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“If ya don’t need my help getting up, I’m going to run back and let Bo know ya’re on yer way. One of my enforcers is here. I’ve got to go deal with her before she starts interviewing everyone she sees.”

Mulan waved me away with her hand. “I feel like myself again. No sickness.”

“Good,” I said. “Bo is calling you the cat lady. Don’t be mad at him.”

“Trolls have no sense,” she said with a sad head shake.

“No, he doesn’t mean it in a negative. I think it’s because he doesn’t know yer name. Or maybe he can’t say it. Anyway, theway he says ‘cat lady’ is sweet. Ya can tell he likes you. Just go with it, okay?”

Mulan motioned me away with both hands. “He is helping me. I will not harm him.” She sighed heavily. “How can I become mother when getting tiger cat back makes me feel tired?”

I chuckled. “I’m sure ya’ll figure it out. All women do. And Bo will always take back the tiger cat if ya don’t want it.” I paused a moment before issuing another order. “Take the staff with ya so the cat will get used to it. Ya don’t want the tiger cat running off when ya call yer magick. I also suggest ya turn it into a walking stick. It needs the sunlight, and ya need the help to steady ya.”

“Yes, mother. I am fine now. You can leave,” Mulan said with all the sarcasm she could muster.

I wagged a finger at her. “I heard that tone. I’ll mother ya if I feel the need. But I’m done being bossy for now. Just please do what I suggested so I won’t worry.”

Her response was to offer me a long-suffering sigh and a nod.

“How big a portaldo ya intend to create?”

Jessing held her long arms wide to show that he would need a lot of room. “My partner is a male witch. He makes a big entrance. It’s his favorite thing, so I indulge him.”

How magnanimous of her when I was doing all the work.

I tilted my head to ponder Jessing. “Wait... wasn’t yer original partner a male witch? I remember that he didn’t like being one. Did he ever make peace with his power source?”

Jessing grinned at me. “You have an excellent memory for someone your age.”

I blinked at her. “Well, it’s not like I’m a hundred, Jessing. I’m only forty. Ma is in her sixties, and she has a wonderful memory as well. How old are ya, Jessing? Ya must be in yer late thirties. I was the youngest trainer the Shadow Breakers ever used, and ya weren’t a child yerself.”

“And listen to you! You can still do math. This bodes very well for the accuracy of your story, Aran. Many people your age don’t have such solid recall.”

I rolled my eyes without hiding it this time. Jessing had mastered the arrogance of the eagle shifter family she was born into. Back when I first knew her, I’d realized instantly that she considered herself too good to need any further instruction. The woman had complied with my training exercises because she’d sworn to her parents to do so. She was an owl shifter of her word.

She and her witch partner back then had gotten passed to another trainer after Jack dragged me away from my work... and out of Ireland.

My last memory of those long-ago days was an argument Jessing and I had over me not letting her eat a few trouble-making pixies. I emerged victorious in the argument that day, but Jessing remained unconvinced that my approach was right. She had conceded to peacefully moving the newly formed pixie group, but I was never sure she believed it was a better option than destroying them.

I briefly wondered how many pixies she’d ended up eating after I was gone. Then I told myself to let it go. Whatever she’d done or not done, I needed her. So I would not judge her by our shared past.

When I’d told Ben enforcers were always trouble, I hadn’t been able to describe what kind because it varied with the magickals. She’d been here less than an hour, and I’d already developed a theory about the owl shifter. Jessing irritatedpeople into giving her the information she needed, which was the unvarnished, unembellished truth.

Goddess only knew what kind of man the owl shifter had partnered with for life. It was not uncommon for work partners to become spouses. Ezra and I were partners who became lovers. We might have become more if he hadn’t decided he needed a dozen other women to entertain him.

The Shadow Breakers had no rules against fraternization with peers. Their only rule was that ya couldn’t take a target as a lover.

I easily could see how it might simplify yer life to share work and home with the same person. Wasn’t that what I was doing with Rasmus? And what Mulan was doing with Conn?

Yet I still dreaded seeing what kind of man could handle the annoying owl shifter. He’d have to be twice as obnoxious to hold his own. That would probably make him twice as hard to deal with as an enforcer.

Sighing heavily, I walked the area near my fire pit and chanted to push the wards back. It surprised me that even Mulan’s wards obeyed. When I’d cleared enough space to suit Jessing, she pulled a tiny foldable cell phone from her cleavage and made a call. It took remembering what it felt like to get shot with an arrow and knifed in the stomach to keep me standing there.

A spiral portal spiraled in the area I’d cleared. The energy of it bathed us in silver light. Something fast shot out of the portal like a speeding motorcycle riding up between two cars. The owner of the speeding vehicle was a muscled man with green hair riding a surfboard that was glued to a round disk.

He flew what looked to be a victory lap around us while Jessing clapped and blew kisses at him. As he hovered in the air, I looked up and saw the disk under the surfboard for what it was.

The man had mounted his board to an automatic vacuum—the set-it-and-forget-it kind that did yer sweeping while ya were away from home. I’d seen friends control theirs with an app on their phones. It was a fine example of human magick that I wanted no part of. Running a regular vacuum was good enough for me and I still knew how to use a broom for sweeping.