"I'll check him out.” Although I wasn't entirely sure what good it would do. Rat-faced or not, he'd come and gone. "Is the parcel that cookbook I ordered for Tao?”
"I didn't open it, but it looks like it. It's the right shape. I left it on your dresser.” She dropped the ladle into the pot, then reached for the bag of corks on the shelf above her head. "I ordered the cake. It should be here for dinner tomorrow.” She paused, then looked over her shoulder at me. "Make sure you are.”
I frowned, an odd sense of tension tightening my limbs. "It's Tao's birthday. You know I wouldn't miss that.”
And yet she was warning me not to. Which meant she'd sensed something on the wind. Something that meant trouble.
The image of the sword-carrying reaper rose like a ghost, and I shivered.
"I know. It's just—” She paused and shrugged.
"Ilianna, just spit it out. What are you seeing?”
"I'm not seeing anything, that's the trouble.” She glanced at me again, her expression concerned. "I'm just sensing an unease in the air. Something is brewing, Ris, and it's going to hit us hard if we're not careful.”
Then we'll be careful, I wanted to say, but I resisted the impulse. It was too flippant, and I'd known Ilianna too long to treat her warnings that lightly.
"Then maybe you need to start working on some more protection charms,” I said. "Better to be safe than sorry.”
She nodded. "Next on the list. Not that Tao will want anything to do with them.”
But only because Tao believed he was more than able to protect himself. And given that he—like his human mother—was a fire-starter of incredible strength, he was probably right. I pushed away from the door frame. "Is Mirri coming over tomorrow night?”
Mirri was Ilianna's lover, a mare she'd met at some creativity and love festival she'd gone to a year ago. She wasn't a witch in the sense that Ilianna was, but she was a pagan. And like many mares, she was bisexual, whereas Ilianna was desperately trying to keep the fact she was a lesbian under wraps. Especially from her family.
"No. She's working night shifts at the moment.”
I nodded. Mirri was a midwife, and was currently working in the Royal Women's natural birthing center. "Do you know that Tao is hoping to seduce her if you two ever break up?”