Authors: Natale Stenzel
He let her position his hand, then waited while she turned the knob. Water shot out, directly into his face. “Hey—!”
Hooting with laughter, Mina took off. “Oh, yeah. That’s the stuff. Put out that fire, baby. You’re just too hot for words.”
Growling, Riordan charged after her.
“Now don’t go crazed puca on me. I was just having fun—” She screeched when she felt a big arm slide around her waist, lifting
her off the ground. Retaliation, puca-style. “Hey, no abusing the guardian. I’m going to go tell a Druid on you.”
“I’m just staying within my boundaries, baby.” He dragged both her and the hose over to the trashcans. Once he’d doused those
flames, he looked down at a heaving, still giggling Mina.
“You’re drenched, Riordan.” She gave an exaggerated sniff. “Sheew. Kinda smells like wet dog around here.”
“You think so? And what does wet Mina smell like?”
“Hey—” She broke off on a laughing shriek and scrambled away as he turned the hose on her.
Riordan chased after her, still aiming the hose, until Mina dragged her foot over a small bush and dropped to the ground.
“Ow! Oh. My ankle.”
“Mina! Are you okay?” Riordan dropped to the ground beside her, released the hose and gently took her foot into his hand.
While he tried to unlace her shoe, Mina made a wild grab for the hose and turned it on him again. Shrieking with laughter
over his muttered curses, Mina waved the hose one way then the other, trying to keep it out of his hands. Finally, he lunged
high, grabbed the hose, and landed on top of her giggling self.
“Ooomph. Man. For a supernatural being, you weigh a ton.” Out of breath from laughing and running, she lay her head back and
grinned up at him, still shaken by the occasional giggle. “You were hilarious. Imagine, aiming the damn hose at your face
so you could ‘watch for the water’ while I turn it on full blast. What a genius. That was priceless.”
“Oh yeah?Kind of like this is, huh?” She heard wicked humor in his voice as he subtly twisted hips and flat belly against
her, making her well aware of her position beneath him. “I can’t remember the last time I had a laughing woman squirming under
me, so young and strong and wet from play.” He paused. “Quite literally, I can’t remember. So. Laugh if that’s what it takes,
but I’ll stay right here while you do it.”
She’d been had.
“Ooooh, you’re sly,” Mina marveled with pensive admiration. “How did I not remember your weirdo ability to walk around in
my head? You knew what I was doing all the time, didn’t you? You are so bad.”
“Uh-huh. And what about you? Drag your foot across a bush and suddenly you’ve sprained your ankle and completely lost your
balance? Sure, that’s believable. I’ll bet you killed the damn bush stepping on it like that. Meanwhile, look what
I
get.”
He sounded like a boastful little boy.
“Little boy?” he scoffed, still poking around in her head. “Give me a break. I’m no little boy.” He paused. “And I’m no dog.
I’m a man. And this is something I’ve needed for a very long time. You feel damn good.”
He sounded so smug. And he felt pretty damn good himself. It was such a shame they had this species problem between them.
“You’re going to hold that against me now? I can’t help it if I’m puca and you’re human. Hey, I can assume human form, so
there’s a bridge, right?”
“Riordan, please stop reading my thoughts. It’s rude.”
“It is?” He sounded confused. “Yeah, I guess it is. But it’s not like I can help it. Your thoughts are all out there. I can
pretend not to know them, if you want.”
“Is there any way you can literally
not
know them? Just for my peace of mind?”
He studied her, having never moved from atop her body.
“And could you maybe get off me while we discuss this?”
Reluctantly, Riordan rolled to the side and sat up, helping her push to a seated position. Feeling her butt sink into saturated
ground, Mina groaned. “Just let me turn off the hose.” Remembering the invisible wall problem they endured, she noted the
distance and deemed it acceptable before rising. “I’ll be right back.” She turned the water off, then returned to where Riordan
still lounged in the grass. She dropped down beside him.
“This is nice, ” he mused. “Playing in the water, rolling in the grass. Enjoying the warming glow of fire in autumn. Even
the cold, clammy feel of wet clothes sticking to my skin. All good stuff, Mina.” He sounded wondering.
She thought about what it would be like to be him, enjoying the simplest of physical sensations. To have been without for
so long that even the feel of wet clothes clinging to one’s skin was a welcome sensation. “It must have been hell, existing
without a—a physical reality for so long.”
“Yeah.” He thought a moment. “But back to your request. I can teach you to shield your thoughts from me.”
“You can?” She eyed him curiously.
“I just said I could. Why?”
She shrugged. “I’m just surprised you would offer that up. You could have said there was nothing you could do. I would have
believed you. Why would you give up an advantage like that?”
He folded his hands and stared at them for a brooding moment. “I’m already taking advantage of you. Just by being here, I’m
putting your life on hold. And you’ve done so much for me.” He went on, a smile in his voice now. “You were trying to cheer
me up, weren’t you? It was twisted, but you honestly did drench me because you wanted to distract me and make me laugh.”
