Page 18 of Wooing the Wiccan (Elf Magic #1)

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Raeulfr

This is going better than I’d feared, but I’m full of trepidation as I pull out my phone.

So far, Jared hasn’t pressed me to tell him which species I am.

I’m not sure if that means he’s already decided it doesn’t matter because he’s never going to see me again after tonight, or if he’s working his way up to it…

and might still decide he’s never going to see me again after tonight.

On the positive side, he’s not hysterical and some of his animosity seems to have faded.

He’s still wary, but he’s asking questions and is curious about the answers.

That all points to not needing enforcement to wipe his memories.

“Hello?” Sam’s voice in my ear gives me fresh hope. Gideon’s been setting boundaries lately about calls outside work hours, and I worried that tonight might be the night Sam actually humors him and doesn’t answer.

“Sam, I have a favor to ask,” I begin carefully. There are so many things Jared doesn’t know yet, and I don’t want to accidentally blurt them now. “I’ve been seeing someone recently?—”

“Really? Yes! I knew something was going on with you. Tell me all?—”

“Sam,” I interrupt, and my tone speaks volumes, and he falls silent.

“That doesn’t sound good. What do you need?”

I take a breath. “Jared is human, and tonight he accidentally found out about the community.”

“Shit,” Sam whispers. “How’s he handling it?”

Glancing at Jared, I reply, “He’s shocked and has a lot of questions. We’ve talked about the history that led to the secret, and I wonder if, as lucifer, you could come and reassure him?”

“Of course. Gideon!” he calls, then says to me, “Where are you? Your place?”

“No, at his.” Dammit, I’d forgotten this part. “Um…” I don’t think Jared will be happy with me texting Gideon a photo he can use to teleport here.

“Just tell me the address,” Sam offers, understanding. “I’ll look up a street-view pic on Google Maps, and Gideon can use that.”

My tense muscles loosen a little, and I relay the address. “Eoin is in the car out front,” I add, knowing Gideon can be prickly about Sam’s safety.

“That will make Gideon happier. Okay, I have the image. Gideon, is this?—”

A low murmur in the background.

“Perfect. Raeulfr, ask him if he wants to see a teleport, and we can wait for you to come outside.”

I lower the phone and look at Jared. “Would you like to see them teleport here? We can watch them arrive.”

He bites his lip. “Yeah. Okay, sure.” There’s a note in his voice that makes me think he’s still hoping this is all a tall tale.

“Give us a minute,” I tell Sam, standing and motioning for Jared to lead the way to the front door.

As soon as we’re standing on his doorstep, I say, “Okay.” The call drops out, and a strangled gasp escapes Jared as Gideon and Sam appear in his tiny front garden.

For a second, I fear he’s going to bolt inside and lock the door. It wouldn’t keep us out—shifters can walk through any lock, and we elves have some tricks in that regard as well—but forcing our way into his home isn’t going to help the situation.

And then the lucifer comes toward us, a gentle smile on his face, and says, “Hi, I’m Sam. I’m so glad to meet you.”

Jared throws himself into Sam’s arms, and for the first time since I walked into the stadium and realized the situation, I finally feel like everything is under control.

“I’m so sorry,” Jared says for the third time as he ushers Sam and Gideon toward the couch. “I don’t know what came over me.”

“Please don’t worry about it,” Sam assures him. “It’s completely normal. You’re stressed right now, and my role as the lucifer makes me the ultimate safe space for you.”

The sound that comes from Jared is half laugh, half incredulous huff.

“This is surreal. I can actually sense that—that you’re safe.

All my instincts are humming about it. No offense, but in any other situation, if a man with horns who just teleported was in my living room, I’d be freaking out, but right now I feel like I could take a nap. ”

Sam grins, elbowing Gideon. “Did you hear that, babe? I cancel out your scary factor.”

The demon’s resting bitch face morphs to a genuine glower, and only the knowledge that Sam would never let him hurt an innocent human stops me from crafting a shield spell.

Jared, on the other hand, has no such certainty, and his eyes momentarily widen before the calming effect of being in the lucifer’s company kicks back in. Envy stabs at me. I’m used to being the one who gives others that sense of security, and I hate that I can’t do it for him.

“Jared was asking if humans have a species leader,” I prompt, and Jared turns hopeful eyes on Sam.

Who shakes his head. “Yes, but there’s not much I’m permitted to say on the subject, I’m afraid.

I can tell you that they don’t know about the community.

I’m not sure why the magic still selects human species leaders—perhaps to maintain cosmic balance—but I think I might be the only person who knows about them, because of my role as lucifer.

Has Raeulfr told you why we live in hiding and why the secret must be kept? ”

Glancing uncertainly at me, Jared says, “Because humans tried to kill everyone? I-I still can’t process how long it’s been a secret, though, and how nobody found out.”

“Wild, huh?” Sam agrees. “Part of it is the magic acting to protect us, but mostly humans just don’t want to know. We’ve seen some incredibly convoluted reasoning get used to explain things away, and whenever somebody does seem to believe, they’re written off as crackpots.”

“Are they? What I mean is, do they know the actual truth?”

Sam shrugs. “Sometimes, yes, but not all of it. They see something—like a demon’s horns, or a vampire’s fangs, or a shifter—and from there, they go down a path of theories that have never, to my knowledge, included the full truth.

