“Not yet, but we’re on watch,” Erica answers with a smile. “I can do it safely, honey. Don’t worry.”
He pulls in a big breath and releases it slowly.
Ronnie offers, “Maybe I can help. If I can put my hands on it ahead of that, I may be able to tell how it got here and as it’s fresh I might be able to pick up on the energy and intentions of whoever planted it.”
“Good stuff,” Tyson says, reaching for the door.
“Where’s Aunt Mimi?” Bailey asks as we all file out.
“Vivi drove her home,” Erica answers.
“Good thing you guys are still here,” Bailey says, eyes darting to me as Ronnie replies.
“We were leaving too, but just before we packed up, Vivi got a feeling we might be needed.”
Bailey’s eyebrows lift up with her eyes still on me.
During pillow talk last night, she talked about how awesome these girls are. I muttered I was looking forward to them leaving, hoping it’d mean the drama was done. Without words, she’s rubbing it in right now that it’s good that they’re still here.
I’m thinking it’s also good that my mate’s wolf is a little pup, too. If she were full-grown, she wouldn’t have alerted us to this plant by catching that burn on her paw.
***
We’re behind my house and Ronnie is sitting by the water, hands on some of those seedlings.
Beside her, Erica and Danica have made one of their magic circles. A big stone cauldron was brought from Riley’s and put in the middle of it.
“There’s a magic block on them,” Ronnie says. “I can’t identify a single thing about them. It’s as if they’re not even registering as plants in my mind.”
“What the fuck does that mean?” I ask.
Danica answers. “They’re spelled. I’m getting next to nothing from them.”
“Same,” Erica states.
“I take it they were planted through magic rather than physically planted?” Grey asks.
“Exactly,” Erica replies. “If not, because of how new they are, Ronnie in a meditative state should see who planted them or how they got here. I’ll isolate their energy, extract them from the ground, drop them in the cauldron, and we’ll go from there.”
“Where do you go from there?” Bailey asks.
Erica replies. “We’ll attempt to neutralize them so we can safely discard them.”
Ten minutes later, the Youngs as well as Grey are inside the magic circle, surrounding the cauldron by the riverbank. The rest of us are in my yard watching.
Mason has been keeping Linc and Joel informed. Linc is watching over Ivy, Stacy, and Amie. I tried to send Bailey to go sit with those girls, but she looked at me like I was out of my mind.
“I can test the ground while shifted after they pull them, silly,” she informed me.
I growled, frustrated with the notion of her being anywhere near anything remotely dangerous. Her answer to that was to wrap her arms around my waist and plaster her body to mine, filling my senses with her arousal.
But it was the right thing to do. She’s standing here against me, in the safety of my grasp, away from the danger of the riverbank.
“They took footage from the falls to the edge of the village on that drone?” she asks.
“Yes, why?” I ask.
“I’m trying to figure out the motivation here. The Starlings wanted their artifacts back. Alta said she needed that wand to do with her love, who I’m assuming is Eduardo because Anya said that name when they were on the phone. Alta told me her love was gravely ill. That house smelled like a hospital.”