Page 51 of Wicching Hour

I wiggled my fingers. “On it.”

He pulled me around so I was clinging to the front of him. “By the way, that was a really hot exit line about tainted blood you gave them.” He kissed me with a ferocity that made all thought dribble out my ears.

When we finally came up for air, he had one hand under my butt and the other on my face. He opened his mouth like he was going to say something but then closed it, gave me a soft kiss, and slid me back around.

Stepping up on the bench, he reached up, much higher than the edge of the roof we saw, and wrapped his fingers around the side of what I assumed was a gutter. He stepped up onto the back of the bench, his balance perfect.

He flexed his knees and jumped, landing on the steep incline of Gran’s slate tile roof—one we could now see. It had occurred to me earlier as I sat in her living room, watching that dark shadow circle the house, that the roof might be vulnerable. We’d never come up here to place a ward. Granted, our wards were for the entire building, extending onto her property, but if that dark shadow was getting to the windows and chilling the air inside, they were breaking down Gran’s wards.

“Apparently,” I said, “whoever created the original spell making Gran’s house look like a cottage didn’t extend the spell to the roof.”

“Thank goodness,” Declan grumbled, “or we’d be risking our necks with every step.”

He scrambled to the top, pausing in a valley between two peaks. He helped me down and held on until I had my balance. I did a quick cleaning spell and then found a stable spot to sit. Declan moved out of my way, close enough to grab me if I started to slide, but far enough away to give me room to work.

“The tree cover helps too,” I said. “Otherwise, satellite photos would show the roof of a very large house.”

Declan nodded, looking up into the undersides of the huge trees surrounding Gran’s home.

I took out the octopus bottle, slipped off my gloves, and squirted some ocean water into my hands. Closing my eyes, I placed my wet hands over my face and looked inside, trying to separate out that part of me that was fae.

I had no idea how long I was sitting there searching, but it was long enough to feel completely demoralized. I had no idea how to do this. I could have created a wicche ward, but at this point it felt like little more than a Band-Aid.

A large, cool hand pulled one of mine from my face and held it. I blinked my eyes open and found my father sitting beside me, his hair long and curly again. His bright aqua blue eyes watched me with humor.

“Tell me, daughter. Why are we sitting on a roof?”

I couldn’t stop the ear-to-ear grin. He was back. “Hi.”

He waited.

“Oh. My cousin and her demon are breaking down the wards on Gran’s house. I came up here to create a ward using fae magic, but I have no idea how to do it. Can you help me?”

He glanced around the roof, nodding at Declan. My butt all of a sudden hurt less. I looked down and saw that Dad and I were now sitting on cushions.

“Thanks,” I said.

He looked annoyed, but I wasn’t sure what I’d done to tick him off. “This is Mary’s house?”

I nodded.

“I’d like to help you, daughter, but I have no desire to help her. Perhaps we could just let the demon have her.” He shrugged one muscular shoulder. “I can’t imagine she’d be much missed.”

I gave him my best disappointed look, but he was unmoved.

“Please,” I said. “I know she’s not your favorite person. Sometimes she’s not mine either?—”

“That shows good sense,” he interrupted, patting my knee. “You get that from me.”

“Butshe’s still my grandmother and the head of this family. I want her to be safe. Can you show me how to build a fae ward?”

He studied me like he was memorizing everything about me. “Had you been allowed to visit me growing up, you’d have a much better understanding of your fae side. Instead, they kept you from me, denying my hand in my own daughter’s education.”

He looked down at the roof as though he could see through it into the living room. “The arrogance of wicches is not to be borne.”

“I’m a wicche too,” I said.

He shook his head. “Nonsense. You’re far greater than any of them.” He blew out a breath and then looked back at me. I saw the moment he gave in. “All right. We’ll protect the sour old barracuda, whether she deserves it or not. This I do for you, daughter, and no one else.”

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