by Gina LaManna
Ranger X’s gaze lingered on me for a little too long before turning to Annabelle. “Destroyed or gone?”
“Hard to say,” she hesitated. “I think gone, though. I’m fairly sure of it. There are a few small patches that look burned, and the rest...it’s like someone magicked off entire fields of it, and I can’t figure out how or why.”
“Has anything like this ever happened before?”
“I think we’ll get going,” I piped up before Annabelle could answer. “I have some things to take care of.”
“Not so fast,” Ranger J snapped, turning stony faced to Poppy and myself. “You’re at the scene of a crime. You made it here before we did. We’ll have questions for you.”
“You can’t think we’re suspects?” My response was directed at Ranger X. “If anything, we think someone’s trying to sabotage us!”
“Why do you think that?” Ranger J asked curiously.
Ranger X must have seen my hesitant expression because he chose that moment to step in. “You surely recognize the Mixologist,” he said to Ranger J. “Let them go. I know where to find them; I’ll handle their questioning myself.”
Ranger J looked dissatisfied, but he didn’t argue with the direct order from his boss.
I turned to X. “Are we free to go?”
“I’ll find you later,” he said with a stare most curious. “But before you leave, what did bring you here?”
“Lily thinks someone’s watching—er, listening to her.” Poppy barged in before I had the chance to answer. “Gus just told her about a spell that required Forgotten Ferns. And now they’re gone. Coincidence?”
“Coincidence,” Annabelle said assuredly. “There’s no way someone could move all those ferns in twenty minutes without pre-planning.”
“Maybe not by themselves,” Ranger X said grimly. “They could have had a team.”
“It’d take an incredible amount of magic to be so thorough.” Annabelle frowned. “I haven’t a scrap of it left.”
“Incredible magic,” Ranger X said quietly. “Yes, I expect so. Annabelle, can you give me the details of your day? Start from the top. Any detail you can remember is important, no matter how small...”
Poppy took that as our cue to leave, though I wanted to stay longer and listen. “Come on,” she urged, tugging me along. “This is not our place. You can grill X later. I’m sure he won’t forget to stop by for a chat.”
“Lovely.”
“Is something off between the two of you still?”
“It’s nothing. We both have a lot on our plates.”
“If you say so,” Poppy said with a wince. “But that didn’t feel like sexual tension to me back there. It just felt like regular old tension.”
I kept silent on the walk back.
“Hey, Lily, this isn’t about the ring I saw X wearing on my birthday, is it?” Poppy asked as the bungalow came into sight. “I know I should mind my own business, but I want you to know it’s okay if you’re not ready. Or if you want to talk about it, I’m here for you.”
“Thanks,” I said, then added truthfully, “I suppose that’s been on my mind. Along with other things.”
Poppy took my hand and squeezed. “You’ll know when the time’s right. If I were you, though, I wouldn’t go wandering off this evening, at least until X swings by. He’s probably not happy about the theft, and he’ll be even less happy that you might be the target.”
I remembered Poppy’s blurted information—her theory that someone had listened in at the bungalow. I realized she’d deliberately shared her thoughts with X so he’d come around to examine the bungalow for holes in security.
“I’m sorry I told him,” she said, reading my face. “But he had to know. I’m sure it’s nothing, but it’s better safe than sorry.”
“Sure,” I said, coming to a stop outside the bungalow. “Thanks for the company. I mean it—I needed someone to talk to today.”
“Of course. By the way, what is this spell that’s so important?”
I forced a smile before climbing the porch steps. At the top, I turned to face Poppy. “Doesn’t matter now, does it? I can’t make it anyway.”
I SPENT THE REST OF the day zipping around the storeroom keeping as busy as possible. Mostly, I wanted to forget the fact that I was essentially imprisoned, held here by an unspoken agreement with Ranger X to wait until he could ask his questions.
