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Chapter 1

The scream that came out of Annie’s mouth sounded like it had been scraped out of her throat with a rusty knife. It was like a wounded animal, like a crazy person, like a rat caught in a trap, and her head snapped back against the headrest with a thud.

“Annie!” I shouted, but my voice was lost in the clamor of her screams.

The first scream ended, but then another scream tore out of her, and she began to flail around in the backseat. Diana and Artemis were on either side of her, and they both tried to hold her down without much success.

“Annie!” Artemis yelled. “What the fuck– ow! Fuck!”

“Annie, calm down!” Diana cried.

“Annie, it’s alright!” Chanterelle gasped from her spot in the passenger seat next to me.

“What’s happening back there?” I demanded.

“She fucking hit me in the face!” Artemis said in an outraged tone.

“Let me out!” Annie’s voice was a piercing shriek. “Let me out, let me out, let me out!”

I risked a look over my shoulder.

Annie was bucking in her seat and trying to wriggle out of her seatbelt while also trying to throw off Diana and Artemis’ hands. As soon as one witch captured one of Annie’s arms she managed to wrench free, and when they did manage to get both of her hands in theirs, she contorted her body and brought her knees up to her chest and slammed her feet against the back of my seat.

“Ow!” I yelled as the impact sent a jolt up my spine. “Annie, calm down, you’re safe!”

“No!” Annie screeched.

I kept throwing desperate glances into the rearview mirror to try and get glimpses of what the situation was in the backseat. Every snapshot image I caught showed how wild Annie was.

She forced her hands free from Diana and Artemis’ grip, snapped her seatbelt free, and threw her body across Diana’s knees to reach the car door handle.

The car door swung open, and Diana let out a little scream of panic as Annie threw herself at the outside world.

“Shit, stop her!” Artemis screamed.

I caught a glimpse in my side mirror of the swinging car door and Annie’s wild, horrified face as Artemis and Diana grabbed handfuls of her clothing and tried to haul her back inside.

“I’ve got her!” Diana shouted. “Stop the car!”

I hauled on the wheel and pulled the car over to the side of the road. As soon as the car halted, Annie lunged for the open door again.

I turned around in my seat just in time to see Annie grab a handful of Artemis’ long red waves and give them a fierce yank. Artemis yelped in pain and let go of Annie’s arm. Annie scrambled across Diana’s legs and fell onto her hands and knees on the side of the road.

For a second, I thought the pain of falling out of the car might be enough to stop her. But as I reached to undo my seatbelt, Annie stumbled to her feet and bolted like a terrified deer down the road.

I threw open my door and ran after her.

“Annie!” I shouted.

Annie didn’t even look back but continued on her mad flight. Her clothes were filthy and torn from her digging in the forest after Trevor had possessed her. Her feet were bare, and she was covered in dirt. She was fueled by adrenaline and terror, but even that couldn’t keep her going forever.

Her bare foot caught on something on the road, she stumbled, and I caught up with her.

“Annie,” I tried again, but as soon as I touched her arm, she turned on me.

Her green eyes were wide and sightless in her panic, and she attacked me with the unthinking ferocity of a rabid dog. She slammed her fists against my chest, brought up her knee in an attempt to get me in the crotch, and her filthy fingers with their broken nails hooked into claws as she tried to scratch my face.

I threw my arms around her and pinned her arms to her sides.

“No!” Annie screamed.

Her body bucked and writhed as though she was still possessed by the spirit of the disgusting wizard who’d taken her over. The top of her head clunked me on the bottom of my chin and made me bite my tongue, but I kept my grip on her.

“Annie!” I cried. “It’s okay, you’re okay, you’re safe now, you’re safe! It’s Mike. It’s Mike, and you’re safe.”

Slowly, Annie’s struggling started to fade. I couldn’t tell if she was listening to me or if her body was just too tired to continue.

Her head lolled back on her shoulders, and I looked down into her filthy face. Her eyes rolled back into her head, and her breath wheezed in and out of her parted lips with a hoarse, whistling sound.

“Annie,” I whispered.

Annie’s eyes slowly fluttered open. For a moment, they were as mad and unseeing as they’d been before. But then she blinked, and her vision seemed to clear, and her green irises gazed back at me.

Her lips moved silently, and she swallowed.

“Mike?” she croaked.

“Yes.” I was breathless with relief. “Yes, Annie, it’s Mike.”

“There was… There was…” Annie’s eyes shifted away from me as she took in her surroundings. She looked at the dark trees lining the sides of the road, and then she took in the figures of Diana, Artemis, and Chanterelle who were waiting by the car.

She started to struggle again at the sight of them.

“No, no, no,” she whimpered.

“Annie, Annie,” I said quickly. “It’s okay, you know us, it’s Diana, Artemis, and Chanterelle.”

“Artemis,” Annie whispered. “Artemis.”

“Remember?” Artemis called. “We talked about Oreos at the last WoSBus meeting?”

“WoSBus,” Annie whispered. “Yes. We… At the Hub.”

“That’s right,” I said in an encouraging tone.

“There was a man…” Annie breathed.

Her green eyes suddenly opened wide. She began to struggle against my grip again, and I had to tighten my hold on her to stop her from running away.

“Annie, you’re going to hurt yourself!” I exclaimed. “Stop!”

“He hurt me!” Annie’s voice was a heartbreakingly childlike wail. “I was lost in him!”

“I know,” I whispered. “I know, I’m so sorry.”

Annie’s green eyes searched my face, and then she burst into wild tears.

Sobs shook her entire body, and her filthy fingers crept up to grab handfuls of my shirt. I held her closely to me and stroked her muddy hair back from her stained face while I whispered soothing words into her ear.

“It’s okay,” I murmured. “It’s okay…”

Annie’s sobs rose into a scream. Her hands clenched into fists, and she suddenly pounded on my chest in fury and frustration. I was worried she’d gone back into her mad state, but then her whole body suddenly went limp like a puppet with cut strings. She slumped down in my arms, and I quickly grabbed her to hold her weight.

Artemis and Diana hurried forward to help me. They supported her head and shoulders while I lifted her legs, and together, we managed to take her back to the car. We slid her into the back seat, and Artemis and Diana got in beside her.

Chanterelle slid into the passenger seat and twisted around awkwardly to look at Annie. There was a worried expression on the mushroom girl’s face, and the seatbelt strained under the soft swell of her stomach.

“Chanterelle,” I said gently. “It’s alright. She’ll be okay.”

“Granni said she would,” Diana agreed in a confident tone. “If there’s anyone who knows about the aftereffects of possession, it’s my grandmother.”

“Your dead grandmother,” Artemis muttered. “Maybe things have changed since she was a spirit worker.”

“She’s my ghost grandmother, actually,” Diana protested in an indignant voice.

“And the difference is?” Artemis queried.

“Well…” Diana made a vague gesture with her hand. “You know.”

“I know,” Chanterelle said earnestly.

“See, Chanterelle knows,” Diana told Artemis.

“Chanterelle has baby brain,” Artemis said, and then shook her head in disbelief. “Chanterelle has fucking baby brain.”

“I know.” Chanterelle turned around properly in her seat and cupped her stomach with both hands. There was a soft smile on her face.

I wanted to smile, too. Chanterelle was carrying my baby. That was fucking amazing, but there was just one tiny snag.

Chanterelle had begun her life as a mushroom growing on the ley lines that ran through my hometown of Wormwood. She was now a complicated, complex mixture of mushroom and human, which was weird enough to deal with at the best of times. Earlier today, we’d had sex for the first time.

It had been amazing. It had been perfect. But this evening, Chanterelle had started to feel something inside her, and her stomach had started to swell.

It seemed crazy that anyone could start showing signs of pregnancy just a few hours after having sex.

But that was where we were.

Chanterelle was pregnant with my child, and while a normal pregnancy would give me nine months to get fully prepared for the reality of that, I had no idea when this baby would arrive.

If I thought about it too much, the weirdness of it all threatened to overwhelm me.

But even so.

A baby.

Chanterelle and I were having a baby. I was going to be a dad.

So despite everything, despite all my worries about her pregnancy and what it might mean for Chanterelle, I couldn’t not return her smile when she looked around at me.

I reached over, took her soft hand in mine, and kissed her knuckles. Then I started the car and continued the drive back to town.

Artemis and Diana supported Annie in the backseat, and I kept a close eye on my rearview mirror in case she suddenly woke up again, but we made it back to Wormwood without incident.

It was only when I pulled the car up outside Artemis’ shop, where she and Diana lived in the apartment above, that I realized there was still one more problem.

“Hey.” I turned around in my seat to look at the two witches. “Do either of you know where Annie lives?”

“Oh.” Diana looked down at the unconscious woman still lying senseless in the backseat. “No, I don’t.”

“Don’t you know, Mike?” Artemis asked me.

“No, I don’t,” I replied. “Why would I know?”

“Well…” Artemis wiggled her light brown eyebrows at me. “All those long chats you and Annie had together… all those intense glances you shared with her…”

“I don’t know what kinds of glances you’re used to,” I replied in a dignified voice, “but they don’t usually come with an address.”

“Don’t they?” Artemis snickered.

I heaved an exasperated sigh. “Artemis…”

“Alright, alright.” She shook her head. “I guess none of us know where she lives.”

“She can stay with us, though, can’t she, Mike?” Chanterelle asked.

“Yeah, Mike.” Artemis grinned. “Annie can stay the night with you, can’t she?”

I shot Artemis a mock-glare, which only made her crack a wicked grin.

“Alright, then,” I said. “We’ll keep Annie for the night, and hopefully in the morning, she’ll be feeling well enough to go home.”

“Orrrrrrr…” Artemis drawled. “She’ll have to stay over every night, and you can tend to her with your big, huge–”

I made a grab for Artemis to get her to shut up before she could finish her sentence, but the red-headed witch slipped out of my grasp, opened the door, and jumped out of the car.

“Muscles,” she finished, and raised her eyebrows at me in an innocent way. “Why, Mike, what did you think I meant?”

I shook my head in defeat while Diana and Chanterelle giggled.

Diana got out of the car, and the two witches waved to us as I drove away. I maneuvered the car around the edge of the town square and stopped outside Time & Space. The comic book store looked very big and dark, and the black windows gleamed in the street lights, but the sight of my home sent relief easing through all of the tension in my muscles.

Chanterelle looked out of the window and gave a little sigh. When I looked around at her, her hands were back on her stomach in a protective circle, and she was smiling softly.

“It’s nice to come home,” she said.

I smiled. “Yeah, it really is, isn’t it?”

We both got out of the car, and I went around to the back door to get Annie out. Chanterelle moved to help me, but I waved her away.

“No, it’s okay,” I said.

“I can help,” she protested. “I know I’m small, but I’m not feeble.”

“Chanterelle.” I smiled. “I know you’re not feeble. But you’re also pregnant.”

Chanterelle looked down at her stomach and nodded.

“I am gravid,” she said in a solemn tone.

I guessed “gravid” was another word for pregnant. Through the ley lines, Chanterelle was aware of all the things going on in the town at the same time, which meant she had a tendency to say and do things that were sometimes eccentric. Keeping up with her weird vocabulary choices was just one of the many things I’d had to get used to.

“Yeah,” I said. “And when you’re, uh, gravid, you shouldn’t lift heavy things. I know that much.”

“Oh!” Chanterelle’s blue eyes opened wide, and she skipped back from the car.

I leaned in and managed to slide Annie out from the back seat. She was still unconscious, so I lifted her in my arms and carried her like a bride to the front door of the shop. Chanterelle closed the car door behind us, scurried after me, and reached into my jacket pocket to take out my keys.

She unlocked the front door and went in ahead of me to switch on the lights. Once I was inside, she locked the door behind us and hurried forward to open the door that led up from the shop floor to my apartment above.

I was puffing a bit by the time I got into my apartment, and I was very glad to kick open the door to my bedroom and gently place Annie on the bed.

I took a step back and exhaled in relief.

“She’s still asleep,” Chanterelle whispered.

“Yeah,” I said.

“And she’s so dirty,” Chanterelle said.

“I know.” I didn’t really know what to do about that. I wasn’t going to wash someone while they were unconscious, but at the same time, it wasn’t very nice to sleep in mud-encrusted clothing.

I compromised by going to the bathroom and soaking a washcloth in warm water. I came back with it and gently wiped some of the dirt away from Annie’s cheeks and forehead. She still looked like she’d been dragged through a hedge backward. The palms of her hands and her knees were scraped where she’d fallen onto the road, and her bare feet were bruised and cut. There was a scrape on one cheek and a dark smear of dried blood on her chin where it looked like she’d bitten her lip.

I cleaned her up as best I could, and even through my attempts with the washcloth, she didn’t stir at all.

Chanterelle stroked back a filthy strand of Annie’s normally bright blonde hair. She looked sad, and I touched her arm gently and nodded my head toward the door to indicate that we should go.

Chanterelle nodded and got up. I followed her out of the bedroom and went into the bathroom to rinse out the washcloth and wash my hands.

“I think I might have a shower,” Chanterelle said.

“Okay.” I looked at her closely. “Are you alright?”

“Mm.” She nodded and then sighed. “I am troubled about Annie. It hurts me that she ended up being possessed by Trevor through our association with her.”

“You don’t know that,” I said in a firm tone.

“But we know Annie,” Chanterelle said. “And we know Trevor.”

“We also know Cindy from the diner,” I said. “And Len from the hardware shop, and Luke from the mechanic’s. None of them were possessed by Trevor.”

“I suppose so.” Chanterelle sighed again.

“Hey.” I went over to her and touched her chin so she would look at me. “I think this was just an unfortunate accident. Trevor could have possessed anyone. He was looking for an easy target, and unfortunately, Annie was right there. She’s so nice and unsuspecting, plus she has connections with almost everyone in town through the WoSBus. She must have seemed like the perfect target for him.”

“But actually she wasn’t.” Chanterelle brightened. “Because we knew her, so we fought hard to save her.”

“Yeah, exactly.” I smiled. “We saved her. We exorcised Trevor– with the help of Diana’s grandmother, and now we’re going to take good care of her while she’s here.”

Chanterelle nodded. She stood up on her tiptoes and gave me a quick kiss on the cheek.

“Thank you, Mike,” she whispered.

“You’re welcome.” I smiled at her. “Would you like a cup of coffee?”

“Yes, please,” Chanterelle said.

She closed the door of the bathroom, and I heard the sound of the water starting.

I went into the kitchen and dumped a filter and fresh grounds into the coffee machine. Sure, maybe it was almost eleven o’clock at night, but that wasn’t going to stop me from getting my caffeine fix.

My hands suddenly halted in their automatic process of making coffee, and I pulled my phone out of my pocket. I typed out “can you have coffee while you’re pregnant” and hit search.

“During pregnancy, all drinks with significant levels of caffeine such as coffee, soda, and energy drinks should be restricted,” I read out loud. “For instance, coffee intake should be limited to one cup a day.”

I frowned and typed “what happens if you have too much caffeine while you’re pregnant” into the search bar.

“When a woman has caffeine during pregnancy, it passes through the placenta to her baby,” I read out. “The placenta supplies the baby with food and oxygen through the umbilical cord. Some studies say that too much caffeine during pregnancy can cause miscarriage, stillbirth, preterm birth, and low birth weight. Other studies are undecided whether this is true or not.”

Holy shit.

I had no idea caffeine could be that dangerous. The other website had said that caffeine was still okay to have in small doses, but I really didn’t want to take any chances on this. Besides, these sites were only talking about human women. There was no way of knowing what effect caffeine might have on Chanterelle during her pregnancy. She was a mushroom as well as a human, and this was no ordinary pregnancy.

