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  Mira peeked out in the foyer and found it empty of her mother. John Parnell was making his way to the closet, though.

  “Hello, Mira,” he said.

  “Hi, John,” she said, already moving towards the door.

  “Be careful out there,” he said. “Good evening, Mr. Harker.”

  Emmit already had his coat and gloves on. For a minute, he looked like he was studying John.

  John nodded. “Thank you. You too.”

  “You…” Emmit started and then stopped.

  “Yes,” John said, nodding towards Mira. “Sorry for the confusion.” Then John blinked and looked around.

  Mira tried to hide a grin. “Emmit, this is John Parnell.”

  “It’s a pleasure to meet you,” Emmit said stiffly.

  John nodded. “Thank you. You too.”

  “John is a psychic,” Mira explained. “He sometimes runs a little ahead of everyone else.”

  “Yes,” John said, nodding towards Mira. “Sorry for the confusion.”

  John hurriedly stepped around Emmit and disappeared into the coat closet. Emmit looked back and watched the man, his brow furrowed in contemplation.

  “Come on,” Mira said.

  Emmit didn’t turn around.

  “Emmit,” Mira went over to him and reached out to touch his arm, but Emmit turned to her and her hand dropped. She smiled up at him, seeing that he looked perturbed. “Come on.”

  She led Emmit outside and they walked down the wide but short set of stairs to the drive.

  “John gets embarrassed sometimes when he gets ahead of everyone,” Mira explained.

  “I’ve met psychics,” Emmit said stiffly. “They see flashes of events in the future.”

  “That’s kind of what John does, but it’s more like he lives it.”

  “Is the rest of his family like that?” Emmit asked.

  Mira shrugged. “John is the only psychic I know.”

  “It usually runs in families,” Emmit said.

  “He’s never talked about them.”

  “How far ahead does he see?”

  “Most of the time it’s only a minute or so. When he’s living it, like he was inside, it can be longer.”

  Emmit looked back toward the house again, as though he could see John through the walls. “That sounds exhausting.”

  “It does,” Mira said, shoving her hands in her pockets and pulling her coat tighter around her. The night was quiet, but she still strained to hear Tyler’s car. “I wonder how far away Tyler parked.”

  “You look cold,” Emmit said.

  Mira nearly jumped. He was standing right next to her, yet she hadn’t even noticed him move. She shrugged her shoulders in an effort to hide that he had startled her again.

  “It’s winter,” Mira said. “Of course I’m cold.”

  “Would you like to step back inside?” Emmit asked.

  “No,” Mira said a little too quickly.

  Emmit looked like he was trying to figure something out.

  “Sorry,” Mira said. “I don’t want anyone asking any questions. There are some people that are going to disapprove of my suggestion.”

  “I see,” Emmit said. “Your family?”

  “It’ll start there, but I doubt it will end there. The others… even if they agree with the suggestion, some of them will disagree with me being the one to do this.”

  “I’m not sure I understand,” Emmit said. “The way Tyler explained it, you are an accomplished witch.”

  Mira shrugged away the compliment and wondered what it was that Tyler had been saying. “I think they’re more afraid that I might be too good at it.”

  “At binding?”

  “It’s hard to explain,” Mira said.

  How do you tell someone that the other witches were afraid she’d slide too far down a dark path? A witch like that could turn on the others. At least, that’s what they were afraid of, and the things she did in college hadn’t gone unnoticed among the other witches.

  Emmit scanned what little he could see of the streets. “I feel as though I am missing something.”

  “Let’s just say that I’d rather wait out here,” Mira said, hoping to drop the subject.

  “As you wish. We are in luck anyway. Tyler will be here in a moment,” Emmit said.

  Mira looked for the car, but didn’t see anything.

  “Are you sure you want to be the one to cast the binding?” Emmit asked.

  “If it helps find the killer it’ll be worth it,” Mira said.

  “And if it doesn’t help find the one responsible?”

  She shrugged. “Then it will have been worth the try.”

