"What can we do about it?" I wondered, mostly out loud.
"Not sure there's anything. None of us have any real counteractive magic. No one in town who's a heavy hitter has even mentioned anything about it. I think now all we can do is investigate it and try to figure out where it's coming from. Anything else and we risk making it worse."
Shaw always erred on the cautious side, whereas Jeremy and I were a little braver.
I broached the other topic. "Since we can't do anything about the storm right now, what about Jeremy's tree?"
Silence fell around the table like an anvil.
"I don't know if there's much we can do about that either," Jeremy said.
"I refuse to believe an angry clairvoyant has any say on whether you live or die," I spat out.
"Isn't that the whole point of having clairvoyants around?" Shaw pointed out.
"Their magic is known to be confusing. A butterfly could fly in the path of a reputed fortune and screw everything up," I argued.
Jeremy shook his head. "Pretty sure that's not how it happens."
Shaw looked lost in thought. "There has to be something. Sterling is correct on one thing. Clairvoyants are notorious for not seeing the whole picture. Maybe we need to find out why your tree gets destroyed. Or even how. Maybe once we have more information we can prevent it."
Jeremy set his mug down with an angry clack. "I don't know why you are trying to prevent the inevitable," he said, his voice harsh. But his gaze… it was fearful.
"And I don't know why you aren't!" Shaw snapped. "We can't just take someone at their word. Especially over something like that. And especially since you were trespassing on her property at the time. Maybe she was just making it up to scare you."
I shook my head. "I doubt that's it. Hank knows her and the guy she married. They're on the up and up. But it still doesn't mean she's right."
"Maybe we should ask around and see if there's any protection spells or something that we could put on the tree," Shaw suggested.
Jeremy perked up at that. "Do you think there's anything powerful enough?"
I was staring at Shaw. "No. Uh uh. No way in hell am I visiting that crazy bitch."
"Morgana isn't so bad," my friend said, but the way his grin widened as he said it, I knew he agreed with me. He was just amused at my discomfort.
Morgana Comey and her weird brand of sisters were the most powerful witches in the town. Possibly anywhere. I'd only been in her shop a couple of times. Once for amusement, the second because my sister needed something. Both times, the feeling of her and her sister's magic made my skin crawl. Wolves could sense magic, though not as well as some of the other supes around here. But we weren't as sensitive as most people with it. Their magic was so powerful it made me itch to crawl out of my skin, to shift outside of the phases of the moon. It made me feel wild. I was not a man who liked to feel out of control so I made a vow never to step foot into her store again.
"She's worse," I said to Shaw. "I am not going in with you."
"You have to," Shaw insisted. "If everyone isn't there, she won't give us what we need."
I was almost positive he was lying and told him so.
He held his hands up. "I swear. She changed some policies after someone used some pretty shady magic against one of her friends."
I scoffed. "Morgana doesn't have friends. She has heads in bottles she confers with when she's in her dank basement doing shady voodoo shit."
Jeremy snorted at that one. "She doesn't practice voodoo," he said. "And I'd be careful talking about her."
"That creepy witch seems to know everything."
Shaw grinned at me. "Then you know you have to come now." He waggled his eyebrows. "Especially if she's listening to us right now and knows you're trying to chicken out."
"I hate you," I told him for the second time that day.
"Yeah, yeah. We know. We hate you too, brother."
And that washow I'd ended up in front of Morgana Comey for the third time in my life. She was beautiful. This made her even more terrifying in my mind because how can someone that damn pretty be so freaking scary? I didn't even care too much for tattoos but they made her look exotic and powerful and frightening. I stepped into the store a few minutes ago only to get hit right in the face with power. It was even worse than before. The magic stung my skin and made my eyes water.
