“Jamie, what are you doing here?” And why, of all people, him? There hadn’t been anyone else? Dad would’ve come help without charging if the department was this hard up.

  “You must not have heard. I have clearance. I’ve been doing all the spells on government buildings in town, and the job has some perks.” His eyes focused past my shoulder. “That is a mess. I see why you need the help.”

  “Our clan doesn’t do police contracts. Buildings, yes, but not this.” Narzel blast them. If they had, maybe I’d still be a good little witch who followed directions.

  He kept smiling. “Things change. When I took the contract, there was a clause that I could be called for other things when the government groups needed help. Thus.” He grinned winsomely and shrugged.

  “Great.” I tried to smile, but it felt more like I was baring my teeth. “We’ll walk the area and then start. Do you mind using my salt mix for the purification spell?”

  “Nope.”

  “Dandy.” I headed for my car as Mitchell came over to talk to him. By the time I returned with another bag of salt, she was chatting cheerfully. He had that effect on women.

  “Your salt,” I said, breaking into their conversation without a hint of subtlety.

  Mitchell’s brows pulled together, but my interruption didn’t bother Jamie. He took the bag of salt and motioned toward the crime scene. “This is your area of expertise. Lead the way.” He smiled, again.

  “Car first.” Behind me, I heard him make polite excuses to Mitchell before jogging to catch up.

  “You’re grumpy this morning.”

  “Four hours of sleep makes Kelsey a dull girl.”

  “Grumpy isn’t the same as dull.”

  “I haven’t had a full night’s sleep since I woke up Monday morning.” Before he could ask another question, I launched into a description of what I thought we needed to do. From the car, along the path to the deer, I explained salting, and the spell enhancer I’d made and how it worked. While explaining the embroidered runes, I glanced over and found him smiling at me. “What?”

  “One year, you embroidered a border on a scarf. Told me it would never unravel or blow away, and it never did.” He lost the seductive edge, and for a moment, he was the boy whose last name I doodled next to mine in notebooks. “I never thought about what else you could do with embroidery.”

  “Stop.” It came out too sharp, even to my ears, but I couldn’t think about those times, not now. “Sorry. Um, this next part, it isn’t just bloody. Remember when we’d go on picnics with the family, and Mom would take the others hunting and then bring it back so we could eat together even if we weren’t eating the same thing?”

  That memory faded his smile. “Yes.”

  “This next part is like one of their kills halfway through them eating, okay?” He’d dealt well enough with the gore back then, but people could change, and it wouldn’t do for him to vomit on the crime scene.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “I’ll manage.” He motioned for me to lead the way.

  We walked the rest of the way in silence. He studied the dead deer, and if it bothered him, it didn’t show.

  “Can we get started?”

  All the easy charm was gone. “Blood magic and stimulant spells? You need help.”

  “I do not need the clan! The rest of the bureau is on this. We’ll get the wolf.” Four years of college, two of training, and I still wasn’t good enough.

  “Four days of this isn’t a winning track record, Kelsey.”

  I grabbed his arm and pulled him away from the officers who seemed a little too interested in our conversation. “You’ll get paid, what do you care? This is my job, and I’ll see to it that every person behind this is brought to justice.”

  “It’s too much for one witch.”

  “No, it’s too much for some witches. I’ll be fine.” I glared up at him. “If you don’t have useful information about the magic fragments, shut up and help me purify the area.”

  He backed away, his face inscrutable. “I take it you want to do the entire area at once?”

  “That’s the plan.” I eyed him warily. As a boy, he hadn’t simply agreed.

  “Then we have a lot to do.” He opened the bag of salt.

  I readied my own and joined him at the forest side of the deer. “Shall we?”

  “Sure.”

  We each started sprinkling, overlapping at first in case there were any differences in the batches of salt before continuing down each side. We went all the way to the far end of the car without speaking. That should’ve made me happy, but instead I wondered how he’d changed over the years.

  “You should take lead. It’s your spell, you know it better than anyone.” He handed me the empty bag of salt.

  I tucked it into my kit and got out the embroidered cloth. I tried to find a good reason to have him lead the spell. There wasn’t one. “Fine.” I’d have to lower my shields and let him in, when a single slip would give him a peek at my thoughts and the well of necromancy.

  The corner of his mouth twisted in what could’ve been another smile. He stripped off his gloves and came up behind me. “Relax. We’ve done this a thousand times.”

  I wanted to say that was a lifetime ago when I was a different person and so was he.

  His fingers pressed against each side of my neck. Warm spots against a cool morning. His magic brushed against my skin.

  Sweet bones of Narzel. Don’t let me regret this.

  With the smallest adjustment to match magics, he was inside my shields, a warm buzz of power, and a gentle press of encouragement.

  With a single rune, the cloth levitated to above the car. It took hardly more than a stray thought for him to power the boundary shield. Magic slid between us until Jamie regulated it, feeding power to me.

  The magic evened out and I triggered the purification spell. Magic poured out of both of us, filling the spell until it flowed over in a glorious wash of gold. I throttled the power output, and he reduced what he offered to match.

  When the car was free of the corruption, I levitated the cloth down the salt corridor. Jamie stayed with me every step of the way as we purified the area. He even held the connection when I tripped over a stone, and for a moment we lost skin contact.

  By the deer, I had to feed more magic into the spell. It cleaned the area, and I cut off the purification. Purified magic, just a touch, flowed back, and with it went the fatigue of the early morning.

  “Done?” His breath warmed my ear.

  No, I wanted this moment, when I wasn’t afraid or stressed or tired, to last. Before the thought lured me to things best left alone, I said, “Yes.”

  The warmth of his power withdrew, and he lifted his fingers away.

  Cool air flowed over the spots on my neck, making me shiver. As much as I wanted to reach out, have that peace back, if only for a moment, I reset my shields as I turned to face him. “Thank you.”

  The spell had taken about as much magic as I’d thought, but sharing the burden had left both of us with plenty in reserve.

  “It was a pleasure. Call me any time.” His smile hearkened back to memories of us, but he turned away.

  Watching him talk with Mitchell, I wasn’t sure I’d made the right choice. Maybe I should’ve said something. Maybe he wasn’t as bad as I’d thought. Maybe love didn’t die the way I’d always believed.

  He drove away, and I hoped this time he stayed away for years. One day, I truly wouldn’t care. One day.