Gus sensed my mood, and together we worked in silence. We worked hard, and by evening, most of the potions we needed to backfill were either bottled and ready or well on their way to completion.
We’d decluttered the table in the center of the storeroom, and in place of the normal debris, we’d lit small fires that hovered mid-air. Above them, we had a series of little tables balancing cauldrons over the flames.
The Security Sampler cauldron was the largest—it’d be enough to supply half the island with spells. A variety of medium cauldrons carried all sorts of defensive spells, which were not meant to harm, of course, but to stun, to alarm, to warn.
The smallest cauldron bubbled with a potent mixture of Long Isle Iced Tea. It’d be another day or two before it was brewed to proper strength. I’d purposely made a small amount of it. Though the vials had been flying off the shelves, there was safety in having a limited supply. Safety, I didn’t want to admit, from my own aunt.
“You mind if I check out for the evening?” Gus wiped his brow. “I have something I need to do.”
His ask for permission caught me off guard. “Of course. Are you headed to Mimsey’s?”
Gus’s silence was enough of an answer.
“Oh, I see what’s happening,” I said as he glanced at the clock. “You’re just leaving because you don’t want to be here when X arrives.”
A knock on the door sent a jolt of surprise down my back.
“That’s my cue,” Gus said, grabbing his cane and heading for the door. “Enjoy your evening.”
“Coward.”
Gus paused in the doorway. “No, I’m choosing my battles. This ain’t mine to fight.”
He pulled open the door, greeted Ranger X with a typical grunt, and slipped by. X smoothly took his place in the entryway to the storeroom, waiting uncomfortably for an invitation inside.
“Come in,” I said, gesturing for him to cross the room. The gesture was an awkward one since he’d never previously needed an invitation. Usually, X came and left as he desired, and this new hesitation had me on edge. “How are you?”
“Let’s not do this.” X crossed the room in a few steps, his lips meeting mine with a touch of anger. He kissed me, his hands reaching for the sides of my face as he held me close, closer, until finally I relaxed. “There,” he said, after a long moment. The smallest smile appeared on his face as my eyes drifted back open. “That’s more like it.”
My heart pumped from his touch, the desperate roughness of it joined by the wild familiarity of him all at once. To give myself time to think, I brushed past Ranger X’s shoulder to close and lock the door. By the time I returned to the center table, my expression was again carefully passive.
“I know you didn’t have anything to do with the ferns,” X said at promptly. “What I don’t understand...”
He trailed off, his gaze landing on the shelves as he paced around the room. His eyes traced every vial, beaker, even the flames that licked and danced around the boiling potions on the table.
“X, I wanted to tell you—”
He held up a finger, silencing me. Then, he closed his eyes and murmured an enchantment lasting long enough for me to tune out halfway through. I didn’t recognize the language he used.
“What was that?” I asked, when his eyes reopened and his gaze defogged. “I’ve never heard anything like it.”
“One of the oldest spells around that’s still practical,” Ranger X said. “It’s a temporary shield—it’ll block everything we say and contain it to this room. All the words we speak here tonight will be safe.”
“Unlike
earlier today.”
Ranger X gave a succinct nod, but he didn’t look convinced. “This bungalow has been protected by security spells throughout its existence. They were set a long time ago,” he clarified at my questioning face. “I didn’t find any holes in it when I checked this evening.”
“What does that mean?”
“I don’t think anyone was actually listening to you. Did you bring any articles inside the home recently? Something someone gave you?”
I shook my head. “We get a lot of customers at the bar and many visitors in the storeroom, but they never go into my private quarters.”
X shook his head. “Those areas use separate security charms. The storeroom and your living quarters are most heavily protected. The bar has to be more open due to the nature of it.”
I frowned, remembering the note in my drawer, as well as my earlier visit. “Didn’t you say that Liam knows some big security specialists?”
“What’s he got to do with this?”
“I’m just saying, if he knows how to set it up...” I hesitated. “He’ll know how to break it down.”
