magic turned a person into an animal shifter allowed only that one kind of magic. Which meant the deer shifter was using potions or elixirs—potions apparently being the stronger of the two—created by a master craftsman who may or may not be Elliot Graves.
The person at the front of the house hadn’t been concealed. Their scent was all through the yards along the right side of the road. They were not a shifter, but beyond that, Austin couldn’t tell.
The deer’s late-night visit had opened up another question: if intruders had the ability to visit Ivy House unseen, were there others besides the deer that had walked around the property? Ones who didn’t have a taste for flowers?
We still didn’t know if those prowling the front were connected to those prowling the actual grounds. We didn’t know much of anything, actually.
We’d gotten home just before dawn, and any sleep from then until midmorning had been fretful and plagued by dreams of fire-breathing deer sporting glowing red eyes. Some even had rocket launchers mounted on their backs. I kept waking up thinking the house was under attack.
Maybe it was, albeit silently. Stealthily.
“Yes. This is it.” Edgar beamed, standing down the sidewalk a little with Niamh and Ulric.
“This is a lovely little spot,” my mom said, she and my dad having tagged along with the group. She looked around the quiet street, somewhat removed from the downtown strip. “It is just so lovely here. So peaceful and green. Just gorgeous.”
“Shall we?” Austin lightly touched the small of my back, the absence of pressure giving me a chance to linger on the sidewalk if I wanted.
“Do you guys want to check out the downtown shops and the tasting rooms?” I asked my mom. “This is just about gardening stuff, in here.”
“Insects,” Mr. Tom said.
I nodded and rubbed my eyes. “Right, yeah. Bugs.” If my parents thought it was actual gardening, they might want to check it out. “We’re just looking for something to take care of bugs.”
“Flowers and capes,” my dad said, shaking his head. “I think you’re too wrapped up in flowers and capes.”
“Oh, never mind.” My mom waved him away. “Are there some little shops we can visit?”
“Yes. And tasting rooms, too.” Mr. Tom gave them directions to the main drag, just three blocks over. There wasn’t much to this small town, something I’d grown to like. If only a slower pace went with it. That was probably too much to ask for in my situation, though.
When my parents had turned the corner, I started forward as Ulric said, “They must think we are absolutely wackadoo. A bunch of guys wearing capes all the time?” Ulric laughed. “How can they rationalize that?”
“A cape is the very least of the things they have been rationalizing. The very least,” I said, making it to the door. I lifted my hand to knock but the door swung open before I could, revealing a woman of indeterminate middle age with bright red-orange hair pulled up to the top of her head and strands of ringlets draping her face. Lipstick that matched her hair colored her plump, heart-shaped lips, and a wide nose adorned her thin face.
“Hello.” Dual-colored eyes, one green and one blue, surveyed me for a moment before sticking to Austin’s shoulders. “Alpha. What a pleasure.”
She stepped back, allowing me to enter, her gaze staying put.
The building might’ve been the shell of a house, but the inside had been redone, a large space off to the left supported by beams with tables dotting the way and bookshelves lining the walls. A counter sat at the far corner, a cash register perched on the edge and the rest of the surface covered in bins stacked high. Crystals and colored rocks and candles covered every available space, organized in their bins or placed on their shelves, the whole place awash with color. Incense burned from the back, the smoke curling into the air before spreading out into a heinous-smelling fog.
The right side of the space was divided into two wooden stalls, the doorway covered with a curtain. I imagined tarot or fortunetelling went on in there.
“Please, come on back.” Agnes’s smile was hazy and her gaze didn’t leave Austin’s shoulders until she had to physically turn and lead the way to the back.
Through a hallway with more tables littered with crystals, we finally reached a small office with a desk covered in papers, two chairs facing it, and way too many plants. It was clear she used