Corb’s tone said it all. Everyone at the table looked at him, but Feish spoke before I could.
“Green-eyed monster looks terrible on you, all up in your gills,” she said. “Besides. I go with Bree. Me and Kinkly. Girls’ day today.”
I nodded because I didn’t feel like fighting about who was going with whom. I didn’t like seeing Corb jealous. I mean, yeah, I’d kissed him just a few hours before, so he had some room for jealousy. Sort of. But I’d also told him I wasn’t ready to give him what he wanted.
Penny sighed. “I need to rest. But when I wake up, I’ll start looking through my books here to see if I can find the spell we’re looking for. Maybe I can find a local witch who would be willing to help. You”—she pointed her walking stick at me—“know what one of the ingredients is. And you know where it isn’t. See if you can find where it is.”
She limped off, leaning on her walking stick more than ever as she made her way deeper into the house.
Sarge saluted me, drawing my attention to him. “All right, you’re in charge, Bree. What do you want us to do should we pick up the trail?”
I thought for a moment. “Mark it, come back to the house. We’ll meet back here at dinner. And watch your backs. There’s at least one necromancer out there throwing spells around in broad daylight.”
Right, I’d almost forgotten that nugget, and I sighed at the series of questions they instantly threw at me. I told them about the poop head in the black hood who’d brought the statue in Jackson Square to life.
“It sounds like you could have been just scooped away if not for Crash,” Kinkly said in a breathy voice. “He swooped in and saved you!”
Corb’s face tightened, and he looked at one of the loaves of bread, bent, and tore off a piece. He stuffed it into his mouth to keep from talking, and within seconds, his cheeks were bulging with bread, like a squirrel preparing for winter. I had to bite back a laugh.
“Timed spell is what Penny thought,” I said. “Basically I got lucky.”
“Not as lucky as you want your cat to get,” Feish burbled and I stared at her. Stared hard at her because she hadn’t just made a sexual innuendo, had she?
By the grin and huge wink, that was exactly what she’d done.
16
Feish’s little announcement hit the air in the kitchen like an atomic bomb going off. Seriously, I couldn’t believe all of us weren’t thrown back a few feet. Mostly because of Corb.
“Get lucky with who, exactly?” He’d apparently finished the bread in his mouth, and his tone was as silky and deadly as I’d ever heard it. Yeah, he was going to be a problem, and I didn’t know what to do about him. I didn’t have time to deal with a jealous, lovesick siren.
Speaking of.
His siren magic swept through the room and about knocked me off my feet, driving me backward a few steps, my knees shaking hard. Really, all it did was push me—literally shove me—toward Crash, who once more caught me, his hands settling on my hips to help steady me.
His fiery magic met the cascading night waters of Corb’s magic, and instead of canceling each other out, they pressed against and into each other, turning me into a sandwich. My knees buckled as Corb’s magic pulsed harder and Crash’s magic held steady, a burning flame.
A groan escaped me, and I might have whispered a Hail Mary or two.
“Stop,” I whispered. “Both of you stop. I can’t . . .”
Now, let’s be brutally honest. A sudden image of being squashed naked and writhing between the two of them hit me like a runaway horse, and another groan slid out of me. If Crash hadn’t held me up, I would’ve slumped to the floor like a pile of jelly.
“Corb.” Crash snapped, a command within his voice. Like a parent looking at their kid and just saying their name when they were in deep shit.
And for all that was holy, Corb backed off, and Crash sat me in a chair so I was on my own, nobody touching me, no magic smashing into me. I sucked in a big breath and slowly let it out. That could have been amazing, being flooded with their sexy as hell magic at the same time. But maybe not in a room full of people. I closed my