  “Is there anything I can do to assist?” Emmit asked.

  “No,” Mira said without thinking. When she realized the response had been too rushed, she tried to explain. “Tyler and I usually discuss a spell if one of us gets stuck. I was going to see if he was free sometime.”

  “As I understand it, he is free tonight. If you’d like us to stay I’m sure Tyler wouldn’t mind.”

  Mira bit her lip and thought that over. She liked Emmit. Considering she didn’t know him, she liked him more than she should, but witchcraft is secretive by nature. Outside of covens, you usually won’t find a spell swap and unless you were cooking, you wouldn’t hear a debate on the best uses of sage. Sharing something with a non-witch was unheard of.

  “Unless you and Tyler would rather be alone,” Emmit added.

  “We usually don’t work with—” Mira stopped and glanced at Emmit. His tone of voice had been different, but the man was so hard to read. Did he think that she and Tyler were together in some way outside the craft?

  For his part, Emmit was watching the car lights as they turned into the driveway.

  Would it hurt to have Emmit around? In this day and age, even witch hunters didn’t hunt witches. William and Tyler were actually good friends, something that would never have happened a century ago.

  Did she want Emmit around? A witch’s spells were like an extension of the witch. Mira knew all too well that if you shared a spell, someone might turn it into something you never intended.

  “That was much too forward of me,” Emmit said, his tone more formal as Tyler drove up. “I’ll ask that Tyler drop me off first.”

  “No!” Once again, she was too fast and added more emphasis than necessary. She looked down, trying to think of a way to salvage the situation.

  “He speaks very highly of you, and I know you wouldn’t want to discuss things in front of a stranger.”

  Before she could make the situation worse, she shifted gears. “Actually, I was thinking that tonight I’d like to go over a few things on my own.” She tried not to sound aggravated, but she was. Rubbing her head, she tried to figure out if she was aggravated with herself or Emmit. “It’s been a long day.”

  “Of course it has been,” Emmit said, his voice a little softer. “I wasn’t even thinking when I made the suggestion.” He opened the passenger side door and stood behind it for her to get in.

  “Thank you,” she said.

  “I can’t believe this is happening,” Tyler started as the car door shut.

  “Neither can I,” Mira said, watching Emmit. He had paused before moving to the back door of the car, but he was turned away, so Mira couldn’t see why.

  “I didn’t see you at the council’s announcement. You or Emmit.” Tyler grinned, but it looked uneasy.

  “You could say we heard the news early,” Mira said.

  “The werewolves are pissed,” Tyler said as Emmit got into the back seat. “I can see why this was held at Lance’s house. Anywhere else and they may not have cared enough to keep themselves under control.”

  “It is understandable at the loss of one of their clansmen,” Emmit said. “What did the council say in their announcement?”

  “They said to keep an eye out for each other, don’t talk to strangers. You know the gist,” Tyler said. “They said to expect the police to ask more ques
tions, but everyone was supposed to keep to the covenants. The only exception would be if a single detective came to them with one of the witches. They didn’t say why, but they said they have a plan to work cooperatively with law enforcement. Must be a hell of a plan if they are breaking the covenants.”

  “The Bind spell is to be used on a detective,” Emmit said.

  Mira was glad he’d stepped in, because she wasn’t sure what to say.

  “No way,” Tyler said, looking angry. “They can’t ask someone to do that. It’s too dangerous for the witch.”

  “I wish I had known that earlier,” Emmit said.

  Tyler glanced at him in the rear-view mirror. “You’re not…I mean, can you even…”

  “I made the suggestion,” Mira said. “I offered to do the spell.”

  It was another block before Tyler said anything. “Why?”

  “To help,” Mira said. “I want to know what happened to Sally.”

  They turned into the driveway in silence, through the shadow of the large house.

  “Are you sure you want to do this after—”

  “I’m sure,” Mira said quickly, interrupting Tyler. She tried to bring a lighter tone to her voice. “I was hoping you’d be free tomorrow sometime to go over a few things.”

