Chapter 2 #2
“How’s the gnome hunt going?” he whispered, staring out at the green, squinting as he tried to pierce the shadows lurking at the bottoms of the trees with his gaze.
“Terrible, actually. They keep making friends with Edgar’s flowers and convincing the flowers to turn on Edgar. It’s a dramatic turn of events. Edgar is very distraught, but the basajaunak are gleeful because apparently the killer flowers are good eating.”
“Aren’t they deadly?”
“Yes, which apparently also makes them good sport for the basajaunak.”
It was a wonder anyone ever questioned his nervousness around those creatures. It really was.
“Cyra keeps trying to burn the woods down around them, but Ivy House is cock-blocking her,” Nessa continued, pulling him along. “Her words. I’ve been asked to seek out Patty. She seems to scare the gnomes.”
“We need to get them on our side,” Sebastian murmured, squinting harder at those shadows in case the little devils ambushed. He could use magic to seek them out, but he was too tired for mundane spells.
Nessa was right. This was dangerous. He had more duties now than just playing with potions and reading spell books. He had to be more alert in case a battle landed on their doorstep, and eventually that was exactly what would happen.
“We need a lot of things,” Nessa said noncommittally.
Yes, they did.
Edgar waited in the middle of a clearing, surrounded by lounging basajaunak. Cyra stood next to a tree, facing an outcropping of ferns, her hands out. Indigo sat on a large branch in an oak, surveying the scene from above.
“Ah, yes.” Edgar turned to them with his hands pulled into his chest and his fingers dangling down. It was like he kept researching old vaudeville images in an attempt to be creepier. “The plant thief.”
Sebastian sighed. “I’m telling you, Ivy House did that. I have better things to do than wander out here in search of potted plants.”
“What could be better than searching the woods for a prized potted plant?” Indigo asked. Somehow, she was serious.
“Exactly,” Edgar affirmed. “The foot doesn’t fit the shoe.”
Sebastian blinked at him, wondering if that should make sense and didn’t, or did make sense and shouldn’t.
“Edgar, tell Sebastian what you want to do,” Nessa prompted him. She was never freaked out by this vampire for reasons Sebastian couldn’t understand.
“Oh, yes.” Edgar lowered his hands and clasped his long, spindly fingers in front of him. “Now, I know Jessie is against my accidentally aggressive—”
“Homicidal,” Nessa cut in.
“—flowers, and while I do admit they are still in the experimental stages, I think this is the perfect place for a shrine.”
Sebastian blinked slowly. He was much too tired for this. “A shrine for the flowers?”
Edgar gave him a patient smile. “No, not for the flowers. Though I do like the way you think.”
“Maybe out of bronze,” Indigo said. “It would catch the light correctly.”
“Yes, bronze is a good homage to flowers.” Edgar nodded.
“Until then, we can make a shrine out of the people who are fooled into wandering into this clearing. You should set up a series of fake magical pitfalls that our friends the trespassers will avoid. They will magic through the weaker areas, thinking you are not perfect and they are much, much smarter, and they will sneak through here. This clearing. And then the flowers will kill them gruesomely, and we’ll make a shrine that Niamh can send into the spider web. ”
Everyone stared at him like it was a plan fully formed. Maybe they were all too tired.
“Spider web?” Sebatian asked.
“Internet,” Nessa said. She put a hand on Sebastian’s arm. “You know how Edgar and I always seem to turn up at the right place and the right time?”
Sebastian ran his hand down his face. “Yes.”
“Right. Well, he has this incredible sixth sense when it comes to impending danger. After more studying, thanks to Ivy House’s resources and…”
Her cheeks colored red. She was probably thinking about Tristan.
That happened a lot lately. The gargoyle-monster was doing what no one else had been able to do—break through her thick walls and work his way into her soft, scarred, squishy middle.
She wasn’t making it easy on him, though. She was fighting it till the last.
Sebastian hoped Tristan didn’t give up before she finally relented.
She was such a good person. She deserved someone to whisk her off her feet and take care of her in a way no one else ever had.
She deserved to finally trust someone with her heart, her past, and especially her future.
She needed a mate who would love her as completely as she was capable of loving in return.
“I love you,” he blurted. “You deserve the best.”
