Chapter 14
“Are you kidding me?” Jena asked, resisting the urge to march over to the window and look. What the heck did he mean the shop was being watched?
Mr. Fynbender frowned. “Unfortunately, no.” He handed Sweets the crate, and Felix took the bag from him, hauling it into the kitchen. “That should be everything you asked for.”
“Thank you, Otis.” Sweets batted her lashes and followed after Felix.
“My pleasure.” Mr. Fynbender smiled, erasing a couple decades from his face.
Jena glanced between the two; he was still chasing after her?
“That’s what they call a seasoned romance,” Kelsey murmured at Jena’s shoulder.
“And you can’t beat the flavor.” Mr. Fynbender shoved his hands in his pockets and grinned like a schoolboy, rocking back on his heels as Sweets left the room.
O-kay. Jena really didn’t want to know what that was all about, but to each their own. “What do you mean the shop is being watched?” she asked.
“Just that.” The older warlock shrugged.
“On my way here, there had to have been a half-dozen weres loitering around, which I suppose isn’t that odd…
but all of them being some of the more unsavory Westsiders unduly interested in your storefront certainly is.
They were more than a little brazen about it.
One of them’s right outside on the stoop, just beyond your ward, and he smiled at me as I came in. It wasn’t pleasant.”
“No, that sounds like they’re trying to intimidate us into staying put.” Kelsey growled. “Which means this is the last place you should be. We need to get you across the tracks, into Eastsider territory.”
“Agreed,” Mr. Fynbender said, “but I don’t suggest using the front door.”
Jena chewed her lip. “No, but Felix can distort us if we go out the coal shoot.”
“Aha! I knew that was how you used to sneak out!” Aggie coughed from her chair.
“What? I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Jena deadpanned, though the older witch was right. It was going to be a tight fit, but she was pretty sure she could still squeeze through. The other two shouldn’t have a problem, though you wouldn’t know it from the look on Felix’s face.
“And miss all this? Not a chance,” Aggie fluttered a hand, wheezing. “I’d grab that charm of yours before you head out, if I were you.”
Oh crap, right. Jena slipped into the kitchen, her skin prickling at the magic Matilda, Sweets, and Ms. Pao were raising over the cauldron on the stove.
Hopefully after they set those wards, they could do something for Aggie, since it didn’t sound like Jena taking her to Klineville was an option.
Maybe one of them would if whatever Sweets brewed up didn’t help.
Jena snagged the dangling charm and slipped it over her head. She tucked it beneath her shirt, the weight of it settled between her breasts as she went back into the other room. It was comforting, even if it was just a pretty hunk of metal at the moment.
“Seriously, the coal shoot?” Felix was still frowning. “You’re paying for my dry cleaning.”
“It’s not that filthy,” she lied. He was going to have a fit.
“Ah, before you go…” Mr. Fynbender reached into his pocket.
“I hate to ruin the surprise, but after what Kressida said, here.” He handed Jena a pair of rings.
“When Chase came in the other day, he bought this second set and asked me to hold on to it for him. This purchase he was much more excited about, and I couldn’t help but note the disparity in style. I believe he intended them for you.”
“For me?” Tears pricked Jena’s eyes as she took the intricate bands from him. Was he serious? God, they were beautiful. The blue stone winked up at her from its nest of filigree, and she dashed a hand over her cheek. It was exactly what she would’ve picked out for herself. How had he known?
Conviction settled in Jena’s chest. He’d known because he was her fated mate, damn it, and she was going to get him back.
“What’s this I hear?” Ms. Pao came out of the kitchen, shaking sparks of magic from her fingertips onto the rug.
She snuffed them out with her orthopedic sneaker.
“Sorry, that ward’s a stage five clinger.
Chase bought Jena a ring? Wonderful. That should help mitigate whatever hold the other has on him.
Well, what are you waiting for? Put it on, and let me see. ”
Jena slipped them onto her finger. They caught at her knuckle for a breath and then slid over it with the faintest prickle of magic to settle on her hand like they belonged there.
“Hmm. I had wondered,” Mr. Fynbender murmured. “Interesting.”
Ms. Pao frowned, taking Jena’s hand in hers and raising her glasses to inspect the set. “Very. Where did you get them?” she asked him.
“Tullamore estate liquidation a few years back.”
“Tullamore, Tullamore…” She frowned. “That’s not a witch family name.”