To me, it seemed like the safest thing to do would be for Chanterelle to avoid caffeine altogether.

I heaved a deep sigh at the thought. I’d converted Chanterelle to my coffee-addict ways, and she was almost as avid a drinker of the stuff as I was. This was going to hit her hard.

I put a spoonful of coffee grounds back into the bag and rummaged in the cupboards for the boxes of herbal tea I kept for Artemis. She was a green witch, which meant her magic was tied to plants and the natural world, so in addition to being an enthusiastic recycler, Artemis was also a big fan of herbal tea.

I’d tried some of it a few times, but the fruity stuff tasted like hot juice, and the other stuff tasted like hot grass.

I normally always made Chanterelle coffee to drink with me, so I wasn’t sure what kind of tea she would prefer. I got out all the boxes anyway and lined them up on the counter so she could easily pick one when she got out of the shower. Then I filled the electric kettle with water and put it ready to boil as soon as Chanterelle was ready.

I picked out two mugs from the collection of novelty drinkware I’d inherited from my Uncle Billy, along with the shop and the apartment. One read “Show Me Your Kitties” underneath an illustrated picture of a cat with a pink bow around its neck. The other read “Addicted To Pot” and was accompanied by an image of a pot of coffee.

Uncle Billy’s dumb mugs always made me smile, and I shook my head to myself as I turned on the coffee machine and listened to the water heat and gurgle inside its inner mechanism. The fragrant fumes began to rise from the machine, and the coffee bubbled out into the pot.

I poured myself a cup of coffee in the “Addicted To Pot” mug and was getting the milk out of the fridge when Chanterelle appeared in the kitchen doorway. She was wearing a fuzzy pink robe, her silvery-brown hair was tousled and wet, and her face was clean and glowing from the hot water.

I smiled at the sight of her. Chanterelle was barely five feet tall, and she was as curvy and soft as a stuffed animal, which was only accentuated by the fuzzy pink robe she wore. Her tiny bare toes peeked out from underneath the robe’s hem, and the sight made my stomach flip a little in a mixture of excitement, desire, and affection.

“Mm, that coffee smells so good,” Chanterelle sighed.

“Ah, actually,” I said in an apologetic tone. “I Googled it, and apparently, too much caffeine can be dangerous when you’re pregnant.”

“Oh, well, that’s alright,” Chanterelle said. “I just won’t have any caffeine.”

“Coffee has caffeine in it,” I said with a sheepish smile. “Unless you drink decaf.”

“What? No!” Chanterelle gasped in outrage that would have seemed theatrical if I hadn’t known how much she loved coffee. “But I have to have coffee!”

“I’m sorry,” I said with a sigh. “Some of the sites I looked at said that it’s okay to have a very small amount of caffeine while you’re pregnant. But if you have too much of it, there’s risks like the baby dying before it’s born or coming out too small to survive well on its own.”

“Mm.” Chanterelle frowned. “That’s horrible.”

“Yeah,” I agreed.

Chanterelle stuck out her lower lip and looked at the coffee pot with a mournful expression of longing on her face.

“I can still have a small amount, though?” she asked.

I hesitated.

Technically, that was true, but I would have much rather preferred that Chanterelle completely abstain from all caffeine until the baby was born. But I wasn’t the one who was going to have to deal with no coffee for nine months, so it wasn’t really my choice to make. I couldn’t tell Chanterelle what to do. But it was still my baby, so I figured I had the right to say what I thought about it.

But before I could speak, Chanterelle heaved a deep sigh.

“No,” she said. “I shouldn’t have any coffee at all. If even a small bit of caffeine can hurt a human baby, like you said, it might be even more dangerous for a human-and-mushroom baby.”

I let out my breath in a sigh of relief. “I’m really glad you said that, Chanterelle. That’s what I was thinking too, but I didn’t want to tell you what to do. I’m the last person on earth who would advise anyone to give up coffee.”

“You can still tell me what you think about the baby,” Chanterelle said. “After all, it’s your baby, too.”

“I know.” I nodded my head. “I was going to suggest it to you. I just didn’t want it to come across like I was telling you what to do. It’s your body, Chanterelle.”

“Yes…” Chanterelle looked again at the coffee maker, and her lower lip stuck out in a pout.

I reached over to squeeze her shoulder sympathetically.

“I’m sorry, hon,” I said again. “I can’t imagine going without coffee for nine months.”

Chanterelle looked down at her stomach, and the woeful expression on her face softened.

“It’ll all be worth it,” she said softly, and she gazed up at me with an expression of pure tenderness in her big blue eyes. “To carry your child inside me, Mike, it’s all worth it.”

My throat felt a little tight. I coughed and gestured to the boxes of tea on the side.

“You can have herbal tea,” I said. “These don’t have caffeine in them.”

“Oh!” Chanterelle’s face instantly became more cheerful. “Oh, at least I can have tea! That is good news indeed.”

“Good to hear.” I smiled and flicked the kettle on to boil the water. “Which one would you like?”

Chanterelle leaned over and picked up a dark purple box.

“Have A Berry Nice Time,” she told me in such an unknowingly deadpan way that it made me chuckle.

I dropped the tea bag into the “Show Me Your Kitties” mug and covered it with boiling water.

Chanterelle leaned over the mug and inhaled the fumes with a sigh of satisfaction.

“Even if I can’t have coffee,” she said, “this is almost just as good.”

The tea smelled like hot grape juice with some cinnamon in it to me, but so long as Chanterelle was happy with the substitute, that was all that mattered.

We took our hot drinks into the front room, and I pulled the cushions off the couch and chairs to make a cobbled-together makeshift mattress on the floor. We’d done this kind of thing before when we’d all had to sleep together in the apartment, and I was getting pretty good at constructing what Chanterelle called a “sleep nest.”

I started with a base of couch cushions, and built it up around the edges with smaller throw pillows, and then added a couple of blankets, some more throw pillows, and then several more blankets on top of everything.

Chanterelle sank down into the middle of the nest and wriggled around to get comfortable. She smiled up at me from the middle of her nest and wrapped one of the blankets around her shoulders.

She was such a cute sight that I wanted to squeeze her and crush her against me in a way that would probably break all her ribs. I consoled myself by sitting next to her in the nest and moving close enough that our hips touched while we sat and enjoyed our drinks.

I stole sideways glances at Chanterelle as she sipped her herbal tea, but then she turned around to look at me, and she met one of my secret glances.

“What?” she asked.

I’d been found out.

“Are you okay?” I asked her.

“It’s not the same,” she said with a little sigh. “But I know I’ll get used to it. And it’s not forever, is it? How long is it normally?”

I stared at her in confusion.

Chanterelle lifted her pale eyebrows and tapped a fingernail on the side of her mug.

“Caffeine,” she reminded me. “How long is it before I can have coffee again?”

“Oh, right,” I said. “You were talking about coffee.”

“Yes.” She frowned. “What were you talking about?”

I held back a laugh. “I was talking about everything that happened tonight. Seeing Diana raise her grandmother’s ghost, finding Annie burying that dead cat along the ley lines, finding out Trevor was possessing her and then having to perform an impromptu exorcism on her, the sudden stop on the drive back… It was a lot to happen in one evening.”

“It was.” Chanterelle nodded her head in agreement. “Is it bad if a lot happens in one evening? While one is burgeoning forth?”

“You can just say you’re pregnant, you know,” I said with a wry grin.

“I don’t like the word pregnant,” Chanterelle confessed. “I don’t like how it feels in my mouth.”

“Feels?” I repeated. “It’s a word, Chanterelle, not a physical object.”

“I know,” she said solemnly. “But it still takes up too much space on my tongue. I don’t like the shapes my mouth has to form in order to voice it. Pregnant. Preg-nant.”

She shuddered.

“Okay, I’m sorry,” I said with some amusement. “You prefer… gravid?”

“Gravid sounds dignified.” She gave a determined nod. “Gravid. Like grave. Graaaaave. Not like preg-nant.”

She pulled her chin into her chest and hunched her shoulders to give a visual demonstration of her feelings about the word. She looked so comical that I laughed.

“Okay,” I said. “I’ll try to remember that. Gravid, not pregnant.”

“In the family way.” Chanterelle smoothed her hands down over her stomach. “With a bun in the oven. In the club. Fecund. Expecting. Eating for two. Up the duff.”

“I’ve heard of maybe two of those phrases,” I said.

“My experience is wide-ranging,” she replied with a smile.

“Clearly.” I took another sip of coffee. “Mine isn’t, though. I had to Google whether you could have caffeine or not. I didn’t have any brothers or sisters, I don’t have any nephews or nieces, I don’t even know anyone who’s had a kid.”

“Surely it can’t be too foreign a concept?” Chanterelle looked anxiously at me over the rim of her mug. “Humans have been procreating for many years now.”

“Yeah,” I replied with a wry smile, “but I don’t want to just procreate with you, Chanterelle, I want to make sure you and the baby have everything you need to be as happy and healthy as possible.”

The worried expression left Chanterelle’s face, and she smiled at me with a soft light in her eyes.

“I forget, sometimes,” she said. “How much you care. How safe I am with you.”

“Of course.” I put my arm around her waist, and Chanterelle leaned her head against my shoulder. “I love you. You’ve changed my life so much, and now you’re having my baby… It’s incredible. You’re incredible. You deserve every amazing and perfect thing I could possibly give you.”

Chanterelle gave a little sigh of happiness and pressed her body closer against mine.

We stayed like that for a little while, and then I downed the last few mouthfuls of my coffee.

“Drink up,” I said to Chanterelle. “You need your rest.”

Chanterelle obediently finished her cup of tea, and then I took both mugs back to the kitchen.

Chanterelle went into the bathroom to brush her teeth and change from her robe into the old band shirt of mine that she wore to sleep in. It hung well past her hips, and I loved the sight of her round, dimpled knees and the soft sweep of her calves and tiny toes on full display.

I got ready for bed as well, and then we both snuggled down into the sleep nest on the front room floor.

Chanterelle pressed close to me, and I breathed in deeply to get the full smell of her hair. She smelled like earth after rain, like sun-warmed grass, and like a fresh spring day.

Chanterelle giggled softly. “Are you smelling me?”

“Yes,” I replied and squeezed her tightly. “You smell so good.”

“Mm,” she murmured. “You smell like coffee. And magic.”

“I’m going to visit the library tomorrow,” I said. “Lily might be able to recommend some books about magical pregnancies.”

“Mm,” Chanterelle sighed again.

I pressed a kiss against her hairline and closed my eyes.

Chanterelle was asleep in a few seconds, but I stayed awake a little while longer to enjoy the sound of her steady breathing and how her body seemed to become even softer in her sleep.

But eventually, the events of the day caught up with me, and I fell deep into sleep.

I slept without dreams and probably could have stayed asleep for much longer, but something woke me.

I laid still for a moment with my eyes half-open as I tried to figure out what had woken me up. I was lying with my arms wrapped around Chanterelle’s waist, and the silky, fine strands of her hair were tickling my nose. But that wasn’t it. There was something else.

I blinked my eyes a couple of times, sighed, and turned my head to survey the room.

And that was when I saw Annie standing at the foot of our sleep nest.

Chapter 2

“Annie!” I exclaimed.

She was still in the filthy skirt and blouse she’d been wearing last night. The mud on her skin had dried to a patchy gray color, and her hair was dull and mottled with dirt. She looked like she’d just stepped out of a survival movie.

Her lips were pressed tightly together, and her eyes were locked on me like she wanted to bore a hole through my skull. She looked fucking furious.

My exclamation had woken Chanterelle, and she stirred sleepily in my arms, then looked up and let out a little cry of her own when she saw Annie.

“Good morning,” Annie said in the way a less polite person might have said “fuck you.”

“How are you?” I asked as I sat up. “How are you feeling?”

“How am I feeling?” Annie tapped her finger against her chin in an exaggerated gesture. “Hmm. I’m not sure.”

“Okay.” I pushed the blankets down and started to get up, but Annie flinched away from me and took a couple of steps back.

There was a little silence while all three of us processed that.

I took a deep breath and tried not to show how much that little gesture had hurt my feelings.

“It’s okay,” I said in a calm voice. “We can explain everything.”

“That would be nice,” Annie said stiffly. “I would appreciate that. Thank you.”

“Would you like to shower first?” Chanterelle suggested in a helpful way. “Everything seems scarier when you’re covered in mud.”

Annie stared at her as though she’d grown an extra head.

“I don’t think I want to ask about how you have reached that conclusion,” she said.

Chanterelle’s forehead wrinkled in confusion, and she glanced from Annie to me.

“She means,” I explained, “that clearly you’ve been covered in mud enough times so you know how it makes you feel.”

“Oh. Yes.” Chanterelle still looked confused. “But hasn’t everyone been covered in mud?”

“Strangely enough,” Annie said in a very calm voice, “this is my first time.”

“Annie,” I said, “what would you like to do? You’re in charge here, you’re calling the shots. Do you want to shower? Or do you want to hear what happened first?”

It was the right thing to say. A tiny bit of the tension left Annie’s rigid form. By giving her control over how the situation played out, it helped to soothe some of the anxiety she must have been feeling.

“Explanation first,” she said, and then she added with a slightly embarrassed expression. “Please.”

I couldn’t tell if she was embarrassed because she felt like she’d been rude to us before, or if she was embarrassed because even now, covered in mud and totally confused, she still felt like she had to be polite to us.

My initial impression of Annie had been that she was someone who, if they were kidnapped by masked bandits, would probably feel bad about having inconvenienced them. She wasn’t a pushover by any means, and the fact that she was standing in front of us and demanding an explanation was a sign of her inner strength. But no matter what the situation, Annie always tried to be polite and kind to everyone.

Which was probably why Trevor had been able to target her so easily.

I took a deep breath.

“Okay,” I said. “I’m going to start at the beginning.”

I told her everything.

How Chanterelle had appeared in the basement of the shop during the big storm that had covered the town for three days and nights. I told her how she was magical because of the magical grid of power that ran through the town. How Artemis and Diana were actually real witches, and how Lily, the librarian, helped us with research and had been a part of banishing the ghosts that had filled Wormwood just a few months earlier. How the power of the ley lines had been concentrated into a wellspring located in the basement of my shop, and how I controlled people’s access to the magic so they couldn’t run wild and hurt the regular people of Wormwood. How that had been decided at a magical conference, which was where we’d first met Trevor.

Annie stiffened at the mention of Trevor’s name.

“He came into the hub,” she said.

“Yes.” I nodded. “He planted a sigil in your pocket that allowed him to possess you.”

Annie shuddered but nodded for me to continue.

I told her how we’d seen cryptids appearing all over the town and had traced it all back to Trevor, who was trying to create a being of magical power that he could use as his own personal power source. He’d buried random objects along the ley lines to see if anything would grow into something he could control. And after we’d stopped him and turned him over to the mysterious trio of women called the Three who acted as the magical authorities around here, he’d activated the sigil in Annie’s pocket and forced her to carry on his dirty work.

“When we found you,” I said, “you were burying a dead cat.”

Annie’s filthy hand flew to her mouth in horror. “Did I– oh, god, did I kill someone’s cat?”

“I don’t think so,” I hurried to reassure her. “It looked kind of mangy, so maybe you dug it up– maybe Trevor made you dig it up from somewhere else so you could rebury it at the nexus point in the woods.”

“The nexus point.” She took a deep breath. “That’s where the ley lines converge?”

“Yes,” I said. “It’s a very powerful place of magic.”

“Alright.” She took another steadying breath.

I explained how we’d gone to the woods so Diana could summon her grandmother’s ghost, like she did every year. Her grandmother had worked with spirits when she was alive. Diana was a clairvoyant witch, and the two of them had helped with the ritual to exorcise Trevor’s spirit from Annie’s body.

