Page 33 of Magic Claimed
“Okay,” I said. “We can check it out. But we tell everyone where we’re goingfirst, in case we end up needing backup.”
“Heh heh.” Kira’s laugh was dark and a little evil. “If this is a plot, it’s the stupidest plot ever. But if they’re going to give me an excuse to beat up on a few fae backstabbers, I won’t say no.”
So instead of continuing south, she took a left on Fourth, and shortly afterwards headed north on I235.
“Seems like a strange choice of home for an herbalist,” I mused aloud as I sent messages to Faris, Kes, and after a brief hesitation, Shane. “You’d think she’d want to live somewhere stuff actuallygrows.”
“The cool thing is, pixies can grow things anywhere.” Kira sounded sad and a little wistful. “You should have seen the flowers that Shane’s mom used to grow at my bookstore. Pots and pots, overflowing with whatever she felt like that year.”
“You were close with her, weren’t you?”
She shrugged a little. “Misty was more my aunt’s friend than mine, but she always acted kind of like a second mom. Nagged me about being safe and not talking to strangers and eating my vegetables. And when the time came, she helped push me out of the nest so I could fly on my own.”
“Sounds like she did a good job.”
At least, I assumed so. Those seemed like the kinds of things a good mom would do. My own mom had barely seemed to think about me at all, which was probably why I felt so lost trying to be a replacement mom for Ari and Logan—I knew a lot more about whatnotto do.
Kira somehow managed to read my mind. “You’re doing a good job, too.”
“I feel like I’m failing,” I confessed. “Ari is constantly putting herself and others in danger, and Logan barely talks to me. I know they’re dealing with their own trauma, and instead of helping them, I’m barely keeping them safe and fed.”
“And loved,” Kira said softly. “You love them, and they know it. You make sacrifices every day for their sake. And no matter what else is going wrong, that’s what they need from you the most—the security of knowing you’re there and you aren’t going to abandon them.”
I hoped she was right. I hoped I wasn’t messing it all up. I hoped I wasn’t in over my head with Ethan in a way that would destroy all the progress we’d made with Ari and Logan. I hoped that my little family would survive and grow stronger. And I hoped that in the end, Callum wouldn’t change his mind because of all the baggage that I brought with me…
That train of thought was going nowhere good, so I changed the subject, hoping to distract myself from this cycle of worry. “So where are we meeting?”
“Martin Nature Park. It’s right off the turnpike on the north side of the city. There’s a nature center and a creek and a pond, but mostly it’s just wooded trails, with a few open fields. Feels like you’re in the wilderness even though you’re surrounded by city.”
I could see how that might appeal to a nature-loving pixie.
“Won’t it be closed this time of night?”
Kira grinned. “Not to a dragon and a fox. We’re just part of nature, right?”
Oh, to possess even half her confidence. “Fine, but if we get caught, I’m blaming you for being a badinfluence.”
“Ooh, promise?” She wiggled a little in her seat. “I’ve always wanted to be a bad influence on someone, but I’m terrible at it. Just ask Draven.”
It took about ten minutes to make the drive to the park. The main entrance was indeed closed and gated as I’d feared, so we parked at a nearby bank and then headed back up the road, keeping to the shadows as much as possible.
There was a fence around the perimeter, but it wasn’t much of a challenge to climb, even for Kira. As we dropped to the ground inside the fence, she started to jog off, so I grabbed her arm to hold her back.
“First, let’s see if you smell anything. I know you can’t shift again, but…”
“Says who?” Kira challenged.
“Callum told me shapeshifters usually can’t shift more than once in a day. At least not without collapsing after.”
“That’s fornormalshapeshifters,” she announced smugly. “I’m me. I just don’t want to shift out here unless I have to. I like this shirt, and I don’t want to ruin it.”
Despite the darkness and my apprehension, I almost laughed. This was why I adored Kira. Literally nothing got her down for long, and she brought a sense of levity and undaunted cheerfulness to pretty much any situation—even late-night breaking and entering that was probably going to end up being a trap.
“Okay, that’s fair. But I still think we should take this slow. At least check for any signs that we’re about to be attacked by goblins or rabid wereskunks or something.”
“All I smell is…” She sniffed the air. “Nasty pond water. Dirt, dead leaves, trees, exhaust… the usual. Maybe some turtles. No skunks, weirdly enough—rabid or otherwise.”
I paused. “What do turtles smell like?”
