Jess gave Austin an apologetic smile and turned, back to scanning the ground.
“Are you having second thoughts about this place?” Austin asked quietly, keeping pace. He could smell Mr. Tom’s scent, fresh in some places and stale in others, working around the garden in a set pattern. It wouldn’t take long for him to find all the eggs, even if blindfolded.
“Just.” She took a deep breath, stopping again and looking out at the woods.
It took him a moment to feel it, a creature crossing the threshold at a fast clip, headed straight for the house.
“He must’ve realized we were looking for him,” she said.
“The basajaun.” Warning shocked through him and he glanced around the large garden, noticing the positioning of everyone he would have to protect if things went wrong. The mage wasn’t here, either not invited or not interested—he really only hung around when training—which was a pity. He was powerful and precise, his magic incredibly effective. He could’ve helped end any sort of altercation much more quickly. A prolonged battle might scare Jimmy for life. He may have enjoyed his introduction to the fun side of magic, but he wasn’t ready for the horror show it could devolve into.
“It’s good.” Jess laid her palm on Austin’s forearm. Electricity zipped through his body, tightening his gut. “Even if he turned violent, Ivy House would handle it. She’d love to, actually. She’s much too violent, if you ask me.”
“I wondered…” He barely felt the anxiety coiling within him, wrapped up as he was in those shimmering hazel eyes. “If my brother doesn’t use my invitation as his opportunity to beat me senseless for what I did to him when I left…” A crease formed between her brows, but she didn’t say anything. “You need to meet him in a professional capacity, but I wondered if you would also have dinner with us. Just us. Family and…friends.”
She blinked at him, as though realizing the importance of what he was asking.
“Of course,” she said. “Should I bring clam dip? In a cooler?”
The laughter bubbled up unexpectedly. When Jess’s mother had come to visit a couple of months ago, she’d brought her dip and eggs, repeatedly talking about belated Christmas.
His smile dripped away. “My family isn’t like yours. I’m from a long line of alphas, and they—we—are trained young not to show too much emotion. We’re not welcoming and warm, not with smiles and hugs, at any rate. My brother might seem a little…cold, but just know that it isn’t personal.”
“Cold? Well, where did you go wrong? You were smiling and giving muscle shows the first night I met you.”
Austin should’ve known it then. He should’ve known what she’d become from that very first night. She’d started seeping into the cracks in his defenses from the word go.
What the hell was he going to do if his brother thought he was too unstable around her and advised him to cut ties in order to keep her safe? His heart ached at the thought. He’d do it—for her, he’d do anything—but it would break the last shred of him that still hoped for a normal life.
“You okay?” she asked.
The basajaun drew closer. Having entered the property at a full-out run, he’d slowed to a crawl as he edged up to the tree line, closing in on Jimmy, who was bent over, hunting through the flowers. Austin turned in that direction, not far from the young man and easily able to rush in front of him if something were to happen.
“No, no,” Jess whispered, laughter in her voice. She plucked at Austin’s stupid shirt. “Wait.”
“I really don’t think—”
“It’s fine. I have a protective wall up. I’d singe every hair on that basajaun’s body. The smell would be terrible. But can’t you see? He’s doing his sneaky thing.” Her grin was evil. “Can’t you see him, slowly moving up through the trees?”
Austin could smell him, and he could feel him with Ivy House’s magic, but he couldn’t see anything but trees. No movement, no big, hairy body, nothing. He shook his head, continuing to look.
“Oh, right,” she murmured. “With Sebastian’s help, everything feels so second nature now. I just did that spell for finding dangerous things, and now I can see him, clear as day. Watch.” She looped her arm around his again.
“Got another one.” Jimmy straightened up and wiped his head. “This is tough. Good call on making them money eggs. Otherwise I don’t know that I’d keep going.”
“Why not?” Niamh called, near the house now. A sparkly pink egg caught the light from the grass a few feet away from her. She’d clearly thrown it after finding it, since Mr. Tom hadn’t made any eggs that easy to find. “This is good craic. We should do this more often.”
“If you followed Christianity, you’d go straight to hell,” Mr. Tom said, readying another mimosa. Jess’s was getting low.