Page 18 of The Witch & the Grizzly

They climbed up through a thinning section of trees, shoes grating against shale and loose gravel as they ascended. The journey brought them to a bend in the water, where some of the algae had built up.

“Here,” he said, setting down the basket and smoothing out the blanket on the smoothest patch of ground he could find. They settled comfortably beside the water, breathing in the fresh air surrounded by natural beauty and, most likely, some bears, given the name of the place.

“You’ve been here before, haven’t you?” she asked, watching him set out some paper plates, a bottle of orange juice, and even a thermos flask of coffee.

“A few times, yeah. Mostly alone. I did bring someone once, but not to this precise spot. I did note it down, though, thinking it’d make a great picnic area. I never really got the chance to come back, and then, when I graduated, my life got a lot busier. This is the first chance I’ve had in over a year and a half. How do you like it?”

“It’s beautiful,” she said.

“Yes,” he said, looking directly at her. She flushed, unable to meet his eyes in that charged second.

“I’m amazed at how well-prepared you are. You really thought of everything!”

“Almost,” he said. “The food isn’t exactly Michelin Star quality. I just threw together some fruits and chips. I’m not really a cook. It’s not that I can’t cook. I just didn’t want to potentially embarrass myself, so I settled for this. Oh, and a little cake.” He fished out a roll of cake made of cappuccino cream. Her mouth instantly started watering.

“Oh yeah, I’ll definitely have to try that.”

They chatted for a bit, and she had the chance to enjoy her first-ever real date since she’d started going hard into the party life, and then afterward, abstaining from anything that might bring her into contact with alcohol and then regret.

“We’re doing something important for once,” he said. “My boss – is excited that I’m on this mission. It’s going to reduce the workload for our entire department if it succeeds.”

“It feels almost too easy so far.” Eva stretched out on the blanket, seeing as there was enough room for her and all the snacks. “I keep feeling like something’s going to go wrong very soon. And when you slip into the fae realm – I can’t believe you’ll get away with it time and again. There have to be eyes watching.”

“I felt something watching,” he admitted. “But I’ve no way to find out. I’ve… failed to pinpoint a source before during some of my investigations when I couldn’t when I was too late. This magic the fae are doing – it’s messing a lot of things up. I…” He kneaded the crown of his nose with his knuckles. “One person was glamoured into suicide. No one was able to stop it in time. Some greedy relatives wanted the payout from his life insurance. All we could do was prove that a deal had been made, but there’s no bringing back the dead, at least not in the way they were in life.”

Eva shivered. Ghosts existed, but they were strange echoes of the person they once had been, not a true replacement for a living, breathing life. They were not able to think or feel in the same way but instead were trapped during their final moments. “I have a friend who’s a medium. She says there have been more ghost sightings recently by those who shouldn’t be disturbed and should have long ago been at rest.

“I think I’ve been lucky not to see some of the worse effects. If anything, I didn’t realize how terribly wrong some things were going. Then there’s what happened to my brother… the glamour that enchanted him…” She bit her lip, remembering. “His glamour went unnoticed for a long time. No one thought he was enchanted; they just thought he was traumatized because he’d seen three of his friends drown, and he almost drowned himself.”

“Oh, Christ,” Nathan said, tearing open a bag of chips and pausing mid-reach. “You said you weren’t there for your brother. You regretted that. That’s what you meant?”

“Yes. They… I mean, even I thought that, too, because it never really occurred to me. They thought he was simply grieving and that he needed time to get over it. And, well, it did make sense because there’s no way you could endure such a loss and be okay about it. I wasn’t there for him then, either. I didn’t respond when he tried to reach out to me from the fae realm, although none of his messages went through until a bit later.”

“Christ,” Nathan repeated. He still hadn’t reached into the chips bag. “That hits close to home. Your brother – he’s okay now, right?”

“Yeah. I mean, the professors did send him back to the place where he nearly drowned because he was still under the glamour, and they didn’t know how to remove it, but they brought a few people with him, including a water witch named Willow. She’s a friend of mine, actually.” She showed him a brief video of Willow manipulating water from the Triscor fountain on the main grounds.

“Nice. I guess a water witch would help when it comes to the drowning part,” he said, nodding. “We have one on our workforce as well. I don’t think people utilize her well.”

“Well, maybe Willow will be joining when she graduates.” Eva grinned. “Sometimes, I feel like I should be envious of the people around me. Sometimes, I’ll have these little blips of weakness when I wish I had some other power. I wish I could transform. But then I remember I do have something that not everyone has. It’s not as flashy or exciting as some types of magic, I suppose, but it has a purpose.”

“I think it’s one of the most terrifying magics that exist,” Nathan said. “The things that can be brewed – not all are for the faint-hearted.”

“Oh, yeah, that freaking potions book. I’ve had a chance to go through it since we last talked.”

“I figured since I drank a Kiss of Truth potion you created.”

Her hand flew to her mouth. “Right! Oh, you were the one who drank it?” She examined him for a moment. “You seem okay. Are you?”

“It worked well. It helped me to secure the alliance, which was a crucial step.” He grabbed a handful of chips and started chewing. “So, about the book…”

“Some of the potions in there are seriously disturbing! The last one I made is a Potion of Avarice. I hope to God you’re not the one drinking it…”

“Avarice?” His eyes glinted. “That sounds… intriguing.”

“When brewed correctly, which I’m sure I did,” she said proudly, “it inflates a person’s natural greed to extreme levels, I mean really extreme. Greed, lust, porn, gambling, addictions – anything that was already a source of greed in their life – becomes more intense. Morgryn implied he wanted to use it to get some members of the court out of the way, but not in a detectable way. I don’t know how the hell he plans to get them to drink the potion.”

“It’s probably going to be at some party or event,” Nathan mused, rolling up the chip bag and putting it away. “The courts enjoy socializing, so there are always events happening. He likely plans to slip it in someone on the opposition’s drink.” He nodded. “Quite clever. I still hate the guy, however. My meeting with the Unseelie succubus was concerning.”

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