She shrugged. “You seemed so sad.”
He nodded but didn’t elaborate. “So, it’s like this. If you want to keep your thoughts private, you have to picture them in
your head, except inside a room, or a mental partition. It takes practice, but you do get the hang of it. I had a maze of
partitions when I was still living with my brother, so I know it’s possible to build and maintain them. It’s pretty effortless
after a while, like not falling to the ground when you’re standing.” He paused. “Although it’s true that the walls occasionally
tumble down when you sleep.”
She nodded slowly. “Well, it’s not like I have any life-or-death secrets to keep from you. But the occasional stray thought
. . . well, it’d be nice to be able to keep it private until I screen it and decide whether it’s appropriate for sharing.
Like you can do when you think before you speak your thoughts.”
“Why don’t you give it a try, then? Until you’ve had more practice, I’d suggest building the walls first and then placing
a concept inside them. I’ll tell you if I can read it or not.”
Mina closed her eyes and pictured a wall. It turned into a cubicle, which made her smile. Actually, a cubicle wasn’t a bad
idea. It was a familiar visual she could hold indefinitely, and she could always connect other cubicles onto it as needed.
“What’s a cubicle?”
Unwillingly, she let a mental picture of a cubicle form in her mind, then turned a frown on Riordan. “Hey, I didn’t think
you could read my thoughts like this.”
He shrugged. “You’re thinking about cubicles. Out loud in your head. If you didn’t want me to know, you should have put the
thought
inside
the cubicle.”
“Oh.” Turning that strategy over in her head, she closed her eyes again and, holding the cubicle solidly in place, she set
a thought inside of it. Tried not to smile. “Okay.”
“Pink panties.”
Her eyes flew open. “Hey!”
“You put a damn window in the cubicle. I could see them.”
She made a face. “Who wants to work in a cubicle with no window?”
He groaned and spoke with exaggerated patience. “Maybe somebody who doesn’t want anyone seeing inside the cubicle?”
“All right, all right.” Huffing, she closed her eyes again and reformed the cubicle.
“You might want to raise those walls all the way to the ceiling.”
She opened an eye.
“Hey, I’m trying to be honest here. I thought that was pretty damn noble on my part.”
“It is, it is.” She closed the eye, raised the walls, and checked along the bottom, sides and tops. Four sealed walls, a ceiling,
a floor, no windows. Carefully, picturing herself inside the cubicle, she framed a thought. Made it an embarrassing thought,
so as to offer self-incentive. Then she concentrated on maintaining the image inside the cubicle image. “Okay.”
Riordan went silent a moment. “Hmm. Assuming there’s something really in there, I think you did it.”
“I did? Woo-hoo!” she tossed her arms in the air.
“Um . . .” He choked on laughter. “You have to actually keep the walls in place if you want this to work.”
Mina covered her face. “Oh, dear god.”
“No kidding.” He was shaking his head and laughing. “This is what I look like naked? Seriously? I’m flattered, sure, but isn’t
it a little overblown? The proportions alone . . .”
She groaned. “That’ll teach me.”
“I sure hope not. Hey, look at it this way. If your goal was to cheer me up, I have to say you did a damn fine job of it.
First the free feel, and now extravagant compliments. Darn good evening, in my book.”
“Aaarrrgh. You know, normal people don’t have to worry about this stuff.”
“Normal’s overrated.”
“Depends on who’s doing the rating.” She stood up. “Come on. Put those oversized muscles to work and help me clean up.”
“Actually, I thought my muscles were a lot bigger than you pictured, but the
other
, well, now that was exceptionally well done.” He rose to his feet next to her. “God only knows how I wear pants over something
that big, but I do. Just one more manly accomplishment—”
She elbowed him on the way past and reached for a trashcan while he took the other. “When we get inside, we’ll sort through
the stuff I printed out and pick out our next experiment.”
“Sounds good to me. Does any of it involve you naked and covered in mud? I thought I saw something like that on the television
the other night.”
“Dream on, puca.”
Later that night, after a shower to wash off the grass clippings and dirt she’d picked up rolling around under Riordan—whoa,
that was a bad way to phrase matters—Mina sat down on the floor next to him. She tugged the stack of printouts to the edge
of the coffee table and started shuffling through them. “Any thoughts? Preferences? And we’re talking about ideas that I’m
willing to explore, by the way. This human sacrifice crap you mentioned a few days ago just is not happening.”
“Okay, okay.”
She paused over a page to skim it.
“What’s that?” He read over her shoulder. “Oh, Wiccan. Witchcraft.”
She shrugged. “They claim you guys, so I thought it might be a reciprocal thing.”
“What do you mean?”
“They believe in the power of the Druids. Some liked to think they were descended from Druids. They also believe in fairyfolk—which
includes you, too. Through your father.”
“Oh, you’ve met Dad?”
“Can’t say that I’ve had that pleasure, thanks. Or that I want it. Oberon, King of the Fairies. As in, more powerful than
puca? I’m not sure I want to go up against that one.”
