Page 41 of A Touch Enchanted

Inside, the place was empty. I’d never seen it this dead, even in the middle of winter. It unnerved me. Apparently, people wanted to drink badly enough to patronize Leo’s, but not quite badly enough to do it in the company of magic users. Which, after the bar fire incident, now publicly included Kenna.

“Look what the sea dragged in.” Kenna threw a towel on the bar and put her hands on her hips. “The reason for my dwindling sales.”

Wes threw his hands in the air. “For fuck’s sake. Not you too.”

“Relax. I’m only half-serious.” She put seven shot glasses on the bar and poured us all a round. “And I mostly blame Galen anyway.”

Kenna acted nonchalant about the whole thing, but there was a strain around her eyes and a tightness in the curve of her full mouth. I placed my hand over hers. “Are you okay?”

“I had two bands cancel on me this week.” She poured another shot and quickly threw it back. Kenna made it a point to never drink on the job. This was bad. “Half my staff quit. People are afraid to come inside. I had the goddamn fire chief out here asking me questions about my magic. Needless to say, it’s been a shit week.”

“I’m sorry.” I rubbed her knuckles with my thumb. “What can I do?”

“Nothing to do, little one. We’re all riders on the storm now.”

Light filtered into the darkened bar as the front door opened. Galen strode in, his hair a wild mess of curls, as if he’d been running his hand through it non-stop for days. His shirt was wrinkled and he wore two different running shoes. It wouldn’t surprise me to learn it had been at least a day since he’d last eaten anything.

Kenna shot him a glare. “You’re not welcome here.”

He gave her a smile that was just this side of mean. Galen only ever looked at Kenna like that. He was usually sweet in a scatterbrained sort of way, but she got under his skin like no one else, though I never understood why. Kenna was the best.

He gave an exaggerated glance around the bar. “Doesn’t look like you’re in a position to be turning away business.”

“Because of you. Get out.”

“Believe it or not, I’m not here to see you. But do keep thinking the sun shines out of your ass. Might as well fill the empty space in here with your ego.”

“Hey.” I stood and shoved him. He didn’t budge an inch. He was a lot more solid than I would’ve thought for a guy who spent his days buried in research. “You don’t get to come here and say shit to Kenna, especially when it’s your fault her business is suffering. So why don’t you back up and try again? Maybe start with an apology.”

I tried to shove him again, but he just looked down at me like I was a small, amusing puppy who wouldn’t quit biting at his ankles. Seriously, how was this guy so built?

“You’re right.” He looked at Kenna. “I apologize.”

His mouth might’ve been saying sorry, but his eyes and his posture were wishing her dead. How were these two supposed to work together if they couldn’t even stand the sight of each other? Finn slapped a hand on Galen’s back to pull his attention away from shooting daggers at Kenna, which she happily returned.

“I’m assuming there’s a reason why you’re here?” Finn asked.

Galen cleared his throat and stood taller. This must’ve been what he looked like when he went into science mode. “I went down to the beach to see if I could measure any remaining electric currents in the water. The eels are back. Hundreds of them. The beach isn’t safe.”

We looked at each other with wary expressions. The kind of power it took to keep hundreds of electric eels guarding the water must’ve been extraordinary. The mayor’s efforts to undermine the shutdown plan were only feeding the curse, making it stronger. There was no way it would’ve been able to pull off something like that even a week ago.

“I pulled one out of the water to examine it.” Galen held out his arms, which were covered in a series of puckered welts. “Got burned to shit for my effort.”

Finn placed his hands over Galen’s arms and healed him in an instant. “Did you do anything down at the beach other than fuck around and get burned”

“They’re not real eels. This isn’t even their natural habitat, and eels aren’t typically aggressive unless threatened.”

“I could’ve told you they aren’t real,” Donovan said. “I can’t communicate with them. They don’t respond to me at all.”

Galen nodded. “They have a weakness. The minute I pulled one all the way out, it instantly turned to smoke. They have to remain in the water, at least partially submerged.”

“That could be because you touched it,” Thora said. “The curse is the opposite of magic. Touch makes it weaker.”

“It definitely got weaker when I touched it, that’s how I was able to pull it out of the water in the first place, but it can’t keep its form on the surface. I don’t know what that means, but I thought it was worth passing along.”

“Definitely worth passing along,” Wes said. “Information is power.”

Galen gave Finn an update on where he was with the communication devices he was working on, then left. As soon as the front door closed behind him, Kenna let out an audible exhale. Whatever issues she and Galen had, they’d need to get over them quickly, but that was the least of my worries. My thoughts had turned to my parents and what would happen with their business now that no one could go in the water.

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