Both brothers swore.
“The problem was that those spells are taboo. They’re not something you can just find in any grimoire. My parents had been working to track down one of the books for years.” She moved her hands to her lap. “In the meantime, to appease the Matriarch, they had been using other means to gather power. Using sacrifice. When I found out, I left. I drained my bank account and fled. I ran int a lot of bad Covens. Eventually, I came to a place I knew I wouldn’t run into any Covens.”
“Wolf territory,” Ezra said sadly.
“I vowed never to use magic again,” Ivy couldn’t look up she was so ashamed.
She could hear the two men breathing. Slowly, Ezekiel’s hand appeared in front of her. She looked at him up from under her eyelashes.
He gave her a sad smile. “I’m sorry. That must have been hard.”
Her eyes filled but no tears fell. “I felt betrayed. Suddenly, my parents were bad people.” He flexed his finger wide. Ivy put her hand in his.
Ezra reached out and put his hand over theirs. “I’m can’t imagine what it must have been like to lose your parents twice and your magic too.” He squeezed her hand more tightly. “I’m even more in awe that you helped us.”
She gave him a sad smile, “It was the right thing to do.”
They both smiled.
“You’re a good person,” Ezra said with conviction Ivy didn’t have.
“This doesn’t change how we feel about you,” Ezekiel promised.
“The exact opposite,” Ezra added.
A wave of sweet-smelling air filled the room. Happy. They were happy.
Ivy felt her heart warm. After a second, she pulled her hand away and wipe her eyes. “Sorry to end dinner on such a heavy note,” she joked.
“Nah, we started it,” Ezra winked.
Ezekiel sat back in his chair. “I feel better. It feels good to be honest with each other.”
Ivy’s smile froze on her face. She wasn’t being honest with them, not completely. She was still working with Lawrence McDowell, reluctantly but still.
Here they were, smiling at her, light hearted and she was still lying to them.
The truth was that the Tate brothers might be willing to love a witch but the rest of Black Bird wasn’t. Not once they found out what she was doing. Lawrence wouldn’t even need to post those videos.
She didn’t want Ezra or Ezekiel or Cassidy being caught up in that.
Ivy managed to swallow past the lump in her throat.
Ivy couldn’t meet their eyes anymore. She glanced down at the spaghetti on her plate. It had been delicious. Now, it was a half-congealed mess. She just wanted to enjoy a good meal with good company. Too bad life got in the way and ruined the evening.
They noticed her sudden mood change.
“This is a lot to take in.” Ezra said. The apologetic tone made Ivy’s gut twist.
Before their eyes, Ivy’s spaghetti rotted. The pasta lost its shape. Mold bloomed white then black. Finally, it melted into a foul pool of slime on her plate.
Ivy sighed. Perfect.
Ezekiel stood from the table. “How about I clean up? Ezra will take you home and we will see each other tomorrow before we visit the library?”
Ivy didn’t say anything. Ezekiel came around the table and engulfed her in a hug. His chest fell against her cheek as he exhaled.
“Thank you.” The words were muffled. Ivy hoped he would think it was because she was pressed up against him and not because she was fighting back tears.
“You’re welcome,” he said. “Next time, we will save the depressing conversations for after desert.”
Ivy nodded, soaking up all of Ezekiel’s warmth.
The brothers clapped each other on the back. Not speaking, Ezra led Ivy back the way they came in. He stomped into his shoes and they were suddenly outside.
Thankfully, Ezra didn’t try to talk anymore. There were no side glances her way either. Neither of them bothered with the radio.
“I really wished tonight had gone differently,” Ezra admitted as he pulled into her apartment fifteen minutes later. “I’m glad we told you but,” he rubbed his head, “I am finding it really hard thinking about you being alone after this morning.”
He turned in his seat. “We’ve got a lot to make up for.” He stopped and looked up at her. “We’ve got a hell of a lot to make up for but Ivy, we never stopped loving you.”
Ivy’s heart lurched at the emotion shining through his eyes. There was love and longing right alongside hope.
