He smirked. “Sugar therapy was a bonus.”
“Then what’s the main event?” I asked, raising a brow.
His expression shifted—more serious now, more like the Rune that stalked around the compound. “I want to take you to the edge of the coven grounds. Into the woods.”
I blinked. “The woods?”
“To see if your magic can sense anything strange. Patterns. Wards. Traces of wolves.”
My stomach twisted. Not because of fear—okay, maybe alittlefear—but more from the pressure. I didn’t have magic. Oh ancestors, I wouldn’t sense anything. But I couldn’t tell him that, at least not yet. We’d had such a good first date, I couldn’t ruin it with my lack of magic.
My lack of magic ruined everything…
So instead, I nodded and popped the last bit of beignet into my mouth as I pretended I wasn’t falling apart inside. “Well,” Isaid after swallowing, “if I get eaten by a wolf, promise me you’ll name a pastry after me.”
“Anything for you,” and foolishly, my heart skipped a beat.
Jean Lafitte National Historical Parkand Preserve—Barataria Preservewas what the sign read as our vehicle pulled off onto the side of the road. We’d traded out the loud city for the quiet, kind of creepy, bayou. There wasn’t a soul out, which was convenient but also scary considering the dark cloud rolling in overhead.
I closed the door softly behind me as I climbed out of the vehicle. I was honestly surprised Rune owned one. It wasn’t anything fancy, he said it was his dad’s and that his was in storage somewhere, as he usually didn’t need to use one.
“This seems kind of far,” I rubbed my hands up and down my arms. “Why would the wolves travel all the way to the heart of New Orleans from here?”
I knew the wolves didn’t exactly have traffic in the woods, but it had to take them a while to get to the city. Rune ran a hand down his face. “Well, these wolves have some kind of magic because they’re getting through the boundary.”
My eyes skipped over the air around us, and I nodded—completely naive to another thing. I hated this lack of magic thing.
Rune smirked. “You can’t see the wards, but they’re there. My father’s father had them established a very long time ago, with witches all over the country. They don’t keep us in, but theydo keep bad juju out. Any ill intent of the magic community isn’t allowed to pass through.”
His eyes skipped over the tree line before landing heavily on me. “That’s how it is for all covens. Even yours back home.”
Gulp.I shrugged. “I guess being the baby of the family never did me any favors.”
His eyes remained on me, though he didn’t say anything for a beat.
“So do we go through them or?” I didn’t know what to say.
He blinked out of whatever thoughts he was stuck on and nodded once. “Let’s get this over with. I don’t like leaving the coven in the hands of Louis for very long.”
Uh oh. “You don’t trust him?”
Tension left his shoulders as he chuckled. “It’s not that at all. He’s just a hot mess and loves to rile people up. If we stay gone too long, the whole coven will be chaos when we get back.” He shrugged. “It’s his nature.”
His jaw tightened as he took a step forward, all of the tension entering his body again. I followed Rune down a path between massive cypress trees and watched my feet. I knew there had to be alligators around these parts; I wasn’t stupid.
The deeper we walked on the trail, the more the atmosphere shifted. The air grew thicker—heavier—with that distinct earthy, musky smell of swamp water and moss. Spanish moss hung like ghostly veils from tree branches, and the sound of insects rose in a steady, hypnotic hum. Every so often, I swore I saw something ripple across the water beside the trail. Every time I swore I saw it, I slouched my body closer to Rune, but I refused to make a sound; I didn’t want to look like a wimp. After all, I was here to save the day, whatever that meant.
Rune walked ahead of me, calm and focused, his boots crunching against the boardwalk like he’d done this a hundredtimes before. I tried to match his steady pace, but my nerves were starting to fray.
“This place is… haunted,” I muttered.
He didn’t turn around, but I could hear the smirk in his voice. “It’s not haunted. It’s alive.”
“Great. Because that’s not creepy at all.”
“I mean it,” he said, slowing just enough for me to fall in beside him. “This land remembers. Magic lingers here longer than in the city.”
I swallowed hard, watching the way the shadows shifted through the trees. “Okay… So now what? Are we too far to turn back?”
