"This isn't working." This time I was more confused than angry, but any kind of roadblock was still the last thing we needed.
"What do you mean?" Taya asked.
"My tracking spell. It's not working. I found a number in Sebastian's phone, one he's exchanged four calls with in the last week. But my go-to spell is coming up blank."
Taya took a moment to sip her water before responding. "Are they blocking your magick somehow?"
"Sort of. I mean, I can tell it's a blocked number. But I think it's more the technology that's throwing me for a loop here rather than some sort of magickal interference."
"Isn't that your witch gift though?" Nina interjected. "You can work magick on technology."
"Yeah, sure. But it's still witch magick. I need to work different spells for different situations. And whatever Aoife's people have done to this phone, I don't know how to work through it."
"So you just have to make a new spell up?" Tate asked from across the table.
I turned just in time to see Taya arch one perfect eyebrow in his direction. "Yeah, sure, just make up a spell. That's easy."
"Well it's not like Melanie had spell books to go from or anyone to even teach her," Nina said in Tate's defense. "All of her spells are made up spells."
"True. But I had a really long time to work these things out. At first, I spent a lot of time studying how different technologies worked in order to figure out how to manipulate them. It got easier from there, but it's been a long time since I've had to work out anything like this."
"So you do that again," Taya said, forever trying to be chipper.
"I'm not totally sure I have the time to do something like that. We might be better off doing this old school." I looked around the bar, trying to find the last member of our group. "Where's Ethan?"
Nina glanced toward a nearby door. "He went out back to call his daughter."
"Is everything okay?"
"Just checking in, I think. Nothing to worry about. I'm guessing he'll be back soon enough."
I could have waited, maybe even should have, but once I had an idea in my head, it was hard to sit on it for more than a few seconds.
Ethan was standing out back, exactly where I'd been told he would be. His phone was cradled between his neck and shoulder while his other side leaned against the brick wall that made up the back of the pub.
When I came through the door, his eyebrows shot up immediately.
"Everything's fine," I mouthed. "Say hi to Katie for me."
"Melanie says hi," he said after a few seconds. "Yeah, I should probably get going. And you should be asleep already." He paused. "Love you too, sweetheart."
"Sorry about that," he said, grabbing his phone and shoving it into his pocket.
"Absolutely nothing to apologize for."
"How did things go at the church?"
After a few minutes, I'd gotten Ethan up to speed from everything that happened in the church basement, right up to my problems with the phone.
"So what are you thinking?" he asked. I loved that he could tell I already had a plan. After not that much time spent together, the connection between us was forming quickly, and I was relying on it more and more each day.
"I know Cooper's not here in the city tonight, but I'm hoping he'd be up to play liaison for us again."
"Liaison?"
"To his brother. Or more specifically, to the Galway police department. I see the police tracking people by their phones all the time on television. I don't know how much of that stuff is true, but I know they can work some real magic when it comes to finding people's private information, metaphorically speaking. So now I'm hoping we can harness a little of that human ingenuity for ourselves and track down our bad guys. Although it's probably worth checking in with Otto first to find out if we even need to do this. If Sebastian's given them anything worth acting on, that might be the better plan."
"Still, good to have options."
Ethan reached over and squeeze the hand that had been hanging loose at my side. My mood lifted just a little at his touch. Yeah, my powers had failed me on this one, but that didn't have to mean anything. And it definitely didn't mean that we were out of options.
"I'll make the calls," Ethan added as I squeezed back. I guess even he didn't share my aversions to phone calls. Though to be fair, we'd never really gotten into the specifics of how old Ethan was. For all I knew, when he'd been born, even telegrams might have been a hot new technology.
As Ethan grabbed his phone all over again and started dialing, I slipped back inside.
I had a way forward, sure, but it involved Bryan. Someone who I'd left things on not all that fantastic terms with. And that was before our world's politics had gotten part of his city blown up.
The whole thing wasn't exactly leaving me feeling super optimistic.
But optimism was proving to be slightly overrated. Opportunities were my new optimism. And this time around I had something to offer Bryan in exchange for his cooperation. Something that might actually do a little good. I just had to talk a few werewolves into my idea first.
Chapter 14
By the time we managed to get Cooper into the city and wake up Bryan, the hour was quickly creeping toward morning.
Exhaustion was starting to seep into my bones all over again, and from the looks of things the early hour hadn't put anyone else in a great mood either.
"Thank you for coming," I said, sort of to everyone but focusing my gaze on Bryan in particular.
"When your werewolf brother comes banging on your door past midnight, ignoring him never feels like much of an option." Bryan didn't bother looking across the table to Cooper as he spoke, but the message came across loud and clear.
