Page 11 of Dragon’s Golden Mate (Shifter Nation: Enchanted Over Forty #2)

“I’ll leave that up to you to decide, but they’re protectors by nature,” Lucille told her.

“You could interpret that as protection against the devil or sins, like when they’re used in churches, or you can think about it in a more pagan way.

Scary things keep the wrong people away from sacred places. ”

“Yet it doesn’t make sense to have creatures who are driving people away from a church,” Maeve theorized. “Usually, you want people to go to church. There has to be some reason they attacked us, though.”

“I can’t imagine what they’d be protecting,” Lucille admitted.

“And in the meantime, how are we going to protect the cathedral itself from demolition?” Maeve asked. “It sounds like Kendrick’s client is determined to tear it down, but that bothers me.”

“Well, I know a few people from the library who may want to get involved if they hear about it,” her sister told her. “All those nerds I hang out with are really into preserving history.”

“Even if they want to throw out this old book?” Maeve jested.

“Yes. Even if!” Lucille took a big bite of her muffin. “Oh, that’s good. The streusel topping is to die for. Jamie must’ve made these.”

“She definitely knows her way around the kitchen,” Maeve agreed.

She set the book aside, not wanting to get it full of crumbs, and took a few more bites.

“There has to be something going on at that church. Ley lines converge there. Stone statues come to life there. Even my magic came back to me for a moment.”

“It did?” Lucille asked excitedly. “You didn’t tell me that!”

“Don’t get excited,” Maeve warned her. “It was just once, and now it’s gone again.”

She held up her hand to show the fizzling sparks. “Couldn’t even light a firecracker with that. I had Amanda look me over, but she didn’t find anything. It’s really starting to bother me, Luce. What kind of High Priestess am I if I don’t have my magic anymore? And can it just stop like that?”

“Hm.” Lucille was studying her, squinting her dark grey eyes slightly.

“What?” Maeve demanded. She swept her hand over her mouth. “There’s no point in cleaning up the crumbs until I’m done, you know.”

“It isn’t that.” Lucille shook her head slowly. “I just remembered something.”

“That you’re an obnoxious little sister?” Maeve took a long sip of her coffee.

Lucille shrugged. “Be that way about it if you want.”

After a few moments of silence, Maeve couldn’t handle it any longer. “Okay, tell me.”

“First, you have to say that I’m not obnoxious.” Lucille lifted her chin. “I’m waiting.”

“Fine,” Maeve sighed. “You’re not obnoxious.”

“I don’t think you meant it, but all that really matters is that you said it.” Lucille leaned forward in her chair, leaning one elbow on her knees. “I remember the last time you were magically constipated.”

Maeve burst into laughter. “Don’t call it that! It sounds terrible!”

“Clogged?” Lucille suggested, a wicked sparkle in her eyes. “Plugged up?”

“No! Those are no better!”

“Congested? Impacted?”

“Stop! I know you’re a walking thesaurus. You don’t have to prove it.” Maeve wiped a tear away from her eye.

Lucille’s mischievous smile turned into a sincere one. “It was when you met Patrick.”

“Oh.” All of Maeve’s giggles died away in an instant. “I didn’t remember that.”

“I do.” Lucille sat back again. She picked up her coffee mug, but instead of drinking from it, she looked out through the screens of the porch and through the foliage of the backyard, into the distant past. “You knew he was the one, and you were so excited. I was jealous, because I wanted a boyfriend.”

“Could’ve fooled me. All you ever did was tell me how ugly you thought he was,” Maeve reminded her.

“At least the two of you made pretty babies,” Lucille told her.

“Fine, fine. Not everyone likes redheads,” Maeve conceded.

“Anyway, I remember that time pretty well. You thought something was seriously wrong with you because you couldn’t perform spells anymore. It was just like what you showed me a minute ago, fizzling and dying without doing anything.”

Maeve was in the past now, too. “He told me the truth about himself, that he was a shifter. I already knew it. We could sense it in each other immediately, but he wanted to share that part of himself with me. He hadn’t told anyone outside of his family, so it really took a lot.”

She smiled, remembering the way his green eyes looked when he’d told her.

He was a strong man, charismatic and attractive, no matter what Lucille tried to say, and that utter vulnerability had made her fall for him even harder than she already had.

“I wanted to share something, too. Something beyond just saying, ‘Yeah, me too.’ So I told him I was a witch. He thought I meant it in the sense that a lot of people say it, that it was just a spiritual thing, but I wanted to show him that it was more than that. As soon as I sent those pathetic little sparks off my fingers, he laughed. He thought I was pulling a prank on him.”

“There you go,” Lucille concluded, as if that explained everything.

Maeve considered the possibilities. Her magic had first failed on the day of Corbin’s birthday party, when she’d first met Kendrick. They’d seen each other almost every day since then. It was only when they were in the church, an apparent source of great power, that it’d come back for a moment.

But if Patrick had made her lose her power initially, and Kendrick had done the same, then that meant…

Maeve shook her head. “I’m just getting old.”

Lucille raised her brows. “Magic isn’t like eyesight. It should be getting better with age, not worse.”

“I get what you’re saying,” Maeve sighed, “and I’ll even concede that there’s some good logic to it.”

“So generous of you,” Lucille muttered.

“But,” Maeve continued, “it doesn’t feel right to me. Kendrick has a lot of wonderful qualities, but I already met the man fate intended me to be with. Patrick meant everything to me, and I can’t just betray that bond.”

“Are you betraying yourself by trying so hard to deny it?” Lucille asked gently.

“Maeve, I’m not going to sit here and tell you that you need a man.

You’re a strong woman, and you’ve always known your heart better than anyone.

I just don’t want to see you deny yourself of something that could be really good when the only person you’re appeasing is already dead. ”

Maeve’s throat was getting thick, and she took another sip of coffee.

“Once all of this business with the church is over, I’ll distance myself from Kendrick.

It’s the right thing to do for everyone involved.

Just think about how awkward that could be with the clan and our coven.

I owe him the help that I told him I’d give, but nothing beyond that. ”

“If you say so.”

“Luce.”

“What?” Lucille shrugged as she brought her coffee mug back to her lips. “I was just saying that if that’s what you want to do, then that’s what you want to do. Nothing else.”

Apparently, little sisters could be irritating even when they were old enough to get a senior discount.