Page 53 of Bombshell

“Just my imagination…” Odette muttered under her breath as she turned and left the room without saying goodbye.

There was a beat of silence before Daphne spoke. “Uh… does she normally say weird stuff like that?”

I shook my head. “No, not normally—she’s usually pretty cheerful but I think she’s going through something.”

Making a mental note to ask Odette about her sketches later, I gave Dallan’s chest a pat. “We should head home.”

Dallan’s gold eyes shifted to me. “Are you going to tell us anything about what just happened?”

“Not here,” I said, glancing around. “The walls have ears here.”

One never knew where Arsenio placed his listening spells, and judging by the way he’d looked at me earlier, I wasn’t sure I wanted to mention the word ‘Guardian’ anywhere near his vicinity.

No, telling them everything I had learned today at Monstrous Ink would be far safer.

Chapter 15

“Well you’re not fucking doing that,” Dallan said, crossing his arms over his chest.

He and the rest of the Monstrous Ink staff—barring Byrne who left before I could start claiming that he didn’t want to get involved—were all sitting in the lobby of the shop, listening to me tell them what I learned today.

“Even Alexander doesn’t trust it and that man has had his head up Arsenio Sidhe’s ass for damn near the last two centuries, Lass.”

“I didn’t say I was going to do it,” I told him primly, though I’d have been lying if I said I wasn’t considering it.

It was purely for selfish reasons. If I became the Guardian no one could ever look down on me for being a halfling ever again. My birth would have finally had apurpose.

But even I knew better than to trust Arsenio. Something was off about the whole thing and I could still hear echoes of that strange voice in my head telling me not to trust him.

Daphne, always the most observant person in the room thanks to years of having to watch every shift in her abusive ex-husband’s demeanor to protect herself, frowned from whereshe was reclined in Cash’s lap. “But you’re also not saying you won’t do it.”

Frustration filled me—mostly due to being called out so quickly.

“It would fix everything that’s happening in Port Haven. The strange weather, the weird currents, all of it is because the previous Guardian of the Source is about to pass away,” I said, turning to Dallan. “Aren’t you worried about Port Haven? Aren’t the supernatural creatures under your care suffering?”

Dallan put his hands up as if to ward me off, shaking his head. “I’m not disagreeing that something needs fixing, but not at the expense of your safety.”

Silence filled the room as we looked at each other and Dallan’s voice slipped into my mind.You are my first priority, always, Effie, come hell or high water.

His words made me immediately soften.

“What about that voice in your head? The one that helped you with Daphne’s barrier?” Cash asked, finally getting to the other half of what I’d told them about today.

I shrugged. “I’m not sure. Not many witches can speak mind to mind like that and there isn’t anyone else I can think of that would be able to help me with a spell like the one I performed on Daphne.”

Another, smaller lie. I had a feeling about who—or more aptly what—the voice was. But the more I dwelled on it the more confusing things became.

“You glowed like nothing I’ve ever seen before, it was like you had magic coming out of your eyeballs,” Dallan said, his lips pulling down into a frown. “And it was like you weren’t even in control of your body.”

“What you’re describing sounds almost like possession,” Ambrose said, speaking for the first time since he’d posted up against the wall at the start of our meeting. “Which isn’t a typical spell-user ability. Sounds like a more ancient magic.”

“I hate ancient magic,” Fiero complained with a grumble. “It just causes chaos. Every supernatural territorial dispute I’ve witnessed has some kind of ancient artifact at the center and I’m so damned tired of it.”

I’d known Fiero for nearly ten years now and the satyr rarely spoke about the time before he showed up one day at the shop asking for a job.

We all stared at him in shock until Heath, always the one to hate long, drawn out silences, spoke first. “Whoa, new lore just dropped.”

“What does that even mean?” Ambrose asked with a disbelieving shake of his head.

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