“You all healed up?” she finally asked.
“Yeah. Jess took care of most of it. I don’t even know what that mage hit me with, but it was a good shot. I didn’t expect it until it was too late.”
“Yeah. That lad, whoever he was, had our setup mapped out. Couldn’t get a face off him—or I should say, the dolls cut the face off him, so we’re still not sure who he was.”
“The dolls…” He turned to look at her, disbelief and a little horror crossing his face. He shook his head and faced the lake again. “Never mind. I don’t want to know.”
“Probably not. I took a picture, just in case we ever find out who his…the contract holder is.”
Another beat of silence passed.
She had to throw it out there. “Have ye ever been saved by a Jane before?”
“You know the answer to that. I have been saved by a woman, though. A little woman, protecting her daddy. My fierce little niece. Jess reminds me of her.” He paused, then added, “I see now why no one batted an eye when that gargoyle knocked Jess around. She’s fearless. She’s unstoppable. A mage took two of her friends down, right in front of her, and then tried to kidnap her, but she still had the presence of mind to get information from him. That’s…”
“She was chosen well, we know this.”
“Yes, she was.”
“You’re not licking yer wounds after havin’ been saved by a woman, fine. So why are you mopin’ about? I sure hope it isn’t to do with that fella the house took down. You don’t run a military state here, Austin Steele. This is a tourist town, for heaven’s sake. You can’t ID everyone that comes through, and that lad knew about you. He purposely avoided you.”
He sighed and slouched a little more. “I’m straddling a line, and it’s making me do a piss-poor job of helping Jess. If I were in charge of her defense of Ivy House, that mage wouldn’t have slipped through the cracks. That attack at the cliff would’ve ended before it had begun. Her people would be in line, and this whole town would be behind her. Everyone would be looking out, questioning, reporting back. I’m not in charge, though, which means I’m in the way. If I hadn’t been there, that gargoyle would’ve been near her, and maybe he would’ve seen something I didn’t. He’s in this completely. He deserves to be by her side.”
“Ah.” Niamh nodded and leaned forward to brace her elbows on her knees. “So there’s the reason for your pity party. Now I see.”
He shook his head. “This is me finally realizing it’s time to move on. That gargoyle was given the power to draw out her abilities, and that’s the thing that will protect her the best. It’s time for me to find a new territory and officially establish myself as alpha.”
“I’ve thought about this a lot, now. Ever since you started shoutin’ around the place yesterday. When you rebelled against Ivy House, Jessie took it to mean you didn’t want any part of the magic, including helping her work that magic. She doesn’t like asking for help, that one. Probably hasn’t had anyone to ask for help in the last handful of years, so she got out of the habit. She’s been a mother so long, looking after her family, that she stopped looking after herself. So when Earl fawns all over her, she relaxes, ye can see it. She appreciates it, which is great, because he’s a useless ol’ sod if he doesn’t have someone to fawn over.
“Now, she’s a fighter, and she’s determined, and she’s fierce, but she is in over her head, so she is. Ye know that. She’s a Jane that is suddenly magical. She needs help in ways she doesn’t even know to ask about. She didn’t want to bother you, so what did she do? She called for help. Ivy House gave the magic to the best man willing, choosing that wanker because it couldn’t choose you. Ye didn’t give it a choice, Austin Steele.”
“Ivy House has been trying to manipulate me from day one. I don’t play that game.”
“Yes it has, ye gobshite. It isn’t competing with you, though. That house isn’t trying to beat you in some elaborate game of dominance, Austin Steele. It isn’t tryin’ to rule ye. It is trying to protect her, and it knows that there’s no one else on this planet that can do it better than you. That is why it is constantly at ye, messin’ with ye, pokin’ ye. Jessie won’t ask for help, no matter what she says to the contrary, but it has been askin’, on her behalf. You’ve just been too dumb and blind to see it.”
His head drooped a little more. “Doesn’t change the situation.”