Tethered 01 - Catalyst (25 page)

“Nope, why?”

I opened the bathroom door all the way and took the toast from him. “Where’s Binks at?”

“Downstairs eating the scoop of food I just gave him. What did you hear?”

“I don’t know. It sounded like something with nails was walking in the hallway.”

My stomach rolled and my heart jumped to my throat. What the hell was going on? Had that protection spell not worked and someone had sent something else after me?

Kace looked around. “I don’t see anything.”

I shook my head, shaking away the crazy thoughts that congested my mind, and took a bite of the toast Kace had made me. “Thanks for breakfast.”

“Not a problem.” He grinned, but there was a look of worry swirling in the depths of his crazy blue eyes.

I plastered on a smile and realized I should probably keep my next insane encounter with this imaginary creature to myself, or else he was going to think there was something seriously wrong with me.

The bell above the door to Spellbinding Reads chimed as I entered. I stepped inside and walked all the way to the back of the store, ready to put my purse in the back room and begin my shift.

“Good morning,” Admer called from somewhere to my left.

I cringed, hoping he wouldn’t take notice that I was technically five minutes late getting here, at least that was what my cell phone clock said.

“Morning. I’m going to set my stuff in the back. Do you need any help over there after?” I asked.

“Absolutely. This novel came out today, and I didn’t get a chance to make room for it yesterday on the shelves beforehand.”

I bit the inside of my cheek. It felt awkward to be here now that I knew it had been my grandmother’s shop. But that wasn’t what really bothered me, what bothered me most was that Admer knew who I was—
what
I was—and yet he’d said nothing. Why? I wanted to ask, but how do you even broach a subject like that? This was where Vera’s flat-out boldness and blunt way of speaking came in handy. Too bad I didn’t have even an ounce of either of those things inside of me.

Setting my purse on the desk in the back room, I glanced at the photo hanging on the wall beside it. My grandmother seemed happy, as if she were the type who was always happy. Why had my mother left her? Left all of this? Including me? I reached out and touched the picture, caressing my grandmother’s cheek.

“Would you grab that…?”Admer began and then stopped once he saw what I was doing. I jumped and stumbled backward slightly, busting the side of my hip against the desk. “I didn’t realize you were having a moment in here. A little jumpy today, are we? I was just going to ask you to grab the box over there on top of that stack before you come out.”

“I wasn’t, I mean…I was, but now I’m finished. And yeah, I am feeling a little jumpy today.” I turned away from the picture and headed toward the stack of boxes he’d pointed to.

“Why is that?” he asked, seeming a little too concerned.

“Just being in that house alone, I guess.”

“Noises from old houses can play tricks on the mind.”

“If you knew my grandmother, then did you know my mother too?” The words flew from my lips in a rush before I could stop them. Of course he knew my mother.

“I did,” Admer admitted without hesitation, even though my question was incredibly random. His voice was smooth, but seemed devoid of any real emotion.

I turned to face him, shaken, and narrowed my eyes. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

His deep green eyes locked on mine. “Because I didn’t know how much you knew about your biological family, and I didn’t want to upset you. I wanted you to be the one to ask if there was anything of significance you sought to know. And now you have. Is there anything else in particular you’d like to know?”

I thought for a moment. “What was she like, my mom?”

A distant gleam entered his eyes as though he were remembering a vivid image of her. “Beautiful, powerful, determined…she was everything I ever dreamed of.” He swallowed hard, and I wondered if they’d been close before she left. “You look so much like her.”

I smiled slightly at the knowledge. “I’ve never even seen a picture of her.”

Admer closed his eyes. “That’s sad.”

“Why did she give me up? Do you know?”

“Something spooked her, something to do with—” He cut himself off then and raised his eyes to meet mine. Skepticism pooled in the depths of them as he stared at me, but so did something else, something that resembled a spark of interest. “Have you…do you know about who you are…
what
you are? I saw Kace pick you up the other day, so I assume you do. Am I assuming right?” He seemed to choose his words carefully while he continued to stare at me.

I nodded. “I know about being an Elemental.” The words were thick as they came from my mouth. It seemed weird to say them out loud.

Relief crossed his features for the briefest of moments. “Good.”

“What spooked her? Was it something magickal?”

“She never told me exactly. We all wondered, but each of us swore she never mentioned a word about why she wanted to leave.”

“We?” I asked, wondering how many were in their group. Was it always four, or could there be more?

“Yes, we. There was a group of us,” he answered, but didn’t tell me as much as I hoped for.

“How many were there?”

“Five.”

I furrowed my brows. “How did that work? Some of you had to be the same element.”

“Myself and another wielded the same element. Once we were all initiated, the size of our group didn’t matter. As long as there were always four elements present at the time of any magickal use, all of us could join in.”

I thought about what he’d said. “But, wouldn’t that make your magick unbalanced or something?”

“Smart girl.” A twisted smile formed on his face, and he stared at me as though I were the most intriguing thing he’d seen in a while. “Some had this fear. Others of us didn’t mind.”

“Were you close with my mother, then? Did she care about that?” I asked.

Maybe that had been her driving force to leave—that she was worried about a balance being upset. A lot of the books I’d read had that as a rule of sorts. Then again, that was fiction. This was real. Insanely real.

“I tried to be close with her, quite a few times actually, but she was with someone else.” His lips drew together, forming a thin line as he dropped his gaze to the floor. “As for if she cared about the balance of our magick, I can’t say really, because I don’t know.”

Awkwardness filled the tiny office, crushing me from all sides. He’d obviously liked my mother, and she’d either given him the run around or flat-out turned him down. From the sounds of it, it seemed like more than once too.

“Sorry,” I said, not knowing what else to say.

The bell above the front door chimed, and Admer’s lips twisted into that odd smile of his once more. “What’s done is done. Don’t forget to grab that box before you come out.”

He turned and walked to the front of the store. I stared into the space he’d just occupied, trying to piece together how I felt about him now. I couldn’t put my finger on it just yet, but there was something off about him. He was hiding something. I’d bet it was that he knew exactly why my mother had left.

I got off work at four and headed straight home. Even though I hadn’t been doing anything strenuous while at work, I was still exhausted. Binks greeted me at the door when I walked in.

Bending down, I scratched behind his ears. “Hey, buddy, did you have a good day?”

I made my way to the kitchen to drop off my things and see what I had to make for dinner or whether it was a necessity to order takeout instead. Finding a frozen chicken pot pie—something which required virtually no amount of cooking—I decided it would suffice and headed to the living room to lie on the couch for a while and rest my eyes before cooking it.

The last few days had taken a lot out of me—all the insane magick stuff, the partying, working, and being scared to death I was going mental. I curled up on the couch, tucking a throw pillow beneath my head, and pondered if I’d just been sleep-deprived and drunk when I’d seen that creature last night. Kace hadn’t seen it. And there hadn’t been enough time for it to scramble out of the room. I wondered if this was another spell Theo and his Hoodoo family had put on me again. Was that creature only something
I
could see? I closed my eyes. God, I hoped not.