“But Liam—”
“He was here. Earlier today.”
Any sign of camaraderie that’d lightened Ranger X’s eyes vanished at once. “Here? On the island?”
My heart stuttered with nerves as I shook my head. “In my room.”
X’s hands clenched and unclenched. A slight halo of gold appeared around his head, the sheen dancing off his tanned skin, his sharp black suit shimmering with it. I had to calm him down before it grew out of control.
“I meant to tell you,” I said. “But things happened, and I didn’t get a chance. He didn’t do anything to hurt me.”
“How’d he get inside?”
“The closet.”
“The...” Ranger X blinked. “That self-populating piece of—”
“He said the time had come.”
“Meaning The Faction is ready to make their move?”
I paused, realizing how shaky Liam’s information had been. In retrospect, I should have asked more questions, demanded more from him. As I repeated the information to Ranger X, I felt almost ridiculous at its barrenness.
“Let me understand,” Ranger X said. “We are supposed to find the Master of Magic, but we don’t know where he is. We’re supposed to find the keeper of his location, but again we don’t know where he is, what he looks like, or when he’ll appear...if he chooses to do so at all.”
“That’s about right.”
“And Liam had no solid information to offer about the plans of Lucian. Except that he’s on the move or looking to be on the move shortly.”
“When you put it like that, yeah. We don’t have much.”
“At best we don’t have much. At worst, we’re being played,” Ranger X growled. “If anything, I’ll bet he wanted into the house for a different reason and merely used the information as a diversion. How long was this before you and Gus discussed the spell and ferns?”
My cheeks burned, and I felt annoyed with my naivete. It was embarrassing that I hadn’t put the pieces together sooner. “Immediately before. We were interrupted by Gus calling up that he had found something, and then Liam left.”
Ranger X closed his eyes, pinched his hands together over his temples. “What was the spell you and Gus were working on that was so important?”
“We weren’t working on anything yet. I’d come up with a spell I wanted to create and add to the Mixology Menu. It doesn’t even have a name yet. Gus thought he’d found something that might be helpful to get me started.”
“It’s purpose?”
My hesitation to share clearly showed through. “It’s not even a spell, yet—”
“If Liam heard, if he’s after it, then I need to know.” Ranger X stepped toward me, one of his hands circling my wrist as he gripped it tightly. “I need to know as much as possible—everything they know—in order to have a chance to close in on them. We might never be a step ahead, but we have to try. We’ll fail before we start if there are gaps in the knowledge that we do have.”
“My spells have nothing to do with The Faction,” I finally whispered. “X, you’re hurting me—let go.”
With a shocked look, X loosened his grip around my wrist and backed away as if my words had licked him with fire. “They have nothing to do with The Faction?”
“It was for my mother’s locket, okay?” I grabbed for the chain around my neck and, feeling the prick of anger prodding at my eyes, held it out for him to see. “It’s been glowing ever since the night of Poppy’s party. The night I changed into her—and I need to find out why.”
“How will the spell help?”
“I need to know what truly happened to her. Trinket doesn’t believe it was a mugging gone wrong, and I tend to agree with her.” I hesitated, the bubbling of potions setting a backdrop for the moment that was dryly fitting. “Gus uncovered some information in an ancient book of spells this morning—references to old magicks and the ingredients that could potentially lead me to my mother’s last thoughts.”
“Of course.” Ranger X smiled, and to my surprise it was gentle, indulgent. “He found a legend about the Empath family of magic. Don’t get your hopes up.”
“All I have is hope! If you’re familiar with these types of spells, can you help me understand how they work?”
“I’m familiar with the stories, but I’m afraid I can’t help you.”
“Why not? I need this, Cannon. You have to understand how important this is to me.”
My use of his true name didn’t go unnoticed. He knew I was begging, desperate, and I could tell he was trying to let me down easy as he continued.
