Page 32 of Wicching Hour (The Sea Wicche Chronicles #3)

THIRTY-TWO

What Is Wrong with Me?

I worked quickly, trying to get his face before it faded from my memory. When I finished, I realized everyone was in a circle around me, watching. I reared back. There were too many emotions too close to me.

Declan made a pushing motion with his hand. Hernández, Tyler, Jake, and Bracken all moved to the ocean side of the deck.

“Bracken, when did you get here?” I asked.

“Good morning, my dear. I saw the crowd on the deck and decided to investigate. You were working. I didn’t want to disturb you, so I made everyone some tea.”

I looked back at the others and realized they were holding my mugs. Smiling at my great-uncle, I said, “Thank you. I promised them tea and kept getting distracted.”

He waved away my thanks. “You’re busy. I wasn’t doing anything—other than taking one of your brownies for breakfast.”

“Can I get you a muffin or something? A brownie doesn’t seem like enough,” I said.

“Perhaps not for these young men, but for an old one like me, it’s perfect.” He pointed to my drawing. “Now, tell us about him.”

So I did.

“He breaks in before he attacks?” Hernández asked, scribbling in her notebook.

I nodded, ripping the sketch out of the book and handing it to her. “I don’t know if this is new for him or if he’s always done it. He was getting a charge out of being there when she wasn’t, though. It made him feel powerful. Leaving the ice cream out was a dick move, but he enjoyed the idea of scaring her, making her question herself and then question if someone had been in her home.”

She studied the drawing. “The ball cap will make identification impossible, but how sure are you on the lower half of his face?”

The killer was wearing a black ball cap, his head angle down and a little to the side as he opened the cabinet. “Maybe ninety percent. The jaw is right. The temple, the ear, those are right. It’s the nose I’m not positive about. I saw his reflection for a split-second.”

“Have you tried checking your visions?” Bracken asked. When I looked up, expression confused, he continued. “Touch the wrapper again, but this time, tell the vision to show you the reflection. It might not work, but it’s worth a try.”

I nodded, grinning. “It is.” I slid off both my gloves this time and held out my hands to Declan. He squeezed water into one palm. I rubbed my hands together, placed my hands on my face, and smelled the deep blue. Keeping one hand on my face, I held out the other toward Declan, who rolled the wrapper out of the bag and into my hand.

When I saw the woman watering again, I thought, Show me the reflection . The vision jumped to the bathroom. When he opened the cabinet door, I told it to freeze. I had the nose wrong. It was a bit more bulbous at the end than I’d drawn. I could see part of a black t-shirt and what looked like the top of a tattoo, barely peeking over the neck of his shirt. When I knew I had it, I opened my eyes and dropped the wrapper back into the bag.

I put my gloves back on, picked up my pencil, and motioned for Hernández to return the drawing. I looked up at Bracken. “Brilliant. Thank you.”

He nodded and waited with the others to see what I was going to do.

After fixing the nose, I drew the t-shirt and tattoo. I also shaded his cheek. It was more sunken in than I’d drawn, like he’d lost weight recently. Was he sick?

I showed the revised drawing to Hernández, pointing at the tattoo. “It’s low enough that if he wears collared shirts like Jake’s, no one would ever see it. I know we can only see the tops here, but I think that’s and S and an M.”

“That could be a C,” she said.

Declan studied the image. “The curve is too tight.”

Curiosity was getting to Tyler, so he moved back over to our side and stood beside Bracken, craning his neck to see. Brow furrowed, he motioned to Jake. “Look at this. Is that what I think it is?”

Bracken and Tyler moved back so Jake could get closer. Declan must have explained to them while I was in the vision why I didn’t like people crowding around me.

Jake leaned over and stared at it a moment and then started unbuttoning his shirt. He took off one sleeve and showed us his biceps. Tyler put his hand over most of the tattoo, so only the top of the S and M were visible. They were identical.

Grinning in triumph, Tyler dropped his hand, exposing Jake’s USMC tattoo. “The letters are drawn in an arc. That’s why we can only see the middle two. The killer was a Marine.”

“Nice!” I put up a gloved hand and he high-fived me.

“He may not have been one,” Hernández said. “He may have just wanted to be one, but it gives me somewhere to look. Thank you.” She looked at all of us as she said it, pocketing her notebook. She pulled her phone out of her pocket, read a text, and said, “Osso says the lab confirms poison, so he’s picking up Swan now.”

“That was quick.” I pulled out my own phone and texted Mom and Gran. “We need to be prepared for retribution. There’s no way Milo is rolling on his grandmother and she, I believe, is the power in the family.” I looked at Bracken, checking.

He nodded. “I don’t know anything about the younger generation, but in my time, Catherine was the strongest of them. The fact that she still heads the family leads me to believe she still is, but that’s conjecture on my part.”

“Okay, I need to check out this Marine theory. Thanks again,” Hernández said, walking away with the evidence bag while texting.

I blew out a breath. “Okay, well, I’m as warded as I can be.” I turned to Bracken. “I made a fae ward that Cal should have no power to break. I included your home as well, of course.”

“Thank you,” he said. “I must admit, ever since you had that vision of a man setting fire to the gallery and my home, I’ve been having a hard time relaxing.” He patted his chest, and I got it. It’d been plaguing me too.

