by Bella Falls
“Sorry I’m a little late,” he uttered in a low, raspy voice. “Pack business.” His eyes wandered over the entire room and settled on me. He tipped his head in a small greeting.
For the first time in weeks, the uncomfortable tightness in my whole body relaxed. I closed my eyes and drug in a deep breath. My shoulders released the tension, and I realized just how much pain I’d gotten way too used to every minute of every day.
Mason handed me the plate with chess pie on it. “Thanks for coming.”
“From the looks of it, I wish it could have been sooner.” Dash scowled at me. “Let me guess, she’s been trying to deal with things all on her own.”
“She is sitting right here where you can talk to her directly.” I pointed a finger at myself. “And like you’re any different.” Taking the fork in hand, I cut off a bite of pie and chewed on it to keep from saying anything more venomous.
“But I am different. Shifters are used to dealing with pain.” Dash accepted the glass of sweet tea from my grandmother but didn’t take a sip.
“Pfft.” I swallowed the bite in my mouth without tasting any of its sweetness. “Yeah, shifters are so-o-o much tougher than witches.”
“Pretty much.”
The heads of my friends went back and forth as if they were viewing a tennis match.
I flipped him the bird while debating whether or not to spellcast a hex at his hiney to see just how much pain he could take.
“This is not the effect I’d hoped his presence would have on you,” Mason said, gripping my shoulder.
Matt scrambled to his feet and held out his hands. “Okay, that’s enough, you two.” His voice thundered with the authority of a warden.
I rose out of my chair. “Well, it wasn’t my idea to call him here, was it?”
“Birdy, may I please get your help with something in the kitchen?” Nana asked in a honeyed tone.
“Now?” I huffed.
She leveled me with one of her famous glares. “I think so.”
Just to avoid having to walk past Dash, I exited through the doorway into the darkened dining room. My bare feet pattered on the hardwood floor, and I entered into the heart of the house, preparing to take a tongue-lashing.
“It’s not my fault,” I blurted in immediate defense.
Nana busied herself with fixing another pitcher of tea. Instead of berating me for my poor behavior, she remained quiet, which was so much worse.
“I didn’t need to come here to be attacked. I’ve got enough going on without having my friends come at me like that,” I continued, wanting to elicit a response from my grandmother and get my punishment over with.
Without an ounce of anger, Nana turned to face me. “Now, do you really believe that any of us are here to attack you?” she asked in a calm tone.
I opened my mouth to sass back at her, but snapped it shut again. Defeated, I hung my head. “No, ma’am.”
Instead of saying anything else, she closed the distance between us and swept me into one of her close hugs. I melted against her and gave in to everything I had been trying to avoid for so many weeks. Tears gushed out of me, and I sobbed onto her shoulder.
Nana patted my back and rocked me back and forth. “There, there, Birdy. We’ll fix it. You’ll see,” she crooned.
Everything I’d been trying to keep in came pouring out all at once, and I snorted and snotted into her shirt until my breathing came in despaired huffs and sniffs.
I pulled away, mortified at the marks I’d left behind on her. “I’m sorry.”
My grandmother chucked me under the chin. “Don’t you apologize for having a good cry. Does a body good, and I think you needed it.”
Sniffling, I dashed a stray tear off of my cheek. “Yeah, I’ve been trying so hard to keep it together.”
“No, what you’ve been trying to do is to ignore the effects of the binding because you don’t want to hurt your detective.”
Nana always knew how to cut to the heart of things, and it was foolish of me to try and pretend she wasn’t right.
I slumped against the nearby counter. “And now I went and picked a fight with Dash after my amazingly, incredibly understanding boyfriend called him to come here just to make me feel better.”
Nana shook her head. “You picked a fight because you didn’t want Mason to notice that Dash’s presence gave you some relief. That the two of you being in close proximity stops the pain you’ve been dealing with.”
I wiped my hands down my face. “What do I do? In order to solve one problem, I’m creating another.”