  “Tell me the time and I’ll come over,” Tyler said, still sounding rather upset.

  “Stop by around noon?” Mira suggested.

  “I’ll be there,” he said.

  Mira hesitated. “Emmit, would you—”

  “I’ll walk Mira to her door,” Emmit cut in. “These are troubled times.”

  Feeling anxious, Mira slid out of the car after a quick, “see you tomorrow,” to Tyler. Her emotions were tumbling around as they climbed the stairs, and she wasn’t sure if she was leery because she was with Emmit, a complete unknown, or because she was with Emmit, a guy she was starting to fall for.

  When she neared the landing, she decided to finish what she had tried to say in the car. “So, would you like to come over tomorrow with Tyler?”

  “I believe I will be busy at that time,” Emmit said.

  “Oh,” Mira said, and her stomach started to sink.

  “I’d like to apologize for earlier. After being questioned by the police and then the council, I should not have suggested anything further for the day.”

  “It’s okay,” Mira said.

  Emmit nodded. “Have a good evening.” He turned to go.

  “Wait,” Mira said. “You mentioned that you wanted to ask for my help with something.”

  He seemed to hesitate. “I’ve already caused you to take up a rather heavy spell. I do not wish to add to your burden.”

  “It’s no burden,” Mira said. “I plan on getting this spell over with quickly.”

  “Please, do not rush on my account,” Emmit said.

  Mira gave him a nervous look. “The fact that someone else may get killed is what is causing me to rush. It has nothing to do with you.”

  A flicker of a smile passed over Emmit’s face, making him look pleased for the briefest of moments. “If you are certain it wouldn’t be a distraction…”

  “It won’t be,” Mira tried to assure him.

  “I’m not sure what time I will be free tomorrow evening. It could be late. Perhaps the day after?”

  “I’ll be up late tomorrow.” Mira tried not to beam, but it was difficult. “Until at least twelve.”

  “Till tomorrow, then,” Emmit said.

  Chapter 6

  One of the first things a witch learns is that magic should never be rushed. A carefully crafted, well-thought-out spell will always be more powerful, last longer, and in the end, will be easier on the witch.

  The second thing they learn is how to get around the slow spells.

  Well, maybe it wasn’t the second thing, but for Mira it hadn’t seemed far off. Maybe it was because she had an older sister, but Mira always felt like she was behind and trying to catch up. It wasn’t until after college that she realized there was no race.

  However, before that realization had taken hold, Mira had taught herself some wonderful tricks. Today, she was using every one of them.

  Mira had spent almost an hour on the phone with Mr. Singer the night before. He had listened to her ideas, fed her warnings, and when pressed, he’d agreed with her choice of people to bind.

  In her mind, the only option was Ian, but it felt good to have someone approve her decision. Binding someone without them knowing was treading a fine line between what she thought of as good and bad magic.

  That was a simplistic description, of course. There was no such thing as good or bad magic.

  It was about intention.

  What Mira thought of as good magic brought the witch good karma, or at least warded off some of the bad. Bad karma, the kind where the world falls down around you, was the type of repercussion that Mira was facing.

  The witch wouldn't end up with only her own bad karma. That was just the start. She paid the price for everyone that the spell affected.

  That thought caused Mira’s stomach to twist. If something bad happened, she could be taking the hit for every supernatural in the city.

  And probably some of the humans, when it came down to it. It was a human that she was spelling, after all.

  In theory, Mira had the day off. When you own your own business, however, you quickly discover that time off is some mythical beast that never shows itself.

  When she walked into the store and saw Stella Dewley, she was glad she had decided to stop by work first.

  “Stella, it’s great to see you again.”

  “Look at you,” Stella said, moving over to the counter with Mira. “You look radiant today.” Stella always thought that those she liked looked some variation of wonderful and she meant it. Stella loved to compliment her friends.

