She paid quickly and headed to her car. No one was following her that she could see. No one looked out of the ordinary. Everyone in the lot was human and posed her no threat at all.
And yet …
She used her othersight and still saw nothing but a slight smudge at the very corner of her eye. Her personal protection wards were intact and hadn’t risen to action so there was no direct magickal attack on her.
Her eyes told her everything was okay. Her magick told her everything was okay. But her gut didn’t agree.
She went home, not taking a direct route, watching to see if she was being followed, but she wasn’t as far as she could tell.
She locked the door and closed the wards and headed straight to the phone to call Nell.
“Nell, I need you to come by when you can,” Meriel said as Nell picked up.
“What is it?”
Meriel gave her a brief rundown. “It’s probably nothing. But my gut …” She shook her head. “It feels like it’s something. I used my othersight, there was nothing there. But it’s not that, it feels like I was blind to something. There was this thing at the very edge of my vision. Like a smudge. But I get headaches sometimes and that happens. I don’t know if I’m explaining this well enough. But your eyes will be better.”
“I’ll be over shortly.”
She needed to be busy so she began to prepare dinner and listened to her messages.
Uh-oh, one from her mother wanting to meet. She’d have to return that call when Edwina was sure to be out of the office.
More than her concern that Edwina would shove the ascension in her face, Meriel worried that her mother would make Dominic feel small. That she’d take his plusses and make them minuses.
She toyed with the idea of going to her father first. Her father did tend to run interference for their mother. He was softer, easier with people. He adored his wife and understood her in a way most everyone else couldn’t. Meriel thought it quite sweet.
On the day she graduated from law school, he’d taken her aside. “Your mother loves you and she’s proud of you. I think sometimes she’s just terrified of making herself vulnerable enough to say it the way you need to hear it.”
Edwina loved her, she knew it. They just had trouble getting along. But the foundation was of mother and daughter and Meriel trusted that part would carry them through the rough times.
The sound of Nell’s knock caught Meriel’s attention and she opened the wards as Nell unlocked the door with her key and came in.
“So there’s nothing on your car or in the garage. Gage went to the market; he says there’s some odd energy there, but he doesn’t recognize it.”
Nell interrogated her until Meriel felt like a total wuss and that she’d overreacted. She said as much.
“We all have magickal abilities. It’s what makes us witches. Your magick is intuitive in a way few others possess. If your gut told you to leave, pushed you to go, I have zero doubt there was a threat. It’s your internal alarm system and that’s why clan leaders stay alive. If it happens again, I want you to get the fuck out of there and call me immediately. Just what you did this time.”
“Stay for dinner. Call Gage too. There’s plenty.”
“Cripes, I hope this shit isn’t connected to that stuff on the East Coast.” Nell hopped up on the stool and accepted a slice of cheese Meriel offered. “I spoke with the Rodas hunter today and he was helpful. We’ve set up an account where we can input information. Sort of a magickal wiki page.” She snorted. “This could be something related to those mages. Maybe they’re scouting around and found you because you’re powerful. It’s not like it’s a really big secret who the next in line to run Owen is. But I don’t want to jump to conclusions. But what they’re facing is scary shit, Meriel. If that’s what we have, if these mages have sent out teams or scouts to track and stalk witches they’ll target to take and drain, we need to step it up. I’m adding some personnel to do some daily sweeps of the area around the building and the residences of all the full-council witches. We’ll start with that while we work out more info.”
Meriel’s phone rang and she looked at the screen. Dominic.
DOMINIC had been in a meeting with a group of boutique small-batch liquor companies when he’d come over feeling quite strange. A flash of energy shot up his spine and brought the hair on the back of his neck to stand.
He didn’t quite know what to think at first. He wondered if he was coming down with something or if perhaps the ahi he’d had for lunch might have been off. Nervousness brought his knee to bounce until he forced himself to stop.
As he sipped icy vodka served to him on a tray held by a rather ridiculously beautiful woman who leaned enough to give him a glimpse of her body to her belly button, he couldn’t relax enough to enjoy it. The pretty woman or the vodka.
It was as he’d been eating some delicious caviar that the flush he’d felt earlier moved to a full body, electric rush of heat and energy. Meriel’s magick. He could smell her on the air, a phantom of her citrusy perfume.
He held it together for another few minutes, thinking he was just imagining things, willing the presentation to wrap up so he could call her. But it went on and on until he finally held a hand up.
“If you’ll all excuse me for a few moments.”
“Is there a problem?” Evan looked him over.
“I need to check on something. Please do go on. I’ll return shortly.” He said this all as he was already propelling himself from the room, his phone clearing his pocket.
“Hello, Dominic.”
The smile she usually had in her voice when she said his name wasn’t there. Her cheer was slightly practiced. That’s when he knew something was wrong. That’d he’d felt it across the country was a punch in several ways.
Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson once said that the best thing about science was that it was true whether you believed in it or not. The bond was there and to continue to deny it seemed totally pointless when he could not only feel her upset thousands of miles away but that he wanted to be with her.
“What’s wrong?”
“What do you mean? Are you all right?” Dominic heard talking in the background, a male voice and another female voice he recognized from Monday night, Nell.
“I’m sitting here in a meeting and I felt … weird. I hoped it would pass and it did for a while. But then it came back. This thing exploded in me. You. And for a second it was like I was with you, touching you. I could smell you, Meriel. Your magick is on my skin as if I’d just held you. What the fuck is going on?”
He fisted his free hand a few times to keep from shaking. He should be there with her right then.
“Nothing really, I don’t think. I’m sorry it interrupted your meeting. I should have thought to warn you that we could feel each other sometimes.”
He snorted. “Don’t be sorry. Tell me what’s happening.”
“You’re very bossy.”
“I am. Now, tell me.”
“I was at the grocery store and had a feeling. Just a feeling. Something wasn’t right. The energy of the place shifted and it was all wrong. I just needed to get out of there. I didn’t see anything. I came home and called Nell. You probably felt it because my magick rose in response to my fear. Really, I’m all right. Nell and Gage are on it. They couldn’t find anything either.”
He was leaving that night. Period.
“I’m coming back to Seattle.”
“Because of this? Oh why? Don’t do that. I’m fine. Really. Nell and Gage both are right here. I’m not a wuss, you know. I can kick butt when I need to. Take care of your job and see your friends.”