My grandmother shoved the full pitcher of tea into my hands. “First thing you’re going to do is refill everyone’s drinks. Then the second thing you’re going to do is to stop worrying about creating problems for everyone else and see how they might be able to help you.” She brushed a strand of hair behind my ear. “There’s strength in leaning on others. Not weakness.”
I nodded once and followed her out of the kitchen and back into the living room. Stopping next to Dash, I bumped him once with my hip in a combined silent apology and thanks for coming. Making the rounds around the room, I did as Nana asked and refilled my friends’ drinks. By the time I finished, I felt more normal than I had in weeks.
Before sitting down, I pulled Mason into the dining room area by the hand. “I can’t believe you called Dash and convinced him to come here.”
He nipped the end of my nose with a quick kiss. “Haven’t you figured out yet that I’d do pretty much anything for you? Besides, I told you before, my warden skills make me pretty observant. I could tell that the binding was bothering you. It makes sense that since you’re magically tethered to him that maybe you would feel better if he were in closer proximity.”
“Yeah, well my brother’s a warden, too,” I said, leaning into his comforting embrace.
Mason’s low chuckle reverberated into me. “And he’s been just as concerned about you as I have. But we both gave you room to be grumpy.”
I pushed back from him. “I haven’t been…oh, even I can’t believe that lie. Yeah, I have. I’ve been terrible to you and everyone else who just wants everything to go back to normal.” Leaning on my tiptoes, I pressed my lips against his.
After a slightly indecent amount of time, he released me and cleared his throat. “You’re forgiven. Now, let’s go back in there and see if we can come up with a solid plan of how to fix this.”
Before we entered the crowded living room, my entire body was well aware of where Dash had settled himself in the corner nearest the quickest exit. I squeezed Mason’s hand three times to ground myself.
Henry grunted at something someone had said before we joined the conversation. “Ben and I have already been scouring through the books he had Horatio procure through interlibrary loan.”
My advocate friend nodded. “As far as we’ve discovered through our research of history, bindings are pretty tricky spells to begin with.”
“But Mason and I kinda did the same thing once, and we were able to break our connection,” I protested. “I don’t see why it’s any different.”
“It just is.” Nana huffed. “What you two did was open yourselves up to share magic. Which, I’ll admit, is kind of the beginning foundations to an old-fashioned witch binding.”
“Great, so then there has to be a spell that will undo things, right?” I asked, begging my grandmother with my eyes.
Her mouth pursed. “Not that I’ve been able to find. And we’re not just dealing with our magic alone. You’ve managed to combine witch, fae, and shifter magic all at once. Whatever you did, it’s being dang blasted stubborn to the last.”
The room quieted after my grandmother’s rant. When the most powerful witch in town—heck, the entire eastern coast of our country—didn’t have an answer or a solution, then things were about as bad as they could get.
“What if we got Lucky here and tried to break things like we did before?” Dash offered.
“We’ve done that numerous ti
mes before you took off for the mountains again,” Nana countered. “By Lucky’s estimations, it will take someone more active and further up the fae royalty chain to counteract the power of his authority. And I take his warning seriously that the options of who we’d have to call upon might open our town up to some dangerous consequences.”
“So, there’s no hope?” My voice came out smaller and frailer than I’d meant it to.
Nana’s irritated expression softened. “Oh no, sweet Bird. We Goodwin women never give up.”
“Neither do your friends,” Blythe added. “If you need us to scour the country, we’ll do it. Just point us in the right direction.”
Murmurs of agreement rose in the room, and I linked my fingers tightly with Mason’s.
“I’ve made a few inquiries with past connections,” the detective said.
I glanced up at him. “You better not make any deals under the table that require you to go away like you’ve done before. I won’t have you putting your life in harm’s way for this.”
He lifted my hand and brushed his lips against my knuckles. Irritation instead of delight rose in my chest, and I recognized the invasion of Dash’s emotions pushing against mine once again. Now that the shifter was here, his immediate presence seemed to negate the effectiveness of Nana’s gloopy sludge.