"Quiet," I said as soothingly as possible. Cooper, Bryan, Ethan, and I were crowded around a small table at the only coffee shop in Galway that stayed open twenty-four hours. We were the only customers in the building, which meant the two staff members who had gotten stuck with the overnight shift were paying far more attention to our group than I would have liked. A young Asian girl in the corner was cleaning out some of the display cases, but every time I looked up her eyes seemed to catch mine. Her older co-worker wasn't even trying to pretend to be doing anything other than staring, unblinking at our table. There was a good chance his mind was somewhere else entirely, but that was a pretty big risk to take.
"Everyone's tired," I finished. "And we have a lot of ground to cover. Let's just take it easy and see if we can get some good done here tonight."
Ethan leaned back in his chair, sipping his coffee. He was here mostly as a formality and a buffer, leaving me or Cooper to lead the charge into unfamiliar territory.
Bryan surprised me by being the first one to cut to the chase. "Cooper said you all needed my help. Which I'm guessing was just a ploy to get me through the door."
"No," Cooper and I both rushed to say at the same time.
"Are you here to explain what happened at the church?" Bryan continued, seemingly ignoring us. "To tell me that what happened there had nothing to do with whatever has been going on in the city?"
If Bryan was going to spend this whole conversation feeling like he was walking into a trap, we were all going to end up wasting a lot of valuable time. I continued as calmly as I could. "No... well, kind of yes on the first thing." Get it together, Melanie. "What happened at the church... well, we need your help to track down the people who did it. But that's not the only reason we're here."
I turned to Cooper, needing him to jump in and take the lead from here on out.
Sweat was beginning to bead at Cooper's temples, but he took a deep breath and started talking anyway. "I have a lot of things I want to tell you. Things you deserve to know..."
As soon as Cooper started his story, jumping in from around the same point as what Bryan had shared with me, I stood up. Cooper was picking up steam, and this was starting to feel like a private moment that I had no right to be a part of. I couldn't leave, but I could at
least buy them a little privacy.
Approaching the cash register, I shot a look back toward Ethan, not sure what he was going to do. I'd hoped he would take my hint and give the brother's some space, but he seemed even more engaged with the conversation than before. Not getting involved, but very much fixated on Bryan as Cooper spoke.
"Hi," I said, placing my body between the cashier and the table behind me. "Can I get another large coffee please?"
"Long night?" The woman at the cash register gave me a sympathetic smile.
"The longest. Long week," I added.
"One coffee coming up. Can I get you anything else?"
Tempted by food, I looked over at the pastry display. One sad-looking bagel sat on the second row, but otherwise there didn't seem to be much selection at this time of night. And who knew how long that bagel had been there.
"I'm okay. You'll probably see me again in another ten minutes for more coffee anyway."
Of course, the coffee was ready within just a few minutes, leaving me with the same problem I'd had before. Back to the table and the middle of a conversation I didn't need to overhear, or... I wasn't even certain what my options were.
I could have taken a walk or gotten some air, but with Ethan still entrenched at his pack mate's side, I knew that wasn't my smartest plan. Galway was usually a pretty safe city, but even when it was crowded to the hilt with tourists, the cover of night still never left me feeling all that safe to wander around on my own once the bars had closed. After having been grabbed and almost kidnapped not that long ago, I doubted I'd ever feel totally safe walking on my own again. Even though the people who had grabbed me were now people I counted as my friends. Mostly.
Add in that time I'd wandered down an alleyway by myself and been grabbed by witches, and I had a seriously healthy respect for the safety first approach. There were people in my very city who would happily take advantage of my being on my own, and I wasn't about to give them the chance.
"Did you want something else?" the woman at the register asked, looking at me with a hint of concern.
"No, right. Sorry. This is great, thanks."
I slid back into my seat across from Ethan as Cooper started to share some of the specifics about how being a werewolf had changed him, and how it hadn't.
"You're not the same person you were before all of this happened?" Bryan said. He looked less defensive than he had before I'd walked away, but was also starting to look a bit like a cornered animal. Had I gone about all of this the wrong way, setting us up for failure?
"Of course I'm not." I'd expected Cooper to get defensive, but his words were oddly soothing, even to me. "I was brutally attacked and then brought into this whole world I couldn't begin to understand. And all of this happened years ago. You're not the same person you were back then either. And that's alright. This isn't what either of us asked for, and it probably shaped both of us in ways we wouldn't have asked for."
"If you'd just told me what was going on—"
"I couldn't!" Cooper's voice was more insistent now. "I wasn't even supposed to tell you as much as I already had. Until now."
Ethan cleared his throat, instantly drawing everyone in the table's gaze to him. "Werewolves and those like us have survived for as long as we have because of a strict adherence to secrecy. For a long time, only spouses were exempt from our disclosure laws. Slips like what the two of you went through were inevitable, but not encouraged. In so many other packs, Cooper would have been forced to break contact from his family completely. But he knew you could be trusted, and that needed to be taken into consideration as well."
"And now? Why are you filling in all the blanks now after all this time?"
