Witches (Runes series Book 6) (17 page)

Cora touched my arm. “If you change your mind, I’ll be in Florida.”

Ellie and Amber overheard her as they walked past. “You’re going to Florida again?”

“Again?” Cora asked and glanced at me.

“We were planning on throwing a party last weekend, but Torin told Justin that you guys were headed to Florida for the weekend,” Ellie said. “So we switched it to this Saturday. Please say you’ll be there.”

“We’ll start around four then go clubbing afterwards,” Amber added.

Cora made a face. “I volunteer at the Moonbeam Nursing Home until evening, so I don’t know.”

Crap, the two Grimnirs I’d met two nights ago were going to grab Cora at the nursing home. I couldn’t even warn her, because she’d already made it clear she didn’t want me reading her future.
 
She worked at the nursing home on Thursdays and Saturdays, which meant I had to keep an eye on her from afar without her knowing.

“Oh, come on, Cora. You have to come,” Amber said.

“Bring your boyfriend, uh, Echo,” Ellie added, then she exchanged a glance with Amber. Seriously these two lusting after Echo? The reaper was so crazy about Cora no one else mattered.

“Not promising anything,” Cora said and started upstairs, but I’d seen the expression on her face. She had no interest in partying with those two. Neither did I. Torin’s team had a game on Saturday afternoon. I started to walk down the hallway leading to the English wing. Ellie and Amber hurried to catch up with me.

“You and Torin are coming, right?” Ellie asked.

I shrugged. “I don’t know. I have prom on Friday.”

“Junior prom blows,” Ellie added.

“Is Beau Hardshaw going to be at the party?” I shot back, knowing that would make her quit bothering me. Sure enough, Ellie clammed up, her cheeks growing pink.

“Why would we invite that stoner?” Amber asked.

When Beau became famous, I hope she regretted not being nicer to him. “He’s a student here,” I said, looking at Ellie.

“You don’t know him like we do,” Amber continued. “His family is messed up. His father is a drunk. Do you remember last month at my party? Beau was so wasted he punched Justin in the face over nothing. Like father like son.”

Ellie didn’t defend Beau. He was good enough to hook up with, but not defend? Bitch. She kept her eyes down. Disgusted by both of them, I fell back and let them walk ahead.

Things got worse in class. Kelly, one of McKenzie’s friends was in our English class. As soon as she entered the room, Ellie and Amber looked at her blue hair, whispered, and laughed. Even after she sat, they kept turning and looking at her. Worse, they got two other girls in class involved. The girl slid lower in her seat, her face turning red.

I bet I could come up with a nice curse to make their gorgeous hair turn into knots. Who should I target first?

Eeny, meeny, miny, mo

Who do I dislike more

Turn her hair a shade of blue

And don’t change till she gets a clue

I landed on Amber and grinned. The class ended, but her hair didn’t turn blue. So much for my witchy powers.

I didn’t see Cora again until lunchtime. When she linked our arms, the same vision flashed in my head—the two Grimnirs snatching her and disappearing through a portal.

Once again, I was tempted to warn her about them as we headed to the third floor bathroom. It was the top floor in the building and it emptied fast during lunch, so the bathrooms were perfect for creating portals.

“When do you volunteer at Moonbeam again?” I asked.

“It keeps changing, but Saturday afternoon for sure after group lesson with Lavania.”

“This Saturday it’s just you and Ingrid.” Maybe I should drive to the nursing home with her, make sure she was okay before heading to StubHub. “I’m working on tapping into the source of my magic now.” We looked up and down the hallway. Then we slipped inside the bathroom. “You go first.” I watched her pull out an artavus and etch runes on the mirror. “Not bad.”

She rolled her eyes. “You’re faster. You even do air portals. I still can’t. You know, I’ve seen portals like this in your store. All nicely runed.” She entered the Florida house and turned. “We should just replace this ugly mirror with one of yours and no one would ever know.”

Echo wasn’t in the kitchen, but a paper bag with a restaurant logo sat on the kitchen counter. “We would know,” I replied. “And then we wouldn’t get better at creating portals.”

“You stink,” Cora grumbled.

“Lazy bum,” I retorted.

She laughed. “You sure you don’t want to join us?” Cora asked, peeking inside the bag.

“I’m good. Later.” I shifted the entrance so it led to my house. Femi had lunch ready and Dad was waiting. He was watching a game when I arrived.

“You think the U.S. team will make it again?” I asked. Despite being wraith-like, there was more life in his eyes. They sparkled as he discussed teams and players. I never even knew he liked soccer. But then again, soccer was never that popular in the U.S. until recently. We were almost done with lunch before he switched topics.

“Your cat came to visit me. She spent the entire morning with me and only left when Femi brought food. Have you named her yet?”

“I call her Onyx, but she…” I almost forgot he was Mortal and hearing that I could communicate with my cat might seem weird. “I don’t think she likes it.”

“She’ll get used to it.”

No, I won’t.
Onyx entered the room, jumped on the couch, and curled up beside me. Mom had bought the couch right after she came back from Valhalla and placed it by Dad’s bed. It pulled out into a full size bed, so she could sleep near him. Onyx’s eyes closed, but I was sure she was listening. She even allowed me to stroke her before ordering me to stop messing up her fur. When it was time to go, she followed me to the portal.

I’m bored. Can I come with you?

“No. Cats are not allowed at school.”

They were at Harry’s school.

I knew she meant a certain fictitious young wizard, but I faked ignorance, “Who?”

She squinted.
I can stay invisible and walk all around your school. Mortals are entertaining, especially teenagers.

“Uh, no. You’ll bump against one and start a riot, or worse if one stepped on you and you screeched—”

I don’t screech. Just say you don’t want me there.

