Everyone looked to Tegan, but if she was listening she wasn’t letting that show. She stood frozen with her back to us. My stomach tightened into knots. I hated seeing her like this. I felt her hectic pulse through our soulmate glyph like it was my own. I glanced back to everyone else and saw palpable fear on all of their faces.
“Yo, Tegan,” Easton shouted and threw a potato chip at her.
It flew across the room right toward her back, but two inches from hitting her a rainbow cloud of mist flashed and vaporized the chip. Deacon flicked his fingers and red lightning shot over at her…then met the same fate, vanishing inches before hitting her. He looked to me and scowled. Golden mist slid across the floor but Tegan’s rainbow mist met it a foot away from her, swallowing it up in an instant.
She may not have been paying attention but her magic was.
Even I found that unnerving.
Hunter sighed from suddenly right beside me. His golden eyes were dark with worry. “I don’t like that.” He pointed at his daughter.
“Tenn?” Emersyn cleared her throat. When I looked to her, she nodded toward her twin. “I know D and I just got back today…but has she slept since New Year’s?”
Lie. So they won’t be worried. “No,” I heard myself say instead. Great work, brain.
Deacon whistled and shook his head. “It’s been eight days, boss. She needs sleep. She can’t just skip sleep every time things get chaotic for us.”
“Actually, she probably can.” When they all scowled at me, I threw my hands up. “She took that same potion from Katherine she took before Samhain. She’ll be fine.”
Easton shook his head. “Boss, that’s not—”
“Stop.” I looked over at the few people who had the luck to travel back in time with us…and I knew they were feeling what Tegan and I were. I pushed my hair back and my silver rings tangled in the long black strands – which didn’t go unnoticed by my Coven-mates who all tried not to chuckle. “Listen, I understand your concerns. Obviously. But…this is different for us. Without Saffie, we never would’ve made it back from 1692. The Gap wouldn’t have been closed. Deacon would have died. And she was cursed for over three centuries for it. There is nothing that we won’t do to bring her home. The only chance we have is to catch her the moment she steps out of that damn tunnel, which means Tegan needs to be ready to move at every second.”
“And you’re sure she took a safe potion?” Deacon’s scowl had softened but his concern was still there. “I mean, we can’t save Saffie without her. We all know that.”
“Trust me, she knows that.” I pinched the bridge of my nose as their panicked energies slammed into me. I couldn’t just ignore their concerns, especially since they were entirely warranted. I sighed, probably for the millionth time. “But listen, I’ll keep an eye on her. Make sure she eats and rests and such—”
“You have to sleep too, son,” my dad spoke up for the first time. His amber eyes were dark with worry that I didn’t want to look to closely at.
“One step ahead of you, papa bear,” Henley said cheerfully from behind me. When I looked over my shoulder, I found her still stirring the cauldron. She winked one sapphire eye at me. “The second I got a look at that one over there, I knew Tenn wouldn’t sleep. Soooo, this potion is to give him enough energy to survive a few weeks with only two or three hours of sleep a night. This way he can keep an eye on her as much as possible.”
I opened my mouth and then closed it.
“It’s safe? You’re sure?” Uncle Timothy practically growled from the table. “Even for him?”
My cheeks warmed. I looked away from him before my emotions got the best of me. I was still real raw about having him and my memory back. If I let those thoughts run rampant, I’d fall apart. Again. And we had a job to do, many jobs to do.
“It’s safe, Tim. I promise.”
My dad pursed his lips. “When can he take it?”
“Oh, in about twenty minutes.”
“Good. But, son? You’re going to let us know if you don’t feel right, got it? We’re all going to stay cool and let you two non-humans do your thing, but you have to level with us if something is off.” He met my eyes and waited until I nodded. Then he nodded. “Now, I’m fairly certain you called this meeting today for other reasons.”
“Right. Yes. The demon problem.” I rolled my shoulder. “Until we have Saffie back, Tegan and I are not going to be out fighting demons. She needs to be ready to move, and ideally I need to be ready to go with her. So I’m benching both of us effective immediately.”
They all gasped and shook their heads.
I held my hands up. “That’s my decision. So take the night to relax, take a deep breath, eat a real meal – and no, Easton and Royce, a family size bag of chips does not count. Trust me, I’ve been told that many times. Over breakfast, I’ll be handing out orders for who is going where to kill some shit.”
Devon pushed off the wall she’d been leaning on and prowled toward me. Her pale green eyes were sharp with laser focus. She stopped right in front of me and crossed her arms over her chest. She looked exactly like her daughter. “You may be my Coven Leader, but Hunter and I are staying here. With our daughter. There’s more to her health than getting sleep, and no offense, but you’re not exactly the ideal role model there. We’re staying.”
I glanced over my shoulder to Hunter and found him nodding. Part of me wanted to argue that we’d be fine, but I knew she was right. My soulmate and I had the tendency to forget to do the normal mundane human things like eat, sleep, or shower. I met Devon’s eyes and grimaced. “Seeing as I can’t tell you the last time either of us ate, I think you’re probably right. You, Hunter, and Bentley will remain here.”
The tension in her shoulders eased.
Braison raised his hand while scratching his dog Albert’s head with his other. I almost laughed at the sight of his red hair sticking straight up, but since no one was sleeping well I let it go. “Um, boss? When are Constance and Daniel back? And Bettina and Jackson?”
“Constance and Daniel won’t be back until the 20th, at the earliest. If I can get them to stay longer, I will. They need this break, so if any of you disturb them I will make you hurt. Got it?” I glared at them all so they knew I was serious. “Hope and Jackson are in London until the 14th so only a few more days there.”
Lily tied her long black hair back. “But we’ve still got Paulina, right? You’re not leaving us, are you?”
Willow’s eyebrows scrunched together. “Why would she leave us?”
“Card or not, she’s with us.” Chutney popped a grape in her mouth. “She’s not going.”
“Wait, was her leaving up for discussion? Was that a possibility?” Easton’s face paled as he looked back and forth between her and me. “Hold up, Tim too? They can’t leave. Right?”
My heart soared. My Coven-mates never let me down. “There may come a time when Paulina and Uncle Tim want to leave us, to do something different with their lives now that they have the freedom to do so. But that will happen when they want it to. Until then, they’re with us.”