“I’ve contacted our friend Agent Giacinta on the down low,” my grandmother said.
“Down low? When did Nana learn that term?” I whispered loud enough for my friends to hear.
She rolled her eyes at the chuckling that followed. “Anyways, she says she will do some digging of her own to see if she can help us find a solution. In the meantime, I’ve put out some feelers to find us a spellweaver.”
Everyone, including myself, gasped at her admission. We looked between ourselves as if to double-check that we’d heard her correctly.
“What? Why is that so shocking?” Dash grunted.
“A spellweaver is someone with very rare talents,” Henry explained as he crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back in his seat. “They also like to keep themselves hidden and secret from the rest of the magical world.”
“Why?” the shifter pushed.
“Because of the magnitude of their powers. While I can cast a spell, a spellweaver can see exactly how the magic works. All the threads of energy that tie the power together. Think of it like knitting.” Nana spellcast an illusion of two needles with some yarn being knit together. “Now, the stronger the caster, the stronger the results. However, a spellweaver has the ability to undo everything.”
Still using the conjured image, my grandmother tugged on the nonexistent thread and undid the imagined swatch of knitting.
“Pull the thread, and the whole thing will come unraveled,” she finished.
My brain attempted to keep up with this new concept. “So, if we could find a spellweaver, who sounds like they’d be impossible to find, then maybe he or she could undo the binding?”
Henry raised his hand. “Not to be the bucket of water on this fire of an idea, but beyond spellweavers being rare, even if you could find one, isn’t it gonna cost a pretty penny?”
“If this is something that will help Charli, then money won’t be a problem,” Dash growled.
“No, it won’t be,” Mason replied, his tone a little firmer than normal.
My shoulders tightened a little at the wave of dominance that rolled off of Dash and through me. “Let’s worry about finances later and focus our efforts on finding a spellweaver. Henry, you and Ben keep being good research monkeys and see if you can find anything else that might be helpful.”
“Yeah, because we need you to be at your best in a year so you can be in our wedding party,” Lily said, flashing her ring at me.
“Actually, I’d prefer if she could fix the binding a little faster. Like, a good six months.” Alison Kate’s eyes twinkled at me as she rubbed her stomach.
“What?” I exploded. “Are you preggers, Ali Kat?”
All of the girls jumped out of their seats and surrounded our bubbly friend, squealing with glee.
Lee pushed his glasses up his nose. “Hey, isn’t anybody gonna fawn over me? I’m the daddy, after all.”
I stopped rubbing Alison Kate’s tummy long enough to glance at him over my shoulder. “If you want a high five, you better get them from the boys.”
He chuckled as Dash came up and clapped him on the back. “I’m just glad we can finally talk about it. It’s been killing us to stay quiet.”
“But we didn’t want to jinx things in the first few weeks. Doc Andrews assured us that everything is fine, and both me and the baby are healthy!” Alison Kate blushed at her husband.
“Woo-hoo!” I whooped. “We’re gonna have another Charli! The third!”
Lee snorted. “First of all, what’s with this we business, unless you mean my wife and I.”
“Second of all, my daughter and your niece’s name is Rayline, not Charli Junior despite what you insist on calling her,” my brother called out.
“And if it’s a third, it’ll be Leland Chalmers the third. Not Charli,” Lee finished with a nod.
Alison Kate giggled at all of us. “It is going to be a little boy or girl. And I think Charli is good for either. Maybe as a middle name if it’s a boy.”
“Birdy, stop terrorizing them about names,” Nana admonished as she pushed her way through the throng to hug my friend. “Congratulations, sweet girl.”
I appreciated ending the intervention on such a high and to have the attention focused on something positive rather than the problem looming over my head. Well, mine and Dash’s heads.