“Then you collapsed,” I said. “Diana’s grandmother said you would be okay, you just needed to rest and recover. So we started to drive you home, and then you, um, woke up in the car and freaked out.”

“I don’t remember that at all.” Annie frowned.

“What’s the last thing you do remember?” I asked.

“Being in the WoSBus hub,” she said. “Planning the Halloween trail. Oh, did the trail go okay?”

The fact that even in the middle of her ordeal, Annie was still concerned with how her project had gone made me smile.

“It went great,” I said. “It was a really good time, and I think everyone had fun.”

“That’s something at least.” She exhaled. “That’s something.”

“So,” I said, “we managed to calm you down, and then you collapsed again. We drove back to town, and then we realized we didn’t know where you lived, and it was probably not a great idea to leave you by yourself in your current state, so we brought you here.”

“And here is?” Annie asked.

“Oh, shit, sorry,” I said. “This is my apartment. Above my shop.”

Annie nodded slowly.

For a long moment, there was silence.

I exchanged a quick glance with Chanterelle, who was watching Annie with wide, anxious eyes.

Annie stayed silent.

“I’m gravid,” Chanterelle suddenly burst out.

I bugged out my eyes at her in surprise, but it worked.

“Gravid?” Annie repeated in shock. “Pregnant? You’re pregnant?”

“Yes.” Chanterelle nodded. “It just happened.”

“But…” Annie pushed back her dirty hair from her forehead. “But aren’t you… I mean, you said you were… You grew, didn’t you? On the ley lines?”

“Yes.” Chanterelle nodded again.

“So you’re a mushroom,” Annie said.

“Yes.” Chanterelle nodded.

“And you’re pregnant,” Annie said. “With… Mike’s baby?”

Chanterelle nodded.

Annie swallowed.

“I think I would like a shower now, please,” she said in a little voice.

“Sure.” I got up quickly and led her to the bathroom.

Annie caught sight of her reflection in the mirror on the wall and shivered.

“I look terrible,” she said.

“It’s just dirt,” I said in a comforting voice. “Okay, there’s towels here, the shower’s pretty self-explanatory, and there’s shampoo in that bottle, conditioner over there, and body wash here. And there’s lotion and some hair serum things in the cupboard if you need them.”

“Hair serum?” Annie echoed.

“Not mine,” I clarified quickly. “They’re Chanterelle’s. And some belong to Artemis, whenever she stays over.”

“Oh, yes…” Annie said slowly. “Artemis has long hair, doesn’t she? And it’s wavy.”

“I offered to include some of Diana’s hair products here as well,” I said with a wry chuckle. “But she informed me that hair wash days are too much of a process to take place here.”

“Yes…” Annie managed a weak laugh.

I really wanted to pull her into a hug. She looked so lost and desolate. But I restrained myself and just smiled at her instead.

“Okay,” I said. “Well, you’ve got everything you need. I’m going to make breakfast. Are you good with toast? I have jam and honey and, oh, yeah, I have some dairy-free butter as well, if you want.”

“Artemis?” Annie asked.

“Yeah.” I smiled. “I’d never even heard of oat milk before she came back to Wormwood, but now I have a surprisingly diverse pantry thanks to her.”

Annie nodded and managed a small smile. “Toast is good.”

“Coffee?” I asked. “Or tea? I’ve got black tea or herbal.”

“Black tea, please,” she said. “With oat milk.”

“Great,” I said with a nod.

I closed the bathroom door and went into the bedroom to get dressed.

Chanterelle was already in there and rummaging through her space in the chest of drawers.

“The bed is dirty,” she said. “With mud and things. But I didn’t strip it for you in case that was also a bad thing to do while one is gravid.”

I gave her a look.

Chanterelle giggled mischievously.

“You’ll do anything to get out of changing the sheets, won’t you?” I grinned.

“Ugh, but the sheets are so biiiiig,” she complained. “I get all lost and tangled in them, and then I get so sweaty from wrestling with them.”

“Fine,” I chuckled. “But you’re not going to use your condition to get out of doing the dishes.”

Chanterelle pouted in a way that was extremely cute.

I stripped the bed of its dirty sheets and took them into the kitchen where I shoved them into the washing machine.

When I went back into the bedroom, Chanterelle had shed her sleep shirt and was now wearing long, olive-green corduroy cargo shorts and a burgundy lace bralette. She was in the process of pulling a camisole made of dark pink velvet over her head, and she smoothed it down over her stomach and then looked down at herself in surprise.

She looked up at me as I came in.

“I think I’ve gotten bigger,” she exclaimed.

“Damn.” I stared at her in shock. “Yes, you have.”

Last night, Chanterelle’s stomach had swelled out in a soft curve. It had been noticeable, but not by much. This morning, she had a definite roundness showing. The velvet camisole stretched over her belly and showed off what was clearly a baby bump.

“Wow,” I breathed. “Look at you.”

Chanterelle went to the full-length mirror I’d hung up on the back of the door after her request. She turned to the side and rested one hand on top of her stomach while the other cradled it from below.

“Look at me,” she whispered. “Look at how I’m changing.”

“You are,” I agreed. “I was thinking earlier that maybe you should avoid traveling by the ley lines for now. If you absorb down into the ground, it might hurt the baby in some way.”

“Okay.” Chanterelle nodded in agreement.

I went to stand behind her, and I wrapped my arms around her small, soft, round body.

“Can I touch it?” I asked in a soft voice.

“Of course!” Chanterelle nodded eagerly.

I reached out and placed my hand lightly against Chanterelle’s stomach. She took my hand in hers and guided it to a spot a bit lower down and on the side. When Chanterelle pressed my hand there, I jumped in shock.

“I felt it!” I blurted out. “I felt something!”

“Yes.” Chanterelle’s eyes gleamed with misty tears as an enormous smile spread across both our faces. “You felt our baby, Mike.”

My heart was so full, I couldn’t say anything. Instead, I just turned Chanterelle around and kissed her gently on the lips. Her mouth was soft and eager under mine, and I had to hold myself back from continuing the kiss any further.

“Annie,” I reminded her.

“I know.” Chanterelle nodded, licked her lips, and smiled at me. “Does she want coffee?”

“Black tea,” I answered. “What would you like?”

“Rooibos chai, I think,” she replied. “It has a nice spiciness to it that is almost as good as coffee.”

I heartily doubted that, but I just smiled.

I pulled on my usual outfit of black Levi’s and a plain black t-shirt, Chanterelle donned an enormous fluffy brown cardigan that helped disguise her bump, and we went into the kitchen together to start breakfast.

I’d just started the coffee maker when the bathroom door opened.

“Mike,” Annie called. “Can I put my clothes in your washer?”

“Yeah, of course,” I called back. “Just dump them outside the bathroom. There are clothes in the closet and in the dresser in the bedroom, and you can borrow whatever you want.”

“Thank you,” Annie called.

“I’ll go and help her,” Chanterelle said with a nod.

She went out of the kitchen, and I heard the low murmur of her voice as she spoke to Annie before the bedroom door opened and closed.

I poked my head out of the kitchen, saw the bathroom door was open and a little pile of filthy clothes was on the floor outside. Chanterelle and Annie must have gone into the bedroom.

I scooped up Annie’s clothes, dumped them in the washing machine and set it to a quick cycle, cleaned my hands, and went back to making toast and tea for everyone.

In a short amount of time, I had a plate piled high with pieces of hot buttered toast. I took it into the front room along with Chanterelle and Annie’s mugs of tea and my mug of coffee.

The bedroom door opened, and Chanterelle and Annie came into the front room. Annie looked a lot better than she had before. Her bright blonde bob was still damp, but it was clean and brushed. She was wearing a long, dark pink, ruffled skirt that I recognized as Chanterelle’s and a long black knitted sweater that Artemis had left here. The skirt was much shorter on Annie than it was on Chanterelle, and she wore a thick leather belt around her waist, so I guessed it was a little bigger around the waist as well.

“You look good,” I said with a smile.

“Thank you.” Annie came into the room and perched on the edge of the couch next to me.

I was encouraged that she was able to sit down near me, even if she still looked very tense.

I pushed the mug of tea and plate of toast toward her.

Annie took the mug and lifted her eyebrows at the design on the side, which said “I Was Going To Drink Decaf, But Then I Took An Arrow To The Knee.”

“Sorry,” I apologized. “All of my mugs and cups come from my Uncle Billy. I inherited them, and I’m too sentimental to throw them away.”

“I suppose they make for interesting conversation starters as well,” Annie said with a small smile. “What does it mean?”

“Oh, god,” I said with a chuckle. “It’s a really old meme from a game called Skyrim.”

“I’ve heard of Skyrim,” Annie said. “I’ve never played it, but I’ve heard of it.”

“And now you’re drinking from a meme of it,” I said.

“Yes, I am.” Annie smiled, a bit more enthusiastically this time, and sipped her tea. “Mm. This is good. Very nice.”

“Diana’s influence,” I said. “You’d think it was only a stereotype that British people are really into their tea, but actually it turns out that with Diana it’s one hundred percent accurate.”

That did make Annie laugh properly.

“Well, next time I see her,” she said, “I’ll compliment her on her choice of tea.”

I smiled and took a piece of toast.

We ate mostly in silence, but it wasn’t an uncomfortable silence. Annie sipped her tea, and Chanterelle was busy putting away slice after slice of toast.

“I’m eating for two!” she protested when I pointed out that she’d already had four slices.

“What does it… feel like?” Annie asked Chanterelle in a hesitant voice. “You don’t have to answer that if it’s too personal.”

“It feels like…” Chanterelle considered the question for a moment. “It feels like I’ve eaten something really nice. But also like I need to pee.”

I snorted out a laugh.

Annie smiled and took another slice of toast.

I was glad to see her eating. And smiling. I knew what she’d been through was more than someone could just shake off with a hot shower and a cup of tea, but it was still a good sign that she was able to function. I was sure some people might be comatose after going through something like the events of last night.

We heard the front door of the shop bang closed downstairs, and Annie jumped a little.

“It’s okay,” I reassured her. “It’s just Jay opening up the shop.”

“Oh, yes, of course.” She shook her head. “That was silly of me.”

“No, it wasn’t.” I spoke gently.

Annie glanced at me and then looked away.

“Do you need to go down now and start work?” she asked without looking at me.

“No.” I shook my head. “Perks of being the boss. I’m going to the library today to do some research.”

“Lily,” Annie remembered. “The librarian.”

“Yeah,” I replied.

“I’m going to help Jay in the shop,” Chanterelle said. “I like helping him.”

“Only if you’re not too tired,” I warned her. “If you get tired or feel sick or weird in any way, then you come straight back up here and have a nap, alright?”

Chanterelle nodded solemnly.

“I suppose I should be getting back home,” Annie said.

There was a hesitant note in her voice, and she seemed to shrink in on herself a little bit at the thought of leaving the apartment.

“Do you want any company?” I offered. “I can walk you home on my way to the library.”

“My apartment isn’t anywhere near the library,” Annie said.

“That’s okay.” I smiled. “I could use the exercise. And it’s a really nice day for a walk.”

Annie took a deep breath. “Okay. Yes, please.”

“Great.” I stood up. “Did Chanterelle find you some shoes?”

“Our sizes are very close!” Chanterelle said with a smile.

“My feet are a bit bigger,” Annie said. “But, yes, Chanterelle found me some sneakers. Thank you, Chanterelle, I’ll make sure to get them back to you.”

“You can keep them,” Chanterelle said. “I don’t often wear them because they’re too big for me, so if you want to, you can keep them.”

“Thank you.” Annie looked at Chanterelle with genuine affection.

The two of them seemed to have bonded a little, and I was glad to see that Annie wasn’t totally isolating herself.

Chanterelle and I cleaned up the breakfast things, and then all three of us went downstairs.

Jay and his girlfriend Amber were behind the desk with their lips locked.

They were so engaged in their makeout session that they didn’t even notice we’d come down.

I cleared my throat loudly, and the two of them sprang apart from each other like they’d been zapped with a cattle prod.

“Oh! Mike!” Jay blurted out.

“I’m– we’re–” Amber stammered. “We didn’t–”

“Relax, guys,” I chuckled. “You’ve still got a few minutes before it’s opening time.”

“Sorry.” Jay’s face flamed bright red. “We just–”

“I know,” I said with a grin.

“I’m going to go…” Amber sidled out from behind the counter and made her way to the door.

I chuckled and held it open for her to leave.

“Sorry, Mike.” Jay was wriggling uncomfortably. “I didn’t know you were there.”

“Relax, Jay.” I grinned. “I don’t mind if you take a few minutes to yourself before the shop has to open.”

“Yes.” Jay cleared his throat. “I… I mean, we… Yes.”

“Don’t worry,” I told him. “I’m going out now.”

“Okay.” He coughed awkwardly. “Um. Yes. S-see you later.”

Chanterelle went over, leaned on the counter, and grinned at Jay.

“Jay and Amber,” she sang. “Sitting in a tree…”

“No!” Jay commanded her.

I grinned and held the door open for Annie to go out in front of me. She stepped out onto the street, and I followed her closely and threw her a quick glance as she paused on the edge of the curb.

She’d been doing so well, but I knew firsthand how weird it was to enter the everyday normal world after experiencing something magical.

It was disorientating as hell.

“How are you holding up?” I asked her in a low voice.

Annie gave a brave nod. “I’m okay. Really, I am. It’s just…”

“I know,” I said.

“Do you?” she asked in a plaintive voice.

“Like everything normal is somehow so normal that it becomes weird again?” I said. “Or like everything normal is suddenly dangerous and scary because what if it’s not normal, what if it’s actually magical or paranormal?”

“Yeah, that one.” She shivered.

“It’s okay.” I put my hand lightly on her arm. “It really will be. You’ll adjust. It’s just this first stage that’s difficult as hell to get through.”

Annie nodded.

She didn’t move for a long moment, and I didn’t want to push her. She needed to approach this at her own pace.

Finally, she spoke in a little voice. “Can I hold your hand?”

“Of course.” I slipped my hand into hers and gave it a soft squeeze.

Annie seemed to draw some strength from the physical contact. She drew in a deep breath, lifted her head, and then stepped forward in a determined way.

I looked down at the defiant lift of her small chin, at the curve of her still-pale cheek, and the way she made herself lift her eyes from the ground. A glow of pride warmed my heart, and without meaning to, my fingers tightened around hers.

“You’re doing really well,” I said in a low tone. “I mean it. You’re fucking incredible.”

“Really?” Annie looked around at me, and I read the depth of her emotion in her green eyes.

She was smiling, but it was only a surface movement of her facial features. Her eyes told the real story: she might be pretending to be confident and in control, but in reality, she was terrified.

“Really,” I confirmed. “Seriously, when I found out magic was real, it was such a mindfuck. I didn’t know what to believe or what to think. Nowadays, I just kind of get on with stuff, but when I actually stop to think about what my life has become, it just… it fucking blows my mind.”

“Part of me still doesn’t believe it, I think,” Annie said in a hesitant way. “I know you and Chanterelle explained it all, but I just… I can’t believe it.”

“Really?” I looked down at her in surprise.

Annie bit her lower lip and then winced as she found the tender spot where she’d bitten it the night before.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I’m not saying you’re crazy or anything.”

“But?” I pushed.

“Well…” She shrugged. “Magic. Ley lines. Mushroom people. Ghosts. Evil wizards.”

“Yeah,” I chuckled. “Tell you what, when we get to your apartment, I’ll show you something that’ll help you change your mind.”

Annie lifted one blonde eyebrow, and I suddenly realized how that sounded.

“Oh, shit, sorry,” I blurted out as my face heated. “I didn’t mean it like– that wasn’t a pick-up line or anything, I didn’t mean–”

Annie abruptly started giggling.