“No. It’s sidhe, ah, seelie, if I’m not mistaken. There’s a very faint Gaelic inscription inside the band…something about remaining true.”
“Otis,” Ms. Pao tsked like she wasn’t entirely happy about that. “What have I told you about bringing stray talismans into town? After the havoc that cursed locket caused, you’d think you would’ve learned your lesson.”
He colored, and she shook her head with a long-suffering sigh.
“Men. The magic in this is very old and deep, but I haven’t a clue what its purpose is.
” She adjusted her glasses and met Jena’s gaze through the thick lenses.
“Be careful with them. A sidhe—seelie or unseelie—never gives a token without expecting payment, and I suspect this is no different. There will be a price to balance out any benefit.”
Jena bit back a laugh. Great. Just what she needed; cursed rings to add to her collection of fuckery. “Anything else before we leave?”
“Yeah, don’t get caught, and take an umbrella. It’s really starting to come down out there. Wouldn’t want to catch your deaths,” Matilda said gleefully from the kitchen’s doorway.
“Indeed.” Mr. Fynbender frowned as he unbolted the door at the top of the steps and held it open. “I locked the front and drew the curtains before I came up. All I can say is good luck.”
Jena glanced over at Aggie. “I’ll be back.”
“I’ll be waiting.” The older woman wheezed.
“You better be.” Jena bit back a sniffle. God, please let her be better then…
The three of them started down the steps. Jena grabbed her raincoat, and Felix snagged a purple polka-dotted umbrella from the stand. She rolled her eyes. “Inconspicuous much?”
He shrugged. “It could’ve been leopard print.”
“Rain doesn’t bother me. I’ll just shift,” Kelsey said.
Because nothing said sly like a party parasol and werewolf trotting down Main Street. Jena shook her head. Whatever. Felix’s power could deal with it.
They cut through the shop, then behind the counter, and went into one of the backrooms used for storage. A large section of paneling had been removed, the naked studs stippled and streaked with black mold.
Ew, gross. That must be the water damage from Aggie’s bathroom, and all of that funk couldn’t be good for her or anyone else. Maybe that really was why she was so sick. Jena turned away, fighting back tears again. One more problem to deal with when this one was taken care of.
She led Felix and Kelsey to a door just past the mess and down into the basement.
It was even danker, and more fans had been set up in the tiny windows blowing out into the alley beside the shop.
Jena stopped in front of a wooden hopper with a slanted ramp set into the stone foundation.
Above it, a cast iron hatch festooned with cobwebs was latched shut.
Crap. It was smaller than Jena remembered… or maybe she was just that much wider.
“Not that filthy, huh?” Felix muttered, the drone of the fans muddling his voice.
“You’ll be fine,” she said, hefting herself into the hopper and reaching up to unlatch the little door.
They all winced at the scrape of metal, holding their breaths and waiting for the sound of the weres outside coming to investigate.
After a solid minute of nothing, Jena wet her lips and swept a hand around the opening—
Ouch! She flinched back. Damn. The iron had started to spall, and the frame set into the wall was rusty and jagged. She looked at Felix and flicked the accumulation of webs and bits of rust to the floor.
“You should go first,” she said, wiping her scraped fingers against her jeans.
He rolled his eyes. “Fine, but in all honesty, I’m only going to be able to distort us for five, ten minutes max. Jena knows how this works, but you’ll need to stay close,” he said to Kelsey. “And the less noise you make, the better.”
Kelsey nodded and helped him into the hopper. Jena raised up the hatch, and he glowered at her before the tingle of him pulling his power washed over her, raising the small hairs on her arms.
He scrambled up the chute and through the hole. Something splashed.
“Goddamn it!” His voice hissed back at them. “Mind the puddle.”
“You next,” Jena said to Kelsey, ignoring his grumbling. The lithe were scrambled through, her form wavering as her head cleared the hatch. Her muffled laughter followed.
Jena frowned, more worried about how she was going to fit through the hatch than whatever was going on beyond it.
She hefted herself up and tossed her raincoat through, bulky enough as it was.
Damn it. Here goes. She sent her arms past the jagged frame like she was diving, and her hands splashed wrist-deep into Felix’s mucky puddle.
Ugh, that was gross. She pulled herself forward, trying to wriggle the rest of herself through—
And got stuck.
Shit. Her frickin’ hips… She sucked in her gut and strained, rocking—think skinny, think skinny—Damn it, she winced, iron jabbing her side. She couldn’t get enough leverage—“A little help?”