Page 63 of The Mermaid's Bubble Lounge
“Oh, no,” Meri said, shaking her head. “No one thinks she made the doorway. Maybe more like her spelled glass focused the fae-ness, like a magnifying glass in the sun.” She grimaced. “When a lot of us are all in the same area, the veil between realms becomes thin.”
“That seems dangerous,” I said. “I’m surprised the queen lets the fae stay in this realm if their presence here destabilizes Faerie.”
Meri nodded sadly. “It’s true, but I don’t want my dad to leave. The queen wants them back in Faerie—not us halflings, of course, but the true fae.” She glanced out the window. “But the queen loves her people and wants them to be happy. A lot of fae have lived in this realm for so long, this is home. They don’t want to go back. They have lives and loved ones here.”
“Like your dad.” I reached out and rubbed her arm.
“Yeah.” She looked down a moment and then shook her head. “I haven’t told you the important part yet. Dad was told that the only way to kill a pooka was to attack when they were in their in-between state. He said they never go directly from one form to another instantaneously. There’s a state in between when they are vulnerable, and completing the shift won’t heal them.”
“Okay,” I said. “Thank you and please thank your father for us. I’ll pass it on. Hopefully we can figure out a way to stop it.”
Owen walked down the stairs. “Hey.”
“I’ll go back to shelving now,” Meri said before ducking back into the bookstore.
Owen watched her go. “Everything okay?”
I nodded. “She was passing on some information about pookas.”
“Oh, good.” He stared down at the phone in his hand, clearly not paying attention to my response.
“Owen, is everything with you okay?”
“George wants to fly to Brazil,” he said, “and look for Jade’s family now. Alec overruled him, saying she wasn’t ready.” He ran his hand through his hair. “The thing is, George isn’t sure if that’s really what’s best for Jade, or if it’s Alec who isn’t ready to let her go.”
“Nothing needs to be decided now,” I told him. “My great-uncle knows the family. You guys wandering around the Amazon looking for them makes no sense. When everyone is ready, he’ll call, and they’ll likely come here to get her or maybe tell you where to meet. Either way, there’s no rush. I think Alec is right.”
“Yeah.” Owen dropped onto the stool beside me. “George wants to go now because he remembers how torn up he felt when they were in the same position as Jade’s family is now, not even knowing if Alec was alive or dead all those years. It’s killing him to knowingly do this to other people.”
“I get it. Maybe if he understands that my uncle can contact her family at any time, that he doesn’t have to go find them, it’ll ease the anxiety a bit.”
“I’ll tell him,” he said, pulling out his phone again.
I stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. “Just go. We’re fine. Go to the zoo and meet him at the merry-go-round to talk it out.”
He nodded, pocketing his phone and grabbing his backpack from behind the bar. “Thanks, boss. I will.” And he was up the stairs and out.
Thankfully, after all the hubbub, the afternoon was blissfully quiet and uneventful. Liam and Dermot donned their seal skins and went back to the ocean. The wicches who’d joined us for lunch had gone. It was too early for the after-work crowd, so Grim was on his stool with his mead. Meri was pretending to shelve while reading in the stacks, Dave was baking, Rose, one of my regular wicches, was drinking tea and reading a paranormal romance, and I was sitting on my stool behind the bar, wondering if my dog wished he was Vlad’s.
I was feeling sorry for myself and my lack of pooch to keep me company when there was a loud thump at the water entrance. What in the world? I rounded the bar to check as Grim looked over his shoulder.
When I got close, I could see it was Liam. He was pushing at the ward, but it didn’t give. Shit. Did I adjust the ward wrong?
“Why isn’t he in his seal skin?” Grim growled from beside me. “His eyes are wrong.”
I yanked out my axe and plunged it into the water. It hit the Liam-looking pooka in the face, causing a large red welt to form on his cheek.
He bared his teeth, his eyes now glowing red, as he punched the magical water membrane. There was another loud thump, but the ward didn’t give.
He began shifting and I pulled the axe back to throw it through the patch of water, but Grim grabbed the axe handle, stopping me.
“That axe is too valuable. We can’t lose it. Only use it when you’re sure you can kill him; otherwise he could destroy it and we’ll have no weapon against him.”
Liam shifted into a large orca. He eyed us, looped around to swim away, and then torpedoed through the water to smash into the window, the asshole.
Rose stood, her fingers twitching as she built a spell. Dave pushed out of the kitchen and fire engulfed the orca. He smashed his fiery body against the glass again and again. My eyes flew to the edges, looking for cracks or leaks. This was just like that horrible vision my sadistic aunt had trapped me in last year, the one where the Kraken squeezed and broke the glass, causing tons of seawater to wash out my bookstore and bar. My stomach dropped.
TWENTY-NINE
