“Now, maybe he doesn’t know if he wants anything a’tal. Maybe he’s just sizing up the new kid. A few vicious shifters led by Austin Steele will make a statement. Then there is the house staff. We have a lot of experience. We might be able to make it seem like we are— Well, no.” She batted her hand through the air. “I’m full of shite. Earl has lost his marbles, I’m out of the loop, and Edgar will just make them feel sorry for us. We’re not enough. We need a few more powerful fliers, another mage or two who’s not so wet behind the ears, and some stronger units on the ground for Austin Steele. We go like this, and we’ll look like a rinky-dinky, two-bit circus they can hang upside down by the ankles and shake all the money from our pockets.”
The digits from the ledger rolled through my mind. A cold sweat broke over me. “Would they actually try to steal Ivy House’s money?”
“If there was enough of it, yes,” Niamh said. “Or…they would’ve back in the day. Not sure now. Maybe there’s a different commodity the magical world is into.”
“Money and power will never go out of style,” Sebastian said, looking at his feet. “I didn’t realize at first how much power you had, Miss Jessie.”
“You can just call me Jessie.”
“You do a good job of masking it. When you opened up and let it roll out earlier with the alpha, it blew my hair back. Figuratively speaking. You’d want to be careful showing off that much power without the knowledge of how to properly use it. Your power is worth more than Ivy House’s money.”
“Speaking of…” I traced my finger down the side of my bottle. “I could really use help with that. You said you’d give me the week, right? What if we treat it as a trial run? We train with magic once a day for two to three hours—whatever we can handle—and the rest of the time is yours to do with as you please. We can have a chat at the end of the week, see where we are and what you’re thinking.”
He shrugged, watching the people in the bar. “The week, sure. I’ve never been given an apprentice. I’ve always wondered about the apprentice/master bond.” Austin stiffened before leaning an elbow on the bar, looking away. Sebastian noticed it. “I came here, to this tiny town in the middle of nowhere, to satisfy my curiosity. I fully intended to leave at the end of the week.” His eyes were still on Austin. “But that display earlier… I’ve never seen a shifter at work. I am…fascinated. Their magic is built in. They don’t need spells and incantations, potions and magic-built eyes in the back of their heads. Their primal senses fill that gap. Their strength and speed—if I had been that man with the odd haircut, my neck would’ve snapped before I even realized I was in trouble. I am not that fast on my best day. My very best day. Even standing here, now, I am holding on to courage with two fists. I am worried about his temper breaking and killing me before I can even think of a magical deterrent.” He shivered. “I rather like the feeling. I feel…alive. Reinvigorated.”
Austin had turned slowly to look at Sebastian, his face unreadable but his emotions akin to what he felt when listening to Edgar talk about his flowers.
Niamh mumbled, “He’s as mad as a hatter.”
“I find it,” Sebastian said, dropping his gaze to his shoes, “very surprising, all of this. But I have a very cushy job, separated from the more unpleasant parts of the magical world. It would be quite a change to come here. However, I will not close my mind to the possibility. I agree to the trial period, and I’ll decide what to do at the end of it.”
“Maybe you’ll find the small-town life suits you,” I said. “I have, for what it’s worth.”
Sebastian looked around again. “Do you even have delivery?”
“Ah, sure, just stop by Ivy House and have that eejit Mr. Tom make something for ye.” It was probably the first time I’d heard Niamh use his made-up name. She was making fun of the idea, yes, but she’d still used it. Baby steps. “That’s his only real use these days, anyway.”
Austin pushed his glass to the top of the bar and connected eyes with Paul, silently asking for another, before resting his elbow on the edge again. “You do need better fliers, Jess. Jasper and Ulric have their uses, as do Mr. Tom and Niamh, but they won’t be enough to protect you when you are forced into aerial combat. That is where you’re weakest.”
I sighed, finishing off my beer. I pushed the bottle away.