I surprised myself and him by circling my arms around his waist in a quick hug.
“Calliope.” Kaz put down the stick he was carving. I had to hold the edge of the table and deliberately widen my eyes. Sleep was getting impatient with my detours. “With your permission, we’ll add more runes to the ones we placed a few days ago. Wes and I’ll have to shift to get the sticks into places we can’t reach like this.” He swept his arm down the front of his compact body. “Once that’s done, we can connect them into a continuous ward. One thing has me very concerned though.” He faced me full on while scratching at the back of his neck. “Tanner mentioned there might be a portal on your property.”
Oh. That woke me up. I pressed my fingertips against the pouch resting below my sternum. “We were going to talk about the portal.” And celebrate my Blood Ceremony and sleep in the same bed. “But then the shit hit the fan and now Tanner’s trying to find the Apple Witch and Cliff and Abi, and I have no idea when he’ll be back.”
Wes shot Kaz a look I translated as the druidic equivalent of WTF, before returning to concentrate on his carvings.
“What’s a portal look like?” I asked. “And why would having one on the property be a problem?”
“Most portals in this realm are connected to specific trees, Calliope. We can also create single-use portal facilitators.” Kaz studied his hands before turning his attention fully to me. “Our concern is there’s a dormant portal here that could be activated by anyone, friend or foe.”
I could think of a half-dozen Magical beings I did not want to see popping out of my trees.
“Do you know when this house was built?” Kaz asked. “And how long have you owned the property?”
“Early nineteen-sixties?” I guessed, trying to prod my brain into doing quick math. “I have no idea if my aunt bought the house or built it. I’d have to ask my cousins—or look at the records. I’ve owned the house a little over two years.”
“Are there places on the property that call to you?” Wes asked.
“Oh, yes, definitely.” I was completely unsuccessful at stifling a yawn. My eyes teared up. “The garden, mostly.”
“We’ll have a look,” Kaz assured me. “You need to sleep. Go to bed. We’ve got this.”
I gave a half-hearted wave. Christoph wasn’t in the kitchen, and the door to my bedroom was open, warm yellow light spilling onto the maple flooring in the hall. I brushed my teeth, eyes closed, peed, and peeled my jeans over my hips. Leaving the pants where they dropped, I discarded my smelly T-shirt and stepped under the shower head, letting hot water and silky soap bubbles wash away the dirt and dried blood.
Toweled off, wearing nothing but clean underwear, I knocked my shins against my bed’s frame. When I lifted the top sheet, I smelled Tanner. He’d been the last one to sleep here, due to the injury to his knee had sustained in the fight with my ex, the same fight that first brought Officer Jack to the house. Well, to the end of the driveway.
Closing my eyes, I burrowed my nose into the pillow and inhaled, letting scent threads of mint, sunshine, and ripening apples anchor me to the memories of the man I desperately missed.
When I awoke around five, all I could see were rumpled folds of breath-warmed bedding in front of my face. My ears tuned into a distant disturbance. Through a process of deduction, I figured out the knocking was coming from the front door.
I flipped to my other side and pushed upright. My toes curled off the cool floor, and the floorboards stayed silent as I crept to my closet and pulled on a camisole top and a pair of pajama bottoms. Tiptoeing across the hall, I peeked into my office. Rowan’s curvy body was a quiet landscape of hills and dales, her breathing steady and deep. I backed out and released the knob.
As soon as I reached the end of the hall, I balked.
Tanner stood on the other side of the closed kitchen doors, one elbow pressed against the screen to prop himself upright. Behind him, the morning’s tangerine sky burned into blue.
“Tanner?” I stepped closer, unlocked and opened the door, and gasped. The skin on his arms and chest was streaked with dried mud and other substances, and the look in his eyes told me he wasn’t altogether there.
“Calliope, I…”
“Shower first. Talk later,” I whispered, tugging at his arm. “Can you walk?”
He nodded and followed behind me, his footfalls slurring like he was coming off a bender. I sat him on the toilet seat, pushed the stiff rubber plug into the bathtub drain, and opened the taps.
“Don’t move,” I said. “I’m getting you something to drink.”
A cursory glance around the downstairs showed an untouched stack of bedding on one end of the couch and an empty living room. The sliding glass door to the back porch was closed. Either the druidic duo were in the woods, or they’d chosen to sleep outside with Christoph and whatever other wild critters roamed the property at night.
Hurrying to the bathroom, I opened the door as Tanner was inches away from face planting against the side of the sink. I grabbed the front of his rumpled button-down shirt and got him to lean into me. Exhaustion dug creases into the corners of his eyes and dulled their usual topaz glow.
“Drink,” I said, coaxing him to lean back.
He drained the glass of orange juice and stared at the empty container as if willing it to refill. Or maybe he was mystified by its appearance. Tanner’s skin was cool, almost cold, where it touched mine. The druid needed to get
