Chapter 4 #2
“Oh, right… Of course. What’s your fee?” I asked.
“I know money is tight, so I propose a trade. I’ll write up a diagnostic report if you can collect an entire jar of cateyes for me by tomorrow,” she said.
“Cateyes? At this time of year?” I asked.
She nodded with a solemn expression. “I’m aware the season is difficult, but you’ve got a lot on your property. Use a bit of magic, darling. A day of work for a day of work seems fair, doesn’t it?”
It would be a miserable day of collection, but she was right. It would be easier to do something difficult in exchange for her work than to pay her fee. She had over twenty years of experience, so it wouldn’t be cheap. “Yes, that’s fair. I’ll get your jar of cateyes.”
“Perfect.” Her eyes found Sterling, who shifted from one foot to the other while he watched her closely. “Sterling, will you help him, or are you uncomfortable with the idea of participating in magic?”
Sterling squinted at her and then said, “It’s not magic I’m uncomfortable with, but… you’re going to kill cats for their eyes? I can’t condone that.”
I placed a hand over my mouth. He thought we were talking about killing animals.
Willo seemed pleased. “Cateyes are a type of river stone,” she explained, tilting her head. “But I appreciate your concern for the lives of animals.”
“Oh,” Sterling said with a breath of relief. “Wait, how are we going to retrieve stones from the river? It’s freezing.”
“I’ll warm you up,” I said with a wink.
Sterling’s eyebrows rose, which I was starting to think meant he was flustered. He coughed a laugh and said, “What?”
“With a warmth spell,” I said.
“Right, of course,” he said, glancing away and rubbing his neck. I couldn’t take my eyes off him, but when I did, Willo was watching me with a fierce frown.
“Cassian, may I speak with you privately?” she asked.
“Uh… okay,” I said.
Willo brought me into the bedroom and shut the door, turning to me with crossed arms. “Cassian, my darling, I am so very proud to see you following the path of a witch, but you’re still new. You haven’t seen the way law enforcement treats those of us who embrace our power.”
“Sterling isn’t like that,” I said.
“I understand your willingness to believe he’s better than the rest, but be careful. Times are changing, and the law is shifting against us. If it ever comes down to you or the law, who do you think he’ll choose?”
I wanted to believe Sterling would choose to side with magic, but some people believed the law told them what was right and wrong. If magic became illegal, how many people would believe it was wrong? Would Sterling be one of them?
“Girls like us rarely get along with guys like him. Watch your back,” she said. “And come straight to me if he ever steps a toe out of line.”
She still knew me well enough to draw a smile from me just by calling me a girl. “We’re not together,” I said.
Willo looked at me like she didn’t believe me.
“I just don’t want you to set yourself up for heartbreak, my dear.
Whatever this is between you and him, just remember that someday he’s going back to the city to work for the Force.
Have your fun, but don’t count on him for much more than solving this crime. ”
My heart sank. She was worried about him being in the Force, but she’d accidentally brought up the real problem: No matter how much I liked him, someday he would leave.
Just like everyone else who stayed at Fibbersnap Inn.
STERLING
Cassian acted strangely after his conversation with Willorunia. I needed to question Willorunia, but it could wait. I would see her again when she came to the inn to complete the diagnostic, and I needed her to warm up to me before demanding an alibi.
Not that I would do that, but I needed to be more careful with a witch. Witches tended not to like Force officers much. I was fortunate Cassian was willing to work with me, but even he had hidden that part of himself.
Cassian hardly spoke all the way back to the inn. When I asked what Willorunia had said to him, he wouldn’t tell me. It seemed suspicious, but Cassian probably would have told me if it had been important. Unless she had threatened him.
“What’d you find out?” Jasmine asked from behind the front counter when we returned.
“We’ve got to collect cateyes in exchange for Willo’s help,” Cassian said, already pulling his cloak off to prepare to wade in the river.
“Willo is the best,” Jasmine said. “Sorry you have to do… that, though.”
Cassian chuckled. “You want to help?”
“Um,” Jasmine scratched her head, grimacing at her cousin. “I would, but… someone’s got to watch the front desk.”
“That’s okay, we can do it alone,” I said.
Cassian turned to me with wide eyes, and then he turned his pretty face away. “You can stay inside, Sterling. I’d just have to show you what a cateye is, and it’s dangerous to wade through a freezing river if you’re not a mage.”
