He frowned. “You trust a stranger to be in your diner alone?”
I shrugged. “Well, it is spelled. But even if it weren’t, she’s burning with a blue flame. She’s not going to be trouble.”
He wrinkled his nose. “What?”
“Boiled as an owl? Pie-eyed? Blotto?”
At that, his eyes lit up. “Drunk. Why didn’t you just say so, you crazy, wonderful woman?”
I chuckled. “I did.”
“Yeah, in your weird speakeasy sort of way. God, I love how odd you are.” He laughed and leaned in to kiss my cheek.
The words were spoken so casually, like throwaway words, but with the touch of his warm lips pressed to my cold cheek and the scent of his body invading my own, I felt myself falling ever deeper and harder for Zane.
When he pulled back, I leaned forward, drawn like iron shavings to his magnet, and a tiny puff of breath escaped my lungs. Someday, I was going to kiss the stuffing out of that man, and when he least expected it too.
Zane reached over and trailed his knuckles down my cheek, going absolutely still as his dark-blue gaze raked over me. “You look real nice tonight, Zinnia Rose.”
My stomach fluttered with thousands of butterfly wings, and I clutched at it. “Why, this old thing?”
His grin was heart-stopping.
I’d actually just purchased the cocktail gown from the tailor shop on my way home. It was gray but looked at times almost aurora green when I shifted. The material was Duchess satin and shimmered as I walked. It buttoned down the front and accentuated my curves. From the moment I’d spied it hanging in Madame Reynar’s boutique, I knew I had to have it.
Yes, I was far too overdressed for a simple town hall meeting, but I was suddenly very glad I’d decided to throw caution to the wind and go for it.
Zane laughed again and dropped a heavy, warm arm around my shoulder. He pulled me swiftly against him for a tight embrace then let me go just as quickly, leaving me feeling light-headed and addlepated.
He was doing that more lately. When Zane had first come to Blue Moon, he’d been buttoned up and sterner. But he was more at ease now, more able to laugh and to be easy. I think it was his belief that Ellen had given us her blessing that had done it—that and Lapis. Not that Zane seemed all that keen on cats, but Edward and Lapis were definitely bonding, which made me wonder if the boy might have a bit of the witch in him and not know it.
I’d never really been good at patience, but I had to admit that having a front-row seat to this transformation made me feel special too.
Then Zane’s hand slipped into mine, just as easily as breathing, and he squeezed tight. “So whaddaya say, newt? Wanna be my plus one?”
As far as dates went, this wasn’t what I’d been hoping for, but I tipped my chin up and stared directly into his striking blue eyes. “Ab-so-lute-ly!”
Chapter 2
Zinnia
BY THE TIME WE ARRIVED to the town hall meeting, we were the last ones to settle in. I spotted Eerie sitting in the front with two burly-looking Padfoots on either side of her. I’d hoped to sit beside her, but all the seats were taken except for three at the very back. It wasn’t a good idea to ever tell a shifter they couldn’t take a particular seat if one could help it. Shifters were known to be rather cantankerous at the best of times.
Eerie gave me an apologetic shrug, and I gave her a small shake of my head to let her know there were no hard feelings. At least we’d gotten seats. Time was casually leaning against the opposite wall with his arms and legs crossed, looking bored and even slightly irked about having to be there. He was staring daggers through my aunts, though, looking at each of them with his intelligent golden-eyed gaze that had me frowning. He definitely didn’t look happy to be there.
As if sensing that I was looking at him, he turned toward me and held my gaze for a good five seconds before slowly dipping his head in acknowledgement and turning back.
“That was odd,” I muttered. I gave myself a good internal shake, feeling a touch put out of a sudden.
“What’s that?” Zane asked low.
I shook my head. “Nothing. Just, everyone seems a bit on edge tonight, don’t they?”
“Hmm,” he mumbled. “I have noticed that.”
I looked around, noting that a very tense and expectant mood was flowing through everyone. Town hall meetings weren’t all that common for us, especially not during a lifted veil. Gathering into such a confined space when hundreds of strangers were roaming our town wasn’t any of our idea of fun.
