid away and he returned to his side of the room. “Anytime.”

  Ryan stood and threw his bottle in the recycling. “That was thrilling, but I need to head home. I’ve got a super exciting pop quiz for my 9th graders to prep for tomorrow. Think about it, Sera.” He looked pointedly at Sera’s hands, and she got the feeling again that he was saying more than she understood. “Why did Zee pick you? I’ll send Jake the list and get back to you guys if I hear anything. Try not to blow anything up in the meantime.”

  “Ha ha. Wait, is that possible?” Sera looked at Ryan in alarm, but he rolled his eyes. “Jerk.” She moved out of the way so he could leave.

  “Later,” he called. They both waved, and the door closed behind him.

  Sera blew out a breath. “I should get home too. I’m beat, and I still have to unpack the moving container tomorrow.”

  Jake grinned. “Are you sure? You could try doing something useful with your power.”

  Sera smiled. “So far all I do is make a great night light, but that’s not a bad idea. I may mess around with it, but not until tomorrow. I really am beat.”

  Jake lost his teasing tone. “Okay, but wait until the afternoon. I have to visit the job site and work for a while tomorrow, but I should be free by then.”

  Sera stiffened. “I’ll see what I can do.”

  “Please, Sera. I’m your anchor for a reason. I don’t want you to get hurt.”

  “Well maybe I should just sleep until you come to get me like a good little princess. I’ll for sure be safe then.” She didn’t wait for a response, but she did refrain from slamming the door behind her.

  The cool night air was a welcome respite from her anger. How dare he treat her like she was incompetent. This was all new to her, sure, but she was an adult. Last time she checked, she’d gotten married, divorced, and moved back to Mulligan all on her own. Jake and Will and her mother could all kiss her magical ass, and if she wanted to learn how to shoot flaming energy arrows from her eyes, by god she’d do it her-damn-self.

  The walk across the grass didn’t give her a lot of time to cool down, but the sight on her porch doused her anger instantly. The light had been broken, shards of glass glittered on the porch floor in the street light, but the wet lumps on the welcome mat were still visible. Matted fur stuck up in spikes, and globs of goop were smeared across the floor littered with chunks she didn’t want to think about. She could identify three sets of rabbit ears among the carnage.

  The smell hit her at the same time she realized these must be the missing rabbits from the high school. Sera turned away and swallowed heavily. Those poor animals. Her first thought was to call Jake over and let him take care of it. But his constant insistence that she needed his help firmed her resolve. She could handle this herself.

  Sera detoured to the back door, and breathing shallowly through her mouth, she went in search of bleach. Her heart hurt for the rabbits and for the students who’d be missing them. As she gathered rubber gloves, rags, bleach, and hot water, she thought about the rabbits she’d once seen at a petting zoo party in a friend’s backyard. They were harmless and cuddly, and Sera bet the students thought of their rabbits more as pets than as specimens or livestock.

  She had a detailed image of a couple of teenagers holding speckled rabbits with twitching noses stuck firmly in her brain when she opened the front door. The smell was gone. Not two minutes ago she could smell the rotting bodies from the yard, but now it smelled like pine. More accurately, like warm pine wood chips, but the sun had gone down hours ago.

  Someone had cleaned the porch. Sera looked toward Jake’s house, expecting to see him puttering around through the windows, but his house was dark. Either Jake had snuck over here and done the quickest, most thorough cleaning job she’d ever seen or she’d imagined it. No one else had been around when she’d walked across the yard, but she had been distracted
.

  Could she have imagined it?

  Once, not too long ago, she would have accepted that and called her therapist, but times had changed. She’d changed. The days of hallucinations and pills were past her. Sera reminded herself firmly that none of it had been imagined, not even then.

  She dropped the cleaning supplies by the door and walked to the porch steps to look back at the house. Not a single smear of blood, but the porch was still too dark. The glass from the broken bulb was gone, but the bulb hadn’t been replaced. She peered up at the light fixture and made out the jagged edges of the remaining glass on the bulb.

  Warmth rushed through her. Not her imagination. Not a hallucination. The proof made her almost dizzy with relief. She’d been prepared to power through, but it was so much better to know for sure.

  She looked toward Jake’s house again. If he hadn’t cleaned the mess, who had? And how had they gotten rid of the smell? Come to think of it, if the rabbits had gone missing that afternoon, how were they already rotting? The memory of that smell was enough to put her off meat for the foreseeable future.

  A rustling noise in the grass at the bottom of the steps made Sera jump back and reach for the bleach spray. It was a pitiful weapon, but there weren’t a lot of options. When no one appeared, she moved to the edge of the shadows and snuck a glance around the porch pillar. There weren’t any cleaning ladies hiding in the yard, but the grass was moving. Sera walked down the steps and her mouth dropped open.

  There were rabbits in her yard.

  Three speckled rabbits were nosing around in the grass. They’d been blending into the shadows, but now she could see that they were smaller than ones she’d imagined. Older than babies, maybe teenage rabbits.

  She looked down at her hands still holding the bleach spray. Was she glowing again? They were maybe a little easier to see than they should be. Had she done this? Had she brought rabbits back to life? Sera stooped to pick one up but stopped before touching the soft fur. Were they zombie bunnies? She slowly stood back up. This was way beyond her understanding, and she wasn’t sure she was entirely comfortable with the knowledge that she could resurrect wildlife. Though if she had accidentally used magic to clean up a bloody mess on her porch, it would make unpacking much easier.