Page 83 of A Winding Wave of Magic
But I had done the right thing in forcing him to leave, hadn’t I? This was someone I needed far, far away from me.
The memory of that connection blazed into my mind’s eye once again, paired with the fear that had followed soon after. Yes, I had done the right thing. I stood and moved into the kitchen to make myself another cup of tea.
The phone rang before I’d even gotten the water on the stove.
26
PAWPRINTS
’Gainst the wall he sets his eye
Full and fierce and sharp and sly
— ANONYMOUS NINTH-CENTURY POET, “PANGUR BAN”
“Reina?” I answered as I collapsed onto the couch.
“Are you okay? I couldn’t See what happened before, but it felt…big. Now I can See you, and you look awful. He’s gone?”
“Oh, he’s gone, all right,” I said, then told her everything that had happened.
“You kissed him?”
The sky seemed to answer with another round of lightning and thunder.
“Of all the things I’ve just revealed, that’s the part you are holding onto?”
“I’m just stunned.You, of all people. And…him?”
“I was lost in the moment. In the whole day, really.” I was grumbling now. It was embarrassing how quickly I’d lost my head.
He wasn’t a seer, but I was starting to wonder if Jonathan Lynch had his own methods of mind bending. Otherwise, what explained that sudden desire? A need, even?
Before she could answer, the kettle on the stove whistled. The long spiral cord of the phone stretched across the room as I took it with me. My stomach was completely tied into knots.
“Are you okay?” Reina asked again.
“I’m fine. Shocked and scared, but I’m okay.”
“Good. But you need to get out of there. Come back to Portland. We can call the crematorium and have them send Penny’s ashes to my house and leave that creepy wizard out of it. You have the will and the letter he gave you?”
I nodded, knowing she was watching while I poured the hot water and bobbed the tea bag up and down in the cup. Greenish tendrils of peppermint seeped into the hot water. A bottle of Bushmills next to the sugar jar caught my eye. Without a second thought, I tossed my tea down the sink and poured a sizable tot of whiskey into the mug.
“Hey, you need to drive. Get your stuff packed up and lock up the house.”
Outside, the thunder seemed to laugh at her.
“There’s a squall going right now,” I said. “Ten to one, the 101 is already washed out. I’ll have to wait. Plus I still have to finish cleansing the house?—”
“There’s no time for that,” Reina interrupted. “As soon as the storm lets up, get your ass in the car and back to Portland. Then we’ll call…I don’t know, someone. Those people in Ireland, maybe. Or your mother. I know you don’t want to, but she might know something about this Magi business and what to do about it.”
At that idea, I took a long swig directly from the bottle. The whiskey burned my throat, but it didn’t numb the dread building in my belly.
I didn’t want to see Sibyl. I didn’t want to deal with any of this. All I wanted was to go back to Boston, back to my real, staid life, where the most excitement I encountered on a daily basis were the crumbling memories of thousand-year-old accounts of Cú Chulainn. I had a chapter to finish, a dissertation to defend, and a job to start. Now I was supposed to bring my grandmother’s ashes to Ireland and investigate her paranormal murderer whose probablesonwas tracking me around the country like his own personal quarry.
But Jonathan had already chased me down there and stalked me for who knew how long. He had seen Reina at the bar and knew where she lived. He had my mother’s address too. He knew everyone I could possibly go to with my concerns, just like he knew that I was fundamentally alone in the fae world without them.
I had no allies.