“Fire?” Jake asked, his shirt buttoned up and his arms crossed over his chest.

I nodded. “Yeah, I had a vision—Oh! Bracken, wait!” I ran in my studio and looked on my coffee table, my end table, the kitchen counter, my worktable. Where was it?

Declan stood in the doorway. “What are you looking for?”

“The map,” I cried in desperation. “Where’s the map?”

He pointed at my pants. “You pulled it out of your pocket this morning.”

I patted down my pockets, found it, and almost passed out. What was wrong with me? Running back out to the deck, I said, “Look what the queen gave me.” I showed my great-uncle.

Excited, he pulled his notebook out of his pocket and took the poorly drawn map out so we could compare them.

Tyler whispered, “Did she say queen?”

“Yes,” Bracken said. “Look. The queen’s mark is very close to where the shades are indicated here.”

“I mean technically,” I began, “the map was made by one of the queen’s scouts. She just gave it to me because I was able to read her.”

Bracken stared at me shocked. “Really? The queen asked you to read her?”

I lifted one shoulder. “She says she has plans for me, which made Dad super uncomfortable.”

He patted my shoulder. “I can see why. It’s never good to draw the faes’ attention, dear, especially not the queen’s.”

“Arwyn,” Declan said cautiously, taking my gloved hand in his. “You’re being awfully free with information in front of two people we just met. Are you feeling okay?”

“Hmm?” I looked over at Tyler and Jake. “Oh, they’re fine. They’ll take the job. Tyler already likes us, me more than you.” I elbowed Declan. “Jake is pretending to not like or trust you but the only reason they’re here is because Jake does trust you and his sudden anger issues scare him. He doesn’t want to hurt Tyler, so he’s hoping you’re more like your father than your half-brother.”

The men looked stunned and uncomfortable.

“Sorry. I don’t normally do that.” I rubbed my forehead. “I’m usually really good about keeping secrets.” I turned to Bracken. “Have I been spelled?”

“I don’t know,” he said, a gentle smile on his face. “I have a suspicion, but I don’t know. I don’t believe it’s an immediate danger, though. That map and finding Cal is the priority.”

I nodded. He was right, but I was still uneasy. I had too many secrets floating around in my head to just start blurting them out.

Declan ran a hand down my back. “Hey, what did you see when you read the queen?”

I turned back to him and shook my head. “Oh, I don’t think she’d like that. Sorry.”

He kissed my forehead. “See? You’re fine, just overtired and dealing with too many threats at once. And I already knew the men could be trusted. I wouldn’t have introduced them to you otherwise. I just wasn’t sure how you felt about them.”

“Oh. Phew.” I looked at Tyler and Jake. “Do you guys want to stay or is all this too crazy?”

“Hello.”

We all turned to the tall, thin woman wearing very dark sunglasses. Orla, our new owl-shifter friend. Glinting in the sunlight, her long, light brown hair was coiled in a bun.

“Is this a bad time?” she asked.

“No. It’s a perfect one, actually.” I waved her over.

She eyed Jake and Tyler but then ignored them, coming to me and pulling a piece of paper out of the back pocket of her jeans. “I made a map.”

“Perfect!” I shouted. “Everybody inside. I’m living in terror of the wind whipping a map out of someone’s hand right now.”

I went straight to my worktable and put the queen’s map down. Bracken put down the poorly drawn one, and Orla placed hers beside the other two. Bracken arranged all three so the shapes of the bay roughly aligned. Orla’s map had seven spots indicated. Two of them matched the queen’s map.

I turned to Orla. “Can you tell us about your scouting trips?”

She looked at the two unfamiliar men.

“Oh, sorry! Orla, this is Tyler and Jake. They’re werewolves,” I told her.

Jake’s expression darkened but Tyler smiled.

“Gentlemen, this is Orla. She’s an eagle-owl shifter.”

Tyler’s eyebrows winged up. “Really? That’s so cool. I’ve never met an owl shifter.” He held out a hand and she shook it.

“Orla,” Declan began, “is it okay that Arwyn just told them about you?”

She looked uncomfortable but eventually nodded.

Seriously, what the hell was wrong with me? I touched the sleeve of her thermal. “I’m sorry. I should have asked.”

“Should have asked us too,” Jake grumbled.

“True,” I said. “I should have. I just… I know we’re all going to be friends and work together. We’re all going to be tangled up in each others’ lives, so why not just start now?” I paused to think and turned to Declan, suddenly afraid. “I never get feelings like that about myself.” My eyes filled with tears. “What’s wrong with me?”

I could see my concern mirrored in his eyes but then they cleared and he leaned down to give me a kiss. “There’s nothing wrong. You’re perfect.”

“Maps, dear,” Bracken prompted.

“Yes. Sorry.” I shook my head and turned back to Orla. “Your scouting trips?”

She blinked, taking in the chaos compared to her nice, serene life in her bookstore. “Yes. I found seven locations that felt dark. I circled each, rested on tree branches, and observed. I never saw anything specific, but all of them felt dark. Evil.”

“Please tell me we don’t have seven sorcerers working in the area,” I said. That was all we needed.