I was too glad she was laughing to care that much about my own embarrassment.

“It’s okay,” she managed. “I didn’t really think you were telling me your… your anatomy was so impressive it would make me believe in magic.”

My face somehow managed to get even hotter.

“Well, good,” I stuttered. “Because that wasn’t what I meant. Not at all.”

“Not at all?” Annie smiled at me, and there was a mischievous gleam in her eye that made my heart race.

My face still felt hot, but for a different reason than embarrassment.

“Not at all,” I said. “I have much better material than that.”

“I’m sure you do,” Annie said. “I guess I’ll just have to wait and see how it compares.”

My heart was hammering, but I couldn’t hold back the delighted grin that spread across my face.

Annie’s apartment was on the same side of the square as my store, so it only took us a few minutes to reach her place. She paused outside a squat apartment building and fumbled in the pocket of her borrowed skirt.

“Thankfully I still have my keys and my phone on me,” she said. “Thank you for washing my clothes, by the way, that’s really kind of you.”

“No worries,” I replied. “I’ll get them back to you as soon as possible.”

Annie unlocked the front door and led the way into a narrow hall and up a blue-carpeted staircase. We passed several doors on the way, and Annie stopped at one, then unlocked it, and we went inside.

Annie’s place was a very small studio apartment. The door opened directly into the main room, which had a tiny kitchenette at one end and a door that I guessed led to the bathroom. There wasn’t a proper couch, but instead there was a double bed by the window that looked like it doubled as a sofa during the day.

Despite the tiny size of the place, the walls were painted in a soft, warm peach color that gave it a cozy feeling. There was a red-and-orange rug on the floor, and the bed was covered in crocheted blankets and pillows. A vase of dried roses stood on the windowsill, and a gold-framed mirror hung on one wall, which helped make the room seem a little bigger than it really was.

“This is really nice,” I said to Annie. “It feels very homey.”

“It’s tiny,” she said in an apologetic tone. “But I don’t need much space.”

“It’s great,” I assured her.

Annie let out a sigh. “Is it weird that I want to go straight back to bed?”

“Not at all,” I said. “You’ve had a shock. You’re still recovering.”

“Okay, then,” she said. “I might do that. But first, you’ve got to show me your…”

She let the sentence trail off in a teasing way.

“You know, you and Artemis will really get along,” I told her with a grin. “Okay.”

I took a deep breath and called up the magic that had been gifted to me.

Annie’s green eyes widened as I caused a gust of wind to pass through the room and ruffle the long brown curtains hanging at the window. Then I held out my palm in front of me and filled it with crackling, dancing, bright orange sparks. Finally, I held out my hand to the pot of dried roses on the windowsill and made them bloom again.

The sweet scent of fresh roses filled the apartment space, and Annie clapped both hands over her mouth. She stared at me over her fingers.

“Wh– what,” she stammered. “How?”

I couldn’t help it.

“Magic.” I smirked.

“But– but–” Annie was still staring at me in awe. “Are you a witch?”

“No.” I shook my head. “I don’t really know what I am, to be honest. I told you about how Chanterelle absorbed that guy, David, into her?”

Annie pulled a queasy face and nodded.

“When that happened,” I said, “it was like there was too much energy inside Chanterelle for her to contain it. So she gave some to Artemis, and she gave some to me. Artemis could already work magic because she’s a witch, but that boost of power enhanced it. She can do all kinds of plant things now. As for me, it gave me this.”

“Elemental magic,” Annie whispered. “Air, fire, earth… what about water?”

“That’s the one I don’t have,” I admitted. “But the others developed in stages, so I’m secretly hoping I’ll end up with the entire set.”

“Like Le Creuset cookware,” Annie said with a slightly hysterical laugh.

“Yeah, I guess so,” I said. “I’ve been thinking about it like Pokémon cards. But that’s because I own a comic book store.”

“But you’re human,” Annie persisted. “Can other humans work magic?”

“From what I’ve gathered,” I said, “and from what Artemis and Diana have said, I think it’s an innate thing. You either have it or you don’t.”

“And you do,” she said. “That’s incredible.”

“It’s useful,” I said. “It’s saved our lives more than once.”

Annie looked at the vase of blooming roses on the windowsill, and then suddenly, she let out an enormous yawn.

“Okay,” I said with a grin. “Nap time for you, I think.”

Annie hid another yawn behind her hand and nodded.

“Let me know if there’s anything I can do,” I said. “Seriously, anything you need. And if you have any questions about anything or you think of something you want to know… just ask me.”

Annie nodded. “I want to be kept in the loop with everything that’s going on.”

“Sure,” I said.

Annie took a step toward me. Her green eyes searched my face, but I wasn’t sure what she was hoping to find there.

“Thank you,” she whispered. “For keeping me safe. For saving me.”

“That’s okay,” I said in a low voice. “I… You’re welcome.”

For a moment, we just looked at each other.

I’d held Annie’s hand on the way here, and it had felt so natural and right. But now it felt like a gulf was slowly opening up between us.

I didn’t want that to happen, and I knew it would if I did nothing. But I also didn’t want to push Annie beyond what felt comfortable for her, especially right now.

I reached out and touched her arm lightly. She didn’t flinch or move away, so I slid my fingers down her arm until I found her hand. Our fingers twined with each other. Annie’s warm palm pressed against mine, and the reality of her, so close to me, so real and warm and alive, was almost overwhelming.

I wanted to say something, but I didn’t know what.

So I just gave her fingers a gentle squeeze and then let her hand go.

“Text me to let me know how you’re doing,” I said. “And come by the shop. If you want to.”

“I will.” She nodded.

She walked with me to the door and waved as I started back down the stairs. Her front door closed behind me with a thunk.

I squared my shoulders and walked out of the apartment building and crossed the street to the one that led to the library.

The Wormwood Public Library was a big, old building with several stories. It had been damaged in the earthquakes that had rocked the town earlier in the year, but they’d managed to secure enough funding to repair the damage and complete some of the repairs that had been waiting for attention for months.

The lobby definitely looked fresher and brighter when I stepped inside, and the sound of my boots seemed to echo even more loudly on the marble floor as I walked over to the stairs.

Lily’s domain was several floors up, so I climbed the staircase all the way to the top and came out onto the non-fiction and reference floor. I made my way over to the local history section and peered down each row of bookcases until I spotted a familiar sight.

Lily Laurent was bent over to examine something on a bottom shelf, and the smart black pencil skirt she wore was doing a fantastic job at showing off what an incredible ass she had.

I paused for a moment to admire the view, but Lily seemed to sense that I was there, and she stood up and turned around.

“Well.” She put her hands on her hips. “And just what are you doing?”

She wore sensible black heels and a crisp white blouse, and her long, sleek, black hair was swept up into a high ponytail. The hairstyle showed off her killer cheekbones and the intricate beaded design of her dangling earrings.

Lily was a member of the Penobscot tribe, who were the indigenous people who originally lived in this part of Maine. She was an avid scholar of local history and had written a book about the folklore and customs of her people. She always wore intricate earrings and jewelry that showed off her Penobscot heritage, and she was very proud of her identity.

“Well?” Lily demanded, and I realized I’d forgotten to answer.

“Um, studying?” I grinned.

“Studying what, exactly?” Lily’s dark eyes flashed with amusement, and her bright-red lips curved into a flirtatious smile.

“Why don’t you come over here, and I’ll show you.” I grinned.

Lily sashayed over to me with a deliberate sway of her hips. My eyes followed the swish of her body like it was a hypnotist’s watch, and when she reached me, I put my hands on her waist and pulled her toward me with a little growl.

“You know exactly what you’re doing, don’t you?” I murmured.

“Who, me?” Lily opened her dark brown eyes wide in exaggeratedly innocent surprise. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. Sir, this is a library.”

I chuckled softly and leaned down to press my lips against hers.

Lily smiled and put the very tips of her fingers against my chest to make me back up.

“Library,” she reminded me.

“I know, I know.” I nodded. “And I actually am here on a real errand.”

“You’re not just here to see me?” Lily pouted.

“You’re the delicious cherry on top,” I told her.

“Mike,” Lily purred. “You really shouldn’t be talking about my delicious cherry in a publicly-funded space.”

There was such wicked mischief in her face that a snort of laughter escaped me before I could call it back.

“Shh!” Lily reprimanded me sternly. “This is a library!”

“Okay, okay, okay.” I controlled myself. “I’m here to find any books you have about magical pregnancies and magical babies.”

Lily’s mouth dropped open.

She stared at me in total shock and disbelief.

“What?” she demanded in a breathless whisper.

“Yeah.” A proud smile broke across my face. “Chanterelle’s pregnant. She’s going to have my baby.”

“Oh, my god, Mike!” Lily squealed.

“Shh,” I told her. “This is a library.”

“Oh, fuck that!” she exclaimed.

She grabbed my sleeve and hauled me out of the stacks and toward a little door at the back of the floor. It led to a staff bathroom and a staff break room, and Lily marched into the breakroom, which was thankfully empty.

“Tell me everything,” she demanded.

“I just did,” I chuckled. “That’s about all there is. Chanterelle’s pregnant. But I’m pretty clueless about human babies, and a human-mushroom baby is totally new territory for all of us.”

“It would be for most people,” Lily commented. “So, how is she? How’s Chanterelle doing? Is she coping okay?”

“I think so.” I nodded. “She seems really happy about it. The only weird thing is that it happened, uh, very quickly.”

Lily frowned. “What do you mean? How quickly?”

“As in, we had sex for the first time and a couple of hours later, she started showing,” I said.

Lily’s mouth dropped open again. “Holy shit.”

“Yeah,” I agreed. “That was yesterday. And this morning, it looks like she’s gotten even bigger.”

“That’s fascinating,” Lily breathed. “I wonder if her mushroom side is accelerating a normal human gestation period.”

“How quickly do mushrooms grow?” I asked.

“I’m pretty sure it depends on the mushroom,” Lily said. “But I’m also pretty sure that some mushrooms can grow to full maturity in a couple of weeks.”

“Christ,” I exhaled. “At least with a regular human pregnancy, you get nine months to prep everything.”

“Not for you two.” Lily grinned and rubbed her hands together. “So, it’s action stations from now on, isn’t it? We’ve got to enter hardcore research mode.”

“You’re such a nerd,” I told her with a fond smile.

“Thank you for noticing,” she replied. “I just love having a new research project to sink my teeth into.”

“Well, any help you can give would be really appreciated,” I said. “I kind of don’t know where to start with it all.”

“Oh, you’ll be fine, don’t worry about it,” Lily reassured me. “Humans have been having babies for hundreds of thousands of years, and having sex with everything they can for probably longer than that.”

“What?” I exclaimed.

“Come on, Mike.” Lily grinned. “You can’t be the first guy in the whole world to have fucked a sentient mushroom.”

“You think?” I muttered.

“I’m sure,” she affirmed.

“I don’t know how that makes me feel,” I said.

“I would take it as a positive sign,” she declared. “It means there’s almost certainly going to be some kind of information out there about other couples who’ve been through the same thing.”

“Okay,” I said with a nod. “I take your point.”

“And even if there isn’t,” Lily added, “we can find out all we can about mushrooms and about human babies, and put all that information together. Don’t worry, Mike, we’re going to find out all we can.”

“Thanks, Lily,” I said with a smile, and then I gave a sigh. “I’m so excited about this, and I’m so happy it’s happening, but at the same time, I can’t help but be a bit worried about it. It’s so new and weird. A human baby would be enough of an adjustment, but a human-mushroom baby… It’s such a mindfuck. And I don’t want to show Chanterelle I’m anxious about it because I need to be confident and strong for her, so she doesn’t get anxious about it. She’s the one who actually has to go through the physical experience of it.”

“Mike…” Lily stepped closer to me and linked her hands together at the back of my neck. “It’ll be okay. It really will. I’m making jokes about it, but honestly, it’ll all be alright. You and Chanterelle are going to be such great parents. This baby’s going to be surrounded by so much love and attention when they’re born. And they’re going to have two witches and a librarian as their aunts or godmothers. What other kid can say that?”

“That’s true.” I smiled.

Lily leaned in closer and pulled me into a proper hug. I rested my cheek against her silky dark hair and breathed in the comforting rose-shampoo scent of her scalp for a couple of long, relaxing breaths. Some of the tension left my body, and I allowed myself to melt a little bit into Lily’s embrace.

“It’ll all be okay,” Lily whispered again.

She pressed a soft kiss against my cheek, and then she stood back.

“Okay.” I nodded with determination.

“Alright!” She clapped her hands together. “Let’s go do some research!”

Chapter 3

Lily led the way out of the staff break room and back onto the library floor.

“Right,” she said. “You find a desk and get out your materials.”

“My materials?” I echoed.

“Yes, you know,” she said. “Notebook, pen, highlighter, sticky notes…”

I gave a sheepish smile. “I’d kind of hoped to just remember it all without resorting to raiding the stationery aisle at Michael’s.”

“Oh, my god, Mike,” Lily sighed. “You don’t even have a notebook with you?”

“I can take notes on my phone,” I defended myself.

Lily clucked her tongue and shook her head sadly. “Just sit down and I’ll bring you a bunch of books to look at and take notes on your phone about.”

I rolled my eyes and headed for the nearest desk. I slid into the chair and let out a sigh. It felt good to be doing something practical and productive about everything, even if I did have to deal with Lily’s low opinion of my research methods.

The desk I’d chosen was situated near one of the long, wide windows that ran along the length of each story of the library. It gave me a great view of the street outside, and I leaned closer to the glass to look out at the patch of gray sky above the rooftops of the building across the street. Wormwood was famous for its microclimate, which basically meant that it rained a lot here. Storms could sweep in and out of the town without a moment’s warning, and the three-day storm that arrived when Chanterelle did was only the latest in a string of great storms that went all the way back to the town’s founding.

My mind wandered to another time when I’d done research in the library with Lily.

We’d been trying to find out more about the ghosts that were popping up all over Wormwood, and we’d ended up going into my family tree. I knew my family had been in the area for a long time, but I hadn’t really thought about it much more than that, so I was kind of shocked when it turned out the Wainwrights had been here ever since Wormwood was first founded in 1745.

I’d even had a vision of the ghosts of my ancestors stepping out of the trees in the forest. I’d seen relatives whose names and faces I’d never known until that moment, but when the line ended with my Uncle Billy, I’d felt this weird pull, like I was meant to be the next link in the chain that went back through the town’s history.

There had always been a Wainwright in Wormwood.

Did that mean anything?

Plenty of families could trace their lineage back for centuries. Hell, the local history society made their bread and butter researching and organizing members’ family trees.

But it had felt like more than that. More than just history; more than just coincidence.

I gave a rueful smile to myself as I realized the word I was skirting around was “destiny.” Was it so crazy to believe maybe I was destined to be here in Wormwood when Chanterelle emerged? That it was more than just coincidence, that I was actually meant to be here for her? To take care of her and protect her? To love her.

I didn’t know much about Chanterelle’s past. She couldn’t remember a lot of it, which I guessed was a hazard of having been alive for hundreds of years. But from the little bits of information she’d revealed about her past, I knew she hadn’t always been treated kindly by the humans she’d come into contact with.

When Artemis and I suggested to her that she pick her own name, she’d been overwhelmed by the idea that that was something she could do for herself. All her previous names had been given to her by the people around her.

Had they been her caretakers or her enslavers?

I shuddered at the thought.

And then another terrible thought followed hard on the heels of that one.

Had it been my family who had treated Chanterelle so badly?

