Home > Boundary Broken (Boundary Magic #4)(17)

Boundary Broken (Boundary Magic #4)(17)
Author: Melissa F. Olson

“I was just trying to stay out of it,” she told me, her voice trembling. Stitch began enthusiastically licking the hem of her coat.

I sighed. “You better come inside.”

I led Tracy through the entrance and into the living room, the dogs clustered around our legs like a vanguard. They tracked fresh snow into the house and shook even more of it off their backs, but I was too relieved to be back inside to care. I rubbed my own wet, frozen feet on the carpet, trying to warm them up.

Tracy followed me with wide eyes, looking around as though she’d entered the lair of a boogeyman and couldn’t believe he had comfy furniture.

“Sit down,” I said, more sternly than I’d meant to, and Tracy dropped onto the sofa without unzipping her coat. The dogs crowded around her again, and she pulled her arms around her body. I considered shutting them in the back bedroom again, but when it became obvious that Tracy wasn’t going to pet anyone, they all got bored and wandered away—except for Stitch, who dropped his butt down on Tracy’s feet and panted at me happily. He probably looked like he was preventing her escape, but his expression said what a fun adventure we’re having.

I had snagged the neon paper on the way back into the house and now I unfolded it. It was a sort of fancy flyer, the letters all in calligraphy, advertising a town hall meeting Friday night to discuss new leadership for the witch clans.

“What is this?” I asked, looking up at Tracy. She seemed to be trying to figure out a way to get Stitch off her feet without actually touching him or moving in any way.

Her eyes lifted to me. “You heard about what happened at the Pellars’ tonight?”

“A little,” I said cautiously. The last thing I wanted to do was get Simon in more trouble for talking to me. “I heard that some other witches showed up to talk to Hazel.”

Tracy snorted, showing a little defiance for the first time. “That’s one way to put it. It was more like an impromptu trial.” She looked down again, playing with the pull tie on her zipper. “People are saying she let werewolves back into the state in exchange for access to apex magic.”

“Oh shit,” I blurted. That’s what Simon had meant about the timing. All these things happening at once had to look terrible. Not for me—I was a boundary witch, and therefore everyone expected me to do evil shit. But I’d dragged the Pellar family name through the mud. “But that’s not what happened,” I said. “Come on, Tracy. You know Hazel isn’t for sale.”

Tracy shook her head. “I thought I did, but . . . I don’t know. I don’t know anything anymore.”

Her voice and body language were despondent, and Stitch turned around to lick her hand. Belatedly, I remembered Lily telling me that Simon’s ex worshipped Hazel, wanted to be just like her. Crap. No wonder she was so shaken.

I felt a rush of sympathy. I understood the idea of disillusionment with an authority you believed in, though I knew Hazel hadn’t been bought, at least not for power or money. She’d bartered for the safety of her daughter. It was probably the most selfish thing she’d ever done, and it was for her kid.

I would do a hell of a lot worse for Charlie. If I hadn’t already.

“Tracy,” I said more gently, “what happened tonight? What was decided?”

A small shrug. “Nothing was decided. Yet. Hazel called a witch congress.”

Her voice was reverent, but I didn’t get it. “What’s that?”

She blinked at me, a look I’d seen many times from Simon and Lily. The how do you not know our customs? face. “A meeting of all the clan leaders in the state. They haven’t done that since Trask started killing people.”

A meeting? “That . . . actually doesn’t sound too bad,” I said, relieved. “When is it?”

“Saturday morning. To give the clan leaders a chance to get to Boulder.”

And, probably, to give everyone a little time to cool down. It was, impossibly, only Thursday night now, so that would give everyone more than a day. “The other witches agreed to that?”

Tracy’s expression soured. “Yes, but only if the Pellars stay put at the farm until then.”

“They’re under house arrest?”

“More or less, yes. Hazel, Simon, Lily, and Sybil, anyway. The rest of the clan got to go home for tonight.” She pointed at the paper in my hand. “But then this was in my car when I went to leave. In most of the other cars, too.”

“Inside the car?” I repeated, getting sidetracked. “Didn’t you lock it?”

She gave me a pitying look. “We’re witches?”

Oh. Right. I was so used to magic that dealt with death; I often forgot there were plenty of perfectly ordinary spells that made life convenient for others.

I looked at the sheet again. New leadership. “Someone wants to usurp Hazel? Why wouldn’t they just start their own clan?”

Tracy had always struck me as very polite, and now I could see her struggling not to roll her eyes at my ignorance. When she spoke, her voice was very slow and measured. “First of all, this isn’t about being leader of Clan Pellar. It’s about being the witches’ representative to Maven. The person who’s effectively in charge of all Colorado witches.”

“Okay. And second?”

