"Yeah," I said. "Maybe another time."
We moved into the planning room. Kearan crossed to the low table and laid out a few books with this careful, almost tender precision that made me watch his hands longer than I should have.
"This one's got a solid breakdown of protection runes." He slid an open book toward me. "Might connect to the dagger. These are about demons and wards, which might tell us something about how the wards are failing."
I settled in beside him, close enough that the warmth of him filled the gap. My fingers brushed the cool pages while his traced the symbols.
"Each one of these have a different emotion… a different personality." It was something I'd noticed once I became more in tune with my witch powers over my demon ones. "Like each one's got its own story."
He glanced at me, surprised. "You have a way of cutting right to it, Parker. They are stories. Power wrapped in intention, with every mark tied to its own history and purpose."
I looked over more of the runes. Our shoulders brushed, and a jolt went through me. I let myself want it for a second. To lean in closer and press into the heat coming off him. Maybe I should just kiss him instead of waiting for him to initiate.
"This could give us something," Kearan said, tracing the inked symbols. "Like the runes work as channels. The magic flows through them. Maybe whatever's slipping past the wards is running the same kind of road. Though this is something that Trux and Rhiot would be better at."
I pulled the dagger out of my backpack and set it in front of us. "I know what these are," I pointed to all of them but the last one. "But this one is unfamiliar."
His eyes sparked as he nodded, curiosity catching all of his attention. "This one doesn't look like the others."
"What do you mean?" When I looked at them, they didn't look all that different.
"Runes, wards, glyphs, spells, charms, etc… they are all just a different kind of language. A series of symbols and patterns that evolved to work together." Kearan opened a different book and presented some new symbols I didn't inherently recognize. "You're a witch, so it makes sense you would understand glyphs inherently, but something like this would be unfamiliar to you."
Sure enough, the long flowy symbols in the new text were completely foreign to me. There was not a single bit of recognition in them other than they felt like a positive thing. "So what are these?"
Kearan grinned. "Healing spells. It's a basic guide to healing for Wigis, which is an extremely rare inherent ability for some shifters."
"Like you." He made a lot of sense.
"Yup, like me."
The door creaked, and Grayson strolled back in, no theatrics this time but somehow just as much chaos. "You two crack the secret code yet, or are we still pretending to research in here?"
Kearan raised an eyebrow and said nothing. I fought down a grin. "Just figuring out how to wield a little ancient magic. Care to join?"
"Maybe. If the two of you come out of this room with some kind of understanding." He stepped closer, relaxed but watching us both. "Be nice not to tiptoe around the giant elephant."
"Is it an elephant?" I held his gaze, teasing. "Or more of a giant bat keeping the tension up?"
Kearan huffed a laugh and shook his head.
"Okay, okay, maybe you're onto something." Grayson eased back, clearly enjoying himself. "But seriously. I'll allow certain distractions… The dagger, the wards, all these revelations, those are all acceptable since none of it's going to handle itself. But don't hyper-focus too much."
Kearan rolled his eyes, and Grayson waved as he left the room.
CHAPTER 9
Throwing these books across the room in frustration wouldn't help right now… right? Because maybe some kind of cosmic entity would take pity on me and my poor overwhelmed brain by making sure the books landed on the one page I needed. The page that would explain everything so I could move on to save the day.
It could happen, couldn't it? I sighed as I slouched back in my chair.
The planning room was too quiet, wound tight with everything going on between Kearan and me. Hours had slid by with the two of us tracing the same runes. Being this close to him was almost too much. I wanted him, plain and simple, and the world around us kept demanding we deal with anything other than our bond.
I stared at the symbols sprawled across the table, working their shapes, their meanings, anything to keep my head off the charge in the room. But every time I looked up, Kearan was right there, completely focused on something. Time disappeared while we worked without talking, the scratch of the dagger across parchment the only thing breaking the quiet, and none of it released any of the building tension. The clock ticked loudly,but every minute together stretched out until everything became daunting. I gripped the edge of the table to keep myself from testing my theory about tossing everything off the table just to see if fate would step in.
Instead, I shoved the instincts down and gripped the table harder. Kearan moved close enough that his warmth reached me, and I held my breath. I was torn between destroying the room or climbing on Kearan and kissing the daylights out of him.
"You still with me?" He glanced over, the weight of his gaze toning down some of the built-up panic.