Boundary Born (Boundary Magic Book 3) - Melissa F. Olson Page 0,67

although I’d known intellectually what a werewolf attack might involve, I’d never let myself imagine . . . I shook my head violently, not caring who might see. You can’t fall apart right now, Lex, I told myself, rocking back and forth a little. Too many people need you to keep it together. It was easy to say, but a lot harder to do. I kept seeing the image, over and over. The look on her face . . .

After a few minutes I heard the door creak open. A presence sat down next to me, and a distant part of my brain realized that it was Blossom. She folded her legs in a lotus position and didn’t speak, just sat there next to me.

After a few minutes, a couple of tourists came laughing up to the door. The man tugged on the handle. “What’s the matter with you?” Blossom challenged them. “Can’t you read? Closed for lunch. Come back later.”

There was some grumbling and huffing, but the tourists backed off. We sat in silence again for a long time, until finally I began to uncurl.

“You ask me,” Blossom said, her voice rough. She was staring straight ahead. “Some stones are too powerful. That smoky quartz, for example.” She nodded to herself. “Probably better to have it separated into two pieces. Still valuable, but it’s not so dangerous now.”

I felt a faint smile touch my lips. That was as close to an apology as I’d ever get from Blossom Wheaton.

“Who did you see?” she said, and the smile died on my face. “Your sister?”

I nodded.

She let out a little snort. “I should have known.”

“Was it really her?” I whispered. “Was that Sam’s . . . spirit? Trapped in the crystal?”

She gave me a disdainful look. “No, girl, of course not. Her spirit passed over a long time ago. That stone was used for an elaborate cast, like I told you, but there was a trap on the end. They were hoping if you survived the initial attack, you would pick up the stone. So they got an echo of her, a bit of her hair or clothing, something like that, and they used it to build a tiny remnant. But it wasn’t any more real than a snapshot of her.”

That at least gave my rational brain something to chew on. Emil must have broken in, probably while I was at work, or maybe even while I was helping Quinn save Maven. It wasn’t like it would be hard: there were several boxes in my attic labeled Sam’s Things, and he’d already made friends with my animals.

I felt like a fool.

“Whoever did this, he knew your weak spot,” Blossom said into the silence. “Knew how to hurt you.”

“Yeah.”

“Which gives me an idea,” Blossom continued. “There’s nothing that can stop him remotely, but I can give you something to protect yourself from attacks.”

I lifted my head. I had my doubts, given what Simon and Lily had told me about most crystals being incompatible with witch magic. But what was the harm in trying? “Worth a shot.”

She got to her feet. “Come on.”

When we were back inside, Blossom led me straight through the store, past all the rows of crystals on their glass stands, and around the register. “I thought you were going to help me find a protective stone,” I said in confusion.

“Those?” She waved a dismissive hand at the store’s stock. “Most of that is garbage for the tourists. Irradiated, dyed, artificial, unclean. They don’t know the difference.” She pulled back the heavy curtain, motioning for me to follow. “Come with me.”

The curtain led to a typical storeroom with metal shelving filled with unevenly packed storage boxes and random supplies—packing tape, bubble wrap, a label maker. The back corner of the room had been turned into a sort of employee area with a mini fridge and a card table. Under the card table, a large black dog lifted its head to watch us. One of Blossom’s Dobermans. “You never know when some tweaker will show up for the cash register,” Blossom muttered.

Ordinarily I’d try to make friends, but I knew Blossom’s dogs feared or hated everyone who wasn’t Blossom. I kept my eyes lowered as we walked past.

Beyond the employee area was a narrow door painted to match the walls. It had no doorknob, but Blossom just reached out and slid it sideways. A pocket door, hiding in plain sight.

On the other side of this door was another, much smaller storeroom.