She opened and closed her hands for a moment, searching for words. “This is . . . I’m not sure how to explain it. The clan system in Colorado is old—really old. Most of the clan leaders are over sixty. Some of the younger witches think they’re too . . . um . . . compliant, I guess. That’s been building for a long time.”

“Ah.” Simon and Lily talked about this sometimes—the old-versus-new tension within the witch clans. They were always trying to figure out how to balance modernization with the old traditions.

Whenever they talked about future plans, though, they made it sound like everyone was sort of waiting out the treaty before they did anything. I’d figured there were three more years before I had to worry about it.

If the treaty was broken, though . . .

I looked down at the flyer. “So, Hazel is meeting with the clan leaders, but whoever sent this is targeting the younger witches? The ones who want change?”

Tracy had abandoned the zipper pull and was picking nervously at her cuticles. “I think so. And at the moment, pretty much everyone outside Clan Pellar wants to punish Hazel and choose a new liaison to Maven. It’s a mess.”

I rattled the paper. “Who sent the flyer?”

“I honestly don’t know,” she said, spreading her hands. “But look at the address for the meeting.”

I squinted at the small print on the bottom of the page. “Tie Siding, Wyoming? Where is that?”

“I looked it up. It’s just over the state line, on the way to Laramie. The town is so small they don’t even count it in the census, but there’s this big rustic barn that rents out for weddings and parties and stuff.”

Wyoming. I felt a fresh jolt of worry. Renegade witches wanted a meeting outside of Maven’s territory, where Maven and Hazel had no power. And the Pellars were all under house arrest. This could not be good.

I needed to get this to Maven as quickly as possible. I folded the piece of paper and put it carefully in my pocket. “Are you going to this meeting?”

Tracy shook her head. “I’m out of it. I don’t know what I . . . no. I’m not going.”

I blinked. She sounded conflicted as hell. “If you’re trying to stay out of it, why bring this to me?” I asked.

For the first time, Tracy reached down and tentatively touched Stitch on the head. The dog panted happily at her, and she scratched his ears a little. “Because I feel like someone is herding all of us in a direction, you know? It has to stop before people get hurt.”

People had already been killed, but there was no point in making that argument to Tracy. I wasn’t sure the witches would even consider werewolves people. Hell, before I’d met Dunn and his pack, I hadn’t really considered them people either.

Tracy stood up. “I need to go. If anyone finds out I came here, they might bind my magic, too.” She gave me a worried look. “You’re a witch, and you work for Maven. Please, fix this.”

Chapter 16

The snow had stopped by the time I pulled the Jeep out of the driveway, making tire tracks in the inch of fresh powder. The night was crisp and cold and refreshingly clear of ghosts—the route between my home and Magic Beans was the first section of Boulder I had cleared, with Simon and Lily’s help.

My thoughts spun as I drove back into downtown Boulder, the flyer tucked safely in an inner jacket pocket. Could this entire thing be a plan to unseat Hazel Pellar? That sounded crazy, and it felt crazy. If that was all you wanted, and you were willing to go as far as murder, why not just come after Hazel and Lily directly? That would leave the Pellars without a leader, creating an opening in the witch community. And it was a hell of a lot easier than killing werewolves.

Of course, anyone who hurt Lily would have me to deal with . . . but in a roundabout way, that was the outcome now anyway. I shook my head. None of this made any sense. I just hoped Maven would have some idea of what to do.

I didn’t partake in Christmas decorations, other than a fresh wreath on the door and a small, live tree in one corner of my living room, but plenty of homes and businesses along my route had set out twinkling lights, including Magic Beans. Maven had strung the gutters with white icicle lights, which were flickering in a repeating pattern as I pulled up. I parked in the slot behind the building specifically reserved for the Jeep. That was one advantage to having my car stolen, I guess.

My shoes crunched on the snow as I walked inside, and I figured every vampire in the building would know I was arriving.

I had texted Quinn to tell him I was coming, and when I hurried in, he and Maven were both waiting for me in Maven’s office. I didn’t like the small, cramped room, but it was soundproof, and I suspected that Maven had it regularly checked for magical or electronic listening devices.

Conscious of my claustrophobia, Quinn had thoughtfully turned my chair sort of sideways so I could see him, Maven, and the door at the same time. He also handed me a large white coffee cup without comment, and I sent him a grateful look. The nightmare-fueled catnap at the hotel had done nothing to fight off my exhaustion.

“I wasn’t expecting you back so soon,” Maven said, looking concerned. “Did something happen? Were you attacked?”

I shook my head. “Not attacked, no, but I did get a visitor. A local witch who doesn’t want to get involved in the . . . whatever you’d call it, the power struggle in the witch clans.” I sipped the coffee.

Quinn’s face sparked with comprehension. “Was it Tracy? Simon’s ex?”

I was naturally uncomfortable about exposing her, but Tracy hadn’t really done anything wrong, by Maven’s standards. “Well . . . yeah. How did you know?”

   
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