“No.” Megan was right, though. It wouldn’t make sense for him to try and steal her magic right there in the store, especially when he had no experience with flying…which was obvious when he’d taken to the air like her drunken Uncle Xavier after an all-nighter at the bar. And Donovan wouldn’t have left his bag and his familiar behind. There had to be another explanation.
She gasped. “The amulet.” Alice fished the pendant from her shirt and held it in her hand, lowering her voice so the mongoose wouldn’t hear. “Do you think it has powers? I felt a burning sensation in my chest before it happened, right where the amulet was resting against my skin.”
“It’s possible, but…why would he throw it away? And if it was the amulet’s magic, how did you activate it?”
She shook her head, perplexed. “I have no idea.”
Megan drummed her nails on the counter. “What were we talking about when it happened? Maybe it was something you said.”
Alice let the amulet fall against her shirt. “We were joking about me making his trip to Shift Creek worthwhile.”
“That’s right. And he was looking at the bird art.”
“And I said he could have my bird.” She sucked in a sharp breath and lifted the pendant again. “That must be what happened. I gave him my crow.” Her mouth hung open as she cut her gaze between the amulet, her friend, and her crow.
“So, take it back.” Megan gestured to the still unconscious bird.
He must have hit his head pretty hard. Poor guy’s gonna have such a headache.
“Right. Good idea.” Alice stepped toward her crow and gripped the amulet, focusing on taking her other self back. She gritted her teeth, furrowing her brow and tightening her eyes as she attempted to reverse the magic.
“What are you doing?” Megan broke her concentration.
“I’m trying to focus.”
“You look like you’re trying to poop. Stop it.”
Alice glared at her friend. “Fine.” She returned her gaze to the bird. Heavy concentration wasn’t working, anyway. Maybe she had to vocalize it. “Give me back my crow.”
Green shifter magic glittered around her bird as it morphed into Donovan. The burning returned to Alice’s chest, and the electrical sensation buzzed up her limbs, filling the emptiness she’d felt in her core since this whole goddamn ordeal began.
Donovan was still unconscious, but Alice finally felt whole.
“Did it work?” Megan asked.
“I think so. Let me see.” She glanced out the window to be sure no mundies were passing by before shifting into her crow form. Flapping her wings, she glided low across the floor, landing on the other side of Megan before shifting back to human. “Thank goodness he took the headache with him.”
Donovan groaned, his eyes darting back and forth beneath his lids, and Megan snickered.
“What’s so funny?” Alice dropped the necklace back into her shirt.
“You flipped him the bird. Literally.” She doubled over with laughter.
Alice tried not to join her, but the shock and absurdity of it all had taken a toll. She chuckled, but when Megan snorted, Alice couldn’t help but crack up with her friend. They laughed until tears streamed down their cheeks, and Alice took a deep, shuddering breath.
“If he doesn’t wake up soon, we’ll have to take him to the creek. He might have a concussion.”
“He’s almost two-hundred pounds of pure muscle.” Megan wiped beneath her eyes. “How would we pull that off without being noticed?”
“It’s either that or take him to the hospital, and I don’t know how we’d explain what just happened to the mundy doctors. Who knows if human medicine could even help a warlock recover from a spell?”
“True.” Megan tapped him on the cheek. “Wake up, sir. We don’t want to drag you clear across town to the creek.”
“Stop it. Just give him a minute.” Alice reached a hand toward him, hesitating before brushing a strand of hair from his face. He responded to her touch, inhaling deeply before his eyelids fluttered.
Fingers gently brushed Donovan’s forehead as he came to, the tenderness in the touch making his breath catch. Aside from the witch au pair who raised him, and Griffin’s occasional words of encouragement, he wasn’t used to being on the receiving end of kindness.
As he turned his head toward the owner of the gentle touch, he knew, without a doubt, it was Alice, the intriguing artist with black hair and emerald eyes. His lids tried to flutter open, but he kept them closed, running the past ten minutes through his mind and trying to understand what had happened.
The moment he’d stepped inside the store, he’d been taken by her beauty, but it was so much more than that. As their eyes met, it felt as if a loose thread in his soul had finally stitched into place, making him almost whole.
He felt a strange connection with the woman, which made no sense at all because he’d never felt a connection to anyone. He never even had a comradery with his own brothers, as they weren’t allowed to treat him as family growing up.
When Alice spoke, her voice commanded his attention, calling to something deep inside his soul. He’d stepped away to gather his thoughts, as her mere presence had seemed to short-circuit his brain.
Then he’d stiffened, his body seizing as if an electrical current had run through it, and he’d dropped the floor, sprouting feathers and a beak.
Her aura—and that of her coworker—glittered with nothing more than shifter magic, and he didn’t sense the presence of a witch or warlock inside the store. So, who cast the spell that transformed him into a bird?
It was time he opened his eyes and found out.
It took a moment for his blurred vision to focus—the throbbing in his head didn’t help—but as his sight cleared, he found the lovely Alice kneeling over him, concern tightening her eyes as she chewed her bottom lip.
“There you are.” She smiled softly.
“Thank goodness,” her friend said. “We thought we would have to drag your limp body all the way to the creek and roll you in.”
Donovan blinked and pushed into a sitting position. The room spun, and his stomach lurched, so he squeezed his eyes shut until the nauseating sensation dissipated. “You were planning to dispose of my body in the creek?”
“What?” Alice’s eyes widened. “No, of course not. The creek would have healed you.”
“And dead bodies float. If we were trying to get rid of you, there are plenty of other places where no one would ever think to look.”
“Megan!” Alice glared at her friend.
“What?” Megan shrugged. “He asked.”
Alice sighed before turning to him. “How’s your head?”
“Sore, but crashing full-speed into a closed door will do that.”
“Sorry.” She picked up the cushion that had been beneath his head and set it on a chair. “I couldn’t let you leave with my crow.”
“Your crow?” He rose to his feet and rested a hand on the wall to steady himself. The throbbing in his temples intensified, making his vision blur again. He needed to sit down and rest, but first, he needed answers. He could only think of one way a magicless warlock could absorb the power of another.