The large barn-like structure served as many things to our tiny township and had been transformed yet again. Gone were the bales of hay and the Halloween party décor that had been set up weeks ago for the annual harvest bash. Now there was nothing but floating candles hanging above us, lighting up the interior of the structure. Rows upon rows of chairs faced the stage. Standing upon it were my aunts and Sage.
Well, Sage was sitting and looking as though she were trying to hide with all her might behind my aunt Violet. Since Aunt Vi had the widest girth of all the sisters, she masked Sage quite well. On Sage’s lap was my traitorous one-time familiar Malachite. He didn’t look comfortable. His scruff was raised, and his claws were out. He kept clawing his way up Sage’s blouse as though trying to escape. But if he’d really wanted to bolt, he could have. So it seemed more like he simply wished to hide while still remaining glued to her side.
Sage looked down at Malachite and shook her head, whispering to the kitty as she gently scratched at his little black head. He quieted down but still looked tense.
I sighed, feeling the sting of his rejection all over again. Never once could I have held him the way she was holding him. He’d always been a prickly, independent beastie when it’d come to cuddles of any sort.
Aunty Violet was smiling broadly at the assembled crowd as she chowed down on a baggie of roasted chestnuts. Aunt Hyacinth stood just beside her, quietly brooding as she often did. And my aunt Prim was staring down at a rather large tome in her hands with a perplexed frown marring her already thickly wrinkled forehead.
I quickly realized she was holding the same tome Zane had been reading for the past few days. A sharp, stabbing needle-like pain zipped quickly through me. I frowned, feeling a headache starting to brew in the back of my skull. I rubbed at it and instantly sensed Zane looking over at me.
“You doing all right, Zinny?”
I plastered on a tight grin, not wanting to let on just how tired I always seemed to feel anymore. But I didn’t get a chance to speak since my taciturn aunt decided to bring the meeting to order.
“Quiet down. Quiet down, ye pack of rabid hoots,” Aunty Cinth snapped as she gestured toward all of us. “Now that ye’re all here,” she said, directing that last bit at me with a firm glare, “we can finally call our meeting to order.”
I sank down in my seat, feeling like a little girl caught with her hands in the cookie jar whenever Aunt Cinth turned her wrath on me. Zane, blasted man that he was, had the nerve to chuckle.
So I balled up my fist and popped him in the bicep, which didn’t seem to faze him at all. It only made him laugh harder.
Leaning into my side, he whispered into my ear, “I’m sorry. You just look so cute when you cower, like a little field mouse.”
I rolled my eyes and glowered at him. “Remind me to hex you later.”
He snorted and brushed his knuckles down my cheek again. “Ah, my feisty newt.” His heated whisper made my toes curl and my neck blush.
It was impossible to stay cross with the man.
“You guys are gross,” Edward said with a cute wrinkle of his nose.
His comment reminded Zane and I that we were hardly alone, and this was definitely not the place to start necking.
Promising myself I would be good and listen to the caterwauling around me, I scooted high up on my seat and forced myself to pay attention. But I didn’t have to force myself for long. Soon, I was engrossed in the drama surrounding me.
> “The tides are shifting in our township,” Aunt Hyacinth said with a decisive nod.
“Aye, the veil’s lifted,” someone to the left of me called. The voice sounded scratchy and miffed at the same time. “Tell us something we don’t know.”
The speaker might have been Maisie the banshee, though I couldn’t be certain. She didn’t often leave her underground lakeside lair. Of course, this was a gathering, and any able-bodied resident was required to attend.
I wiggled in my seat, feeling unsettled all of a sudden as if my skin were enflamed and itchy, though I wasn’t sure why. And my bloody pinky hurt like the blazes, reminding me of what Malachite had done earlier at my diner.
It’d just been a nip. He’d nipped me before, and it had never hurt like this, but my finger was throbbing like a trombone’s song. I squeezed it against my other finger, which helped alleviate some of the ache, but not by much. I would have to check the bite again when I got back to my diner. What the devil had the cat gotten into to make it hurt so?