He’d meant that for Nessa…but forgot to pull his dazed eyes away from the vampire.
“Me?” A slow smile spread across Edgar’s thin face. His canines gleamed. “Well, that is very nice to hear. I did always think we were the best of friends. It’s nice to know that is true.”
Nessa paused with her mouth open.
“Oh, no,” Sebastian whispered.
“Yay!” Indigo clapped.
Nessa’s eyes glittered, her smile wicked. “Best friends, all around.”
“No, no.” Sebastian clutched his neck for unknown reasons. Or maybe very clear reasons, being that he’d just professed brotherly love to a vampire.
“I’m sure Edgar will want to chat about that later,” Nessa said, “but we have business to discuss.”
“Oh, no, that’s not—”
“Yes. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.” Edgar nodded. “Even though this is the best of times.”
“As I was saying, thanks to studying,” Nessa thankfully went on, “I’ve learned that I can sense and map ley lines.
I can feel and trace—and use—their energy.
It’s part of my magic. And while Edgar doesn’t have the same type of magic, he does have an innate ability to tap into the energy currents around him.
He’s always thought his premonitions of danger were intuition, and while part of that is true, realistically, he’s learned to clue in when he feels the danger in the energy currents.
It’s a survival mechanism, I think. Something that helped him avoid the vampire-hunting parties. ”
“They were tenacious,” Edgar said.
“He can sample the winds of time,” Indigo said.
“Kindaaa,” Nessa drawled with a crooked smile.
“He can read intent,” Sebastian surmised.
“Kinda.” Nessa shrugged. “That’s a fine way to think about it.”
“Yes, I have always been very…” Edgar blinked at him, one of his eyes closing before the other. He didn’t finish.
“And why do I need to think about this?” Sebastian asked.
“Because we are going to need you to follow his plan to the letter and put in the type of magic he asks for, in exactly the places he asks for it.” She pointed at her feet. “It’ll lead to this clearing, which will have an assortment of killer flowers.”
“Except Jessie said not to use those flowers in case they kill lost hikers,” Sebastian said.
“Hikers are trespassers, too,” Edgar replied. Indigo nodded.
“No—” Nessa held up her hand to Edgar. “We don’t want to kill hikers.
And we won’t. These woods are full of basajaunak.
They can sense the hikers through the trees.
They’ll get rid of those. Hell, Ivy House can feel those.
It’s the people the basajaunak can’t feel that we’re concerned about.
The ones that Ivy House can’t sense. You’ve now come up with three potions to get onto these grounds undetected, right?
You’re working on counteracting those, which is great, but what if they come up with a different potion you haven’t figured out how to counteract?
We need a plan B in case they get through. ”
“If you build it, he will come,” Edgar said gravely.
Sebastian furrowed his brow. “Who will?”
“Kevin Costner.”
Nessa waved that away. “He’s quoting Field of Dreams, the movie. We’re not expecting this to happen right away, but it’s better to get things set up now just in case.”
Sebastian took a deep breath. “Yeah, fine. I don’t have the energy to do this right now, though.”
“I know.” Nessa looked around the clearing. “Edgar has to map out the route.”
“Okay, then…why did you drag me out here? You could’ve just explained all this.”
“Because you need to hear the information from the source to make connections I never would think of. I wanted you to start thinking about it so you’re ready when we are.”
Sebastian rubbed his eyes. He didn’t bother arguing. It was rare she was wrong.
“Okay. Let’s walk back and I’ll explain the ley lines.” She grabbed his hand again. “Thanks, Edgar. Indigo.” She waved at them and tugged him back toward the house. “I’ll chat with you later.”
“Bye, bestie,” Edgar called.
“You should get him a locket,” Indigo said. “You show up in a picture, right? I never thought to try one.”
“I do. I am very handsome in all my pictures.”
“Oh, no,” Sebastian murmured, and Nessa started laughing.
Nessa wouldn’t let him go straight up to bed, something about it being the afternoon and his needing to keep normal hours.
Neither would she let him head back down to the crystal room to pass the time.
Instead, she suggested he go to the library and “think about things.” She didn’t say what things, not that she ever needed to.
He had a million quandaries he wanted to research at any given time.
Most of that required clarity of thought, however, something he didn’t much have at present.