“Were we the only ones who got hit?” I asked. “This seems like a lot of help.”
“I think we are,” Reggie said. “I think the twister spared most of the towns around us. Coventry’s luck finally ran out.”
“I think we’re lucky,” Dorian said. “One death so far. It could have been so much worse.”
“You’re right,” I agreed. “We are fortunate and even more so that we have this much help coming in. I guess things are worse than I thought, though.” Even as I said it, a few more National Guard trucks rumbled by.
A couple of minutes later, it was our turn at the counter. Viv smiled at us, but you could tell she was frazzled. “How’d it go, guys?” She looked grateful to have a moment to stop running around and chat.
“You’ve heard that we found someone, right?” I asked. I thought for sure someone would have said something by then, but perhaps the neighbors hadn’t.
“I did, but I didn’t want to bring it up if you didn’t want to talk about it,” she said.
“Dorian almost died saving a dog,” I said because I wasn’t sure if I wanted to talk about it or not.
“I was fine,” Dorian interjected. “You worry too much.”
“Is the dog okay?” Viv asked.
“The man and his neighbor took her to the vet, but I’m pretty sure she was going to be okay,” I said. “She was an old girl with dementia who got spooked during the storm, but she managed to escape into a part of the house that didn’t collapse.”
“Oh, that’s good,” Viv said and pressed her palm to her chest.
“The man we found had a son,” I said. “He wasn’t in the house. He was missing. But, it’s okay.”
“He’s with his mother,” Viv said. “Right?
How do you know that?” I was genuinely impressed and curious.
“The man’s neighbors were here. One of them found the man’s ex-wife’s phone number in her purse. It was on an old scrap of paper, and she’d completely forgotten about it until today. Anyway, she called the ex-wife and the boy was with her. The kid’s stepfather went to pick him up before the worst of the storm.”
“Yeah. That’s the version I heard too,” I said. “Thorn confirmed it before I headed over here.”
“We compared notes, and, Kinsley, I think the dead man and his son were that man and the boy, Dixon, who were here before the tornado hit,” Viv said.
“Well, it makes sense why he called his stepdad to pick him up if that is the case,” I responded.
“I’ve got a line forming,” Viv said after that.
I looked behind me and several dozen more people had showed up at the Brew Station. “I’ll call you soon,” I said. “But call me sooner if you need anything.”
Viv got our orders, and the three of us headed out of the coffee shop. There were too many people waiting for tables or a place to sit for us to stay there. It wouldn’t have felt right.
Instead, Dorian, Reggie, and I headed over to the apartment above the shop. Dorian’s old place made a good resting spot where we could still be close to the action. Tangerine stayed with Viv for the time being. Meri followed us across the street and curled up on Dorian’s old sofa as soon as we were inside.
We sat around him in the living room eating our food quietly. That was until I reached out my hand to grab my coffee and it jumped away from me.
“Whoa,” Dorian said as his hand shot out to catch it before it spilled all over the coffee table and our food.
“Nice reflexes,” Reggie said before taking another bite of her sandwich.
“What just happened there?” Dorian asked.
“I don’t know,” I said.
I stared at my hand in shock. A voice in the back of my mind whispered to me that it was a burst of magic, but I ignored it. There was no way that uncontrolled magic just shot out of my hand.
Right?
“You just knocked the cup over,” Reggie said. “What is wrong with you two? You both look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
“I’ve had it happen before, but it was when I was a teenager. It was before I studied hard enough to control my power,” I said.
“Well, there you go,” Reggie said and put her sandwich down on the table. “If it happened when you were a teenager and it’s happening now, then it’s a hormone thing. It’s because you’re pregnant. Just chill out.”
“I’ve been pregnant for a while,” I said. “This magical weirdness is all new.”
“Then you probably moved into a different part of pregnancy or something. It’s a shift, right?” she said.
“What part of pregnancy is that?” I asked skeptically.
“Dude, I don’t know anything about witch pregnancies,” Reggie said.
She picked up her sandwich and started eating again after that. By that point, Dorian had stood up and walked to the window. He was watching the National Guard set up a base on one side of the square and the Red Cross do the same on the other.
“I should be down there covering this,” he said so softly I nearly didn’t hear him.
“You should go,” I said in response.
“Not if you’re going to go back out there. I’m not leaving you alone and in danger,” Dorian said.
“Well, look at you trying to go all alpha male on us,” Reggie said with a chuckle.
“I’m not,” Dorian said and blushed. “I just…”
“It’s okay,” I interrupted. “You can go do your job, though. Reggie and I aren’t going to go looking for more survivors or anything like that. We’ll stay out of the way of the National Guard.”
“You swear?” Dorian asked.
“Cross my heart,” I said.
Chapter Five
I didn’t lie to him. Reggie and I didn’t go back out into Coventry looking for survivors.
We didn’t go home either.
“There’s going to be no time for them to investigate the murder,” Reggie said as soon as Dorian was gone. “Jeremy and
