“He has these two rune stones. Have you ever heard of black rocks carved like that? With runes?”
“I haven’t. Do you want some tea?”
Focusing on warmth and my desire to see the widow’s garden grow, I hold my wand steady and let magic tingle down from my forehead, into my palms, and out the wand. I urge the warmth to cover half the garden in a protected pocket. It’s tough magic, and I’m sweating again already. Magic takes a toll on the body.
“I have to get back to the marketplace. Thanks, though.”
“All right then, deary. Oh, this is looking wonderful already! You are a wonder.”
I smile down at her wrinkled face. “Thanks, Widow. I’ll see you in a few days, aye?”
“That’s right. I’ll have a new white tea by then. With cranberries! I ordered it from the king’s market.”
“Ooo, fancy. I can’t wait.” I give her a quick kiss on the cheek.
“I’ll have those heart cookies you like too.”
Those cookies have a drop of her blood in them and she thinks I don’t know that. She likes to believe she’s secretly giving me a bit of her vampire health. I don’t mind the sweet trickery though. It’s good for a witch to have a little blood now and then. I usually just get a rare steak at the Goat and Dragon, but vampire blood is superb and helps me look younger than I am.
I’m on my way back to the market and the whole stupid Argos situation when I notice another hole in the ground from this morning’s ruckus.
But this one feels wrong somehow…
Chapter 6
Tully
Ican’t put my finger on what is giving me pause. A feeling. A fuzzy bit of air above the area. I don’t know. Snow sits in heaps around the disturbed area. The cobblestones are out of place, and the dirt is churned up. Wiping my brow with the back of my sleeve, I breathe in and out slowly. I don’t have the energy for this right now. I need a pint and a nap.
I look up toward the watchtower. I’m on the far side of it now and I’m not sure Rom will hear me if I yell up at him. I should really know more about my best friend’s mate—do gargoyles have better hearing than most? Probably.
“Romulus!”
He appears at the opening under the peaked roof. Well, that answers that.
“Yes?” His wings shuffle behind him, altering his dark silhouette.
I jab a thumb toward the destruction. “Can you take care of this hole for me? I’m bushed.”
“Of course.”
As Rom raises his hands, a snap of magic hits me in the back like a vicious snowball made of ice. I spin to face the opening inthe ground only to see magic shimmering into the air in dancing motes of blue, white, and gold.
I rush over and look inside. What in the name of all the gods was that? The stones begin to shake, so I hold up a hand.
“Wait, Rom!”
Everything calms around me, the rocks going back to where they were. The magiczingis gone now.
I crouch at the hole and squint into the dirt. There’s nothing. But no—there issomething. The echoes of a great power hum under the disturbed cobblestones.
The beat and whoosh of large wings sound behind me, and suddenly Rom is landing. He takes a knee beside the hole.
“What’s going on?” he asks. “Did I wreck it further?”
I laugh. “No, you big, sweet thing. You’re great. I wouldn’t have set you up with my Laini if I didn’t have total confidence in your magic and your control.”
His smile is too nice for this world. “So what is the deal?”