I hugged everyone goodbye as they left full of pie and hope. Nana excused herself to clean up the dishes in the kitchen and left Dash with Mason and me. The shifter’s discomfort set me on edge.
The detective pecked my cheek. “I’ll go give your grandmother a hand and let you two talk.” He clapped Dash on the shoulder as he walked by. “Thank you for coming.”
The shifter grunted in response, ignoring all Southern expectations and not even making one attempt at some pleasantness. His scowl deepened as he found himself in my company alone.
“So, what crawled up your behind and died?” I sassed.
“I’m not a dog to be beckoned here or there at someone’s whim.” Dash picked up the whole slice of pie he’d yet to eat and shoved it in his mouth.
“No one said that you were.” I handed him a napkin to wipe off the crumbs surrounding his mouth.
Instead of taking it from me, he wiped off the mess with the back of his hand. “Your boyfriend seems to think he’s in charge.”
If Dash wanted to be nasty right off the bat, then maybe I needed to do away with my genteel manners as well. “He asked you to come here because he thought it might help me out.”
“Exactly.” He swallowed down the full amount. “He didn’t care anything about my life or the inconvenience of me having to come all the way over here.” Dash’s eyes glowed bright, and a low growl emanated from his chest.
“I’m sorry if it’s inconvenient for you to be here. I’m sorry if you couldn’t find two seconds to call or text me to let me know what was going on. I thought we were way past playing games, especially after what’s connecting us right now. But instead, you holed yourself up in them there hills and acted like nothing had changed. And now, you dare to stand in my family’s house and yell at me?” Anger coursed through my veins, and I clenched my fists at my side.
Dash set his plate down on a nearby side table with little care. The fork clattered on the dish and fell to the floor. He winced a little but stood his ground. “It’s not like you were making huge efforts to connect with me either. You practically kicked me out of Honeysuckle, telling me to go do my job as alpha.”
My eyes bulged at him. “You told me you needed to go take care of things. What was I supposed to do? Tie you down and force you to stay? Tell you to ignore your duties so you could stay here while we didn’t have one
clue as to what to do about this binding between us? I’m not the bad guy here.”
“And I am?” he shouted, stalking towards me.
Nana rushed into the room with both her hands up. “What’s going on in here?”
I pointed at Dash. “He’s being completely unreasonable and rude.”
“It’s not my job to come at anybody’s beck and call.” The gold in the shifter’s eyes glowed brighter.
Without a word, Mason moved his body to shield mine. “Take a step back.”
Dash’s lip curled up to reveal growing fangs. He snarled at the detective. “You don’t order me around.”
“Consider where you are and who you are threatening. Exactly how well do you think this is going to go if you attack Charli right now? Back off, Channing, and take a deep breath.” Mason’s voice remained cool and even.
Instead of listening, the shifter drew up to his full height and took a step closer to the detective. “I’m thinking you’re gonna have to make me.”
Nana flourished her hands and flicked a hex at Dash’s behind. He yelped as it hit its mark. I rubbed my own bottom in sympathy.
“Dashiel Thaddeus Channing, pull yourself together. Charli, since he’s gonna need a minute to cool down, I suggest that you be the one to step away. Why don’t you go catch some fireflies?” she suggested, her eyes trained on the shifter.
“It’s not the right time of day or year,” I protested, my breathing still short and erratic.
Whenever Nana wanted Matt or me to calm down, she told us to go chase fireflies outside. It got us out of the house and kept us distracted until we calmed down. I didn’t appreciate being treated like a child from yesteryear, but even I understood her reasons.
Dash stopped posturing, and his shoulders slumped a little. He rubbed the back of his neck. “No, I’m fine. This was all my fault. I came in here with a hot head and an axe to grind.”
“I don’t know why you had to try and grind it on my behind,” I mumbled, still frustrated with his reaction.
He glanced in my direction. “I know it’s not fair, but I walked into a room full of concerned friends and realized not one of them was there for me. It just…it made me realize that…never mind.”
