Page 14

14

HARPER

Harper didn’t leave the apartment for days.

Nico was onto him, and even if Nico had no connection to his coven, Harper’s lies had been seen through way too easily.

Maybe he wasn’t as safe as he thought.

Someone was watching him. He could fucking feel it. The prickling sense of eyes on him had only grown stronger. He was sure someone was spying on him in the apartment, not just when he was out.

But it made no sense. Someone couldn’t be watching him when he was alone at home. No one could see in. There wasn’t even an occupied building directly across the street. The warehouse opposite had no windows level with his floor and he’d glanced at the roof often enough to know no one was ever up there.

There was no spell to make a witch invisible, and vampires had to be in close proximity to make their illusion magic work. But no matter how logical his explanations were, he couldn’t shake the feeling invisible eyes were on him.

Who the Hell was watching? How were they managing it? His coven wouldn’t lurk. They’d recapture him immediately. But aside from his coven, no one had it out for him.

After another failed trip into stone memory, Harper gave up trying to figure out any of his problems and decided to bake cookies. That was a positive activity. Self-care or whatever. And it would be nice to have treats to share when Ollie came home.

Once the cookies were in the oven, Harper checked out the living room window. Was it becoming a compulsion? Seeing nothing there only made his chest tighten. Maybe he should hunker down and do nothing for a week, avoid anything magic-related, and try to live a human life.

Could he get a human job, like at Seaside Coffee with Dex? He’d be terrible at it compared to the other people working there, but it might be the smart thing to do.

He pulled up a website of human job listings to see what a coffee shop might look for in an employee. He didn’t expect to get a job with Dex just because they knew each other, but maybe he could ask for help finding something.

Harper browsed the listings, his frown deepening the longer he read. None of these people would want to hire him over a human with experience.

An odd scent caught his attention. Oh no! Harper lunged for the kitchen. The cookies!

Harper opened the oven and a plume of smoke wafted out. Grabbing an oven mitt, he extracted the charred cookies and turned on the kitchen fan. Man, there was a lot of smoke.

He rushed to the living room window and opened it. He didn’t want the fire alarm going off. Everyone would have to evacuate the building.

He hurried to his room and reached across his dresser to yank that window up too. They were old and only opened a few inches, so not great for getting a strong cross breeze, but it would have to do .

With a sigh, Harper turned back toward the kitchen, knocking into the beakers from his potion kit that he’d left out that morning. They toppled and one rolled off the dresser. He caught the glass before it hit the floor, but in his haste, he hit something with his elbow.

The bag of stone dust fell off the dresser, spilling everywhere.

“Fuck.” Harper set the beaker down and fisted his hands in his hair.

Stone dust covered the floor.

The stone had to be pure for the memory potion to work. He couldn’t ingest other elements like regular dust or anything floating around the apartment.

He’d just screwed his hunt.

Why had he left the bag out? It was made of enchanted leather and protected the contents from contamination, but he should have locked it up in his magical box.

All the stone he’d chipped from the library plaza, purified, and ground down using an alchemical spell was useless now that it had touched his apartment floor. He couldn’t risk trying to get into its memory now that it was contaminated and couldn’t repurify it this late in the process.

Harper flopped onto his bed and groaned. He had to give up his hunt or go back to Old Town.

It was too risky to go near the library, but at the same time, he couldn’t risk his coven finding the Hounds before him. They’d get someone else to take over his search now that he’d abandoned them. He couldn’t give up. He had to stop his father from gaining any more power. But he couldn’t do that if he got caught.

Harper went back and forth for two days.

He couldn’t justify returning to the plaza in front of the library. It was too risky. His coven would be silly not to have someone watching the area. However, there could still be an alternative to abandoning his hunt.

He needed old stone, and there was more than one place to get it. He’d originally chosen the library because that plaza had once been the center of Shearwater Landing, so it was extremely likely that any demons who’d once lived here had passed through that area, if not regularly, then at least more frequently than more random parts of the city.

Now that Harper had screwed up, he had to settle for stone from a different source. Picking a random old section of the city outside of Old Town decreased his chances of finding anything, but it was the best he could do.

According to his coven’s research and the anomalies they’d uncovered, the demons seemed to have a connection to the sooty shearwaters. Harper figured the waterfront would be a decent place to try and source new stone chippings. Parts of the seawall were old, and he’d just have to hope the demons had spent more than a few random days at the beach a century ago.

After Ollie went to work, Harper left the apartment with his chisel, knife, and enchanted satchel, all stowed in his shoulder bag. He’d walk along the river. That way, he could stay near the Banks and the Docks as long as possible and avoid getting anywhere near Old Town or the other places he used to frequent on his way to the waterfront.

The feeling of being watched that plagued him in the apartment had died down since the cookie incident, but as Harper stepped onto the street, his skin crawled. He could have sworn someone was watching him, but as always, he found no sign of anyone lurking or any trace of magic in the air.

It was probably all in his head .

