Page 70 of Magic Betrayed

Kira grimaced. “Seamus has made a lot of… interesting friends over the years. Including a handful of humans. His next-door neighbors are… what would you call them? Not ghost hunters exactly. More like ghost debunkers.”

The bartender grunted in agreement. “They’re trust fund twins, and since they don’t need to work, they’ve dedicated their lives to proving that all paranormal occurrences throughout history have been caused not by ghosts, but by Idrians.”

“And they’ve been trying to get Seamus to appear on their little self-produced ‘show’ for ages,” Kira added, sounding decidedly grumpy about it.

“They’re harmless,” Seamus insisted. “They watch my house when I’m out of town, and they always dog-sit for me when I’m working long hours.”

Kira’s eyes narrowed. “Waffles likes them, doesn’t he?”

The bartender’s sheepish grin was answer enough. Basically, Seamus was prepared to like anyone his giant dog approved of.

“Fine.” Kira let out an annoyed-sounding sigh. “But no video footage of anyone without their explicit permission.”

Seamus looked mildly offended. “I thought you knew me better than that.”

Kira shot him a disgruntled look. “It’s not you I don’t trust,” she returned emphatically. “As you very well know.”

* * *

The Tanner twins—Treyand Tegan—showed up less than thirty minutes after Seamus texted, and were let in the back door by an extremely disapproving Faris.

I was pretty sure my boss would have preferred to just storm the house and take Kes and Logan back by force, but I didn’t care to risk it. So instead, we were trusting a pair of humans who did not exactly inspire confidence.

Tegan was tall and quiet and wore his long dark hair up in a bun, with a pencil stuck through the middle. His dark-framed glasses looked like a deliberate choice to emphasize his nerd image, and while he appeared studious and thoughtful, he said not a single word when Seamus introduced him and buried his face in his phone a moment later.

Trey, on the other hand, fit the ghost-hunter stereotype so exactly it was almost painful. The two were technically identical twins, but Trey’s hair was a shaggy mop, his face was half covered by about two weeks’ growth of beard, and his energy was bordering on neurotic terrier.

“Okay, here’s the deal I’m offering.” Seamus leaned on the bar and pinned both of them with his best shapeshifter stare. “You set up your equipment when and where I tell you, make a big show of looking for evidence, but you don’t actually film. In fact, you basically pretend you were never there.”

“And in exchange?” Trey was so eager he was practically shaking.

Seamus looked like he’d eaten something that tasted bad. “Exclusive footage of a werewolf shift.”

“Dude.” Trey’s eyes were huge. “What made you change your mind?”

“I’ve got friends in trouble,” Seamus replied shortly. “We need a distraction, and I can’t promise it’ll be entirely danger-free. So I’m offering significant compensation.”

I was almost as stunned as Trey by the offer. It wasn’t that the humans had no video evidence of shapechanging, but such evidence was still fairly rare. No shifter wanted that moment to be splashed all over the morning news.

“Yes!” Instead of reacting rationally, the shaggy-haired ghost hunter rubbed his hands together in evident glee before turning to his brother. “Think this’ll get us onSupes or Dupes?”

I could almost hear Seamus’s teeth grinding at the name of a popular show that specialized in debunking the paranormal.

But Tegan just looked thoughtful for a moment before shrugging and turning back to his phone.

“We’ll do it,” Trey promised.

“You did hear the part where it could be dangerous?” Seamus pressed him.

“Aw, don’t worry, man. We have a standard no-lawsuits contract we can sign. Danger is just part of the fun!”

I saw Tegan shoot him a pointed side-eye, but Man-Bun still said nothing.

“Okay then.” Seamus offered his hand and Trey shook it. “I’ll text you the time and location. Stay ready. We’ll be headed out as soon as everything is in place.”

Trey whooped, leaped up from the barstool, and literally ran out the back door. His brother let out a sigh before pushing to his feet and looking around at all of us. He lifted the hand with the phone, waved it back and forth, and then strolled out.

Kira’s face looked like she’d bitten into something rotten. “You know they probably bribe the dog.”

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