Earl nodded with a grim face at Niamh and Edgar’s shock. Those passageways were like the veins of the house. They ran all over, and only through them could one get to the heart. Only those accepted by the house were allowed into that area.
“Jessie accepts you, and the house is reacting, it must be,” Earl said.
Niamh held her tongue. They needed the help of Austin Steele. Too many intruders had poured out of the woods for Niamh to battle, even with Edgar’s help. Even with Earl’s. She hated to admit it, but she got winded too fast these days. She had lost her vicious edge. They needed the might that was Austin Steele.
The problem was, if he learned that protecting Jessie would tie him to the house, he might back off. It was likely the last thing he wanted. He’d made this magical town what it was, but his decision not to step up as official alpha gave him an out. It gave him a hall pass. Niamh didn’t think he’d like that status changed.
“So why didn’t the house react when those creatures got inside?” Niamh wondered, wishing she had her rocking chair. Old bones didn’t like standing around too long.
“Putting Jess in danger to force her to make a choice?” Austin Steele asked, glancing at the lake.
Niamh sucked her teeth in thought.
“Would you stop doing that? It is absolutely disgusting,” Earl said with a downturned mouth. “Have a little pride in yourself.”
“Pride in meself? You’re always on’ta me about wearing a bra—you oughta be putting those sad sacks in a sling or they’ll trail along the ground as you’re flying.” She pointed between his legs.
Austin Steele’s warning gaze cut into her. She clenched her jaw in frustrated silence. She hated being dominated. She hated that he could do it so damn easily.
“What’s the plan?” Edgar asked, his teeth finally retracting.
“Elliot Graves wasn’t there,” Niamh said, lowering her voice in case the trees had ears. “He sent one of his black-collared soldiers to lead.”
“What’s his play?” Austin Steele asked.
“Those creatures in that house were either there to capture her or harm her,” Earl said.
“Whatever their plan, it’s not safe for Jessie to go back if the house doesn’t do its part,” Edgar said.
“Agreed,” Austin Steele said, his gaze veering to Jessie again. “She said she needs to figure out if she wants to stay or go. I think our next steps hinge on her decision.” He paused for a moment, watching her watch the water ripple against the bank. “One thing she mentioned—she ran when the shadow wraith blasted its voice. Is that right, Earl?”
In surprise, Niamh watched Earl’s face. His eyes turned distant in thought.
“She must’ve,” he said. “I managed to close the door, but after that, she was in the lead. Yes, she must’ve pulled me along. I don’t like to admit it, but its magic had me frozen.”
“That’s…” Edgar clearly struggled for words.
“That’s courage of steel,” Austin Steele said, probably not intending it as any sort of pun or connection. Missed opportunity, that. “She was scared, but she didn’t shut down. The house chose well. Now we just need to see what Jess chooses. Our fate lies in her hands.”
Twenty-Six
A light jacket dropped down over my shoulders, immediately allaying some of the chill. The sun was just starting to lighten the sky, shooting out streaks of pinks and oranges in bursts.
Austin crouched down beside my chair, looking out over the tranquil lake. Shadowy forms of trees and brush were painted across the glassy surface.
“Some week, huh?” he said, his voice not much more than a hum in the hush.
“I’ll say. Welcome to paradise, here’s a nightmare scenario. Good luck!” I tightened the jacket around me, smelling soap and the spicy sweetness of Austin. “It’s beautiful here.”
He nodded, sweeping his gaze to the left. “It is, yes.”
“This is your cabin?”
“Yes. It’s secret. Don’t tell anyone.”
“Sharing your secret headquarters with Mr. Tom, huh? I knew you guys were besties.”
He huffed and shook his head, the laugh not quite breaking the surface. “I told him about this place when we were at Agnes’s house, waiting for the forgetful potion. I wanted to make sure you had a place to go if things…heated up.”
“Oh.” I frowned. I hadn’t realized he was serious about the whole secret thing. “Thanks. We needed it.”