Actually, it might be entertaining to have her around in some of my boring classes. “You’ll distract me, or get me in trouble for bringing a pet to school if you decloaked. Why don’t you do what most cats do?”

And what is that?

“Sleep and clean yourself.”

She hissed.
Baulufotr
.

“Sticks and stones, Onyx.”

Femi laughed. She could see us from the kitchen. Our downstairs portal mirror was in the living room, but visible from the kitchen. “She’s impossible, Femi! Give her something to do or watch. Animal channel. That should be entertaining.” I turned my head towards Onyx. “You might even see your cousins.”

If she could scratch me and get away with it, she would have. Instead, I received a toss of her tail and an indignant walk to the couch.

“Don’t worry. I’ll keep her busy,” Femi said.

“Thanks. Bye, Onyx.”

I hate that name.

“You are stuck with it, Fur-ball.”

Bite me.

I was still laughing when I entered the bathroom at my school and the portal closed behind me. Onyx was growing on me.

~*~

When I left the band room, Beau and his friends were outside his classroom. He winked at me, but I just shook my head.

“Dude, that’s St. James’ girl,” one of his friends said.

“So what?” was his cocky response. “I don’t see his name tattooed on her ass.”

My jaw dropped.

“You’d tap that?” another asked.

I didn’t hear his answer, but the laughter that followed said it was outrageous. He and I were going to have a talk about that. If we were going to sneak around for these tutoring sessions, he should come up with a better reason than hitting on me.

I stepped outside the school and shivered. The weather had nothing to do with it. The sun was up and spring flowers were blooming in the flowerbeds lining the entrance.

I felt the telltale prickly feeling on the back of my neck.
 
Someone was watching me. Not the Norns. I could always sense them. This was different.

I glanced around furtively, but nothing seemed out of place. Students hurried to the school buses parked at the curb, while others headed to their cars or bikes. For Oregonians it was already warm enough for biking.

McKenzie and two of her friends were talking and laughing as they hurried to her car. They were rocking their crazy hair colors with renewed confidence. I hadn’t seen Ellie and Amber since English. Not that I needed to see them to confirm what I already knew. I was a good witch, which meant my hex probably had no effect.

Still, none of my observations gave me a clue as to who was watching me. The feeling grew stronger the closer I got to my car. Then I noticed the fresh runes.

My car had permanent protective runes, courtesy of my ever-vigilant boyfriend. Torin added more every other month, same with the ones on the doors and walls of my school, and the trees to and from my house. I now recognized his slanted runic writings. The new ones on my car weren’t written by him. Even worse, I didn’t know what they meant. Refusing to panic, I removed my phone from my backpack and took a picture.

“New runes?” Cora asked from behind me and I turned.

“Yep.”

“What do they do?”

“I have no idea. They weren’t here this morning.” And Torin had hitched a ride with me and used a portal to go to California. I searched the parking lot for Blaine. He should be able to know what they meant. He was an Immortal, possibly as old as Andris.

“I can give you a ride home if you don’t want to drive it,” Cora offered.

“Nah, I’m good. I’m going to the store first.” I had to tell Hawk about the burial grounds the
Draugar
had disturbed in Carson. I touched the runes, but I couldn’t get a reading. “I can’t run scared every time someone runes my things. It’s probably Torin. You know how overprotective he gets,” I lied.

“Yeah. I know,” Cora said, but she sounded worried.

I should have kept my mouth shut. I couldn’t lie worth a damn, and we both knew it. Determined to prove that the runes didn’t bother me, I got behind the wheel and took off. I noticed Cora kept watching. She followed me in her car to the first traffic light. I appreciated her vigilance. We’d been through way too much to take chances.

 
She stayed behind me all the way to my store. As usual, the only available parking was behind the building. I removed my phone and texted Cora after I parked.

“U didn’t have to, but thx,” I said.

“Idk what u r talking about,” she responded.

I sent her an emoji with hearts. Cora might act like she only cared about Echo, but she was a loving, loyal, and dependable friend.

The feeling of being watched returned again. I glanced up and down the back parking lot and shivered. Maybe I was imagining it.

The bell dinged when I pushed the back door open. Hawk looked up, surprise flickering in the depth of his dark eyes. He was still in charge of the store even though Mom was back. Full time reapers didn’t run businesses.

“Have you come back to work, Ms. Lorraine?” Hawk asked.

He was just teasing. As an Immortal, he was very much a part of my life and knew everything that had happened in Kayville the last several months. He’d even rescued me from the Witches right here in the store.

“I wish,” I said. “Between lessons with Lavania and school, I’m way too busy.” I glanced around, but didn’t see Jared, our other employee. Not that I considered Hawk an employee. Immortals might offer support to Valkyries, but they were based on earth and had opportunities that went with it. Like investing money and buying properties. Chances were Hawk was secretly a gazillionaire. He was the kind of guy that didn’t welcome personal questions. I didn’t even know whether he lived in Kayville or some mansion in the middle of nowhere.

He stepped from behind the counter and locked his hands behind him as he approached me. He always treated me with respect even though he was probably born a couple of millennia ago. He never cracked a smile or wore anything but black. His hair was tied in the back with a leather thong and at first glance, he could pass for a forty-something year old. But in the right setting and clothes, war paint and feathered hat, I could easily see him as a spiritual leader to his tribesmen.

“What can I do for you, Ms. Lorraine?” he asked.

I glanced around again. “Can we talk alone?”

“Of course.” He disappeared into the room where he worked on frames. The Mirage did custom framing, but our most popular commodity was portals, mirrors with runes etched on their frames.