Edgar let out a breath, like a tire losing air, before puffing into a swarm of insects and buzzing away.
“Miss,” Mr. Tom said softly. “Your father is back. He’s apparently as nosy as your mother…”
My dad stuck his head out of the back doorway. “What are you all up to out here? It’s a bit late for a garden party.”
“He needs double the dose of melatonin,” Mr. Tom murmured. “Or maybe a sleeping draft. That is something Agnes can help with.”
“Nothing, Dad,” I called. “It’s fine. Just head to bed.”
My dad stepped farther out. “Well, it can’t be nothing, what with all you gathering around in the middle of the night. You having some animal problems? I noticed something was getting at your flowers over there. First rats, now critters—this house is overrun!” He took a few more steps, clearly intending to join our huddle.
Jasper finished the transition into his human form, thankfully in the shadows of the trees. Likely my dad wouldn’t have noticed him from such a distance; not that it would’ve really mattered at this point. The cat had gotten out of the bag a few times over. It was amazing that he wasn’t giving in to it.
“Just saw an animal prowling and trying to figure out what it was,” I said. “It’s nothing. Probably a deer.”
“I followed it through the woods,” Jasper said quietly, talking quickly, clearly trying to get this out before my dad got within hearing range. “About halfway to the property line, the illumination wore off. I dropped in altitude enough to continue tracking it, the low light making things difficult. It stopped for a moment, and then vanished. I saw the image of the deer wink out.”
“It isn’t a mage, so it must’ve taken a magical elixir of some kind,” Austin said. “How close did it get to me?”
Jasper shook his head. “I didn’t see you running in, so it couldn’t have been very close. Then again, my focus was acute.”
“And you’re sure the witch in town wouldn’t know about that kind of elixir?” I whispered to Mr. Tom.
He shrugged. “She might know, but she wouldn’t be able to make it. Illumination and invisibility are master-craft potions. Tricking this house would take the very best.”
My stomach churned, and Austin looked up at me, the weak moonlight falling across his face. His eyes smoldered with determination. I knew what he was thinking. Only the very best could make a potion powerful enough to trick Ivy House, and there was one mage who’d continually shown interest in me.
Elliot Graves.
I’d never officially met him, but everyone who had agreed he was the biggest, baddest mob-boss mage in the world. He’d been trying to take me by force, thwarted at every turn by Ivy House. If this was his doing, he’d just found a way around my best defense.
“We need to move you,” Austin said, his voice low and rough. “You’re not safe here.”
“She’s as safe here as she is anywhere,” Mr. Tom said. “More so, because elixirs don’t last forever, and the second the mask is peeled back, Ivy House will spring.”
Austin’s jaw clenched, but you couldn’t argue with that logic.
“It’s fine. Right now, that deer is just checking things out,” I said. “It doesn’t suspect we’re onto it, so we still have the upper hand.”
“Even if it did, it would come back anyway,” my dad said, reaching us. “When it comes to eating flowers, they have a short-term memory. I chased one with a tire iron early one morning. I sure scared it something good. You should’ve seen it take off. Came back the very next night.” He put a hand to his hip, the other holding up a half-eaten sandwich, and looked at the ground. “Well, no wonder it’s a great mystery,” he said. “A bunch of geniuses, standing around tracking in the dark. Go grab a light, Jacinta, and we’ll see what we’ve got.”
“I’ve got it.” Edgar loped back into the area, a camping lantern in each hand.
My dad watched him. “That man sure runs funny. Though for his age, it’s a blessing he runs at all.”
“You have deer in L.A.?” Mr. Tom asked.
“They live in the burbs on the edges of a nature preserve,” I said as Austin flicked on the light and studied the ground.
He traced a small indent with this finger. “I don’t get a scent. All I get is the smell of flowers.”
“Yeah, the stink of the flowers will nearly blow your hair back,” my dad said. “That’s hard-packed dirt. If that deer was just walking around, you aren’t going to see much. Get it wet tomorrow night. You’ll see a track, all right.”
Austin stood. To me he said, “I’m going to have Jasper show me the trail. I’ll report back when I’m done. It sounds like…” His eyes flicked to my dad and back. “It sounds like we’ve been down this road before”—he was talking about Elliot Graves sending someone for me—“though this time, I’m not sure what the end goal is.”