If there had always been a Wainwright here in Wormwood, and if Chanterelle had appeared in physical form at various points in the town’s history, could it be possible that some ancestors of mine had been the ones who’d been there during her past appearances? Had they treated her as little more than a power source or a servant for their own ends?

I hated that thought, but I also knew it was an unfortunate fact of life that a person’s ancestors could have acted in ways that modern society didn’t agree with. The longer a person looked back into the past, the more they would have to reconcile the actions of their ancestors with their own standards of behavior.

But then I was struck by a memory.

About a month ago, Wormwood had been plagued by ghosts. Among the spirits who’d appeared in the town had been my Uncle Billy. It had been so special to be able to talk to him again, and I treasured the memories of that extra time with him. But it hadn’t just been a family reunion.

To my total astonishment, Uncle Billy had recognized Chanterelle.

He’d recounted how he’d gone into the woods as a boy and seen Chanterelle magically appear. He’d never seen her again, but he’d always remembered what he’d seen.

Uncle Billy was the last Wainwright before me to have encountered Chanterelle. But that had been no more than a chance meeting when he was a kid, and it had barely lasted a couple of minutes.

So that meant at least one of my relatives hadn’t had any real contact with Chanterelle. And if it was true of Uncle Billy, it could be true of my other ancestors as well.

It wasn’t bulletproof, and at some point, I might have to face the facts that at least some of my ancestors weren’t good people.

But at least now I knew Chanterelle’s appearances in Wormwood hadn’t always been linked with the Wainwright family.

Lily placed a pile of books on the desk in front of me and jolted me out of my thoughts.

“Are you okay?” she asked. “You were frowning.”

“Just thinking,” I replied.

“About babies?” she asked as she pulled up another chair and sat down on the other side of the desk.

“About family,” I said.

“Ah.” She nodded wisely. “It always comes back to that.”

I exhaled sharply and picked up the closest book to me. “Alright, then. Let’s do some damn research.”

The book I’d picked up was called An Enthusiast’s Guide to the Mushrooms of Maine. I wondered how many times it had been taken out of the library since its publication.

But it was surprisingly interesting, and it was filled with useful photographs and detailed descriptions of all the different mushrooms that could be found in Maine.

“Some of these look disgusting,” I said to Lily. “Look, this one’s called an eyelash cup.”

“Oh, god.” Lily wrinkled her nose. “Does it actually have eyelashes?”

I turned the book around to show her the distinctive orangey-red mushrooms. Their edges were fringed with long, dark, wispy hairs that did look grossly like eyelashes.

“Ahh.” Lily shuddered. “That’s so freaky. Imagine if one of those bad boys grew along the ley lines.”

I snorted. “A sentient, orange-skinned mushroom. With great eyelashes.”

“No, thank you.” Lily shook her head firmly. “I think I’ll stick to common puffballs, thank you.”

She showed me the page in the book she was looking at.

The common puffball was a white, thick-stemmed mushroom with a big, bulbous cap at the top. It was covered in tiny warts with dark brown points.

“I don’t know,” I said. “It’s not that much better.”

“What are you talking about?” Lily protested. “This guy’s so cute.”

I lifted my eyebrows. “Right…”

“Alright.” Lily nodded toward the book in my hand. “Pick one. There’s got to be at least one mushroom in there you think is cute.”

“Why does this feel like you’re trying to set me up on a date?” I chuckled. “I already have a mushroom girlfriend.”

“Are these books basically like Playboy for you, then?” Lily grinned.

“No, they’re not,” I sighed.

Lily picked up the book and held it up sideways in front of her face as though she was checking out a centerfold. She pursed her lips and gave an approving nod.

“Damn,” she drawled. “Now that is a fiiiiiine specimen of fungus.”

“Can you stop that?” I complained. “It makes me feel weird.”

“What?” Lily looked at me with an innocent expression. “I’m just admiring the structure of the brownish Chroogomphus.”

“That is not a real mushroom,” I said.

“It is!” She turned the book around to show me.

I lifted one eyebrow as I studied the mushroom in question. It was a smooth, warm brown color with a cap that curved over the edges of the stalk and rose into a tiny point at the top.

I was suddenly hit by a very vivid memory of Chanterelle’s breasts and how perfect her nipples had looked. Chanterelle’s skin was a pale olive tone, and her nipples were brown with a rosy-pink flush to them around the edges.

“Mike?” Lily said.

I suddenly realized what I’d been doing, and my face immediately heated.

I cleared my throat and looked away from Lily’s knowing grin.

“Put that away,” I mumbled.

Lily smirked and went back to her reading. There was no way she could guess I was thinking the cap of the brownish Chroogomphus looked a lot like Chanterelle’s erect nipples, but that didn’t stop me from feeling very self-conscious for the next couple of minutes.

I carried on flipping through the mushroom book, but most of the information it had was about whether certain mushrooms were poisonous or not, where they could be found, and at what time of the year. There was barely any information about a mushroom’s growth cycle or how long it might take for a mushroom to reach full maturity.

I sighed, put the book down, and looked over at Lily. “How are you doing? Have you found anything?”

“I found out that some of the fastest growing mushrooms can be ready to harvest in as little as three weeks,” Lily said.

“What!” I exclaimed. “That’s less than a month.”

“Yeah.” She nodded. “So if Chanterelle follows that kind of pattern, you could be welcoming a baby really soon.”

“Wow.” I blew out my breath.

“The thing is…” Lily continued. “Chanterelle’s not just a mushroom. She’s a mushroom, and she’s human, and she’s magical. So unfortunately that means anything might be possible.”

“Yeah.” I considered it for a moment. “I wonder if there’s some calculation or something we could do to figure out the rate at which her pregnancy is progressing.”

“What do you mean?” Lily asked.

“Well,” I said. “Chanterelle’s been pregnant for two days. And in those two days, she’s already started to show. She’s got a real baby bump now. So if in two days she’s already showing as much as a human woman might after a couple of months, maybe we can figure out how long the entire pregnancy will last based on that.”

“That’s a brilliant idea!” Lily nodded in excited agreement. “Okay, hold on, I’m going to get more books.”

She got up from the table and vanished into the shelves. She was back in a few minutes with a couple more books in her hand. She handed me one that was called A Month-by-Month Guide To Pregnancy.

“This looks promising,” I said.

I cracked it open and started looking through the pages. Almost immediately, I found a series of diagrams showing how big a baby was at different stages of development.

I frowned as I read on. “This is annoying. It says that every woman will show a baby bump differently, depending on their body type.”

“Damn.” Lily pulled a face.

“I wonder if Google might have better results.” I took my phone out of my pocket and typed in “how big are you at two months pregnant.”

I figured that converting days into months might be a good place to start in figuring this out.

“Mike!” Lily was so scandalized I couldn’t tell if she was joking or not. “Googling? When we’re surrounded by books?”

“The books are probably all on Google, anyway,” I said with a shrug. “And I need visual aids.”

Google Images proved to be very helpful. There were a lot of photos of women embracing their baby bumps, and some of them were holding signs or noticeboards that said things like “Eight weeks pregnant! Mommy’s ankles are swollen.”

I squinted at the pictures of the women to try and see if Chanterelle’s baby bump compared to theirs.

“What do you think?” Lily asked me.

“I think it’s similar,” I said. “All of these women are carrying their bumps slightly differently, but I think the eight-week mark seems to be accurate to where Chanterelle is.”

“So two months in two days,” Lily mused. “Wow.”

“That means the baby could come in a week’s time.” I took a deep breath. “Jesus.”

“Don’t panic,” Lily said, and she leaned over the table to pat my arm.

“I’m not panicking,” I said. “I’m just… freaking out a little bit.”

“That’s because this situation is totally insane,” Lily said. “You have sex, then bam, you’re having a baby, then bam, that baby’s going to be here in a few days.”

“Yeah.” I took another deep breath.

“Mike, don’t worry.” Lily smiled at me. “This is going to be so amazing, you’ll see. Having a baby is such a beautiful thing. You’re bringing new life into the world, you’ve helped to create a whole brand-new person! That’s so amazing.”

“That is pretty cool,” I admitted.

“And then you’ll get to hold your baby in your arms,” Lily sighed. “And see their little face, and watch their eyes looking up at you, and smell that special baby smell they have…”

There was a soft look in her dark eyes that made a warm feeling wrap around my heart.

I smiled at her, and Lily abruptly flushed when she realized I was looking at her.

“What?” she asked in a defensive voice.

“Nothing,” I said. “You just looked very cute.”

Lily smiled, even though her cheeks seemed to get even pinker.

“I guess I keep thinking about…” Her voice was low. “You know. Babies.”

“We’ve been talking about them all morning,” I pointed out.

“I know, but not just babies in books…” Lily bit her lower lip. “I mean… if I had a baby.”

“Oh, I see.” I nodded in realization.

“I guess I’ve got a little bit of baby fever,” she admitted with a dry chuckle. “I keep thinking about what our baby would look like, who they’d grow up to be, what they’d be like…”

“Our baby, huh?” I repeated with a smile.

“Well, yes, of course.” Lily lifted an eyebrow like that should have been obvious. “Who else am I going to have a baby with?”

My throat suddenly felt a little bit tight. “I didn’t know if you felt like that. I didn’t want to assume anything.”

“Yeah, no, I get that.” Lily nodded. “And that’s part of the reason why you’re the only guy I could ever see myself having a baby with. Mike, you’re such a great guy. You’re caring, you’re smart, you’re thoughtful, you’re loving. You’ll be an amazing dad.”

“And you’d be an amazing mom,” I said in a low, soft voice.

Lily glanced up at me, and our eyes met.

For a long, tender moment, neither of us said anything but just gazed into each other’s eyes.

Finally, Lily swallowed hard and glanced away from me.

“It’s almost lunchtime,” she said in a soft tone. “Can I come back with you and see Chanterelle?”

“Yes, of course,” I replied. “I know she’d love to see you. And you can help me tell her about everything we’ve discovered.”

“Which isn’t that much,” Lily said with a little sigh. “I thought we might find out more information, to be honest.”

“About magical mushroom pregnancies?” I lifted an eyebrow.

“Okay, maybe not that specifically,” she said with a grin. “I just feel like there’s more to uncover here.”

“Well, we weren’t here that long,” I pointed out. “I’m sure there is more to find out; we just haven’t gotten to it yet.”

“Yes.” Lily nodded. “What do you think about taking out these baby books? They at least might be helpful for you and Chanterelle.”

“That’s a good idea,” I said.

I gathered up all the books I wanted to take out of the library while Lily went back to the staff break room and collected her jacket and bag. We went down the stairs to the lobby, stopped by one of the computers at the circulation desk, and checked out the books on my card.

“Do you see that?” Lily paused in the middle of the lobby floor and pointed to the front door.

“Um…” I looked to where she was pointing. “The front door?”

Lily smiled. “The paint’s been peeling on that lintel for years. We’ve applied for funding so many times, but we’ve never had enough to justify fixing all the cosmetic things that need doing around here. But since the earthquakes actually did cause some structural damage, we got funding for that, and then we finally managed to get enough money to fix up the entire building.”

“Oh, I see.” I looked at the door with new eyes and smiled. “That’s great.”

I hadn’t particularly noticed the paint’s condition, but I’d rarely bothered with the library before, and it was only Lily’s presence that made me a more frequent visitor.

“It’s pretty amazing.” Lily looked around the lobby with pride shining in her eyes. “There have been so many tiny jobs that needed doing, and for years we’ve just had to accept them. But now we’re actually getting them fixed. And it’s all thanks to you.”

“Why me?” I asked in surprise.

Lily threaded her arm through mine and looked up at me with a smile.

“Because,” she said, “you’re all mixed up in the magical hocus pocus that goes on in this town. The earthquakes were magical, weren’t they?”

“Yeah,” I replied. “It was because there was a group of people camped out on the nexus point, and they were draining the ley lines of power without realizing it.”

“Exactly,” she said.

“But I didn’t make the earthquakes happen,” I said. “I actually stopped them because we made the camp of hippies move away from that area.”

Lily smiled. “Like I said. All mixed up in the hocus pocus.”

“Alright,” I laughed. “I’ll take that.”

We walked out of the library and came into the gray day outside. It had been almost sunny that morning when I walked Annie home, but now there were heavy gray clouds gathering overhead.

It was cold, too, and Lily huddled down deeper into her jacket.

“I forgot my scarf back in the break room,” she said with a sigh, and she looked over at me with her eyebrows raised. “Aren’t you cold? Your jacket’s not even buttoned up.”

“I’m a man,” I replied with a grin. “We don’t feel the cold.”

“Oh, really?” A smile tugged at the corner of her lips. “I’ll have to remember that.”

“I do have a trapper hat in the apartment,” I said.

“You do?” Lily’s eyes opened wide in delight. “Oh, now that I have to see.”

“It was Uncle Billy’s,” I said with a chuckle. “It’s practically an antique.”

“Oh, my god, Mike!” Lily stopped dead in the middle of the sidewalk. “Are you telling me you have your dead uncle’s hat in your closet and you haven’t even washed it?”

“It’s dry clean only,” I defended myself.

“Then take it to the dry cleaners!” she exclaimed.

“It’s fine,” I protested. “It doesn’t smell or anything like that.”

“Oh, my god.” She shook her head. “That hat has probably got decades of dandruff and grease in the seams.”

“Hey,” I protested. “The Wainwrights are a very clean family, you know.”

“Are they,” she said in a grim tone. “God, and to think I’ve touched your hair!”

“Oh, no.” I grinned. “Whatever will you do?”

Lily rolled her eyes and heaved a deep sigh.

“I shall take that hat out of your closet and burn it,” she declared as we started walking again. “Or take it to the dry cleaners myself.”

“Alright, alright,” I chuckled. “Dry cleaners it is.”

“Although actually,” Lily said in a thoughtful tone. “You might be able to get away with putting it in your regular machine. I’ve heard that when old clothes tell you to only dry clean them, sometimes it’s just because old washing machines weren’t as good as modern ones. If you have a hand wash setting, then it might work.”

“I don’t know,” I said. “I don’t want to risk it coming apart in the machine. It was Uncle Billy’s favorite hat.”

Lily smiled. “I’m only teasing you, you know. I think it’s really nice you’ve got your uncle’s hat.”

“I’m glad you approve of it,” I answered with a smile.

The wind picked up even more and sent strands of Lily’s ponytail snaking out past her face. She huddled close to me as we walked, and I was even tempted to button up my jacket because of how damn cold it was getting. We were in the early days of November now, and the change of seasons was definitely starting to show. Wormwood tended to be wet rather than cold, so our winters were filled with rain clouds rather than snowstorms, but even so, perhaps it was time to get out my warmer clothes.

We reached the square, and Lily gave a rueful sigh and shook her head at the forlorn display of sagging Jack-o’-lanterns placed by the front door of the hardware store.

“The squirrels are going to have a party with those,” she commented.

“I know.” I grimaced. “That’s the only problem with having pumpkin decorations. Artemis was really firm that we should try and use paper or organic decorations this year, and I get it, single-use plastic is awful, but now there are loads of rotting pumpkins that people don’t want to touch because they’re so disgusting.”

“Yeah,” Lily agreed. “At least with plastic decorations, it doesn’t matter so much if you procrastinate on taking them down. If you’re using real pumpkins, they just get grosser and grosser the longer you put off the chore of cleaning them up. And then of course you end up putting it off even longer because now they’re getting grosser and grosser.”

“It’s a vicious cycle,” I said.

“I’m thankful the library doesn’t do a lot of seasonal decorations,” Lily said. “At least, not on my floor. The kids’ section has decor, but I don’t have to deal with that side of things.”

“Yeah.” I nodded. “It’s kind of like Christmas. I’m not that excited about the holidays for myself, but it’s great when you see kids enjoying themselves.”

