Page 59 of Wind Called

And then….

Small buds appeared all over the surface of the cactus, buds that rapidly opened into cheerful, bright yellow flowers. They paused at the peak of their bloom rather than shriveling back down to nothing again, and Bree looked over at him and Bellamy, her expression more one of shock than anything else.

“It worked,” she said, her tone wondering. “I’ve never been able to do anything like that before.”

“Never?” Marc asked. It wasn’t that he didn’t believe she was telling the truth, but it never hurt to ask.

“No,” Bree said, emphatic. “So it sure looks to me like your inflow vortex worked.”

“It does,” Bellamy agreed. “But maybe you should try something else, just to be sure.”

“Something relatively harmless,” Marc added, figuring it probably wasn’t a good idea for Bree to try summoning a tornado or a swarm of bees, or whatever.

Her blue eyes glinted with amusement. “I think I can manage ‘relatively harmless.’”

And she spread her arms and a rainbow appeared over the house, arching from the courtyard to the patio off the room where she was staying. It hung in the air for a moment before it disappeared.

“Just an illusion,” she said. “There’s not enough water vapor in the air to support a real rainbow. Still, that’s the first time I’ve ever made an illusion that big.”

Bellamy set her hands on her hips, looking pleased. “It sure seems to me as if the energy here did something. I guess we’ll need to see whether your powers get stronger after you’ve spent a second night here at the house.”

At once, Bree tilted her head, as if she didn’t look completely convinced. “I was thinking about that earlier while I was in the shower,” she said. “Don’t you think it would make more sense for me to be at home tonight and then see whether my powers are still strengthened tomorrow morning, or whether whatever the vortex did for me has already gone away? If we did that, it might help us figure out whether this vortex energy is going to be much use in the long run, or whether it’s more of a parlor trick than anything else.”

Bellamy’s lips pursed, but Marc could see the merits of Bree’s argument.

“I think she’s right,” he said. “I mean, you heard the voices at the Devil’s Bridge strongly enough the other day, Bellamy, and you didn’t sleep here the night before. So that would give us another data point.”

Although she still didn’t appear completely convinced, she seemed to decide that they might as well roll the dice and see what happened.

“Also,” Bree added, “I’m playing a gig at 1912 Winery in Uptown on Friday night, so if you wanted me to come back here and see what that does for my powers, it’ll give me an easy place to crash rather than driving all the way back to Jerome.”

“Okay, it’s a plan,” Bellamy replied. “I guess just send me a text if you notice anything unusual or if anything changes.” Her cousin nodded, and she went on, now looking at Marc, “I suppose we’ll find out tonight what the outflow energies will do for you.”

And hope like hell it wasn’t anything weird.

17

Bree left not toolong after that, taking her overnight bag with her and promising once again that she’d contact Bellamy if her powers started acting up in strange ways. It didn’t sound as if she had a gig that night and would probably just be hanging out in her apartment, and for that, Bellamy could only be grateful.

The last thing any of them needed was some kind of strange phenomena busting out in public that would need to be covered up…and quickly.

With her cousin gone, Bellamy knew she had a decision to make. Her boss had given her some grace and allowed her to take Tuesday and Wednesday off, but now it was Thursday morning, and that meant she was supposed to be at Sedona Vines at noon. She still had a few hours, but she couldn’t put this off indefinitely.

Especially since she knew she’d look like an even bigger flake if she waited until 11:45 or something to make the phone call.

“You seem worried about something,” Marc said as they went back inside after walking Bree to her ancient Suburban.

“It’s work,” Bellamy replied. “I’m supposed to be there in less than two hours.”

His mouth tightened. “Well, we don’t have much going on today. What if you just went in?”

The idea was tempting, even though she didn’t much like the idea of leaving Marc to fend for himself while she spent all day at the wine bar. He’d have to check in at the Sky Ranch Lodge without her, which she supposed wasn’t the end of the world, but still.

And those were minor complications compared to all the unknowns that lurked in the equation. What if the Collector or one of his lackeys decided this sleepy August day was the perfect time to go on the attack? What if her powers decided to flare up and cause a scene? True, they’d been pretty quiescent after her experience at Red Rock Crossing the day before, but since they had no real idea what they were dealing with here, she knew she couldn’t discount that possibility, either.

Staring off into space and delivering wind-driven prophecies probably wouldn’t be a very good look for Sedona Vines’ assistant manager.

“I should call,” she said, doing her best to hold back a sigh. “We don’t know what’s going to crop up next, and the last thing we want is for me to be stuck at work if something major goes down.”

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