Ivy put her hand in his. “I know, Ezra.” There was no way she was going to ruin the Tate’s future by being a part of it.
Chapter Eleven
Ezekiel tried to appear relaxed as the three of them walked into Black Bird Public Library. He wore a pair of jeans that fit just right. His black boots were broken in perfectly. The jacket he had on was one of his favorites. His long sleeve shirt was made of thick quilted cotton that cost nearly forty dollars.
He should, at the very least, be comfortable. He felt like he was about to lose his skin.
Ezekiel had been itchy since Ivy had left their house. He hadn’t bothered trying to go to sleep last night. Instead, he had paced with every hair on edge, until Cassidy had stomped out of her room and told him to go for a run.
Shifting hadn’t done any good. His wolf had raced to Ivy’s house. He ended up sitting, impatiently, outside of her window until dawn.
Ezra stepped forward quickly to opened the door for Ivy. He smiled at her. The instant her back was turned; he scratched his ear. At least Ezekiel wasn’t the only one suffering. Ezra was on edge too.
Ezekiel grabbed the door as Ezra followed Ivy inside. A poster caught his eyes. He missed a step when he looked back.
It was a photo of Ivy. Her eyes were down refusing to acknowledge whoever took the photo. She had a shopping basket tucked closely to her body. On further inspection he noticed that she was in the cereal aisle at the grocery store. She looked furious.
In bold letters, across the top were the words “Not Allowed Inside”.
Ivy breezed right past it. Ezra’s eyes flashed when he saw it. They both paused for a second to look at the poster more closely.
“Is this why she was acting weird?” Ezra asked, not hiding his worry at all.
When they had showed up at Ivy’s apartment that morning, she had given them the cold shoulder. She was polite but nothing else. When he had asked her what they were going to the library to look at, she had said, “Maps.” That was it.
“I don’t think that was about this. We knew they banned her.” Ezekiel had a sinking feeling that he knew why Ivy was acting strange.
She had made a decision last night. It was not one he liked.
His animal instinct had tried warning him. He shouldn’t have sent her home. He should have pulled out desert and kept her talking. Instead, he had let his mate go home, alone, to think. Now, he had an antsy wolf and a mate who was acting indifferent to them.
He shared a look with Ezra and rushed to catch up to her. He stopped behind Ivy just a little more closely than what would have been considered polite. Not that he was going to take a step back. This was deliberate.
Ivy looked over her shoulder, saw how close he was, and huffed. She didn’t say anything though. She kept walking determinedly past the circulation desk towards the back of the library.
The salt and pepper librarian clocked the three of them the instant the door closed behind Ezra. She had her glasses on her face by the time they walked past her. She had a corded phone to her ear as they disappeared behind a wall of metal shelves.
When they reached the back wall, Ivy stopped and looked around. She bit her lip, reading the labels on the shelves. She took two steps one way then stopped.
“Where are we going?” Ezra asked.
“I don’t know. I wasn’t looking when I walked in,” She admitted confidently. “I was too focused on my angry face. Anne said I needed to march in like I knew wher
e I was going and to look pissed.” Ivy kept looking through the shelves. “I figured we could find the archives once we got past the circulation desk,” she muttered, distracted.
They took a left and the shelves stopped, leaving a small open study area. At one end of the open room were a few tables surrounded by chairs. On the opposite end of the room was a glass wall with a single door. “Historical Records” was printed at the center of the door in gold stencil. Under it were the hours of operations. Also, in gold. That room was dark.
Ezekiel checked his phone. It had opened to the public two minutes ago.
Ivy walked quickly towards the room. The door opened with a hiss. Overhead lights clicked on as they entered the space. It was small and much colder than the rest of the library. The smell of old paper was overpowering.
At the center of the room were low, heavy wooden shelves. Each row was crowded with old, hardback books. Scattered on top of the shelves were artifacts and leather-bound tomes.
Ivy ignored everything. She made a beeline for a strange metal cabinet in the back of the room. It had wide, thin drawers. Each drawer was labeled with a set of numbers.
