“Who are you?”

“A mother that will protect her child at any cost.” My mother straightened her top, paused long enough for a scary sort of determined expression to settle on her face, and started forward.

I ducked into her study, grabbed the sword off its decorative holder on the wall, and ran back out. Probably wasn’t wise to run with a sword, but desperate times, as they said.

My mother threw open the front door, cocked the shotgun, and lowered the business end, leveling it no more than ten feet from the stranger’s large torso. He didn’t so much as flinch.

“Mrs. Bristol, right?” the stranger said in his deep, scratchy voice, his gaze roaming the side of the house.

“Mzzzz Bristol. I’m widowed, which means I don’t have a man to hide behind. That makes me three times as dangerous. You are on my property. I’d suggest you get off.”

His little smile was back. “Yes, ma’am. You are correct, I am on your property. This second ward is expertly done. My compliments to the chef.”

“I’ll call the cops. Right after I shoot you.” My mother moved to get in better position, as though she’d used the gun every day of her life.

Just what hobbies had she been taking up besides knitting?

“You don’t want to do that, ma’am. You’ve had some visitors.” He spread out his fingers like he had before. “Thankfully, you had these wards up. But they would’ve gotten through eventually. I can see you are ready to shoot me. Please don’t. My brother worked for the guild. Trusted them. Tried to change them from within. They killed him three years ago.” He dropped his hands and looked straight at my mother. “The guild is my enemy. I would sooner tear them down to the ground than help them.”

My mother didn’t budge an inch. Then again, she didn’t pull the trigger, either.

“I didn’t think they knew about Penny Bristol yet. But I ran into a member of the guild hiding”—he turned and pointed at Lewis’s yard—“just in that yard there. They are watching this house. I don’t know how much they know, but knowing even a little is enough. Or it is with your daughter, at any rate. If they saw what I did, more of them will descend on your house. They’ll drag her out by her hair if they have to.”

“If they saw what you did?” my mother asked.

I grimaced. “I may have left a thing or two out of the story I told you,” I murmured.

I could just see my mother thinning her lips.

Magic drifted up from the ground again, thicker streams than before, pulling from at least two dozen places within the yard.

“He’s getting ready to break this second ward,” I said in a strangely high-pitched squeak. “He’s pulling magic from the ground right now.”

The stranger’s deep blue gaze snapped to mine. His eyes widened. “Even very little would be enough for them to know you’re special, Penny Bristol.” He sounded impressed. Even proud.

I flushed, then glowered to undermine the effect. This guy killed people. I was not about to develop a soft spot for him because of a few words of praise, however tickled I was to be noticed.

“What do you mean, pulling from the ground?” my mother said, looking at his feet.

I pointed at what I was seeing, which was notably less clear now that I’d vocally made note of it. “He’s about to create the weave to break the ward.”

My mother glanced back at me, her eyes as wide as the stranger’s.

“What?” I asked. “I know a little bit of magic. From New Orleans.”

“I’d like to come in, Ms. Bristol,” the stranger said, his voice solemn. “You can’t let them have her. I can help you protect her.”

Chapter Sixteen

The breath caught in Emery’s chest as he waited for the verdict. He’d meant to tear down both of these wards in order to show his power, then put up better ones to protect Penny and her family, but this second ward must’ve taken months to put into place. It had been anchored to this spot, maturing, for years. It was expertly crafted, finely woven, and stuffed with fresh power. He could force it to break, but he doubted many others could.

He’d initially thought Penny had placed these wards. They had serious power behind them. But now he was sure she hadn’t. Not this one in front of him, at any rate. The magic was too old, too advanced.

He stared through the doorway at the middle-aged woman pointing the shotgun at him. Her eyes held fearlessness and determination. She would kill him without batting an eye. Penny had some solid genetics.

“You’re a stranger off the street,” Ms. Bristol said. “You look like a stranger that has lived on the street. In what world would I trust you?”

“The world in which you have no one else to trust, Ms. Bristol,” Emery said. He put up his hands. Sudden movements were probably not wise. “I’m wanted as well. They’ve been after me since they took down my brother. An enemy of your enemy is a friend.”

“They’re after you, and you think that makes you a good candidate for keeping my daughter safe?”

“Listen. You know I can break in. And I know you’ll kill me. So let’s move this inside. Keep the gun on me if you want, but let’s get out of the public eye.” Emery looked behind him as a car motored by. They glanced over, their brake lights glaring in the low light of the morning, but then they kept going.

“Fine.” Ms. Bristol lowered the gun. “I’ll need an offering of your blood. Just a moment.”

“An offering of blood?” Penny asked, stepping out of the way as her mother turned back into the house.

“This ward is to keep out magical species, except for those who give a blood offering,” Emery said, his gaze on the luminous blue eyes of the woman standing across from him. Her tousled brown hair with streaks of reddish-blonde formed a halo around her head. If he hadn’t seen her run over dead bodies, one of which she’d killed herself, he would think her too timid to embark on the journey he knew had just started. He’d worry that she wouldn’t make it out alive, and his offer to protect would fall through.

But he had seen her in action. He had seen that incredible survival magic track a spell like a dog to a scent, and kill the perpetrator on the other end. Brutal and violent, she had greatness in her, both in battle and in magic. Hell, if she’d inherited even a tenth of her mother’s fire, she’d be just fine.

“How did you find me the other night?” he asked, his voice softening, responding to her daintiness without meaning to. She didn’t seem like she’d use that sword dangling from her hands. A mistake in his perception that would likely get him killed one day.

She glanced behind her, probably looking for her mother. Her feet edged toward the door. “It was on my way home.”

“But the detour signs…”

She shrugged. “I was hesitating because I don’t have GPS. Then I saw the magical weave, so I decided to check it out.”

“You can see the actual magic in a spell?”

Her eyebrows knitted. “Yes. Why, isn’t that normal?”

“For me? Yes. For most everyone else, no.”

Her long black lashes fluttered as she looked skyward. “So I’ll be an outcast in this too. Great.”

A smile worked up his face. “At least you know another outcast, though. So that’s something.”

Her face flushed, followed by a hard scowl. “I suppose.”

He laughed because her expressions were so odd. Her scowl deepened.

“What are you so delighted about?” Ms. Bristol said as she trudged back out with a small plate.

“Wait…is that gold?” Penny asked, inching forward to see. Ms. Bristol held it within the line of the ward, her expression hard and set. “Where have you kept all this stuff?”

Emery pulled a small knife from his back pocket and pricked his finger. He smeared red along the offering plate.

“I take it you’ve kept some things from your daughter.” Emery sucked the rest of the blood off his finger.

“I’ve kept everything from my daughter for as long as I possibly could. Being that she is the least curious girl in the state of Washington, and I’ve tried not to leave her home alone, it was surprisingly easy. Until recently.” Ms. Bristol dragged the plate through the ward.