Chapter 12 #2
He winced. “A little bit? I wrote the first security program, and existing companies couldn’t see the value. I split the code between a bunch of computers, but each one only holds a piece of the code. That’s not how cloud systems usually work.”
She tossed the book on the coffee table. “That sounds like a wolf pack.”
He’d never thought of that before. “Hunh.”
“Siobhan and Niamh don’t agree on astrology. Siobhan actually agrees with you, which is why it’s pissing her off so much. She doesn’t want to do that.”
“And you?”
“I see the future in a crystal ball.”
“I learned a long time ago that I don’t have to understand everything to know it’s useful,” he said sincerely. He was glad of anything that made her life easier. He glanced into the hall. “Do you want to go for a walk, or will the chaperones let you out of the house?”
She grimaced. “The last time I left the house, I disappeared for days, and they thought I was dead in a blizzard, so not really at the moment. They may forgive me in another month. Unless…”
There was a crash from the kitchen.
“Go back to unless,” he said urgently. He had to get her alone.
“If there was a werewolf in town, they would go investigate.”
“I can do that,” he said with sudden hope. “I can make that happen.”
He dug out his cell phone and clapped it to his ear. “Nico, I need you to do a sweep of the town, and I need you to be visible. No, don’t eat anyone, just freak somebody out enough to get back to a couple of witches as fast as possible.”
“Go by the Cauldron and Broom on Main Street,” she whispered.
“You heard that?” he demanded, and Nicolo confirmed.
He hung up the phone quickly as he heard footsteps and cracked his knuckles.
He smiled as the twins came in and ignored the second cup of tea she put down.
“Shall I return to the next category, which is… flower essences?” he said with an inner groan.
“You know, like homeopathy,” Cat said quickly.
“Is that a disorder of the system?” he asked, parsing through the Latin.
“No, it’s when you take a bit of the essence of the opposite of your problem to fix your problem. You know, like a tiny dose of coffee to go to sleep.”
“How tiny?”
“Milliliters.”
“You know nothing in the world works like that, right? The more you take of something, the bigger the effect, and also the opposite of the effect you want gives you the opposite effect. But how brilliant was the creator of this that they figured this out!”
“Weren’t they?” Cat said with a grin.
How long did it take to run from the house to downtown Silver Spring? It couldn’t be that long.
He cleared his throat and flipped to the next page. “Next category: divination systems throughout the world.” He glanced at Cat. “This is one of my favorites.”
Niamh let out a tittering laugh, and Cat was biting her tongue again.
“There are long histories of prophets in every culture of the world. Even in our modern world, we have futurists who claim to do the same thing empirically. Everybody wants to know what happens next.”
Siobhan harrumphed.
“If only there were a way to really find out,” he said, deciding to get a little revenge. “We could just gaze into a crystal ball and know for sure. Like magic.”
Niamh choked.
“What could be possible with a talent like that?” he asked. “How invaluable to have in your corner.”
“If such a thing existed,” Siobhan said firmly.
Cat wasn’t laughing anymore; her eyes promised retribution as a shrill ringing sounded through the house, and Siobhan flew out of the room.
“You have a landline?” he asked, gobsmacked.
“Yeah?”
“I didn’t know they did that anymore. Just for audio calls?” The idea of an entire wired network just to hear each other’s voices in real time seemed like an incredible waste of infrastructure.
Siobhan stomped back before they could say anything else and looked at her sister with wide eyes. “We have to go. We all have to go.”
“Why?” Niamh asked.
“Because there’s been a sighting.”
“The yeti?” Mateo asked. He grinned at his own joke, but no one else laughed, and he cleared his throat. “I mean, with all the snow.”
“There is a possible olf-way near the op-shay,” Siobhan said through gritted teeth.
“An ulffy?” Niamh said, completely confused.
“A wolf near the shop!” Siobhan shouted.
“Oh no!” Mateo said. “Shall I call animal control?”
Cat jumped up. “They are animal control. Annie! Everybody! Out of the house!”
They ran for the front door, and Siobhan glanced back at Cat. “You coming?”
“I can’t leave him in the house! I’ll finish up and then get the woods to the north.”
Siobhan grabbed a crossbow and stuffed it into a large wicker shopping bag before heading out the door. Mateo fought the urge to call Nico and tell him to watch his tail. He’d only insult the wolf.
Two other younger women joined them, though they did not arm themselves.
“Did anybody see the wolf?” the younger woman with strawberry blonde hair asked, looking worried.
“He isn’t blond, Annie,” Cat said, and Mateo frowned at that non sequitur. How did she know? He let it go. Nico could worry about his own hair, too.
The witches trooped out, and the house went quiet around them except for a slight creaking in the wind. He looked at Cat, this woman whose life was so much stranger than he ever imagined, who he’d been willing to give up everything for.
“We didn’t say goodbye,” he said, which was not the grand speech he had planned to make at all. “So, um, goodbye.”
“That’s what you risked life and limb and one of your wolves to tell me?” she asked softly. Her eyes seemed to glow as they met his.
“Yes,” he said, even as he shook his head.
“What did you want to say to me?”
What seemed so simple in a cabin in the snow was now about as likely as a minuscule amount of coffee calming him down. “Thank you for saving my life.”
“Thank you for saving the kids,” she countered.
He waved a hand away. “Of course.”
“Well, of course, right back at you!”
Standing up, her dark dress reached the floor, topped by a vivid shirt in different shades of pink. She looked like a flower vendor at a farmers’ market in Brooklyn, where there would be nothing between them but bouquets of dying roses.
She grimaced and plucked up one of the mugs of tea and thrust it into his hands. “Drink it.”
He eyed the drink she’d warned him was a truth serum. “No way.”
“Drink it and tell me that you’re grateful and goodbye.”
He ignored the mug to put both hands on her cheeks, tilt her head up, and kiss her.