That’s where all the myths and folklore come from: Someone seeing something they don’t understand and turning it into something else. ”

Jared nods slowly. “That makes sense. So… you really live in secret? That must be so hard.”

“It was a lot harder for the generations right after the species wars,” Sam says.

“Their whole world changed. Nowadays it’s a lot easier, and we all just live our lives.

We’re not hiding in caves—we just don’t do some things in public.

” Leaning forward, he meets Jared’s gaze squarely.

“I need to ask you, can you keep this secret? If you can, you’ll be welcomed into our community as one of us.

We have human members—stepfamily, friends, spouses—and they bring so much joy to our lives. ”

The seconds tick by, and Jared doesn’t answer, just breathes evenly, lost in thought. My tension rises again. What if he asks if there’s an alternative?

“I can keep this secret,” he says finally. “It… it would be bad if people found out. Some of them are hateful to other humans—learning that there are different species would only make their behavior worse.” Sadness shadows him, and I wish I could be sure of my welcome if I were to go to him now.

“As a group, humans tend to be disappointing.” Gideon speaks for the first time since arriving, the deep rumble of his voice making Jared jump. “But there are individuals your species can be proud of.”

It’s possibly the nicest thing I’ve heard him say to someone who isn’t Sam in all the time I’ve known him, and from Sam’s wide-eyed surprise, it’s not something that happens often.

“Um… thank you.” Jared blinks at him. “I’m Jared, by the way. I didn’t… we didn’t get introduced.”

“Gideon Bailey.” That seems to be all Gideon’s going to say, and an awkward silence falls.

“We should introduce you to Noah.” Sam breaks it, but I almost wish he hadn’t. Noah’s a good man, but he can be… abrasive. Impatient. Short-tempered. I don’t think he’ll give Jared the best impression of our community, and I want—need—him to be impressed.

“Noah?” Jared asks, and Sam nods enthusiastically.

“He’s human, and he found out about us by accident too. That was over a decade ago, and he works for me now. He’d be a great person to help you get used to us all.”

“Noah would?” Gideon asks, doubt heavy in his tone, but Sam ignores it.

“He’s married to Andrew, who’s a vampire, and he’s been a huge driver of the program to—” He stops short and looks at me. “Um… how much did you discuss?”

I chuckle, and it actually feels natural. It’s nice not to be the only person making blunders tonight. “Jared and I met at one of the classes to reintroduce humans to magic,” I assure him. “He’s Wiccan and has an excellent grasp on his power already.”

Sam sighs in relief, but Jared stiffens. “Wait… what? It’s a program ?”

“Government sponsored,” Sam confirms. “As I said, we have humans in our community already, and we recently decided to give those trusted members back the knowledge of their magic. Then we decided to expand the program somewhat. It’s by referral only, for humans who have the ethics not to abuse that kind of power. ” He smiles warmly.

“I don’t know what to say. Thanks again? I guess… I mean, I wouldn’t abuse that power, but it’s kind of weird to think this was so much more organized than I knew.”

“Yeah, I get it. Do you have any questions you can think of right now? This is probably overwhelming, but you have Raeulfr to help you learn about us, and you might be surprised to find out other people in your life are part of the community too.”

From the way Jared’s blinking, that hadn’t occurred to him. I’m sure the next thing he asks is going to be about whether there’s a secret signal or something.

“What are you?” His gaze turns to me, and so do Sam’s and Gideon’s.

“You hadn’t got to that yet?” Sam asks, and I swallow.

“No. I… wanted to give him the history first so he’d understand why the secret was so important.”

Jared’s gaze darts between us. “What’s going on?”

Sucking in a deep breath, I brace myself. “I told you about all the species that are native to Earth, but?—”

“There are more?” He jerks back, and my heart sinks.

“Why don’t I tell this part of the story?

” Sam suggests, and I nod. I’ve made a mess of so many things tonight, and I don’t want this to be another of them.

“This is a very complicated part of recent history,” he tells Jared.

“Some of it’s classified, but I’ll tell you what everyone else in the community knows. Just bear with me.”

“O-Okay.” Jared’s hands grip the armrests of his chair.

“Around the time Noah found out about us, CSG—that’s the Community of Species Government—was contacted by a species from another dimension.

Before the species wars, they used to be frequent visitors here on Earth, but as that situation worsened, their leaders deemed it unsafe here, and they banned travel between their world and ours. ”

Jared swallows hard but doesn’t speak.

“Over time, especially given the chaos that our ancestors were going through, the community’s memory of these people faded, so Caolan—that’s the name of the scout we met—was a surprise to us all. His story was confirmed by the magic?—”

“Sorry,” Jared interrupts. “That’s the second time you’ve talked about ‘the magic.’ What do you mean?”

“The life force,” I explain quietly. “A difference in terminology.”

He meets my gaze and quickly looks away, and a wave of pain flows through my being. That’s not a good sign.

“Anyway, Caolan told us that due to the repeated, prolonged misuse of magic by a person who has since been executed, their dimension was collapsing. They had only months left before the planet and the species who lived there were destroyed. The lucifer before me immediately offered them sanctuary here.” Sam pauses, but Jared doesn’t comment.

“The dominant sentient beings from that dimension migrated to Earth and joined our community. The species are dragon shifters”—Jared gasps—“and elves.”