“She sounds grumpy,” Zane whispered. He was pressed in tight to my side, drawing my attention away from my pinky.
I’d told him on many occasions that if he was whispering to try to hide what he was saying about someone, he might as well not bother. In Blue Moon Bay, most of the townsfolk could hear just fine, whether someone was whispering or not. But Zane was still human enough to keep forgetting.
I glanced over my shoulder and spotted the white-blond head of the young banshee glaring evilly in Zane’s direction. Maisie was only in her sixties, which made her extremely young for her species. Banshees routinely lived well into their nine hundreds. But already, Maisie’s eyes were beginning to transform into those of her kind—clear as glass, with barely any pupil left to them. By the time she reached a century old, she would have no pupils at all and would be completely blind in the normal sense. Banshees didn’t see the world as we did. They were seers of things to come, specifically seers of pending doom. But they were rarely known by that moniker anymore, especially by the younger among us, since there was no doom to speak of in Blue Moon. The last time the banshees had sung was when Tinker had cursed us, and that had been three hundred years ago.
They could “see,” but it was more like a psychic impression rather than physical sight.
Glenda, who wasn’t one for biting her tongue, stood up. “Aye, and what will that be, witches three?”
I frowned, fairly certain that my jabbering with Zane had caused me to miss snatches of conversation.
Glenda’s fists were balled tight, and she was practically vibrating as she spoke. I couldn’t recall ever having seen the brownie quite so put out before.
“I’ve a hotel to run, and ye canna just—”
“Houd yer whist!” Aunty Prim said.
Glenda’s jaw fell, and she snapped it shut, but the wee brownie looked about ready to go full-on faerie and start cursing us all. I shivered. While a fae was nowhere near as dangerous as a dark witch like Tinker had been, they could still pack a wallop in the curse department if they had a mind to.
I would bet my last copper penny that we’d not heard the end of her. Oswald, her ever-patient goliath of a husband, who was also Big Foot, looked up at her with a soft, worried frown. He wasn’t much for talking and had patience for days, but goddess help someone if they got that man riled up. He might have been over a hundred, but he could still kick some petunia when he felt like it. Not much ruffled the old man’s feathers anymore except when he felt someone had offended his ladylove.
I bit my lip, hoping my aunt didn’t get too feisty with Glenda. Everyone seemed on edge, and it would take very little to light this fuse, something we desperately didn’t want.
Aunty snapped the leather-bound book shut and stared at the townsfolk of Blue Moon Bay slowly and deliberately, ratcheting up the tension as she did so. Back in her day, Aunty Prim had been a circus ringleader. She’d learned the art of crowd control ages ago.
“Your aunt is fierce for someone with blue hair, isn’t she?” Zane asked with obvious delight in his words.
I glanced at him from the corner of my eye. “Oh, we’ve not heard the last of Glenda, I can assure you. And you’re having far too much fun with this.”
He wrinkled his nose and shook his head. “Nah, she won’t say anything. Witches scare me. And I am. Better than anything on the TV.” He elbowed Edward, who grinned at me, clearly enjoying the drama, same as his old man.
I grinned and held out my good hand. “I’ll take that bet. Say five clams? And if you think witches are scary, then you’d lose hold of your bladder completely if you ever saw Oswald go Big Foot on us. There isn’t much scarier than that, I can assure you.”
“Oh, you’re on, newt.”
We shook on it.
“Thank you,” Aunty Vi said merrily, still masticating on her chestnuts. Her ample bosom was practically overflowing from the too-tight magenta bodice she wore. “Thank you for the blessed silence. I swear the crows have kept me up all day with their yammering on and on and—”
“Violet, for the love of the thrice-faced goddess,” Aunty Cinth snapped as she rubbed the bridge of her nose. “Will you just bloody shut yer trap?”
My aunt Vi sniffed but didn’t skip a beat as she popped yet another succulent chestnut into her mouth and chewed, glowering hot death at Hyacinth.
