Witching Time (The Wild Hunt #14) - Yasmine Galenorn Page 0,33
long blond hair had amber highlights that mimicked a tiger’s stripes. He wore it in a ponytail most days, and it contrasted with his olive skin and chocolate-brown eyes.
“Hey, if it isn’t my favorite bone witch! What can I get for you?” He seemed unusually chipper. Jordan had sarcasm down to an art, but actually, he was a caring person and he treated Llew like a king.
“Llew wants a large coffee and a bear claw. I’d like a quadruple-shot caramel mocha, and…let’s see…give me a cinnamon roll.” I inhaled deeply as the scent of caramel and cinnamon and apple spice washed over me from the assorted pastries.
Jordan started fixing my mocha. “What do you think of the fair so far?”
I stared at the tray of pastries under the plastic lid, trying to think of what to say. I wasn’t good with chitchat. Then a thought occurred to me. “Jordan, you’re a tiger shifter. You have good instincts. You tell me, what does the fair feel like to you?”
He paused, staring at me. “I know you well enough to know that’s not just some random question. Something’s going on, isn’t it?”
I nodded, keeping my voice low. “Yeah, but we’re not sure what. And Marigold doesn’t seem open to holding a conversation about it. Keep alert, just saying.”
He furrowed his brow, pouring the frothed milk into my to-go cup and adding a thick swirl of whipped cream. He squeezed caramel sauce onto the cream, then carefully placed the lid on and nestled the cup into a tray, along with Llew’s coffee. Then he slid a bear claw into one small waxed-paper sheath and my cinnamon roll into another and put them both into a small sack.
“Here you go. No charge, of course. If I happen to sense anything amiss, I’ll be sure to let you know.” He paused, then added, “Be careful, Raven. I can already tell you that the air here is charged. My predatory instincts are fully on alert. That doesn’t happen unless there’s something dangerous around.”
I took the pastries and tray from him. “Thanks, Jordan. And yes, there’s something dangerous here and I think it’s looking for a victim. I just haven’t figured out what it is yet.”
Carrying the coffees and pastries back to the booth along with a handful of paper napkins, I settled at my table. Before I could even eat two bites of my cinnamon roll or talk to Llew about what was happening, a customer came up wanting a tarot reading. I glanced at Llew, thinking we needed to talk, but there wasn’t time right now. He was already engaged with a couple of customers, so I filed away a mental note to fill him in as soon as our booth had a lull. Pulling out my cards, I got to work.
I had a steady train of customers until after six readings I could barely think straight. I needed food, so I put up my sign that read out for lunch and pushed my chair back, sighing as I shook my head to clear out the cobwebs. Even for someone as experienced as I was, reading the cards required a great deal of energy and after a while, it was like I was walking in a fog. Coming up for air required a few minutes to decompress.
Llew glanced back at me. “Tired?”
I nodded. “Hey, put up your lunch sign. I want to talk to you.”
“All right. But we should go get food while you talk. I want a sandwich.” He set out his sign and covered his wares with a large scarf the size of the table. Thieves were everywhere and Llew had a lot of tempting goodies on his table. “There’s a booth selling subs four stalls down.”
“I want corndogs. We’re at a fair, and I don’t want a typical sandwich.”
He laughed and pointed to a booth three stalls up in the other direction. “There’s a corndog booth and they also have candied apples.”
I loved caramel-covered apples. “What are we waiting for?”
We stretched and Llew yawned, then we headed over to the corndog stand. Along the way, I told him everything that had happened. “You know Marigold better than any of us. Does she seem different to you?”
He thought for a moment. “I’m not certain, to be honest. We haven’t had the chance to hang out together lately. But I can tell you that she’s never yelled at her kids the way she did today. Poor Evie.”
“Yeah, she was downright vicious. I’m surprised Evie