Ivy pulled out a piece of paper from her pocket. There were five sets of numbers scratched haphazardly on the page. Her head bobbed between looking at the paper and the cabinet. She hummed.
“What’s wrong?” Ezekiel stepped in closer trying to decipher the problem.
Ivy chewed her lip. “They use a different reference system online. I don’t know where I need to look.” She blew out a frustrated breath. “Shit.” She glanced back to the door. She smelled worried.
He had missed something. “Why is that a problem?”
“Because we have a time limit.”
Ivy turned back towards the cabinet and opened the top drawer. She pulled it all of the way out. She kept pulling until his hand shot forward to catch it if it fell. The drawer clicked and locked in place.
Inside were poster sized maps.
Ivy lifted the top print just enough to read the title and the reference number on back. She used her entire forearm to lift all of the prints up. She looked at the back of the last poster. She read the title and reference number.
Now Ezekiel had to ask, “What are we looking for?”
Ivy gently reorganized all of the oversized pages before closing the drawer. She moved to the next drawer down. She repeated what she had done before.
“I need to find these maps. The only problem is that the online reference system is up to date and the physical collection isn’t. I am assuming it’s because this place is still living in the Puritan era.” That last comment was muttered quietly. Wolf hearing picked it up though. It was also said with enough bite that he sensed a little growl in her tone. “I’m just going to have to shuffle through these.”
“Ivy,” Ezekiel drew out her name, “you said you went to college. What did you study?”
Her spine stiffened like she knew where this was going and was already over it. “Library sciences.”
Ezra cocked his head to the left, gave Ivy a quick once over, then cocked his head to the right and did the same thing. He nodded satisfied, “Yeah, that fits.”
Ivy’s shoulders hunched but she kept opening drawers. “I’m not sure what you mean but I’m, sure I should be offended by it.”
She was being prickly with Ezra. That was a good sign. It meant she wasn’t entirely indifferent. Ezra could still get under her skin.
Ivy was half crouched, going through a set of black and white maps when she stopped. She picked up the top page, looked at it for a moment then started going through each of the prints under it. Near the bottom of the drawer Ivy paused again. After a few seconds, she pulled out five poster boards.
“Quickly,” she hissed, “Hold these while I take photos.”
One by one, Ezra and Ezekiel took turns holding the posters for Ivy as she took photos of the front and backs.
More frantic than before, Ivy stuffed the maps back into the metal cabinet. She shut the drawer hard enough to rock the cabinet against the wall and turned her back on it.
“Are we leaving? You still need two more.” Ezra asked.
Ivy didn’t look up from her phone. Ezekiel peered over her shoulder. She was emailing the photos to someone. “I figure our time at the library is about to run out,” she said still focused.
Ezekiel heard the sound of two people walking towards them. He smelled the perfume before the pair entered the room. Only one person in town wore that much perfume.
Alma Jensen had to be well over a hundred years old. Wolves lived a long time but at this point it felt like she was just trying to prove a point. Her son had been the Pack doctor for long enough that he had retired. Wolves don’t retire early.
She walked into the historical collection like a queen. Her beige pants were pressed within an inch of their life. Her navy blouse managed to be conservative and hideous at the same time. Around her neck was a copper necklace with a caged stone pendant.
She strutted towards Ivy with singular focus. Alma did not spare Ezra or Ezekiel a glance.
Trailing behind Alma was the middle-aged woman from the circulation desk. Ezekiel did not know her name. Something about her scent was familiar though.
Unlike Alma, this woman was clearly uncomfortable. Her shoulders were hunched like she was trying to look smaller. As the pair approached, the faint tang of fear wafted off of her. She kept glancing between Ivy and Alma.
“I am going to have to ask you to follow me,” Alma demanded, not bothering with false pretenses.
“We were just leaving,” Ivy countered, not slowing down as she made her way towards the door.
She tried to step around Alma but the older woman blocked her. “Really?” There was so much offense behind that one word. “I do not know why I expected a witch to behave civilly.” She planted her heels. “You will come with me this instant and of your own accord or else.”