Glenda, who was starting to get the shakes, finally erupted, as I’d known she would. “Ye must be insane if ye think for a moment that I’ll allow you to ever speak to me thus!” Glenda rattled as tiny sparks of pink danced from between her tightly clenched fingers.
Zane groaned, and it was my turn to smirk and elbow him in the side. This was fun.
“I’m thinking you’ll use those five bucks and buy me a milkshake and cupcake later.” I winked at him. “And that will be our first real date.”
A smile swiftly took over the glum look on his face just a second later. He picked up my hand and kissed the tops of my knuckles warmly.
When we looked back at Glenda, Oswald was grunting next to her, reminding me of Lurch with his strangely combed hair and ill-fitting suit. I grimaced. This could get bad quickly.
I glanced over at Edward. He was staring enraptured, eyes wide, with a smile on his face, idly kicking his legs back and forth as he sat on his chair. Should this take a turn, I would whisk him off to safety immediately. But for the moment, he did actually seem to be enjoying himself. Odd bird, that one.
Aunt Primrose, who was rather intelligent for being quick to temper, took a deep breath and nodded. “Aye, yer right of course, brownie. My humblest apologies. ’Tis only that I’m a bit fashed tonight, ye see.”
Glenda, with her snow-white hair piled sloppily atop her head in a loose, messy bun, thinned her lips. But the sparks were no longer dancing from her fingers. A breath I’d not realized I’d been holding eased out of me.
Zane leaned toward me and spoke sotto voce. “I’m thinking I should have brought boxing gloves. Glenda looks ready to deck your aunt.”
I couldn’t help but giggle, covering my mouth with a fist when several pairs of eyes glared in our direction. But then the wee fae shook her head, and I knew the threat had finally passed.
“Aye, well,” Glenda muttered, “mebbe I ought to listen a’fore I speak.” Then looking as regal as any queen of old, she quickly took her seat beside her hulking male, whom she needed to soothe with a gentle caress of her hand over his forearm. I hadn’t been lying when I’d told Zane that an enraged Big Foot was a dangerous thing. The legend had grown for a reason.
“Whew,” I murmured. “That was close.”
Zane snorted. “Too bad. I’d have liked to have seen that, I think.”
I shook my head. “Gods, I’m not sure whether that makes you brave or foolish. But trust me, no you would not have.”
He shoulder-bumped me, and I couldn’t seem to tear the hard smile off my face.
The rest of the crowd had clearly thought Oswald had been close to
turning too since most eyes had turned in worry toward him. But Glenda, wee as she was, was more than able to wrangle her wild beast into submission with naught but a touch.
Aunty Cinth, who had even less patience than Aunty Prim, growled and waved her fingers, causing a burst of rushing wind to roll through the tight space and make the flames flicker and dance.
Edward oohed, and I snorted. The child didn’t have the good sense the goddess gave him to be even the slightest bit nervous that he was a human surrounded by beings capable of harming him. To him, this was nothing but a bit of good fun.
Now that all eyes were back on the sisters, Aunty Hyacinth nodded. “Do hurry this along, Prim. We’ve all got lives.”
My blue-haired aunty bristled but said nothing. “Well, aye, true enough, sister. As you all know, me niece, Zinny, recently made a trip through Mirror.”
I cringed when I heard my name called and again tried to hide out of sight, but Zane wouldn’t allow it and gave a little wave as all eyes turned to the three of us.
“She brought back... well, a shock, to be sure.” Primrose walked toward Aunty Vi and gently shoved her out of the way, revealing the scarlet-cheeked Sage looking more pitiful than I’d felt just seconds ago. “Many of you have been asking us who this lass is. Well, her name is Sage Cherry Azelea.”
“She was in Mirror?” a voice to the left asked in astonished shock. I still couldn’t make out who was saying what.
Glenda jumped to her feet again, holding up her hand to be acknowledged, though not waiting to be called on since she plowed on anyway. “But Mirror is a dead zone. How did this happen?” Her thick, snow-white brows furrowed as she turned to look at me. And once again, I saw countless eyes looking my way.