I didn’t like how distant he had become since speaking to Willorunia, but maybe it was for the best. I shouldn’t have flirted with him at all. He was a citizen in need, and I was there to figure out who cursed his inn. Nothing more.
“Let me guess, cateyes look like cat eyes?” I asked. I didn’t need to go with him, but I wanted to. “And you already said you could cast a spell to keep me warm. You shouldn’t be out in the freezing cold by yourself, anyway.”
Cassian sighed, tilting his head back, eyes closed. Despite the conclusion that my attraction was a problem, I shamelessly took in the sight of his exposed neck and his sharp jawline. “You’re right,” he said.
I think we both knew he would have been fine.
It was still snowing when Cassian brought me around the inn, past the stables, and toward the very rear of the property. Our boots left fresh prints in the snow as we headed toward the river. I saw the arched wooden bridge over the river before I saw the river itself.
Despite the freezing weather, the river was still running. Ice slushed by, telling me this would not be a fun afternoon.
To my utter surprise, Cassian pulled off his shirt and flung it over a nearby tree branch.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“I don’t want to get my clothes wet.”
“You’re getting in the water?”
He shot a funny look at me. “How else are we going to collect stones?”
“By fishing them out?”
“That takes too long.” Cassian closed his eyes and traced a pattern over his chest, muttering something to himself. A warm glow shimmered from the top of his head to his feet. “Much better,” he said with a grin. “Come here; let me cast a warmth spell on you.”
“Do I have to take off my shirt?” I asked.
“You don’t have to do anything, but wouldn’t you rather have something dry to put on when the spell wears off?” he asked.
I couldn’t imagine taking my shirt off in that moment, but maybe the spell would change my mind. “All right. Go ahead.”
Cassian gave a curt nod before tracing the same shape and muttering the same words he had used on himself. My body relaxed as comfortable warmth chased away the unbearable cold. I was already sweating under my coat and shirt, and I understood why Cassian had taken his off.
I pulled my shirt off, draping it beside Cassian’s on the branch.
Cassian’s eyes lingered on me before he cleared his throat and averted his gaze.
“Let’s get to work,” he said, removing his boots and rolling up his trousers before wading into the water with a glass jar under his arm.
“Hurry, this spell only lasts an hour!” he shouted back.
I kicked off my boots and rolled up my trousers too. As I stepped into the water, I expected the painful burn of winter water, but it felt like a cool river on a summer day.
“This spell is amazing,” I said.
“Thanks! I don’t get why so many people hate magic when we mainly use it for things like this,” he answered, wedging the glass jar into the snowy bank. “And we’re willing to share!”
“Maybe they’re jealous,” I said, eyeing the water rushing over my legs. A chunk of ice bumped into me and drifted on, but it was as harmless as a clump of moss.
Cassian smiled at me. He really needed to stop doing that, or we would have a big problem soon.
He seemed to read my mind, because it disappeared quickly, and he returned his attention to the water.
“This shouldn’t take too long. Willo asked me to do this because this river is full of cateyes.
” His brow furrowed over darting eyes, and then he plunged his hand beneath the surface.
When he came up, he held a flat blue stone with a streak of black through the middle. “This is a cateye.”
“Was that so hard?” I joked.
Cassian eyed the stone again, smiling. “Yeah, I suppose it is pretty intuitive,” he said, dropping it in the jar with a clink.
It didn’t take me long to find one myself, but in that time, Cassian had already found three more. “What does she use these for?” I asked.
Cassian shrugged. “Don’t know.”
I waded over to the jar while I tried to figure out if he really didn’t know, or if he didn’t want to tell me.
We continued working in silence for a while until Cassian let out a sharp gasp.
I hurried to him to find him inspecting a round, gray stone with something engraved on it.
The engravings shimmered as if lit by full sun instead of the snowy sky.
Every color hid underneath the black of the engraving but only came out when Cassian turned it at the right angle.
“What is that?” I asked.
“This is a type of magic I’ve never seen before. It’s a rune stone that uses the power of nature instead of the mage’s magical energy to keep it running, so it can last for a very long time.”
“Could it be part of the curse?” I asked.
Cassian turned the stone over in his hands a few times, and then he said, “If it is, we’re in trouble.” He waded toward the bank and climbed out. “You’d better come with me. I want to show Jasmine.”
“Shouldn’t I keep searching for stones while the spell still works?” I asked, dropping another cateye into the half-full jar.