Ezekiel’s eyes went wide, his eyebrows hitting his hairline. Alma Jensen was batty.
Ezra caught his attention. He nodded to the old bitty. Is she serious? He asked silently.
Ivy was not letting Alma faze her. “No need to escort us off the premises,” she used a sweet, cajoling tone. “We are heading out right now.”
Alma started shaking her head before Ivy had finished. “I am detaining you until the Sheriff arrives to arrest you.”
“What?” Ivy shouted at the same time Ezra and Ezekiel snarled. A light bulb overhead exploded.
Alma shrieked. The woman at her side nearly hit the floor. Ezra and Ezekiel didn’t take their eyes off the pair.
Alma looked at the brothers in shock. It was like she was only just now registering that they were there. The shock didn’t last long.
Her eyebrows snapped down. She frowned. “If either of you dare raise your voice at me again, I will have the Sherriff arrest you too.” She pointed between the brothers.
“What am I being arrested for?” Ivy’s voice kept even but Ezekiel could see sweat beading on her forehead.
Alma Jensen, at five foot six managed to look down her nose at Ivy. “A patron reported you stealing.”
Ivy reared back. “That is preposterous. You are making that up.”
The air began to feel charged. He couldn’t be sure but Ezekiel was willing to bet that Ivy was doing it.
He gently touched Ivy’s arm. It was meant to be reassuring. The electricity cleared from the air.
Alma sneered. “I will not stand being accused of such slander in my own territory, let alone by a witch. The Alpha will hear about this and send you back from where you came from.”
Ezra was the one to react. He leaned forwards. Compared to Alma’s tiny frame, Ezra was a giant. He cast a long shadow over her.
“You’re full of shit.” He bit out each word. Alma reared back. Ezra leaned further into her personal space. “Full of shit.”
If he had been a wolf, Ezra’s hackles would have raised. His lips were pulled back e
ven in human form. He practically snarled in Alma’s face.
Ezekiel rocked back on his heels; arms crossed over his chest. His wolf huffed out a satisfied breath and settled calmly back into the recesses on his mind. Ezra’s overreaction had Ezekiel relaxing.
“He is right,” Ezekiel stepped up to Ezra’s shoulder. “You are full of shit. We have been with Ms. Stevens the entire time. She has not stolen anything.” He smiled down at her. He hoped it was half as condescending as it felt. “You can take our word as Enforcers.”
The thin skin under Alma’s eye twitched. “I will take the Sherriff’s word for it,” She insisted.
Ezekiel’s smile spread. “You obviously haven’t called the Sherriff yet. If you had, you would know that he isn’t coming. Alpha Thompson has assigned us as Ms. Stevens’ personal guard. Any inquiry, problem, or threat involving Ms. Stevens comes directly to us.”
“You’re welcome to call Alpha Thompson,” Ezra snarled. “Don’t be offended if he doesn’t tell you much more though. It’s above your security clearance.” Ezra reached behind his back and grabbed Ivy’s hand. “We are leaving.”
Ezekiel stepped into the women’s space, forcing them to take a step back. That gave Ezra enough room to walk around them. Ezekiel closed in quickly before either lady tried to take a swing at their mate. He did not trust either of them.
In the five minutes since they had walked into the library, it had filled up. None of the tables were empty anymore. All of the chairs were taken. A few people had pulled up wheel chairs in empty spaces. Every single one of the new patrons had grey hair. It looked like the bus from the senior center had just pulled up.
Their eyes were locked on Ivy. They all tracked her through the room as Ezra dragged her to the exit. Their heads followed her out. It was fucking creepy.
Once they were outside, Ivy tried to shake loose from Ezra. He growled gently. It wasn’t an angry noise. It was a chastisement. Hold still. If Ivy had been a wolf she would have understood. Instead, she yanked harder.
“Let go,” she demanded.
Ezra dropped her hand immediately. “Okay, but can we keep this pace until we get to Chic Chick?” He phrased it like a question but he was already moving to herd her towards Main Street as a quick pace.
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