Christian didn’t speak the whole way out to Aiden’s secluded farmhouse so near the fault her body sparked and fizzed with the magic pouring over her. He didn’t even look at her until he put the car in park and cut the headlights. Those hands she’d so admired gripped the steering wheel hard.
“I’m not angry,” he bit out. “But I don’t understand why we weren’t told about this sooner.”
“The way I was told about the urgency of your situation? If you don’t stabilize your portal, you’ll have to evacuate the town.”
“Which is why we need a witch. A competent one, powerful and capable of performing her duties.” She turned to look out the window so he didn’t see her wince, but he must have realized he’d hurt her because his voice softened. “Raquel, I didn’t mean it like—”
“My parents didn’t want to tell you,” she said. “They planned to wait until after the ceremony. My mother will be angry I told you now.”
He was quiet for a moment while he absorbed that. “Why did you?”
She glanced over at him. His hair was disheveled and his face was tight. Ruffled, after all. “It was the right thing to do. I don’t like keeping secrets. And my mother doesn’t have to live here.”
An SUV pulled in behind them and Christian nodded at the driver before getting out and coming around to meet her. He held her arm as she tried to walk across the gravel driveway in Audrey’s heels. Fen came up on her other side and walked ahead of them to open the door.
A warm glow spilled into the chill yard from the picture window. Another light down the drive lit the area between the rear of the house and an old red-painted barn. Farther back was a newer metal outbuilding. Even with the patch of trees forming a windbreak, her wool coat couldn’t block the cold. The wind whipped around her legs and up her skirt. Her teeth were chattering by the time she made it inside.
Grace sat on the couch in the living room with Hallie curled against her side in flannel pajamas watching cartoons. She whispered something to the girl and then followed them into the kitchen. The whole time, Christian’s hand stayed low on Raquel’s back. Under the circumstances, the gesture felt more like a jailer’s touch than a lover’s. She’d considered calling in her mother and sister as reinforcements when Christian stepped onto the balcony at the restaurant to make his phone calls but had decided not to. Her mother could be difficult when upset, and Raquel didn’t need the distraction. And...it seemed wrong to hide behind her parents. Her fiance. Her clan. Her battle.
Taking a seat in the chair Christian held for her, Raquel folded her hands in her lap and struggled to conceal her anxiety. He immediately crossed the room to break up the argument Aiden and Lois were engaged in at the other end of the kitchen. It wasn’t a big enough room that she could ignore what was being said.
“She’s useless to us.” That was Lois.
“She’s sitting at the table,” Christian snapped. “Behave yourself and let’s talk. Try to figure out what to do about this.”
Grace took the chair in the corner and Fen leaned against the wall not more than a foot from Raquel’s shoulder. She didn’t look up at him. She couldn’t. Fen was the only friend she’d made so far. He’d be angry too, and she was barely holding on as it was.
“The twins?” Christian asked.
“They’re not answering their phones.” Aiden broke away from Lois and walked to the table. The chair scraped harshly against the floor as he pulled it out and sat directly across from Raquel. Her shoulders began to droop and she fought to straighten them. Her palms were sweating and her stomach was knotted, but they didn’t need to know that. She wouldn’t cower. No matter what. When Aiden fixed her with a hard look, she met it dead- on.
“Christian tells us you’re not a witch.”
“I am a witch.” Maybe not the caliber of witch they’d ordered but...
“You failed your initiation.”
She nodded. “That’s the truth. I have the power and the training but not the control. Kathy, our clan witch, says it’s something like a spigot—but there’s so much pressure on the one side, it makes it...difficult to release the valve.”
“You’re calling yourself a late bloomer?” Lois spat. “
With no good answer to that, Raquel remained silent. She wasn’t certain why Christian had insisted she come here. She’d explained her problem to him and this was a decision for his clan to make. She’d given him an out. If he didn’t want her...if he’d only agreed to the wedding so his clan could have their witch, then this was his chance to run.
“There was never any guarantee that she’d be able to fix the problem with the portal,” Fen said into that tense silence.
Aiden’s expression flickered. Worry not anger, she realized. Worry tamped down tight and hard. “We’ll need to replace the wards one way or another. Lois said you have an idea that will buy us more time?”
“Yes.”
“And you’re sure you can manage it?”
“Yes.”
“Then we’ll contact a few of the nearer clans and see who we can borrow that will be able to do the job,” Aiden said, not sounding happy but not sounding murderous either.
“Kathy will come if I ask her.” Kathy hadn’t wanted her to leave in the first place. She’d pleaded with Raquel’s parents to contact the Odin and postpone the wedding.
“Good, I know Kathy. She has a good head on her shoulders.” There was a hint of
“Or we can find a new witch,” Lois suggested. “Even if we manage to stabilize the portal, we need a witch. It’s past time I start training my replacement.”
A ripple of unease passed through the room, followed by complete silence. Everyone’s attention fixed on Christian, who leaned against the counter, hands gripping the edge to either side of him, head bowed.
He looked up, into Raquel’s eyes, and her breath caught at the intensity. For the first time, she couldn’t see the pretty face or the charming smile, only the battle-hardened warrior. Christian didn’t truly want
“I’m not backing out,” he said.
Nothing but challenge in that look and she’d never backed away from a challenge.
“I’m not backing out either.”
Fen parked in one of the angled spots on Main Street and stared at Lois’s shop for a moment before turning off his truck. He shouldn’t have volunteered to come. But Aiden wanted the rune stones placed as soon as possible and Christian was working. Fen thought the real truth was that Christian wasn’t particularly anxious to see Raquel again so soon after their travesty of a first date.
Nothing like a little interrogation and public humiliation to romance a girl. For such a smart man, Christian was sometimes incredibly dumb. He depended too much on his looks, wealth and position when it came to his dealings with women. Not that any of those things had failed him yet. Raquel, Fen thought, might be the exception to that rule.
She wasn’t quite the little mouse he’d first thought she was. She was...nice, easy to be around. Part of that was because she had the worst poker face he’d ever encountered. Every thought and emotion was right there for all the world to see. Last night when Christian had dragged her to Aiden’s house, Fen had thought she’d burst into tears. But she’d pulled herself together and held her own against the leaders of their hunt—the angry and desperate leaders of the hunt. And he’d felt a weird mix of pride and disappointment, which was stupid. She
