Chapter Leo #2
Finn hates missing the chance to learn something new, but he’d also never choose his own desires over someone else’s safety and security.
Leo figures he could have volunteered, too, but someone has to be here to keep Gideon and Jay from hunting down Professor Kirwan when this goes to shit. Besides, Finn might seem mild-mannered 90% of the time, but he’s still alpha through and through.
Gideon returns with a white pillar candle with a red velvet circle on the bottom, and a jar of chunky sea salt.
“Is that the only candle we’ve got?” Jay whispers.
Leo realizes it’s a low-heat candle used for temperature play. Something new on Jay’s kink list.
“It’s fresh out of the box, Jay Rhodes. What else could one ask for?”
Something that’s not used during sex, maybe?
Nimue accepts the items with a smirk and a tinge of pink to her cheeks. “Thank you, Gideon. This will do the job nicely. Red is the color of power and will add a nice boost. May I have the rest of that water, please?”
She signals for Ignatius to drop the metal crow into the glass, and it sinks to the bottom with a loud clink. It sounds heavier than it should be—like the weight of the magic it bears has changed its chemical composition.
Pouring enough salt until the remaining water rises to the top of the glass, she settles the wide candle on top.
Ignatius lights the flame, and tiny bubbles rise to the surface and along the inside of the glass. “Nimue is using the four elements to unravel the spell,” he explains.
Grayson’s eyes go wide. “I can see she’s added Air to the salt and Water…the salt is Earth, and the candle, Fire. Now there’s…something green. Like…slime.”
In the next second, the glass cracks down the side and the flame soars, before a burst of Air blows the candle out.
“Thank you,” Nix murmurs, and Grayson sags beside him.
“Someone tell me what the hell just happened,” Jay says quietly, but his hands are clenched into fists at his sides.
“Professor Kirwan gave me that,” Grayson says. “Hey, I can say her name now. What the hell? How did I not notice that before? I mean, I could in the beginning, and I can when I speak directly to her, but not to anyone else since she gave me the foci…”
“You disassembled it, Nimue?” Ignatius asks, removing the candle and swirling the melted piece of metal at the bottom of the glass. Most of the salt had been absorbed, but the few remaining crystals are tinged blackish-green.
“I did. Surprisingly, the intent was twofold: one, to listen in on Grayson’s conversations; two, to prevent him from talking about his time with her to anyone else. It uses his magic to power it, which is why—with his access dialed down—he would feel drained.”
Jay frowns. “That sounds a lot like the—”
“The amulet,” Nix finishes with a shudder.
Ignatius grimaces. “I can see how you might think it’s the same. The Plain is accessed through the soul, and I suppose, given Grayson’s access to The Plain is through your shared soul, that it would seem like it was Dark magic.”
“It felt like it,” Nix growls. “But that requires consent, and Grayson didn’t give her permission. Is that the difference?”
“That is a difference, but not the one that matters here. This time, the difference is that it is actively powered by him—not passively.” Ignatius squints, searching for a metaphor.
“It’s like a rechargeable battery,” Leo offers. “Grayson’s magic was a never-ending supply of energy. That’s different from what Withers did, when he used them up and threw them away.”
“Exactly, Leo. The foci was powered by Grayson’s living access to The Plain—a constantly replenishing source of energy.
Arguably, it could go on forever,” Nimue adds.
“Unlike Withers’s swath of destruction, this is subtly constructed.
A scalpel rather than a hammer. And unless she’s fine-tuned her skill set in the past few years, this would be beyond what Dahlia could do on her own. ”
“Food for thought, certainly. How do you feel, my boy?” Ignatius asks. “Better, I’d think?”
Grayson has color back in his cheeks. “A hundred times better. Angel?”
“That pain is gone, but that feeling of warning is still pinging—just not as hard.” Nix throws his arms around Grayson’s neck.
Ignatius slides the glass away. “We’ll dispose of that later.
First, I think you need to tell us everything that happens during your visits with Professor Kirwan.
I expect she felt the rebound of that spell dissolving.
Since I assume you’re back at the Guild tomorrow, we should know what we’re dealing with sooner rather than later. Develop a strategy, yes?”
“I have a strategy,” Nix mutters under his breath, jaw clenched. The expression looks so much like Gideon’s that Leo shivers.
Grayson spends the next thirty minutes telling Ignatius and Nimue everything he can remember from his time during his private lessons with Professor Kirwan, and most of it goes over Leo’s head.
In no time, the food arrives, courtesy of an on-call driver Quest employs for special clients.
“Food’s here. I’ll get it. You guys keep going,” Leo murmurs, heading toward the security panel in the front entryway to access the gate’s intercom.
Something about the way the delivery guy buzzes a second time makes the hair on the back of Leo’s neck stand straight up. Changing his trajectory, he swerves into the security closet off the kitchen so he can see all the cameras at once.
“What is it?” Nix whispers from behind him, causing Leo to give an undignified squeak.
“Will you stop doing that? For the love of all that’s holy.”
Nix giggles. “I could, but my wolf likes it when you make that noise, so…” He shrugs, and Leo resigns himself to a lifetime of squealing like a baby pig.
There’s a dark blue Ford Edge at the gate, and it’s not Jeongsung from Quest.
“Who’s that?” Jay whispers behind them, and Leo feels like that’s a little karma when Nix jumps. His victory is short-lived when Gideon joins them, and now there are four grown men in the small security closet—and only Grayson is left entertaining their guests.
“I’m going out to get a closer look,” Nix says, already trying to push Jay and Gideon out of his way.
“No!” they all say, and no one needs to mention what happened the last time the delivery guy wasn’t a delivery guy.
“I’ll go,” Gideon says.
That night flashes behind Leo’s eyes: Gideon unconscious, getting his head slammed on the hard concrete.
“No, I’ll go, and you will stay here.” Jay’s tone brooks no argument.
“We’ll all go,” Ignatius says from the foyer, and the little man is already on the porch.
“We’ll all go!” Nix is hot on his heels, determined not to miss a single moment.
Sighing, Jay chases after them, with Leo and Gideon bringing up the rear.
“Leo, if this turns ugly, get the kids to the safe room, okay?”
Ugly? No. Leo refuses to have any more ugliness. This is supposed to be their Happy Ever After.
By the time Ignatius, Nix, and Jay get down to the gate, the SUV has reversed and is speeding down the road.
“Seems they’re afraid of you and little old me, Ignatius,” Nix says, looping his arm through the older man’s.
“It would seem so. We are the fiercest of the lot, no?” He lets a tiny flame dance the hula on his palm.
Leo laughs, too, but something doesn’t feel right.
He could understand an envious teacher using a student to garner prestige, or even an overly enthusiastic one determined to get as much from her student as she could.
That she arrived after the foci was discovered confirmed that it had been her magic.
But showing up at the house? Angry and demanding entry?
She is either ignorant of Were customs in general, or that Grayson is part of a powerful pack.
Or worse—whatever she has planned is worth the risk.
That she drove away before she’d had her say seems too easy.
Slipping his hand into Gideon’s, he laces their fingers together for comfort. “That feels like a close call, and a bit too easy.”
“I agree. When something feels too easy, it often is.”