wasn’t supposed to drive at all, but I restrained the urge to point that out. “I’ll be around in ten.”
“Good.” He paused. “Is Belle coming along as well?”
“No, she is not,” came Belle’s response from the kitchen.
“I heard that,” Monty said. “Anyone would think she’s avoiding me.”
“She has a date,” I said.
“Really? Who?”
“That’s none of your damn business, cuz.”
“How am I supposed to beat the competition when I have no idea who the competition is?” he grumbled.
“You’re not. That’s the whole point.”
“You’re a mean woman, Lizzie, but you won’t stop the course of true love.”
I grinned. “Give it up, Monty.”
He laughed. “Why? It gives me something to do.”
“I’m never going to be your something to do, Monty,” Belle yelled. “So please do give it up.”
“Have you told her it’s not polite to be listening in on your conversations?”
“She’s my familiar. It’s her job to listen in. Now hang up so I can get ready.”
Once he had, I went into the reading room to grab my gear. We might find absolutely nothing, but I wasn’t about to bet my life on that—a thought that had me wondering just what my prophetic soul sensed.
Belle came out of the kitchen, wiping her hands on the tea towel slung over her shoulder. “Do you want a coffee to take with you?”
“Yeah, and you’d better make one for Monty too, or he’ll get all grumpy on us.”
“Grumpy might be an improvement over lustlorn.”
“He’s definitely persistent.”
“Always was.” She shook her head, a smile teasing her lips. “I was never sure why, given who he was and who I was. I mean, his parents would have had conniptions if he’d ever dipped the precious Ashworth pen in my well.”
I laughed. “Maybe, but he did have an eye for good-looking women, and you are quite stunning.”
“That may be true now, but it didn’t stop him chasing me when we were teenagers.”
“Maybe he just recognized the potential for gorgeousness within that scrawny bod of yours.”
“Possibly.” She grinned. “You know, if he wasn’t your cousin and wasn’t so damn annoying, I might have considered it. He was never bad-looking, and he’s certainly filled out nicely since then.”
I raised an eyebrow. “I’m sure he’ll be pleased to hear you noticed.”
She gave me a deadpan look and slid two coffees across the counter to me. “Tell him, and he’ll be around here every free second. We both know you want that no more than I do.”
“Very true.” I slung the pack over my back, then picked up the coffees. “Have fun with Kash tonight.”
“Planning on it. But I’m only a mind-shout away if you need anything.”
I nodded and headed out. Monty was already waiting at the front of his place, so I undid my seat belt and leaned across to open the door for him. He threw in his backpack and crutches, then climbed in.
“That additional coffee for me?” he said as he retrieved the spell-wrapped feathers from his pack. It was quite intricate, and I wished I had the time to study it more closely.
Wished—probably for the very first time since that fateful day we’d fled Canberra—that I’d been given the chance to finish my studies. Teaching ourselves via Belle’s gran’s books was all well and good, but there was so much we didn’t know. So much that I wanted to know.
“Yes, it is. Where to?”
“Go back up to Duke Street.” He picked up his coffee and then grinned. “How can you say Belle doesn’t care when she made me a coffee?”
I raised an eyebrow. “How do you know I didn’t make it?”
“Magical fingerprint on the top of the cup—yours are only on the sides, indicating you carried but she made it. You’d left Canberra by the time we got to all those lessons.”
Which was just another reminder of how little I knew when it came to magic. “I knew every witch has a distinct magical ‘signature,’ but I wasn’t aware it was evident in our fingerprints.”
He nodded. “Most supernatural beings have specific print characteristics, but they’re harder to record.”
“Does that mean you can catalogue them like regular fingerprints?”
“Yes, but only with a specific spell, and only then if they’re caught early enough. There is, in fact, a database in Canberra containing both finger and magical imprints of some of history’s nastiest witches.”
“Huh.” I did a right-hand turn into Duke Street and then sped up again. “I take it you’ve searched said database to see if there’s a match for our shifter?”
“Indeedy. There isn’t.”
“Did unpicking her magic—or what remained of it