Page 30 of Cocktails & Cauldrons

“Zane, Winnie’s husband, has relented and agreed to a nanny,” Spring added, gleeful laughter heavy in her voice. “Three babies broke him.”

“Triplets?” Brenna blurted, horrified by the thought of taking care of three infants at once.

“Yep. All boys!” she chortled.

“You are delighting too much in your sister’s trials, I’m afraid,” Aurora scolded, but there was laughter heavy in her voice.

Spring grinned, unrepentant. “I know.”

“Do you have any children?” Brenna asked her.

“Goddess, no! It’s not that I don’t want any, but I’m nowhere near ready to have any kids.”

“I can respect that.”

Spring’s keen eyes swept over Brenna and finally settled on her face. “What are you?”

Brenna’s heart skipped a beat. “Excuse me?”

“There’s an aura about you that’s different from any I’ve seen, and the coloring is slightly modified from any standard scale of auras.”

Looking from daughter to mother and back again, she shrugged. “I’m afraid I don’t know what color my aura is.”

“Aqua. The shade of the Caribbean Sea. It’s actually quite beautiful.” Spring tilted her head and narrowed her eyes. “But it flickers heavily, like your power is unsteady or trying to snuff itself out.”

“I don’t have any magic,” she confessed.

Aurora placed her arm around Brenna’s shoulders. “That’s what Spring is here to figure out. If there’s a way to restore what was taken, she’ll do it.”

“Someone’s stealing her abilities?” The outrage in Spring’s tone was complete, as if it was a personal affront to her. And then she explained exactly why. A few years earlier, she’d been abducted and forced to wear magic-busting bracelets that suppressed her abilities and made it impossible to escape. Her fiancé, Knox, had found her and, with the help of the Goddess and a handful of others, brought her home again.

“Wow! I’m sorry you ever had to go through that.” Brenna placed a hand over the area of her heart, aching for all the trauma the other woman had experienced. “I feel like my problems are insignificant compared to what happened to you.”

Spring surprised Brenna when she hugged her. “No loss of magic is insignificant. It exacts a price, but we’ll see yours is restored to you.”

“There may be one little hitch,” Alastair inserted. “It appears our dear Brenna is a Siren.”

“A Siren!” Spring clung to Brenna’s shoulders as she leaned back to look at her face. “Yes! That makes complete sense now. Considering her aura and everything. Awesome!”

Confused by the other woman’s warm response, because Spring was the only one who had seemed remotely happy about the fact, Brenna asked, “Why are you excited rather than fearful?”

“I haven’t met a Siren before, but I’ve read all about them. Thisisexciting. One thousand percent!” She hugged Brenna again. “I can’t wait to find out more.”

“I think I adore you,” Brenna blurted.

Everyone laughed. Then Spring instantly sobered and cupped Brenna’s jaw. “I want to help you if I can. I’m sorry this happened to you, Brenna.”

Emotion clogged the back of her throat, making it impossible for her to reply. Turning away after offering a kind smile, Spring gave her the time she needed to compose herself. Still, from what Brenna had learned of Sirens, she wasn’t positive she wanted to be one. The fear associated with the inability to control her potential power was great, and she wished Eoin was here to talk to. He was quickly becoming her lodestone and could ease her mind with a simple grin.

“I believe Nash might have something we could use in his lair,” Spring told her mother and Alastair. “Should we go beard the dragon and take what we need?”

The atmosphere around them shifted, became heavy, constricting. The lamps flickered, and the walls stretched outward as if entities were attempting to push their way through the drywall.

“What the devil?”Alastair dove into action. Lifting his arms, he held his hands so his palms faced the threat. “Rorie, get Alfred and the security team in here. Spring, take Brenna to safety.”

Light flashed, and a rift formed in the fabric of space next to Spring. Before Brenna could call out a warning, a well-built blond man with the face of an angel stepped into the room and wrapped his arms around the other woman. The opening sealed shut with the blond man on this side of the divide.

Without thought to what she was doing, Brenna launched herself at the guy, prepared to claw his eyes out if it meant helping her new friends.

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