Lily nodded with a soft smile on her face. “I wonder if your kid will like Halloween.”

“If they’re anything like Chanterelle, they’ll love it,” I chuckled. “She’s obsessed with the holidays. She was so excited for Halloween, and now she’s going to be all about Christmas.”

“That’s nice.” Lily smiled. “It’s funny, I feel like I’ve become more cynical and jaded as I’ve gotten older. But maybe Chanterelle is so old that she’s gone past cynicism and is able to enjoy things like a kid again.”

“Huh.” I nodded. “I hadn’t thought about it like that before, but that makes sense. She’s such a weird mixture of knowledge and innocence. Maybe if everyone lived for hundreds of years, we would all enjoy things the way she does.”

“That would be nice.” Lily squeezed my arm in excitement as we reached the bottom of the square and saw Time & Space just ahead of us. “I think we should all be like that, to be honest. Everyone’s so busy shouting at each other and getting angry about taxes and town ordinances, we never slow down and just enjoy things anymore.”

I pushed open the door of the shop and was about to answer Lily, but halted in shock at the sight before me.

Jay and Chanterelle were standing on opposite sides of the counter. Jay had his arms folded stubbornly across his chest, Chanterelle’s hands were planted firmly on her hips, and the two of them were yelling at each other at the top of their lungs.

Chapter 4

“You don’t understand!” Jay shouted at Chanterelle.

“You just think I’m stupid, don’t you?” Chanterelle screamed back. “You think I’m a dumb mushroom who doesn’t know anything about anything! And now I’m even stupider because I have baby brain!”

“That’s not what I said!” Jay hollered. “It was just a suggestion!”

“But why do you need to make a suggestion?” she raged. “Why can’t you accept that I know what I’m doing?”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” I jumped forward to stand by Chanterelle’s side. “What the hell is going on here?”

“Jay thinks I’m a dumb hoe!” Chanterelle wailed.

“I don’t!” Jay’s face was bright red, and his eyes were glimmering with unshed tears. “Of course I don’t think that, Chanterelle. That’s crazy!”

“I’m not crazy!” Chanterelle burst into wild tears and turned to me.

I put my arms around her, and she buried her face in my chest and sobbed into my shirt.

I looked at Jay over Chanterelle’s bowed head and lifted my eyebrows.

“Everyone, take a deep breath,” I said in a calm tone.

Chanterelle’s shoulders lifted and slumped again as she took in a deep breath in between sobs.

Jay swallowed hard, sniffed loudly, and took a deep breath.

“Alright.” I rubbed up and down Chanterelle’s back. “What happened?”

“Chanterelle told me her news,” Jay said. “And I just said that maybe she should sit down.”

“You didn’t just say that!” Chanterelle wailed in a muffled voice. “It was the way you said it, like I was being so dumb for not sitting down by myself because I don’t know anything.”

“I didn’t say that!” Jay’s voice rose and then cracked. “I didn’t, Mike, I swear!”

Part of me was just relieved the fight was about something so trivial. Another part of me was very amused that this was the subject that could get two of the most good-natured people I knew into a no holds barred screaming match.

“Alright,” I soothed. “I think maybe this was just a misunderstanding.”

I heard a familiar click and glanced up in surprise to see Lily had slipped around behind the counter and had switched on the electric kettle.

“Coffee?” she suggested.

“I can’t have coffee,” Chanterelle sniffed, and a fresh wave of tears burst out of her.

“No problem.” Lily switched gears without even breaking a sweat. “What about a nice chamomile tea?”

Chanterelle nodded against my chest.

I mouthed “thank you” to Lily over Chanterelle’s head. The librarian smiled and started rooting around under the counter to find the mugs. Jay bent down to help her, and I rubbed Chanterelle’s back softly.

“Hey,” I said to her in a gentle voice. “What was that about?”

“I’m not stupid,” Chanterelle mumbled into my chest.

“No one thinks you’re stupid,” I told her. “I don’t, Jay doesn’t, no one here thinks that about you.”

Chanterelle sniffed and raised her head. Her huge blue eyes met mine, and a fresh tear ran down her cheek.

I gently wiped it away with my thumb, pushed back a strand of hair from her forehead, and tucked it behind her ear.

Chanterelle sniffed again and then pressed her cheek against my chest with a deep sigh. I looked down at her and saw that she’d closed her eyes. For a second, I thought she’d actually fallen asleep, but then suddenly, her eyes flew open again.

“Oh!” she gasped. “There were customers in the shop!”

“Well, not anymore there aren’t,” I chuckled.

“Oh, no!” Chanterelle broke free from my embrace and turned around in a circle and looked all around the shop with wide eyes. “Oh, no! They left. They all left!”

“That might have had something to do with all the screaming you both were doing,” I said.

Chanterelle turned around with a stricken look on her face.

“I’m so sorry, Mike,” she whispered.

“It’s okay,” I assured her. “They’ll come back.”

“They won’t.” The corners of her mouth turned down. “They’ll never come back here. And they’ll tell everyone they know about the dumb, stupid, hysterical mushroom who stays here and spoils it for everyone.”

Her lower lip trembled, and my heart melted at the sight of her sad little face.

“Oh, Chanterelle,” I said, and I put my arms around her again.

“Here we go,” Lily announced in a cheerful voice as she put two steaming cups of tea on the counter. “The coffee’s almost ready, Mike.”

“Great,” I said with a smile. “Thank you.”

“Thank you,” Chanterelle echoed with a sniff.

She let go of my waist and stepped closer to the counter. She reached for one of the mugs at the same time as Jay also reached for them.

The two of them froze with their hands poised to take a mug.

I tensed and half-expected them to grab the mugs and hurl them at each other.

But instead, they both burst into frantic apologies.

“I’m so sorry, Jay,” Chanterelle rushed to say. “I didn’t mean to say all those things about you. I don’t know why I said them–”

“I’m sorry!” Jay cried. “I didn’t mean to make you think I thought you were incompetent or silly or hysterical–”

“I was just so angry all of a sudden,” Chanterelle said. “It was like I was fine, and then suddenly, everything was so stupid and horrible, and I couldn’t think or see past the stupidness and horribleness of everything.”

“I don’t think you’re stupid,” Jay said in an earnest tone. “You’re so wise, Chanterelle, you’re so smart about weird random things, I think you’re super cool. You know that, right?”

“I think so.” Chanterelle nodded and swallowed hard. “I think you’re super cool, too, Jay. You’re a really nice, good, and important friend to me.”

Jay let out his breath in a long sigh of relief. “I’m so glad to hear you say that.”

“So am I.” I reached across the counter for the mug of coffee Lily held out to me. “Let’s all have a drink.”

“You know, Mike,” Lily chuckled. “It’s a good thing your drink of choice is coffee and not whiskey. Otherwise, you’d be a raging alcoholic.”

“I’ve thought that before,” I said with a grin.

Chanterelle and Jay sipped their chamomile tea while Lily and I drank our coffee. We were all quiet for a moment, and the tension that had permeated the air when Lily and I arrived finally faded.

“So,” Lily said as she put her mug down on the countertop. “Chanterelle.”

“Yes, Lily.” Chanterelle peered at her over the rim of her mug.

“How are you feeling?” she asked.

“Good, I think,” Chanterelle said in an uncertain voice. “But I thought I was feeling good before, and then I wasn’t.”

Lily leaned over and picked up a couple of books that were sitting on the very edge of the counter by the cash register. I recognized them as the books I’d just gotten out of the library and recalled with a jolt that in my hurry to break things up between Jay and Chanterelle, I’d dropped the books on the floor.

“Oops.” I shot the librarian an apologetic grimace. “Sorry, Lily.”

“You are banned from future library visits,” she told me with a jokingly stern frown.

“What is it?” Chanterelle asked. “What did you get from the library?”

“Baby books,” Lily replied. “With this and a bit of Googling, we think maybe your pregnancy is progressing at a speed where days are comparable to months.”

“What does that mean?” Jay wrinkled his forehead in confusion.

“Chanterelle’s been pregnant for two days,” I explained. “And when we Googled women who were two months along, their baby bumps looked like they were the same kind of size as Chanterelle is right now.”

“So instead of having been pregnant for only two days,” Lily finished, “it’s like you’ve been pregnant for eight weeks.”

“Oh.” Chanterelle’s eyes went wide.

“Although…” Lily tilted her head to the side and looked Chanterelle up and down. “I think you might be bigger than eight weeks.”

“Are you sure?” Chanterelle gasped.

“Can you take off your cardigan so we can see better?” I asked.

Chanterelle opened her fluffy cardigan and slid it down her shoulders to expose her torso more.

Her stomach was even bigger than it had been this morning.

“Whoa,” I breathed.

“Yeah…” Lily nodded. “I think you’re more than eight weeks along.”

“What does that mean?” Jay gulped.

“I reckon you’ve already gone through the first trimester,” Lily said.

“So there’s just two left?” I checked.

“Yeah.” Lily consulted one of the books and read out loud. “‘At thirteen weeks, the second trimester begins. However, some of the symptoms of the first trimester may still persist in this second stage of your pregnancy. These may include nausea, sore breasts, a heightened sense of smell, and mood swings.’”

“Oh, shit,” I exclaimed. “That must be it, then. Chanterelle, your hormones are making you upset, not Jay.”

Chanterelle blew out her breath in a deep sigh of relief.

“Oh, that puts my mind at ease,” she said. “I was worrying that maybe the baby brain would turn me into something wicked and evil.”

“Chanterelle, you could never be evil,” I said to her with a fond smile.

“Are you sure?” Chanterelle asked in a timid voice.

“I’m very sure,” I said.

“Me, too,” Jay added, and he gave Chanterelle an encouraging smile.

Chanterelle exhaled in relief again, smiled, and sipped at her tea.

“What else does that book say?” she asked.

“You know what,” I said, “how about you and Lily go upstairs with the books and maybe you can hang out a bit up there, watch some Netflix, talk about baby stuff. And meanwhile, Jay and I can run the store down here.”

“Oh, yes.” Chanterelle looked guiltily around the store. “I’m sorry, Mike, really.”

“It’s okay,” I said. “But it might be a good idea for you to rest a bit. Your body’s going through a massive change at the moment. And at about nine times the normal speed.”

“I could make you a sandwich as well,” Lily suggested. “If you’re hungry.”

“A blit!” Chanterelle’s eyes lit up in delight.

“A BLT,” I explained to Lily. “Oh, wait, is bacon safe to eat during pregnancy?”

“Why are all my favorite things suddenly dangerous?” Chanterelle’s lower lip poked out in a pout that seemed to be only half-joking.

“Let’s go upstairs and Google it,” Lily said. “We can make a list of all the safe foods you can eat. I think bacon’s a food you can eat in moderation, so maybe you can still have a BLT if it doesn’t have a lot of bacon in it.”

“But I love BLTs best when they have lots and lots of bacon in them,” Chanterelle sighed.

“Pregnancy is pain,” Lily comforted her. “Come on. Let’s go upstairs. Don’t forget your tea.”

The librarian and the mushroom girl went upstairs to my apartment.

When I heard the door upstairs close, I turned to Jay.

“Are you okay?” I asked him.

He nodded. “I really am sorry, Mike. I didn’t mean to get into a screaming match on the shop floor, I know that’s super unprofessional, and it’ll never happen again. I really don’t want it to happen again. It was horrible.”

“I bet,” I said. “I know you care about Chanterelle.”

“I do,” he said in an earnest tone. “She’s like a little sister to me. I would never want anything to happen to her. I just want to keep her safe.”

“I know,” I said. “And she will be safe. She’s got me and you and all the others looking out for her. She and the baby are going to be just fine.”

Jay flinched a little at the mention of the baby.

I wondered what he was thinking about, but before I could ask him, the door opened and a couple of customers came in.

“Good afternoon!” Jay cried out with an enthusiasm that was almost creepy in its intensity.

I winced, but the customers didn’t seem to care.

“Hey,” one of them said. “Do you have those preformatted WarAxe character sheets?”

“Yes, we do!” Jay hurried out from behind the counter. “Let me show you, they’re just over here. We have the official licensed three-ring binders as well, if you’re interested. They come with several character sheets included and a pullout map of Osstara that you can frame and hang up on the wall.”

“Sick,” the customer said with approval.

“Excuse me.” Another customer had come in, and now she was standing by the counter trying to get my attention. “Do you stock any Tanith Lee books here?”

“The Tales From The Flat Earth series?” I asked.

“Yeah, that’s the one,” she replied with a nod.

“You’re in luck,” I said. “We got a complete set in with our last delivery. They’ve been really popular lately.”

I led the way to the bookcases and showed her where to look, and then I left her to browse while I went back to the counter to serve another customer.

For the next half-hour or so, Jay and I were kept pretty busy with a steady flow of customers. It was only after a couple brought matching WarAxe druid-themed bracelets that there was enough time to say anything to Jay.

“Hey,” I said. “I know I already asked this, but are you okay?”

“Yeah, of course,” he said. “Why?”

“When I mentioned the baby earlier, you looked kind of queasy,” I said.

Jay’s face flushed dark red. He looked down at his shoes for a long moment, then glanced up at me with a tortured expression on his face.

“I…” He hesitated. “I guess I’m a little freaked out. By it all.”

“By Chanterelle having a baby?” I asked.

“Not by her having a baby,” Jay said. “But the fact that she’s having a baby, and she’s having a baby that’s going to be here really soon, and her having a baby when she’s, like, a mushroom and, like, really young but really old, too? And she’s my friend, not someone who has babies, you know?”

“Hmm,” I said. “To me, that all sounds a lot like you’re freaked out that Chanterelle is having a baby.”

“But it sounds awful to think that!” Jay exclaimed. “I don’t want her to think I think she’s gross or weird.”

“Do you think she’s gross or weird?” I lifted my eyebrows.

“No!” Jay retorted in a scandalized tone. “No, of course not.”

“But…?” I waited.

“But, well, babies,” Jay confessed. “They, like… grow inside you.”

“They do,” I said in a grave tone.

“Like in Alien!” he exclaimed.

“That’s like normal human pregnancies,” I pointed out.

“Yeah, I know,” he said with a slight frown. “That’s what I’m talking about.”

“Wait, what are you talking about?” I asked.

“Babies!” Jay said. “Pregnancies! They’re really, really weird!”

“Like, in general?” I asked.

“Yeah!” Jay nodded his head in a vigorous way.

“Oh, right,” I said. “So this is a generalized freakout about someone having a baby? It’s not specifically about Chanterelle having a baby?”

“I guess it’s a little specific as well,” Jay said. “Regular human babies are weird enough, and Chanterelle’s a mushroom, so how is that going to work? Is she going to be okay? Is the baby going to be okay? What if this does something to her that we can’t predict and can’t stop? What if, instead of giving birth, Chanterelle just explodes into a cloud of spores, like in The Girl With All The Gifts? Or what if she turns into a weird mashup of her and her baby, like in The Fly? Or what if she turns into a mushroom-fueled zombie like in The Last Of Us? Or what if–”

“Jay,” I said in a firm voice. “I think you might be spiraling a little.”

“Spiraling?” Jay stared at me. “Am I spiraling?”

“What do the kids say these days?” I asked with a lopsided smile. “‘Touch grass?’”

“Yeah, yeah, touch grass.” Jay heaved a deep sigh. “I need to touch some grass. Stop spiraling.”

“That’s it,” I said encouragingly.

“But aren’t you worried?” he burst out.

“Jay,” I said with a shake of my head. “Of course I’m worried. But if I started worrying about everything that could possibly go wrong, I would never stop. Hell, I’d never even leave my apartment.”

“Yeah…” Jay sighed.

