Page 56 of On Tap for the Bear
He stirs beside me, reaching for it with a muttered curse. The screen illuminates his face as he reads, and I watch his expression shift from sleepy contentment to sharp alertness.
"What is it?" I ask.
"Calder." His voice is grim. "The ley lines just spiked again. Stronger than before." He looks at me, and worry fills his eyes. "Quinn, that shouldn't happen. The bonding was supposed to stabilize them. Make them settle."
A chill runs down my spine. "So why didn't it?"
"I don't know." He's already getting up, pulling on clothes. "But Calder says the pattern is wrong. Like they're not just responding to you anymore. Like they're responding to something else."
I sit up, clutching the blanket to my chest. "What else?"
Eli's jaw tightens. "He doesn't know. But whatever it is, it's coming from the north. From the same direction where Jonah's energy signature disappeared six months ago."
The bond between us pulses with his concern, his need to understand what's happening. And beyond that, I feel something else.
The ley lines, stirring below us. Not gentle anymore... hungry.
CHAPTER 15
ELI
My phone buzzes a second time. Calder.
I answer, already pulling on jeans. "What else?"
"You need to get over here. Now." His voice is tight. "Both of you."
Quinn sits up, clutching the sheet to her chest. I sense her spike of worry. "What's wrong?"
"Calder wants us at his place." I grab her sweater from where it landed on the floor. "Come on."
We dress quickly, the urgency cutting through the afterglow of our bonding. The night air is cold when we step outside, but the ley lines throb warm beneath our feet. Not aggressive. Just... present. Aware.
Calder's place is lit up, every window glowing. Her nervousness travels down the bond, so I take her hand as we climb the porch steps.
"It's okay," I tell her. "Whatever it is, we'll deal with it."
She squeezes my fingers, and I feel her determination replace the worry.
Inside, Calder is bent over his monitoring equipment—a setup that's half scientific instruments, half intuitive magic.Maps spread across the table show the ley line network, glowing threads marking the energy flows beneath Redwood Rise.
Beau's here too, leaning against the doorframe with his arms crossed. He straightens when he sees us. "That was fast."
"You said now." I move to look at Calder's readings. "What's happening?"
"This." Calder points to a spike on one of his graphs. "Right after your bonding ceremony completed. The ley lines surged—stronger than anything I've recorded in months. I thought something was breaking, like with Cilla's arrival, or when Anabeth connected to the convergence point."
Quinn moves closer, studying the readout. "But?"
"But it's settling now." Calder taps another screen showing the real-time feed. "Look. The energy is stabilizing. Not chaotic. Not destructive. Just... adjusting."
I watch the lines smooth out, the wild fluctuations evening into steady pulses. "Adjusting to what?"
Calder looks at Quinn. "To her. The bond didn't just connect you two—it anchored Quinn to the land itself. The ley lines recognize her now as part of Redwood Rise's magic. That surge? That was them accepting her. Integrating her into the network."
"The hungry feeling," Quinn says softly. "That wasn't a threat?"
"No." Calder shakes his head. "It was the magic reaching for you, trying to understand what you are. You're unique, Quinn. Your ability to taste the ley line energy, to sense the magic through food—that's never happened before. The land had to figure out how to incorporate that into its systems."
