Page 37 of Board Games and Broomsticks

‘Power that I summon here

Lend your strength, abate our fear.’

The scent of her magic wove with the rich, earthy aroma of Elowen’s power, and then the vines flying around the grove began to thicken and grow thorns. This time, when one caught the owl, it was forced to stop entirely, giving Nyssa the time she needed to complete the landing.

It wasn’t a graceful one. The second they were close enough to the ground, Nyssa and Elowen both jumped from the broom and into the grass. Nyssa paused just long enough for Nyx to jump into her arms, and then she was running, Elowen at her side, her breaths coming hard and fast as the owl finally tore itself free.

‘This way!’

Nyssa headed east, down a small, overgrown path that she and her grandmother had walked more times than she could count. Just a little further up it, and they’d be on the warded grounds of her cottage.

Just a little further.

Nyssa kept her focus on Elowen, on channelling as much of her own magic as she could into the spell she’d cast as the elf reached up her hands towards the canopy above them. Small sparks of light appeared in the air, like tiny, dancing fireflies, and then the canopy began to thicken, giving them the cover they needed to dart the final stretch.

The trickle of the brook which flowed through her garden hit Nyssa’s ears, propelling her to run just a little harder, a little faster …

They broke through the treeline and sprinted through the rickety gate, bursting into the cottage grounds just as the owl tore through the thicket. It let out another loud screech as it came up against the wards around the property, its beak pecking furiously against a wall it couldn’t see.

‘The wards in the cottage are stronger,’ Nyssa panted; ‘we should get inside.’

Elowen was already moving, her long legs carrying her across the overgrown garden to reach Nyssa’s front porch. Nyssa reached her a few seconds later, and then they were darting through the door and into the safety of the cottage.

Despite knowing that an owl couldn’t open a door, Nyssa locked it behind them. Nyx jumped from her arms and immediately up on to the kitchen window, tail swishing as she kept watch.

‘I always knew Nighthaven was strange,’ Elowen said, joining Nyx at the window, ‘but I never expected to be attacked by an oversized owl. Do you think someone sent it after us?’ There was no accusation in her tone, but Nyssa still flinched, hearing blame even where there was none. Because even though Elowen had said us, there was only one of them who had a past linking them to a coven whose signature animal was an owl.

Still, it wasn’t Elowen’s style. And despite her own issues with self-blame, she wasn’t an enemy of The Coven of the Sacred Owl. ‘I don’t think so; it’s the same one I saw earlier outside the tavern. Alaric said some of the animals here can absorb the remnant magic, so maybe—Ah!’

A sharp pain radiated down Nyssa’s arm, and her hand shot up to press against the spot where the owl’s wings had grazed her. In her haste to get to safety, Nyssa hadn’t noticed that the owl had torn through her sleeve and cut into the flesh beneath.

‘Let me see that.’ Elowen was already tugging Nyssa’s hand away, her brow furrowing when it came away slick with blood. ‘Great gods, what are that owl’s talons made of? Sit down; I need to heal it before it can get infected.’

‘It’s fine. I’ve got some antiseptic ointment my grandma made in the cupboards, I’ll just—’

‘Sit.’

The no-nonsense tone in which Elowen said the word had Nyssa sighing and slinking into one of the chairs at the kitchen table. Elowen moved to stand in front of her, so close that Nyssa’s knees pressed into her thighs as the elf gently slid down the sleeve of Nyssa’s now torn jacket. She let out a small breath when Elowen’s fingertips danced around her wound.

‘Sorry,’ Elowen muttered, not realizing Nyssa’s reaction hadn’t been because it hurt, but because it was her touching her. Even with her cut stinging and her mind replaying the events of what had just happened, and of why that darn owl seemed so familiar, Nyssa couldn’t stop her body’s reaction to Elowen’s closeness. Something pooled low in her stomach, warm like the magic seeping from Elowen’s fingers, and a few glowing specks of light sparked in the air above Nyssa’s arm.

Beautiful, thought Nyssa.

It didn’t take long for the wound to knit itself back together, and yet Elowen’s fingers lingered on Nyssa’s arm, soft and soothing as she asked in a low voice, ‘How does it feel?’

The heat in Elowen’s eyes made it difficult to tell if she was talking about the now-healed wound or whatever was happening between them, and so Nyssa kept her own reply just as vague.

‘Wonderful,’ she said, her throat suddenly dry, and the way Elowen’s green eyes dropped to her lips almost caused her last thread of control to snap.

But Nyssa could still sense the magic of the owl outside, creeping and thick like the fog in her dreams. It hadn’t yet managed to break through the wards her grandma had put up around the cottage gardens decades before Nyssa had been born, but if it did, the wards around the cottage itself were powerful enough to keep the owl out.

Or at least, they would have been, if her grandma was still alive. Without her here to fortify them, there was a chance their magic had faded over time. And Morven had been able to destroy the one at the café so easily …

‘I should check the wards,’ Nyssa said reluctantly, causing Elowen to step back.

‘Of course.’ She didn’t seem offended by the sudden change in subject, and Nyssa was glad that she didn’t need to explain herself; Elowen’s first priority was, and always would be, the safety of Nighthaven.

It was one of the things Nyssa loved about her.