“Fascinating,” Sebastian said. He started to ask another question, but I tuned him out. While this was all probably good to know, I had other things to settle before I snuck out.
I lowered my voice for only Austin, shrouding us in a protective magical bubble. “Are you sure about the level of power I might call in? You have your territory to set up. I don’t want to be taking your bandwidth.”
“Jess, you’ve inspired me to challenge myself, to rise to my potential. It would be easy to run a small territory like this one, with a few towns and only a few idiots challenging every once in a while. My role is more complicated because my pack needs to be strong enough to defend Ivy House, but that’s still well within my abilities. To do all that and also manage the powerful creatures you need for your council? That will certainly be a challenge. Given that a challenge is what I set out for, I hope you call in the biggest and baddest you can find. You charmed a basajaun, of all things. What other surly creatures can you collect?”
“I don’t think you want to ask that question.”
He winked. “I’ll handle whatever comes, Jess. That’s a promise. Call in whatever you need. Call in the best.”
It wasn’t Austin’s ego speaking. He’d earned his confidence. It was built on a foundation of years of experience and trials, and there was no question he also had a firm grip on his weaknesses, most of which stemmed from his past. He was not a man to falsely dress up his nature. He was quicker, in fact, to tear himself down.
The summons exploded from me without warning, Austin’s green light allowing my magic the freedom to search. Those who fit the requirements we’d discussed would be called. The gargoyle would likely come immediately, Ivy House and its mistress figured largely into their lore, but the others… Well, I hoped they were just as curious as Sebastian.
I sucked in a breath and let it out slowly, dissolving the spell bubble around us. “Now we wait. Again. I hate this part.”
“That’s how you called me?” Sebastian asked.
“Yes. You and everyone else.”
“So what are we going to do about that invitation?” Niamh asked, eyeing my beer. She clearly knew I was planning my escape.
“I can put him off.” I touched the edge of the invitation. “I can say that Austin is forming his pack and it’s not a good time to visit.”
“In other words, we are vulnerable,” Niamh said.
“So maybe he’ll attack Ivy House. It won’t be any different than the other times we’ve defended her. Probably easier, since we’ve had more experience fighting as a team.”
“Why not just bring him to town?” Sebastian asked. “They wouldn’t be able to bring too many people because of the town’s size and lack of accommodations. You can even control how many rooms are available.”
“All of the Airbnbs are full,” Austin said. “House inventory is very low with everyone moving into town. He could put people in the other towns, effectively spreading them out. We’d let him, saying the size of his team is only an issue because of available space, not because we aren’t set up to defend against it. The problem would be when we all meet up. And if his people wandered the streets, intending to cause trouble…” He tightened his lips and minutely shook his head. “Let me think on this. But it’s a good idea. Bringing them here is probably the safest bet.”
“This place is like the Wild West right now,” Niamh said. “Ye can’t have a well-established magical muckety-muck coming through here. He’ll think we’re easy for the taking.”
“He’s a mage,” Sebastian said. “I don’t know about his setup, but mages don’t typically have shifters on their teams, as I said to…the Irish lady—”
“After all we’ve been through, you don’t remember me name?” she cut in, and I could tell she was delighted for reasons unknown.
“He’ll probably buy this as a normal shifter setup,” Sebastian continued, ignoring her. “I thought it was. It wouldn’t even matter if it were less…respectable. You turn into animals—why not live like animals?”
“Animals are typically much more organized than people,” Austin said, almost a growl.
“Someone give me a heads-up when I say the wrong thing,” Sebastian whispered, “so I can get ready to run or put up a spell or something.”
I spat out a laugh, not expecting that little bit of humor, made funnier because he was dead serious.
“Ye still need a good team in place, Austin, and ye don’t have it,” Niamh said.
Austin nodded and took a slow sip of his drink.
I wondered if that was his way of saying, Hold my beer.
Later that night I tucked myself into bed, my brain a little fuzzy from alcohol and my son thankfully asleep in his room. Niamh had strong-armed me into another couple of beers, Sebastian hadn’t escaped without another scotch being forced on him, and Austin had eventually walked me home, Ulric and Jasper flying high overhead. We’d all separated with the question remaining—how could we possibly play host to an established mage and not look like a Podunk outfit? Niamh didn’t think there was a way—she thought we should come up with a good reason to keep him waiting.