“It’s like with everything,” I said. “There are going to be things I can’t control, so instead of spending time and energy worrying about them happening, I’m going to take that time and energy and put it into making sure I have a firm grip on the things I can control. Doing practical things like researching all I can about this. Making sure Chanterelle is safe and comfortable. Stopping her from drinking ten cups of coffee every day like she normally does.”

Jay nodded slowly. “That makes sense.”

“It’s good for Chanterelle and the baby,” I said. “Because I’m doing something that will benefit them. And it helps me because it gives me something to do and puts the control back into my own hands.”

Jay nodded again but more firmly this time.

“Research,” he said. “That’s where I need to put all my anxiety. Into research.”

“You should talk to Lily,” I said with a chuckle. “She would love to hear you say that.”

Jay managed a small smile.

“Have you and Amber talked about kids?” I asked.

It was a blunt and personal question, but I hoped it would startle Jay enough that he would forget to be nervous.

It worked.

“Well– I– we–” he stammered. “We haven’t– we don’t–”

“Yes?” I asked with a grin when he didn’t volunteer more.

“We…” Jay looked deeply embarrassed, but a smile pulled at his lips all the same. “We have talked a bit about it. Our future, I mean.”

“And?” I pushed.

“And, yeah.” He took a deep breath. “We both want kids. Not right now, but someday… Yeah.”

“Jay, dude, that’s awesome.” I thumped him on the shoulder hard enough to make him wince. “And you and Amber would have some seriously cute kids.”

“I think so.” Jay smiled. “Chanterelle’s baby is going to be super cute.”

I smiled, too, at the thought of it.

I’d never really pictured what my future kid might look like, since that obviously depended on who I would have kids with. But now that I knew it was Chanterelle, my mind was suddenly full of possibilities. Maybe they would have my dark brown eyes and Chanterelle’s light hair. Maybe they would have my dark hair and her blue eyes.

“Do you think they’ll be fully human?” Jay asked me. “Chanterelle’s kids?”

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “I guess there’s no real way of knowing. We just have to wait and see what happens when they’re born.”

My mind flew back to the other mushroom that had been discovered growing along the ley lines. It was clear she was undergoing the same process of sentience that Chanterelle had gone through, but she’d been at a much earlier stage of her development. Her body had been far more mushroom than human. She’d barely had hands or feet, and her face had been totally featureless, with only vague hints about where a nose, mouth, and eyes might one day develop. She’d been able to move independently, but her mental faculties didn’t seem very present.

Chanterelle had thought of the other mushroom as a little sister, and she’d ended up absorbing her into herself as a way to keep her safe from the people who wanted to capture her and eat her to take her magical power.

I had a sudden nightmarish thought of Chanterelle’s baby coming out as a pale, faceless, limbless blob. A mushroom stalk that would take decades or centuries to develop into anything recognizable as a human.

I shook my head to clear away that horror movie image. Chanterelle was much more advanced than the other mushroom had been. Her child would reflect that. Plus, it would be at least half-human with my DNA contributing to its genetic makeup.

“How will doctor visits work?” Jay wondered. “Like, if they do a blood test for the baby, will they find mushroom DNA? Do mushrooms have DNA?”

“I don’t know,” I said with a slightly queasy feeling rising in my throat.

Jay pulled out his phone. “I’m going to Google it.”

I tried to look unconcerned while he loaded up the search results.

“Huh!” Jay exclaimed. “This is super cool. Listen to this, Mike: Mushrooms are more closely related to animals than to plants. Humans share nearly fifty percent of their DNA with fungi.”

“What, really?” My heart leaped.

“Yeah, really.” Jay blew out his breath in a way that suggested he was reassured by the news as well.

“Maybe that’s why Chanterelle was able to develop in the way she did in the first place,” I suggested. “If mushrooms are already very close to humans, perhaps that’s why she developed sentience and physically changed into a humanoid shape.”

“I feel a bit weird about being related to mushrooms.” Jay wrinkled his nose. “Like, mushrooms are what I have in my omelettes.”

“Not anymore,” I said with a grin. “Unless you like eating your cousins.”

Jay shook his head in an emphatic way.

“No, thank you,” he declared.

The floor above our heads creaked a little, and then footsteps started coming down the stairs. The door that led from the apartment opened, and Lily and Chanterelle came into the store.

“We brought lunch!” Chanterelle announced as she brandished a plate of sandwiches at us.

“Oh, great,” I said. “I’m starving.”

“Me, too,” Jay agreed.

Chanterelle put the plate of sandwiches on the counter in front of us with a smile.

“They’re not BLTs,” she said. “Lily asked her phone about it, but we couldn’t get a straight answer from the Google.”

“Every site I looked at had a different answer,” Lily said. “Some places said it was okay to eat in moderation, some places said it was a class-one carcinogen, and others said it was perfectly safe to eat so long as it was cooked properly.”

“I decided maybe bacon should go the way of coffee.” Chanterelle pulled a face. “So this is chicken, lettuce, and tomato.”

“Where did you get the chicken from?” I asked in surprise.

“You’ve got a whole bag of frozen chicken fillets at the back of your freezer,” Lily informed me with a chuckle. “It looked like they’d been there a while. But I cooked a couple of pieces for Chanterelle and put them in a Tupperware in the fridge, so you’ve got some ready for more sandwiches later on in the week.”

“That was really thoughtful of you, Lily,” I said with a smile. “Thanks.”

“No problem,” Lily replied. “I put the rest of the bag back in the freezer, but you’ve definitely got enough left in there for a couple of meals. You could make a chicken pot pie with the wine and herbs you’ve got in the cupboard.”

“Ah, those might be Artemis’ herbs,” I said. “Witchy ones.”

“Oh, okay.” Lily nodded. “Well, even without the herbs, you’ve got butter and wine and some stock in there, so you could make a pie no problem.”

“Hey, Lily?” I grinned. “Do you want to make a chicken pot pie?”

“Well…” Lily laughed. “I do like cooking. And it feels nice to be able to do something for Chanterelle.”

“Practical things,” Jay said with a knowing nod.

“Yes, exactly,” Lily said.

“How about this?” I suggested. “If you make a chicken pot pie, you can stay for dinner tonight and help us eat it.”

“Oh, yes!” Chanterelle’s eyes brightened with excitement, and she turned to Lily eagerly. “Yes, stay for dinner!”

“I don’t want to interrupt you,” Lily said with a glance at me. “If you want to spend time with Mike before the baby comes.”

“I want to spend time with all my friends,” Chanterelle said in a firm voice.

“Mike?” Lily asked.

I smiled. “I wouldn’t have offered if I didn’t want you to stay.”

“Then, yes.” A smile spread across Lily’s face. “Yes, thank you. I’d love that.”

“Yes!” Chanterelle cheered.

“I’ll just go upstairs and get the chicken back out of the freezer,” Lily said, and she glanced out of the shop window. “I might call in sick for the rest of the day. Look at that rain.”

Weather changes in Wormwood were so frequent that I didn’t always notice them happening. I hadn’t been aware that it had started raining, but when I looked out the window, it was lashing down. Fat drops of rain struck the door and window and slithered down the glass toward the ground like tiny writhing snakes.

Lily went back upstairs while Jay and I devoured the sandwiches. Chanterelle looked on so wistfully that I eventually caved in and gave her the last half of my sandwich.

“Didn’t you already eat upstairs?” I asked her.

Chanterelle nodded.

“I’m eating for two,” she said around a mouthful of chicken.

I rolled my eyes and chuckled.

The bell above the door gave an abrupt ring as the door burst open. Diana and Artemis ran inside and stood dripping on the floor.

“What’s happened?” I asked in alarm. “Are you okay? What’s wrong? Diana, is that… Saran wrap on your head?”

Diana’s head was coated in a shiny film of clear plastic.

“It’s for my hair,” she gasped out.

“It’s single-use plastic, is what it is,” Artemis said in a tart voice. “She insisted on buying it.”

“Hey, you said you would never comment on my haircare choices!” Diana protested.

“Guys,” I interrupted. “Why are you here? Why are you out in this rain?”

Artemis held out her hand. She was holding a glass jar full of water.

“What is it?” I asked with a frown.

“Look,” she said.

I took the glass jar from her dripping-wet hand and held it up in front of my face so I could see it properly.

Swimming around inside the jar of water was a tiny, bright blue sea serpent.

Chapter 5

“What the hell?” I breathed.

The serpent was about the width and length of a pencil, maybe a bit less than seven inches long. It was a lurid, bright blue color, and the scales on its slender body caught the light and gleamed with green and purple highlights.

It had two short fins like a goldfish on each side of its lower body and a longer spiny fin that ran down its spine from its neck to the middle of its back. The spines that ridged the fin were a dark blue, and the membrane between them was translucent and shifted between green and purple.

Its pointed head was shaped a bit like a horse’s, but it had a row of tiny white teeth in its upper jaw that pointed down over its lower lip. Its eyes were a glassy, pale yellow color with a wide, almond-shaped pupil, like a crocodile’s.

“What is it?” Jay demanded.

He crowded close to my shoulder to see into the jar as well. I held it up so he and Chanterelle could see it.

“Ohhhh,” Chanterelle breathed.

“What?” Jay squeaked. “What is that? Is that a– is that a snake?”

“It’s not a snake,” Artemis answered impatiently before I could speak. “Have you ever seen a snake that looks like that?”

“Also,” Diana added, “there’s the fact that it came from the sky.”

“What?” I blurted out.

“Yep,” Artemis said.

She put the jar down on the countertop with a thud that made the serpent dart around and around in the confines of its glass prison.

I ran across to the door, pulled it open, and looked outside at the square. The rain was coming down so thickly, it was difficult to make out anything. I leaned out from the shelter of the door to look up at the sky and was instantly blinded by raindrops slapping me in the face.

And then something else slapped me in the face.

I jumped back in surprise, looked down at my feet, and saw another tiny serpent wriggling on the ground in front of me. It was exactly the same as the creature in the jar, except it was black. It flopped and writhed around on the sidewalk, and the movement showed silvery-gray spots that flared briefly along its sides.

I bent down, snatched it up between my finger and thumb, and carried it back into the shop. The serpent wriggled in my grip and sent cold droplets of rainwater splattering against my shirt. Its body felt very cold and smooth in my grip.

“Ew!” Diana squealed as she saw what I was holding.

“Mike, holy shit, what if it bites you?” Artemis cried.

She grabbed the jar from the counter and held it out so I could drop the second serpent in with the first one. The black serpent immediately sank to the bottom of the jar and curled up in a tight coil. The blue serpent continued going around the jar in circles like a tiger pacing in its cage at the zoo.

“I was careful,” I assured Artemis. “I had to take it, it hit me in the face.”

“What did?” Lily asked.

She came onto the shop floor, paused, and looked around at us.

“Hey, Lily,” Diana said.

“I’ve walked into some magic shit, haven’t I?” Lily asked. “What’s going on?”

By way of an answer, I gestured to the jar on the counter.

Lily’s dark brown eyes went as huge as dinner plates, and she immediately stepped up to the counter and stared in fascination at the two tiny creatures inside.

“Fuck,” she breathed. “Where did you get them?”

“They came down in the rain,” Artemis told her.

“Wait.” The gears in my head started to turn. “That means there’s going to be more of them.”

“We have to get them before anyone sees them and wonders what’s going on,” Chanterelle gasped.

“Okay,” I directed. “Jay, lock the door and put up the closed sign. Everyone, go upstairs right now.”

I hurried up the stairs to the apartment, and the others followed closely behind.

“What are we doing?” Lily asked.

“Getting containers,” I said. “Anything you can find that could fit a serpent inside. Pots and pans, jars, bottles, whatever there is.”

Artemis and Chanterelle ran into the bedroom while Diana and Jay took the bathroom. Lily went into the front room, and I ransacked the kitchen.

I grabbed every pan I had and ran down the stairs with them into the shop. I dumped them on the floor, then ran back upstairs to grab more stuff. I found some plastic bowls in the back of one cupboard and added them to the pile downstairs, along with all the free Tupperware I possessed.

The others added their finds to the pile as well.

“Alright,” I said when I thought we had enough. “Grab whatever you can and let’s go get those serpents.”

I took the bigger saucepan. Artemis and Jay grabbed Tupperware containers. Diana took the plastic bowls. Lily had an ancient vase that I’d forgotten I owned, along with the only other pan I owned.

Chanterelle had a casserole dish, the bowl I kept my keys in, and the mug from Uncle Billy’s collection that I thought of as “the disgusting giant.” It was an enormous piece of drinkware that I suspected he’d had custom-made, since I’d never seen a mug quite that big ever before. I would have been tempted to use it for coffee, but the entire inside was mottled with dark brown stains that nothing seemed able to shift. The text on the outside read “SHUH DA FUH CUP.”

“What does that mean?” Jay stared at the mug in confusion.

“Read it out loud,” Chanterelle said with a giggle. “I didn’t understand it either until I said it out loud.”

“Shuh da fuh cup…” Jay said slowly, and then he snorted out a laugh. “Oh, shut the fuck up.”

“No, you shut the fuck up!” Chanterelle giggled again.

“People, focus!” I commanded. “Let’s go grab some serpents!”

I unlocked the shop door and held it open to usher everyone out, and then I locked the door again behind us.

“Oh, it’s so wet!” Diana squealed.

“What’re you complaining about?” Artemis teased. “You’ve got your Saran Wrap helmet, haven’t you?”

“Ow, something slapped me in the face!” Jay exclaimed.

“That’ll be a serpent!” I shouted. “Quick, catch it!”

Jay dove after the tiny wriggling creature with his Tupperware container at the ready. But the serpent darted out of his reach and swam in the water that was flowing in the gutter. The running rainwater caught the creature and sent it shooting along the road toward the open drain.

“Jay, wait!” I cried.

I caught hold of his arm, which was already soaked through from the driving rain.

“It’s getting away!” Jay protested.

“Wait,” I said.

We both watched as the swirling current in the gutter took the serpent and sent it surfing toward the drain. With a glug, the serpent disappeared in the open gap.

“Oh, yeah!” Jay exclaimed. “We can encourage them to go into the drain.”

“You got it.” I slapped him on the shoulder.

Jay dove after another serpent with his Tupperware in his outstretched hands.

I felt something small, wet, and hard slap my neck, and I swiped at it wildly to avoid it wriggling down my collar.

The serpent fell to the ground in front of me and writhed around helplessly underneath the splashing raindrops. I bent down quickly and used the lid to flip the serpent into the pan. It flopped around, but within seconds, the pan itself started to collect enough raindrops to give it enough water, so it wasn’t touching the bottom.

I peered through the driving rain and tried to make out where any more serpents had landed.

The others were running to and fro with their various containers and vessels held out in front of them in order to catch the serpents as they fell from the sky.

“Hey!” A shout came from the doorway of the diner.

My heart sank a little as I saw Len from the hardware store leaning out of the door and waving to me.

I ran over to him and paused a little distance from the diner door so he wouldn’t get a chance to look at the contents of the saucepan.

“What the hell are you folks up to?” he asked.

“Oh, we’re–” My mind scrambled for a good explanation about what the hell we could be doing that wouldn’t look instantly suspicious. “We’re collecting rainwater samples.”

“Rainwater?” Len’s grizzled eyebrows rose in surprise. “What the hell for?”

I turned around and pointed to where Lily was holding out the vase to catch the falling drops.

“Lily’s a librarian,” I explained. “And she’s studying local weather for a, uh, for a project she’s working on. She wants to collect rainwater samples on different days in the month and compare them.”

“What the hell for?” Len demanded.

“Hey, I just do what the lady wants,” I told him with a grin.

Len barked out a laugh and nodded his head.

“Women,” he told me in a wise tone. “Got to keep them happy, don’t you? No matter what kind of crazy things they want.”