Silence sifted down between us for a moment, broken only by a bird twittering in the new day and Mr. Tom bickering with Niamh about something within the cabin.
“What comes next?” I finally asked, my stomach in knots thinking about it.
“We’re all waiting on you for that one. This is your show. We’re merely the players.”
I didn’t waste his time asking why that was. I knew why—that house. That magic. My arrival had thrown everything into disarray.
“Is it so much to ask for a quiet life?” I murmured.
“Didn’t you have a quiet life? And yet, you came here. Maybe a quiet life isn’t your thing.”
“I don’t know how to live a loud life.”
He settled, sitting cross-legged, his hands entwined in his lap. “I was exactly the opposite. All I knew was a loud life when I decided to settle under my brother’s thumb and learn. I was going crazy the whole time, desperate to start a bar fight for no reason. I hunted more than was normal. Or prudent. I kept our whole city and the neighboring town in meat, and it still wasn’t enough. I hated to leave my family, but I was happy to be free.”
“Why’d you come here? Why’d you come to the town that houses Ivy House? Were you drawn to the magic?”
This time he did laugh, humorlessly. “I didn’t even know about Ivy House when I settled here. I was wandering. Town to town, through the wood—I came up over the Sierra Mountains. The cold doesn’t bother me. I randomly stopped in O’Briens. No reason for it—it was late, I was tired, and I figured I’d grab a drink and find somewhere to sleep. This town was the closest, magical or otherwise.
“I hadn’t even finished my first drink when a commotion exploded in the bar. Yelling and tussling—I ignored it at first, because it had nothing to do with me and I didn’t know anything about this town. I didn’t want to get thrown in jail or held up by some mage. But it quickly became apparent that the situation was no good. If there was law in the town, it wasn’t stepping in like it should.”
“What was the problem?”
“A young shifter—a fox—was being used for sport. Instead of being chased by fat men on horses with dogs, he was being hunted by a pack of young wolf shifters in a training exercise. The fox kid ducked into the bar to get help, and the organizers of the hunt wanted to get him out and get him running so the wolves could track and tackle him.”
“Tackle him?”
“It’s a nice way of saying what they actually do. After tackling.”
I grimaced in horror. “That’s legal?”
“No, it’s outlawed, but some organizations don’t want to change their customs and don’t much worry about the outside world. As I watched, I recognized the majority of the people in the bar were clearly uncomfortable but doing nothing. They were afraid to stand up for the kid. They were afraid to create waves with the organization. Organizations like that have money and power. Their influence is far reaching.”
“You found a way to get out of the slow lane,” I surmised.
His gaze found mine, something unreadable in their depths. “Exactly. I found a worthy outlet. And I ran at it with all my pent-up aggression. I…sent a strong message. A message I knew would be received badly. I stuck around, waiting for the organization to come to town and quell my uprising. When they came, they came hard. Harder than I’d expected. Not harder than I could handle, though. I met the challenge. I lost myself to it.”
He paused, staring out at the water. I waited in silence, knowing he needed to tell his story. Given he had no friends, and he was a gruff man clearly slow to trust, I doubted he’d talked about this before.
“The fight was vicious. It was brutal. They brought shifters and mages—I was outnumbered twelve to one. But I had a lot of pain I needed to work through. A lot of uncertainty in my past. Hell, I’m unbalanced. I told you. I let my dark side, as you called it, have free rein.”
“What happened?” I asked softly.
“I didn’t send them to the hospital. I sent them to the morgue. Every last one of them. I made a statement.”
“And that ended it?”
He chuckled darkly. “Nope. They sent more for the second wave, asking for my head on a spike. Offering a reward for it. By this time, my name was being circulated around the shifter community. People were talking. Word reached my brother, and he offered to send aid.” He shook his head. “But by that time, fire burned deep within me. I’d found…a purpose. I’d found a place where I was needed. But I’d also found some peace. I faced the second wave alone again, but this time I offered a way out. They could go in peace, as long as they left the corrupt organization that employed them, or they could stay and fight and find their own heads on spikes. Half walked away. The other half…”