That was as close to my own cue as I was going to get. "We're trying to change things. As technology advances, it's going to get harder and harder to hide the existence of magick from the rest of the world. I think there's a lot of value in telling the people closest to us. The ones who will be able to see past what we can do to who we are as people." The people who can learn to see us as something other than monsters. "You've seen a lot already, and it felt like maybe the biggest thing holding you back from accepting your brother was knowing that you weren't getting the whole truth."
The whole truth was actually that we'd known we were taking a chance with Bryan. I wasn't all that convinced he could ever fully accept his brother for what he'd become, but as far as test cases went, he was the one that made the most sense. He was here in the city, and he had something we needed.
"So I'm the first person you're telling about all this? How sure are you that someone else isn't going to object to what you're doing and hunt me down?"
"Not quite," I told him. "I told my parents about my own abilities not that long ago." And I was grateful every single day for how well they'd taken the news. "And we're sure there are other people like you out there who know some, but not all."
"There isn't one governing body that decides these things," Ethan explained. "As we said, there are different factions, divided by ability. And within those factions there are countless coven, seethes, packs, and other community variations. No one has ever been particularly liberal with how information was shared with people outside of those communities, But we want to try to find a way forward."
Bryan turned to his brother. "And where does that leave us?"
"That's completely up to you. If you need time, I'll give it to you. If you have more questions, I'll answer them as well as I can."
"Time sounds pretty good right about now. This is all a lot to take."
I took a sip of my coffee as Bryan spoke, not loving the way the conversation had turned. "Uhh, about that. Maybe this isn't the absolute best timing for that. We're pretty sure the people who blew up the church are still in the city, and we're probably looking at a time crunch to find them. If you're up for it, we could really use your help."
Bryan's mouth dropped open slightly. "With everything you're all capable of, you still need the police to help you catch the bad guys? Why not go through more official channels and give the investigation you're running all the information you have, if you're so keen on truthfulness now?"
"Because this isn't something we're willing to take lightly. People have already died, and we're working through a bit of a balancing act right now, trying to keep things from getting worse. I'm not looking to put anyone else in the line of fire, especially if they don't understand what they're up against. We need to handle this one on our own so that we have the opportunity to be open with everyone later. No one else needs to get hurt."
I'd hoped that appealing to public safety would speak to the part of Bryan who decided to join the Garda in the first place. But as he sat in stony silence, I had to wonder if I'd made the wrong play. Cooper was the one who knew Bryan best; I should have let him lead the charge.
"I'll keep your secrets," Bryan said after what felt like an eternity. "And I'll help if I can. But I'm reserving the right to back out at the first sign of things going haywire."
"Deal," Ethan and I said together.
"So what is it you need from me?"
Chapter 15
If Bryan had let me, I'd have followed him right inside the local precinct, eager to get the information we needed the second it was available. But that wasn't an option, because, one, the guy Bryan usually worked with on technological evidence was still tucked in his bed, and, two, the Garda generally frowned on randoms wandering around their offices, looking for evidence.
Cooper left with his brother, back to Bryan's flat either to talk a bit more or to crash; I wasn't sure.
"Any news on Sebastian?" I asked Ethan. We were both standing just inside the door of the coffee shop. Throughout our conversation with Bryan, he'd glanced at his phone at least five times that I noticed. Each time left me desperate to know what was going on but with no real way to interrupt and ask.
"He's not talking."
I'd suspected as much, but it still made me queasy to hear. There was no way
Otto or the other leaders had just asked Sebastian nicely what he'd been doing in that church or what Aoife was planning next, then let him be when he hadn't answered.
"Damn. I wonder if we've already missed our window." I pushed open the door to the shop and stepped out into the night. "If Aoife's goal was to destroy the summit or sow discord between us all, she's already done it. Why stick around and wait to get caught?"
Ethan followed me outside. "I had an idea. And please feel totally free to say no."
"I'm sure that's not going to happen, but let's hear it."
"Would you be willing to speak to him? I know you didn't get to know each other well, but it still puts you in a precarious situation. If you're not comfortable with this, that's okay. But the tactics they've been using aren't working. And you have a way of bringing something out in people."
"Of course I'm not comfortable with this. I'm not sure anyone is comfortable with any of this, how could they be? I'm on board for tracking down Aoife, for finding away for the factions to work together with the humans, for all of that. I'm not signing up to interrogate anyone."
"And I'm not asking you to. We've tried that and it's not working. What I'm suggesting is you talk to him. Maybe nothing comes of it. But Melanie, what if something does?"
"I'm surprised anyone would agree to let me get involved," I countered, not ready to say yes. I didn't even really understand why I was hesitating as much as I was. It wasn't like Ethan was asking me to go in and torture someone. It wasn't even that Sebastian and I had been friends once.
But so far, any time I'd gone head-to-head with someone, they'd held all the power. They'd been the ones set to kill me or destroy me, not thinking anything about who I was, just knowing that I, or someone I cared about, stood in their way. I'd fought back to protect myself, and to protect Simon's family.
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