“True. But still.” Jessie sat back down, putting her hands around Muriel’s. “Look, I'm not saying you have to marry the guy—although that would be fucking awesome. I'm just saying maybe tell him what you told me. Let him look at the book. See if he recognizes it or knows what it is. You came here for answers, right?”
“Right.”
It was the other stuff that was hard to navigate. Like how she felt when she thought about him, or the way he had a starring role in her late-night, steamy dreams. She couldn’t afford to lose her heart to a mage whose interest might be self-serving.
“He sent me a book,” Muriel admitted quietly. “A really valuable one on earth magic. Like, genuinely ancient, worth-more-than-my-house real.”
Jessie's eyes went wide. “He sent you a priceless magical text?”
“Yes.”
“You're worried about his intentions.”
“Wouldn't you be?”
“I don’t know. I think I’d be more flattered that a gorgeous, powerful mage was clearly into me and sending me expensive gifts.”
“Jess—”
“I'm serious! Ree, the man sent you a one-of-a-kind book on earth magic. That's not manipulation. That's courtship. Good old-fashioned, romantic, bookish courtship.”
Heat crept up Muriel’s neck. “My magic goes haywire whenever I think about him.”
“Yeah, I noticed.” Jessie waved her hand around the kitchen, which now looked like a botanical garden. The plants that had shriveled earlier had doubled in size and come back twice as full. “But that's not your magic being stolen or manipulated. That's your magic responding to attraction. There's a difference.”
Muriel wanted to believe that. She was even willing to admit that her attraction to him was genuine. It was the sincerity ofhisattraction that worried her. She didn’t want to end up pregnant and alone like her mother had.
“I’ll tell you what,” Jessie said. “If so much as an unkind word passes over his lips where you’re concerned, I’ll personally kick his ass. And so will Matt. You're pack, Ree, and pack has your back, always.”
Moisture filled her eyes as the words settled in her chest and squeezed. She hadn’t realized how much she’d needed to hear Jessie say that. “Thank you.”
“No thanks necessary. Ever. You and me, we’re ride or die. Always.”
Warmth and gratitude filled Muriel, so much so that the pothos hanging over the sink now spread across the entire counter.
“So,” Jessie said, clapping her hands together. “Tonight, we grill and chill. Tomorrow, you’re going to see Brandon. Agreed?”
Muriel summoned her courage. “Agreed.”
Tomorrow, she would ask for help from a mage whose brilliant blue eyes haunted her dreams, and whose thoughtfulness terrified her almost as much as his magic did.
4
ANCIENT MAGIC AND DANGEROUS TRUTHS
BRANDON
Brandon’s attentiondrifted again to the front window and the tree-lined street beyond, searching for a glimpse of moonlight-colored hair and hazel-green eyes.
Jessie had texted him to let him know that Muriel had arrived in Mythic and planned on stopping by the shop today, but not when. He hoped it was sooner rather than later. The need to see her, to see with his own eyes that she was safe, was stretching into year-long minutes.
He lit another soy candle and adjusted the display of crystals around the fountain, then performed a cursory check of the multitude of planters and hanging baskets he’d recently acquired.
Anticipation of Muriel’s visit and anxiety over what she might be facing had him on edge. He'd gotten perhaps two hours of sleep, and those had been fitful atbest, plagued by fragmented dreams and gnawing worry. The rest of the night he'd spent in his private library, surrounded by stacks of ancient texts and grimoires, searching for reliable information about theCodexAnimarum.
Just like his great-whatever grandfather had so many years ago. And, like his ancestor, he found only legends and myths, nothing concrete.
Brandon's gaze drifted to the leather journal on the counter, its pages filled with the notes he'd scrawled in the pre-dawn hours. If even half of what he'd pieced together was true, and if the grimoire was actually in Muriel’s possession, she was in grave danger.