He walked through the neighborhood until he reached the concrete riverbank, where a walkway ran along the water. There weren’t too many people out on a weekday morning so at least Harper was spared worrying about crowds hiding someone following him.

Shops and restaurants lined the opposite side of the street. It might have been nice if Harper were here for fun and not fighting to look over his shoulder every ten seconds.

The walkway ended part-way through the Docks, where the old cannery backed onto the river. Harper cut in, away from the water, and followed the street parallel until he came to the river mouth.

The area was industrial rather than scenic, matching the part of the city he’d just wandered through. There was a port at the mouth of the river and much more activity here than near the half-abandoned warehouses he’d just left behind in the Docks.

Getting around the port was a slog. The area behind the docked ships was fenced off for containers and lumber and was much larger than Harper had expected.

He walked along the chain link fence, the road beside him busy with traffic. Harper’s skin prickled and sweat slicked his palms. No one he passed seemed to pay him any attention, but he wasn’t far from the Business District and closer than he wanted to be to parts of the city he’d sworn he’d never return to.

He checked his phone, his heart sinking. He was still a mile from the waterfront.

As he waited at a stoplight, he scanned his surroundings, eyes darting around quickly. This part of the port had a large windowless building backing up onto the sidewalk. It towered over him.

The light turned green and Harper crossed the street. He cast out his magic as he’d been doing every few minutes, but this time, a prickle of something pushed back.

There was at least one witch or vampire nearby.

Harper swallowed, his throat suddenly dry.

It could be totally innocuous. There were plenty of witches in the city, but Harper had to wonder what one might be doing working at the port, a very human job.

He picked up his pace, walking between the back of the port and a row of warehouses across the street. No other pedestrians were on the block with him, and the vehicles driving by passed swiftly, but the feeling of magic nearby didn’t fade.

Harper looked over his shoulder and saw a man crossing the street, headed his way but too far for Harper to get a good look at his face. Harper turned his attention forward and kept moving.

Was this man the source of the magic? Was he following Harper, or was his presence a coincidence?

Shit.

Maybe avoiding the main parts of the city hadn’t been smart. At least with people around, any attacker would have to be discreet. Here, amid all the windowless warehouses and high fences, all an attacker needed was a break in traffic, and no one would see anything.

Shit, shit, shit.

Harper hurried on, trying not to look over his shoulder. He gave in, neck straining, as he quickly glanced around.

The man was still behind him and getting closer. Oh, Satan, he was following him, wasn’t he? The magic Harper sensed grew stronger. It had to be coming from the man behind him. He needed a new plan.

Harper wanted the witch’s presence to be a coincidence but couldn’t make himself believe it .

How had his coven found him ? His heart rate climbed and his chest tightened.

He tried to focus on the facts. Harper doubted he’d missed anything suspicious in the Banks or Docks. He would have sensed the man sooner if he’d been following for a while. Did that mean his coven was watching the port? Was coming here Harper’s mistake? He wouldn’t have thought so, but the port was a potential escape route. Passenger boats were less common than cargo ships, but they did dock in Port Shearwater.

Harper needed to get back to a crowded area and lose the guy. He still couldn’t be tracked magically, so all he needed to do was disappear into the city once more. All wasn’t lost.

He could do this.

At the next intersection, Harper would cut over and head into the Business District. It was only a few blocks away.

He glanced over his shoulder and his heart skipped. The man was much closer. Harper finally got a good look at his face. Recognition hit him like a punch to the gut and a cold sweat broke out on Harper’s skin.

He’d never forget that sneering smile.

Harper’s mouth went dry and the sounds of the port cut off, his pulse pounding in his ears.

He turned and ran.

No, not him. Why did he have to be the one to find me?

Harper’s shoes slapped the pavement. Finch, one of his father’s advisers, was the man who’d assaulted Harper two years ago, and if he’d left the compound to bring Harper back to the coven, Harper couldn’t even think what Finch might be planning.

Harper ran like he never had in his life. Finch would hurt him. He’d threatened to do worse next time. His sick smile filled Harper’s vision, and he gagged, not letting it slow him down even as his vision blurred, his eyes stinging and throat burning .

Something crashed into Harper from the side. He stumbled and fell, his knees screaming in protest against the hard pavement. Before he could get up, hands were on him. Another man hauled Harper to his feet and dragged him down a deserted side street.

Harper yelled, but the sound was cut off as a firm hand slapped over his mouth. He struggled and called up his magic to blast the man off him, but his spell fizzled out as they always did when he tried to cast against his coven.

Harper’s chest tightened. No . This wasn’t happening. He had to get away. He twisted and tried to stomp his attacker’s foot, but the other man was stronger and his grip didn’t falter.

Finch entered the side street, his face twisted in a smirk at the sight of Harper struggling.

Harper tried to scream, but the man holding him shoved something chemical in his face. Harper choked, his vision clouding as his balance wavered. He thrashed, but his arms flopped uselessly and his knees went weak.

Fear drenched him like he’d been dowsed in hot oil, burning every last one of his nerve endings. Something bad was coming, and Harper didn’t think he could face it.

And then his world went black.