“I can’t help you because Empath magic doesn’t exist.”
“But—”
“You said Gus found the notations for a spell in an ancient book?”
I nodded.
“Was there an actual spell attached?”
“Not really, but—”
“That’s because nobody has ever created one that works.” Ranger X’s proclamation dropped heavily into the room, bringing the earth around me to a standstill. “Those spells are made of myths. It’s a hopeful thing that’s never been proven real.”
“I don’t believe you.” The fierceness of my whisper came as a shock even to me. “Why would it be written about in books if it didn’t exist?”
“Why are stories written? To give us hope. Understanding. Entertainment.”
“This wasn’t some dreamer writing fiction,” I said. “It was in an ancient textbook.”
“Then if it exists, why has another Mixologist not uncovered it? Why are we not all using these spells? Because they have never worked.”
My fingers shook, and I couldn’t sort through all my frustrations. It hurt to realize the one spell I’d hinged all my hopes on was a notion stemming from fairytales. Waves of sadness followed, made harsher by the fact Ranger X delivered the news with such nonchalance.
“I don’t believe it. Until recently, I thought ancient gods were the stuff of myths. Magic and witches and vampires. Hidden societies and tropical islands in the middle of a frigid Great Lake. None of that was real until I found it.”
“People have tried, Lily,” X said, sensing my spiral to the edge of sanity. “It’s not a new idea—people have tested Empath magicks for years.”
“I haven’t,” I said. “And until I test it and fail repeatedly, I’m going to believe there’s a chance.”
Ranger X raised his hands. “I never intended to doubt your skills. My only desire is to not see you get hurt.”
I took a few deep breaths, my chest aching. I forced myself to bite back my snappish words. “I know. I’m sorry, too.”
Ranger X stepped closer to me. “If anyone can create this spell, it’s you.” His hand came up, brushed my hair to the side. His lips pressed, like the petal of a rose, against my forehead. “I only want you to be happy. Safe and protected, of course, but also happy.”
<
br /> I sunk against his chest, letting my head rest there as his arms came to circle my back. “I know. I want the same for you. Why is it so hard to stay happy?”
Ranger X lifted me then, cradling me to his chest as my arms eased around his neck and pulled us closer. My fingers played through his dark hair, the curls intertwining due to their length. He needed a haircut, but something about the mess of curls there gave him a softer look, almost boyish. On an impulse, I pressed a kiss to his nose.
“The rest of this conversation can continue tomorrow,” he said, climbing the stairs to my bedroom. “We’re done with professional business tonight.”
He laid me gently on the comforter, taking a moment to glance at the closet and mutter a spell that sent up a shimmering bubble of a shield against it. Once satisfied at the defenses, he returned to me, his eyes glinting with darkness.
“Now,” he said slowly. “Where were we?”
Chapter 6
GUS MUST HAVE GOTTEN the memo. Somehow.
I assumed Ranger X had found a way to discreetly get in touch with my assistant because Gus was nowhere to be found the next morning. Ranger X had likely put the kibosh on Gus’s early morning puttering around the store in order to let me rest.
It worked; I slept, undisturbed, until half past eight. Ranger X sat next to me as I stretched to consciousness, a cup of coffee in one hand and a paper in the other.
I couldn’t help it. The sight of him made me burst into laughter.
Ranger X flinched at my reaction, so jerky in his movements that coffee splashed from his mug and landed on the white comforter in an ugly patch of brown. A few muttered words from him had the stain wiped clear in a second, but not before he’d managed to wipe the look of incredulity off his face.
“Lily?” he asked, cautiously. “Is everything okay?”
“Don’t look at me like I’ve been jinxed.” I snuggled closer to him. “It’s just funny, in an ironic sort of way.”
“What’s so funny?”
He was so mystified it was cute. I reached a hand to his face, toying once again with those locks that were just a little too long. His face was blank, clear and bright in the morning light, his lips parted with confusion.
