down her body. Undines were just water nymphs, so appeal was their specialty.
“Shit!” Jasper tried to catch Jake’s hand while I fumbled for my wand.
“Abandonner!” I cried. “Release!”
Jake looked a little more freaked out than heroic as the undine sucked him deep into the pool and they seemed to disappear into a fathomless depth, a few bubbles coming to the surface and then he vanished before my eyes.
Billie walked down the stairs as I was on my hands and knees searching desperately for my last sight of him, wand at the ready.
“She won’t drown them,” Byron said. “She just wants to…play.” This was not reassuring to me at all.
“This basement is even groovier,” Billie said. “An indoor pool! Wow! Hey…are you okay?”
“We have a spirit problem,” I said, trying not to sound as upset as I felt. I wasn’t feeling worried so much as pissed off. It wouldn’t be the first time I’d dealt with a pesky house spirit, but…everything was different when I had other people to care about.
Let’s face it, girl. The biggest thing you’re worried about is that an undine might lay a finger on your men.
This must be what jealousy feels like.
Chapter Three
Helena
I had lost a lot of my enthusiasm for looking at the house until I knew Graham and Jake were safe, but Billie was poking around in the kitchen.
“This is nice,” she said. “So much storage. But I wonder where the map is…? That pool is radiating a lot of magic.”
“I noticed,” I said. “I certainly hope that Sam didn’t make the undine the keeper of the map.”
Billie and I both stared at the pool for a moment. I took out my wand and waved it over the water, feeling the pulse of magic like the water had a heart beat.
“Well, shit,” Billie said. “I hope Graham and Jake figure out something. You could also use that pool for scrying. This would be great for a seer.”
“Hel and Jake think the likely buyers would be a gay couple,” Jasper said, crossing his arms. Seers were usually female.
“I think it’d be great for an older lady,” Billie said. “A glamorous type. The sort of lady who has a lot of boyfriends but never settles down. Like Auntie Mame.”
“Well, that works,” Byron said. “Auntie Mame will have the same taste as the old gay couple, I expect. Helena…it’s no use brooding over the pool. I’m sure Jake and Graham can get out of it on their own.”
At what cost? I wondered. I guess it shouldn’t really matter. If she seduces them that’s coerced sex. Of course, they would probably enjoy it in the moment. Nymphs have that power. But afterward… Jake seems very loyal. Graham…well, Graham too. I knew Graham had slept with a ton of women already, but he’d stopped doing that when he met me and he seemed serious about it. I wasn’t sure if I should be jealous or just worried. What if I was dragged into the pool by a male spirit instead? They would save me, as they should.
“You can’t get to them,” Byron said. “Maya can choose who she wants to bring into her realm. Keep exploring.”
Byron seemed on edge. He wanted me to find something. Did the undine have the map or not? He couldn’t tell me.
I started circling the pool, inspecting the rocks. Then I noticed a small, dimly lit hall leading off from the pool area. The hall was cluttered with some dusty old boxes and folding chairs covered in cobwebs. Just a storage area. Two solid doors branched off from the hall. One of the doors had cold air radiating off of it. That’s weird.
I tried the doorknob and it was absolutely freezing. I could only rattle it for a second before I had to pull my hand back and warm it up.
I cast a heat spell on the knob and tried again. Still stuck. Either it was locked, or it was iced over on the other side. I kept the heat spell going for a few minutes and when I tried the door again, it flung open and a wave of frigid air swept out as the door opened to an ice cave with walls of crystalline ice. Some boxes with packaged meat and whole chickens were stored in here, and I was just thinking that this natural freezer was a very practical feature when I turned the corner and screamed my head off.
Byron’s body was frozen in a big block of ice like some