Amir chuckled and handed Kali over to a bundle of shadow arms that cradled her like a child.
“We have no more to say to each other.” Amir walked backward onto the street, the shadows following him. Someone had left a large, ornate rug just sitting on the asphalt. Mike’s jaw dropped when it lifted Amir and Kali into the sky and flew away, Amir’s dark eyes never leaving his until they were gone.
“Mike.” Lily was at his side, her hand on his arm. “You should have given me back. Now they’ll never stop. He’ll never stop.”
“I don’t expect that he will.” Mike let out the breath he had been holding, his limbs suddenly heavy. “Dude scares the shit out of me. Shadow arms and a flying carpet? What the actual fuck?” He looked at his front yard. “Shit. It’s going to take days to fix this.”
Lily laughed. Mike liked the sound of it.
Satisfied that Amir wasn’t going to show his face again, Mike set the lions back on their pedestals. They assumed their original forms—simple stone statues—once up there, but he could feel their magic burning in his blood still. The sundial had rotated slightly—of all the magical artifacts he had seen so far, he found it ironic that the most powerful defensive magic he had seemed to function like an egg timer. He had only partially twisted it, so he paused long enough to twist it the rest of the way.
Twenty-four hours. In the next twenty-four hours, he would have to twist it again to keep the lions activated. Part of him secretly hoped that the society would show back up, magic blazing, only to get crushed by the lions.
Celebrations were brief. Tink took the goggles from Mike, then swatted him on the ass before inspecting the damage to the house. Sofia was using the garden hose to wash the blood off Abella, and Beth sat with Cecilia on the front swing, her head in her hands as she woke back up. Lily had vanished shortly after Amir had, and he hoped that wherever she was, she was doing okay. The mimic was still in the yard, a macabre scarecrow wearing one of his favorite shirts torn to bits. He picked it up and carried it through the door. Not knowing where else to put it, he leaned it against the wall.
He walked through the house into the backyard. Dana and Naia sat in the middle of the fountain. Dana was smiling but still looked sickly. She had remained behind with Naia, just in case Mike’s blood hadn’t worked.
“That was quite the commotion,” Naia said. “But it’s gotten pretty quiet. I take it you activated the defenses?”
“I did.” Mike sat on the edge of the fountain. “The lions made very short work of the situation.”
“Any intruder using magic against the house or the Caretaker will be taken care of. It doesn’t work on people who have been invited in, though, so you have to be careful. I wish I could have told you sooner.”
“It’s all part of the journey, isn’t it?” Mike thought back to the last couple of days. Maybe it was a weird thing to think about, but he felt almost like every challenge was part of a path that had been set before him. He briefly thought of his vision, moving game pieces across a board, then dismissed it. He was ninety percent sure it had been a hallucination, a dream that had chased him into the real world. “And you?” he said to Dana. “How do you feel?”
She shrugged. “I don’t feel like I’m going to tear your face off, but I don’t feel good either. Kind of cranky, mainly.”
“I am so, so, so sorry you got pulled into this. You need to tell me what it is I can do to help make this right.”
“She still needs something from you,” Naia said. “She’s operating on borrowed time. The blood is rapidly wearing off.”
“I haven’t forgotten.” He let out a sigh.
Dana was avoiding his gaze, her fingers drawing shapes in the surface of the water.
“But I’m getting the feeling that there’s more to the story.”
“There is. Do you want to tell him, or should I?” Naia asked.
“Zel originally gave me a potion she had made, which was far better than the blood,” Dana said. “She said that your sperm was in it, and I wanted to think it was gross, but I was so hungry that it really didn’t matter. Anyway, Zel has a theory that if I were to eat your…fluids straight from the source, the effect would be magnified.”
“And?” He could tell there was more.
“I’ve never been with a man before. This isn’t a naive virgin thing; this is a lack of interest thing. I loved Alex, and I still do. And I’m confused because you’re the only guy I’ve ever even been attracted to. Like, not the first time we met. You were cute, but that’s all. But after? I was surprised by that sudden attraction, which Naia explained was because her magic is inside of you. Apparently your sex appeal is off the charts because of it, and I just don’t know how I feel about that.” Dana sighed. “I feel like I don’t even know who I am anymore either, and I hate that.”
He nodded. “I think I understand, but please continue.”
“If Zel’s theory is correct, the effect diminishes immediately upon exposure to air. Something about intent and intimacy. That’s why she wants me to…you know. ” Dana frowned. “Which brings up the other problem. When I drank it before, it made me super horny. And it ended up being okay but only because someone was there to help me through it. I’m still in love with someone that I lost, and the idea of being with anyone else feels like a betrayal to her memory. If not for Lily being able to transform into Alex, I don’t