  “Thank you, Stella.” Mira beamed a smile. “You’re looking great. Have you been feeling better lately?”

  “Oh, you know how it is. The cold gives me fits, but it’s nothing that your tea won’t fix.”

  “Well, I’ll put together your order now.” Behind the counter, Mira pulled out a tin. “You wait right here and I’ll fix it up for you.” Then she disappeared into the back room.

  Stella was a wonderful woman, but her arthritis had started to worsen over the past year. Mira took a larger canister off the shelf in the back. The label said Anchor, and that’s exactly what it did. It was one of Mira’s methods for spelling in a hurry.

  There were no shortcuts—Mira made sure of that. Each week, she put together what some people might call a base spell. The time and energy spent on its creation could be used to power other spells.

  Mira took a scoop of Anchor and grabbed a much smaller container labeled Relief, sprinkled some of the contents on top of the tea leaves, and then mixed the two together.

  Relief would keep Stella’s pains at bay. After Mira closed the tin, she drew symbols on it with her finger. The Anchor and Relief would work together to make the spell last at least a week.

  Since Stella was human, it was another case of spelling someone without their knowledge. The intent was good, however, so it balanced out, letting Stella make it through another week with less pain.

  Mira wrote Relief on a small sticker and put it on the lid of Stella’s tin. She was about to enter the main store again, when a note taped to the office door caught her eye. The sticky note on the envelope said, Ms. Owens, I think someone pushed a letter under the door for you. She pulled the note and envelope down and saw it had her name across it. She shoved it into her pocket to read later.

  After Stella left, Mira went through the store’s stock, including the back room, which stored ingredients that would never be sold to your average customer and certainly never find its way into tea. She spoke with her partner, another witch in the community, and then, once she paid for her purchases, slipped out before the store got busy.

  Since this was such a tricky spell, she was thankful that
Tyler would be meeting with her soon. When things got difficult it was always beneficial to bounce ideas off another witch.

  The base of Bind is one of the most complicated spells a witch learns. Binding doesn’t change a person’s will. They can still want to do something. Binding just prevents them from doing it. It sounds like a simple idea. You see it from witches on TV all the time. A witch binds the person, and then, usually through some comedic results, the person can’t do or say whatever the witch wanted to prevent them from doing or saying.

  The real spell has layers and layers of craft behind it. In the end, the goal was to prevent Ian from telling anyone that supernaturals exist, or from writing about it, hinting about it, or from giving it away in a game of charades. If you just make the person tongue tied, they’ll get around the spell. People are resourceful and cops even more so.

  If a witch were to make it too restrictive... well, it was a slippery slope down into the bogs of darker magic. Mira didn’t like the idea of bringing another witch in on spell like this, but Tyler’s advice was invaluable.

  She was going to need help from others as well. Binding Ian and telling him supernaturals exist is one thing. Proving it was altogether different.

  When Tyler arrived, they set to work, Tyler reviewing her notes.

  “You already have your base spell?” he asked.

  “Yeah. I used a heavier version of Anchor,” Mira said.

  “This looks good,” Tyler said as he read. “Why ammonite?”

  “So the spell can stretch and grow to encompass what it needs to, but still leave the binding intact.”

  Tyler nodded and kept reading.

  “What do you think a supernatural person may mean to a human?” Mira asked.

  “What do you mean?” Tyler asked.

  “Well, binding him is one thing. You know humans; they don’t detect the subtle currents of energy. If a regular person took a tea with Fortitude added, they would assume the caffeine gave them a pick-me-up. Things like Clarity and Muse are spells that could easily be dismissed by someone thinking they were having a really good day.”

  “Same with Luck,” Tyler added, “but if they took something like Bliss…” He stopped awkwardly.

  “They’d think they’d been drugged,” Mira said, trying to ease the atmosphere before gathering the currents of worry. Mira knew that Bliss was another story all by itself. She had spent a great deal of college Blissed out. Thinking back, she had probably been coming down from Bliss when Ian had described her as ‘busy.’