“That’s smart. He’s a ruthless son of a bitch. I’ll give him that. Apologies, my king.” He murmured the last out of habit.
“He doesn’t claim me anymore, by the way.”
“He doesn’t?”
Riordan shook his head. “Robin’s his pride and joy. I was an oops.”
“Ah. I can relate.”
Riordan nodded. “I guess so. It got worse, naturally, after Akker did his thing. Oberon was mortified and I was banished.”
He glanced up. “I know, and yes, it sucks to be me.”
“No, actually. I was going to say I thought parents should be more forgiving than your average Druid.”
“My father didn’t kill me, at least. Akker would have killed me if he could. God knows he did his worst. Which is this. But
Oberon could have terminated me with a snap of his fingers if that’s what he wanted to do. He didn’t.”
“That’s something, I guess, ” she replied doubtfully. “What about your mom?”
“She’s long dead. Since about ten years after I was born. She was human, remember. I hardly knew her.”
“Oh.” Mina didn’t know what to say now.
“Nothing
to
say.”
She glanced up in surprise.
“You didn’t put it in the cubicle.”
“Cubicle. Right. So. About this curse-breaking spell.”
He frowned. “Just so you know, I’m not bashing a rotten egg or anything else against my forehead.”
“Nobody’s suggesting you bash a rotten egg against your head. Next time, read a little more carefully.” So saying, she reread
the spell herself. “Hmm. I dunno.”
“What?”
“Well, I have some of this stuff. Candles, sage, sea salt, a bell, water, black cotton thread and cloth. But dragon’s blood
resin? And these exotic oils? And heaven forbid I have any fresh rosemary in the house. A rotten egg, however, I can do.”
“Why don’t we try one of the other spells, then? We can collect supplies tomorrow.”
“Yeah. Hold on, though. Let me go take an egg out of the fridge.” She rolled to her feet and went into the kitchen to set
an egg out to rot.
What about that just seemed wrong? Other than everything.
She padded back to the living room and dropped down beside Riordan, who was sifting through the stack. “Find something?”
He shrugged. “Just picking at random. How about this one?”
Mina skimmed it. “More dragon’s blood. I don’t suppose you’re acquainted with any dragons, are you? No, I did not ask that
question.”
“Whatever happened to
possibility
? And
accepting the impossible
?” he taunted her.
“I’m slow to accept. So sue me.”
“To answer the question you didn’t ask, I used to know a dragon, but I doubt he’s still alive. Most of them died out as civilization
took hold and their hiding places diminished.”
“You mean they really . . .” She shook her head. “Never mind. The point is, you can’t get your hands on any real dragon’s
blood right now.”
“No.”
“I wonder, though, if it’s really a euphemism or nickname for something more commonplace. We can look it up later. Meanwhile,
I think there are some easier possibilities here.” She read through one. “Here’s a thought. Ever try a simple prayer to God?
Asking for forgiveness and help?”
He snorted. “If you only knew how many times I’ve tried that. Cursing and begging and bargaining. Nothing works.”
She nodded thoughtfully. “I’m not giving up on that one yet. I think there’s potential there. But here’s one I’ll bet you
haven’t tried, given your recent disembodiment.”
“What?”
She smiled. “How do you feel about bubble baths?”
He studied her with new interest. “Are we talking nudity now? I think I could like this one.” He continued with casual certainty.
“And naturally, since you were cursed every bit as much as I was, I think you should also—”
“Oh, no, buddy. We are not going there.”
“Okay, okay. It was just a thought.”
She gave him a severe look, attempting without much success to stop the blood from rushing to her cheeks and other places.
The first time she ever saw his human form, in a flashing instant, he’d been nude. Impressive. And now, picturing him gleaming
with water and bubbles in the candlelight . . .
Riordan cleared his throat, obviously trying not to laugh. “The cubicle, Mina.”
“Oh, good lord.” Annoyed, she turned back to the page and started reading, pausing to note down necessary supplies. “On the
night after the full moon . . .” She glanced up in dismay. “I didn’t even notice—”
Riordan looked alert now. “I did notice. Last night was the full moon. Maybe fate’s finally in my corner.”
“Maybe.” Mina studied the spell with new interest. “Just before bed—” She glanced out the windows into darkness.
“Check. Go on.”
“Umm . . . light thirteen candles, white preferably. Votives count, don’t you think?”
Riordan nodded.
“Fill the tub with water, as hot as you can stand. Add . . .” She jumped up and padded into the kitchen to open her spice
cabinet. “Sea salt, sage, lavender and chamomile. I have tea bags for those last two. Those should work, don’t you think?”
“I don’t see why not. So, we’re making puca tea?”
“Sounds like it.” She read through the rest. “Turn off the water and let the bath steep in the herbs. Kneel or sit in front
of the tub, in the nude.” She chanced a glance at Riordan, refusing to acknowledge her thoughts. “And then there’s an incantation
you repeat. Then you—”