I winced internally but kept my face neutral as I nodded.

“Yeah, well,” I said, “I’ve got to get on with this before the rain stops.”

“Couldn’t you even put on a raincoat, son?” Len asked.

“We’ve got to catch this shower before it stops,” I said as I started backing away from him.

Len grunted and headed back inside the diner.

I let out my breath in a sigh of relief and turned my attention back to the square. The others were running all over the place as they caught serpents in midair or bent down to scoop them up from the ground where they’d fallen.

I looked down at the serpent in the saucepan in my hand, then ran up the road that went past the diner and headed away from the square. The rain clouds hung in a heavy gray pall all over the town, but the rain seemed to get a little lighter as I moved away from the square and headed toward the outskirts of the town. There were no serpents there, either.

As soon as I realized that, I turned back around and ran back to the square, and was immediately hit in the face by three serpents that fell out of the sky in a linked tangle.

I batted them away from my face and then scooped them up into the saucepan, where they coiled around the serpent already in there.

I ran along the bottom edge of the square and found another side road that led to the bakery and WoSBus hub. But here it was exactly the same as the road that led past the diner. As soon as I left the square, the rain lessened a bit, and there were no signs of serpents anywhere.

Whatever these creatures were, it seemed like they were localized in the square.

I ran back the way I’d come and focused on catching as many of the serpents as I could. They were slippery little fuckers, but any that escaped my grasp I managed to guide toward the gutter, and from there it was a short trip for them to make it down the drain.

And then, all at once, the rain stopped.

The change between having raindrops beating on my head and shoulders and having the sound of the rain fill my ears, to suddenly there being no sound at all, was so abrupt, it was almost disorientating.

I straightened up and looked around the square.

The others had also paused in their task and were looking around.

“How are we doing?” I called to them.

“Okay, I think!” Lily called back. “My pans are full.”

“I saw at least twenty go down one of the drains,” Jay said.

“Okay,” I said. “Let’s do one quick sweep to pick up any stragglers, and then we’ll go back to the shop.”

A shiver suddenly racked my body, and my teeth began to chatter. Before, I’d been running on adrenaline, and the rain had pounded my body almost into numbness, but now I realized just how fucking cold and wet I was.

Raindrops slid down the back of my neck and dripped from my nose and chin. My clothes were plastered to my body, and as the wind suddenly descended in the stillness of the halted rain, it set the soaked fabric of my jeans and jacket chafing against my skin.

We did a quick circuit of the square and picked up a few more tiny serpents to join our collection, and then we headed back into the store. We made it just as the first customers began to venture out of the diner, and I was very glad to shut the shop door and lock it behind us to keep out any curious visitors.

“Oh, my god,” Artemis mumbled through chattering teeth. “I’m so fucking cold, I can’t breathe.”

“My hands are numb,” Chanterelle agreed.

“Alright,” I directed through numb lips. “Everyone, take your serpents upstairs to the apartment. You’re more than welcome to hang around for a hot shower and a change of clothes, unless you want to go straight home.”

“I think I want to go home,” Jay said with a shiver. “I’m so cold.”

“Alright.” I nodded. “Thanks so much for your help, Jay, you were amazing out there.”

“Thank you, Jay!” Chanterelle echoed.

Jay nodded numbly and dripped his way out of the store.

“I want to stay, if that’s okay,” Lily said to me.

“Of course.” I smiled at her. “You’re invited to dinner, remember?”

Lily smiled back, and she went upstairs along with Diana, Artemis, and Chanterelle. They carried their containers of serpents along with them, and I brought up mine and Jay’s.

Once upstairs in the apartment, I was busy finding towels for everyone and then rummaging through the closet to find dry clothes. It was no problem for Diana, Artemis, and Chanterelle, since they often kept several changes of clothes here. Then, between their clothes and mine, we managed to find something for Lily to put on as well.

I let the women shower first while I guarded the pans full of serpents, and when they were done, I took my turn under the hot water. It felt blissful against my chilled skin, and when I got out of the shower and pulled on a fresh pair of jeans and a clean shirt, I felt ready for anything.

I went back into the front room and found the others sitting around and watching the pots and containers full of serpents.

“Hey,” I greeted them. “How are they?”

“Well, they’re…” Artemis shrugged. “You know. Swimming. Being snakey.”

“I thought you told Jay they weren’t snakes,” Diana teased her.

Artemis rolled her eyes. “I said ‘snakey.’ They are snakey. You can’t say they’re not snakey. Even if they’re not snakes, they’re definitely snakey.”

“They are snakey,” Diana acknowledged.

“They’re just swimming around and around in their new homes,” Chanterelle told me.

“They’d better not get used to them,” I said. “I don’t want my apartment taken over by a swarm of water snakes in permanent residence.”

“I wonder what the right word is for a group of water snakes,” Lily said in a thoughtful voice. “A shoal? A school? A tangle?”

“Either way…” I spoke firmly. “We need to figure out what they are and where they came from and whether there’s going to be any more of them. Chanterelle, you’ve been able to communicate with magical plants and creatures we’ve encountered. Can you communicate with these?”

“I can try,” she said with an eager nod.

“Wait,” I cautioned. “I don’t want you to spend all your energy attempting it. Is there a way you can do it without tiring yourself out?”

“I can lend Chanterelle some of my energy,” Diana suggested.

“Are you sure?” I asked in surprise. “I didn’t know you could do that.”

“I’m clairvoyant.” Diana smiled. “I can do things like that.”

“Okay.” I nodded. “Diana, you help Chanterelle try and speak to these things and figure out what their deal is. Or if they even have a deal.”

“I can do a locator spell to see if there are any more of them that we missed,” Artemis said. “Then I can go out and find them before anyone else does.”

“I can help you with that,” Lily said. “If you like. Or if that’s allowed, and you don’t mind someone watching you work.”

“Yeah, that would be cool,” Artemis agreed. “Can you raid Mike’s cupboards and see what herbs he has?”

Lily chuckled. “I did that earlier today. I was going to make a chicken pot pie.”

“Not with my sage, you’re not,” Artemis said with a playful scowl.

Lily laughed and went into the kitchen.

Artemis stood up and began to shake out her long arms and legs. I recognized it as part of the ritual she would sometimes do to prepare herself to work magic.

“Do you have enough space?” I asked her.

“I’m good,” she replied. “Thanks.”

She reached up on her tiptoes and stretched her arms up above her head as though she was trying to touch the ceiling. Then she folded over at the waist and reached down to press her hands flat against the floor. She inhaled deeply and then let out her exhale in a slow sigh.

Lily came into the room with several pots in her hands. She held them out to Artemis to show her.

“I’ve got sage,” she said, “and basil, bay leaves, some salt, and some chili flakes.”

“Please be careful if you use chili flakes,” I said to Artemis in a stern voice. “Remember that time you used them in a spell and it exploded, and we were all dying from getting chili in our eyes?”

Artemis gave a sheepish grin.

“It’s okay,” she said. “I don’t need any chili for this.”

“Thank the Lord,” Diana muttered.

“I’ll take the sage, the basil, and the bay leaves,” Artemis said to Lily. “Mike, is there a pen I can use?”

“Yep.” I rummaged through the crap in the drawer of the coffee table. “You need a Sharpie, right?”

“Anything that’s not a ballpoint pen,” she replied.

I found a thick black Sharpie in the drawer and tossed it over to her.

“What’s that for?” Lily asked in interest.

“It’s to write down the intention,” Artemis replied. “Writing your intention on a bay leaf and then burning it is a great way to send your magic out into the universe.”

“I see.” Lily nodded.

“Do you need the tea lights as well?” I asked Artemis.

“Yes, please,” she said.

I pulled the big bag of tea lights out of the drawer and threw three over. Artemis caught them out of the air, looked at them, and then raised one eyebrow.

“Three,” she noted with a pleased tone in her voice. “I’m impressed, Mike.”

I chuckled. “I learned from the best.”

“Why three?” Lily wanted to know.

“Three is a powerful magical number,” I told her.

“Oh, like the Mother, Maiden, and Crone archetypes?” Lily asked.

“Sure.” Artemis nodded. “And the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, if you like.”

“Hmm.” Lily made an impressed noise in her throat. “I’d never made that connection before, but you’re right. There are so many religions with triple deities or trinities.”

“And we say ‘third time’s the charm,’” Diana added. “In magic workings, you should often repeat an action three times in order to build up enough energy for it to work.”

“Three is the smallest prime number as well,” I said. “I remember that from middle school math class.”

“I think I remember something about threes in image composition as well,” Lily said with a frown. “I took a photography class once, and they said that visually satisfying images should be imagined as three rows of three equal spaces.”

“Oh, yeah,” I exclaimed. “Like the grid on a phone camera.”

“Magic is everywhere.” Artemis smiled.

“That’s amazing,” Lily said. “Really, I mean it. Thank you so much for sharing your craft with me, Artemis, it’s fascinating.”

“You’re welcome.” Artemis’ voice was warm.

“So do you need anything else?” I asked.

“Nope, I’m all good,” she replied.

She shook herself out one last time, and then she sat down on the floor with her legs crossed and her palms resting upward on her knees. She reached over for the nearest Tupperware container, pulled it toward her, and lifted it in front of her face.

Artemis’ dark eyes fixed on the tangle of tiny serpents writhing around inside the plastic container. The serpents gleamed whenever their scales caught the light, and when I glanced up at the ceiling, I saw tiny flashes of rainbow-colored light dance across the paintwork, like gleams from a crystal suncatcher.

Artemis took a deep breath in through her nose and out through her mouth in a soft sigh. She did it two more times, and then she reached for the Sharpie and wrote something on the bay leaf. Then she reached into her pocket and pulled out her lighter.

“Wait,” I said.

I went into the kitchen and came back out with a large plate that I put on the ground in front of Artemis.

“Thanks, Mike,” she said.

She picked up the tealights and placed them on the plate in the shape of a rough triangle. She lit each candle, and let them burn quietly for a few minutes while she breathed in and out. Then she took the bay leaf and held it in each candle flame until it caught fire. Artemis dropped it onto the middle of the plate where it smoked and smoldered. She took the lids off of the pots of herbs and sprinkled three pinches of dried sage and three pinches of dried basil in a clockwise motion over the triangle of candles.

Artemis murmured something under her breath three times with her eyes closed.

She made a gesture with her fingers like she was wrapping up thread into a ball, and then she flicked her fingers open and exhaled sharply.

The candle flames flickered and jumped.

Artemis tilted her head first to one side and then the other. Then she inhaled slowly and passed her hand over the plate of candles.

The ash from the burned bay leaf and singed pieces of dried herbs slowly rose into the air.

Lily let out a startled gasp and then immediately clapped her hands over her mouth to silence herself.

Artemis lifted her hands up and extended one hand, palm up, underneath the floating black cloud of herb dust and ash. She inhaled slowly. Then she made a gesture with her other hand as though she was pushing something away from her. At the same time, she exhaled in a sharp puff.

The ash vanished before our eyes.

Artemis sucked in her breath through her nose and opened her eyes.

“Phew,” she said. “Mike, you’ve got to get some fresh bay leaves, those things were stale as fuck.”

“Hey, maybe you can bring your own bay leaves next time,” I retorted. “What did you find out? Besides the state of my spice cabinet.”

Artemis grinned. “We got them all. I sensed some stragglers around the town, but then I saw they were in the sewage system, so that’ll be the ones we pushed toward the drain.”

“So there aren’t any serpents out there that can be stumbled upon by any unsuspecting Wormwood citizens?” I checked.

“No.” She shook her head. “We’re all good.”

“Great.” I blew out my breath in a sigh of relief. “Great job, everyone.”

“The disgusting giant finally came in handy,” Artemis said with a grin, and she nodded her head toward Uncle Billy’s huge stained coffee mug, which was on the floor with the rest of the serpent containers.

The mug contained two tiny brown-and-black spotted serpents who floated in the water sulkily like they weren’t enjoying their novelty new home.

“Uncle Billy saves the day,” I agreed with a chuckle.

“I’m ready to try and talk to them now,” Chanterelle said with a glance at Diana.

“Hang on,” Lily said.

“Why?” I looked at her quickly.

Lily was frowning in a thoughtful way, but then she looked up at me and grinned with her dark brown eyes sparkling.

“I think I might know what these things are,” she said.

Chapter 6

“You know what they are?” Diana exclaimed.

“We already know what they are,” Artemis said with a shrug of her narrow shoulders. “They’re teeny-weeny, weird little snakey things that fell out of the sky.”

I rolled my eyes while Chanterelle giggled.

“Well,” Lily said in a mock-serious tone, “in my line of work, we call them something else.”

“Oh, yeah?” Artemis grinned. “What’s that?”

“Cassie,” Lily said.

There was a brief pause.

I lifted one eyebrow at the librarian. “That is not at all what I thought you were going to say.”

“Yeah,” Diana chimed in. “I thought you were going to say they were some kind of rare mythological creature that hadn’t been seen in a thousand years.”

“How about in sixty years?” Lily asked with a grin.

“Okay…” Artemis narrowed her eyes. “Now I’m definitely intrigued.”

Lily’s grin only got wider.

“In 1779,” she said, “a young sailor saw an enormous serpent in Casco Bay. He said it was extremely fast and extremely big. In 1850, a fisherman in New Harbor saw a similar creature. And then in 1958, another fisherman saw a gigantic, serpent-like creature again in Casco Bay. The descriptions matched up, and some cryptozoologist decided all these sightings were probably of the same creature. A very big, very fast sea serpent whom they called Cassie.”

“Because of Casco Bay,” Chanterelle said with a nod of understanding.

“Exactly.” Lily bent down and picked up one of the containers from the floor.

There were three serpents inside, and they coiled and writhed around each other like tangled headphone wires. One was black, one was a dark, swampy green, and one was a dull red color. Each of the tiny creatures glimmered and gleamed when their scales caught the light.

“So I guess we don’t need to speak to them now,” Chanterelle said. “If we know they’re little Cassie cryptids.”

“But Lily said the Casco Bay monster was huge,” Diana pointed out. “These are tiny.”

“Oh, shit,” I exclaimed. “We’ve been here before.”

“What do you mean?” Lily asked in confusion.

“The cryptids!” I said. “Instead of Bigfoot, we got–”

“Medium-sized Foot,” Artemis said with a snort.

“And instead of one big Mothman,” I continued, “we had a flock of tiny Mothmen.”

“You’re right,” Diana gasped.

“We definitely don’t need to speak to them now,” Chanterelle said with a shake of her head.

“So let me get this straight,” Lily said. “This evil wizard guy was planting random… things along the ley lines in the hopes that they would develop like Chanterelle did and become something he could use as his own private source of magical power?”

“Yeah.” I nodded. “That’s about it.”

“I mean…” Lily sucked on her teeth. “That is a pretty good plan.”

“Lily!” Diana exclaimed in shock.

“I’m not saying I agree with him doing it!” Lily defended herself. “Just that, if I were an evil wizard who wanted to harvest magic for myself, that’s probably what I would do.”

“Well, keep away from Chanterelle, then,” I said with a joking scowl at her.

Chanterelle placed her palms flat against her cheeks and widened her eyes at Lily in theatrical horror.

“Oh! No!” she said in a stilted, deadpan voice. “Lily is coming to harvest me!”

“Yes, you’d better watch yourself.” Lily made a threatening face at Chanterelle, and then the two of them laughed.

“Okay,” I said to bring us back on track. “So these serpents are another cryptid. Which means someone is probably burying stuff along the ley lines again.”

“Do you think it’s Trevor?” Diana asked. “What if he’s come back to finish what he started?”

“No.” I shook my head. “The Three took him into their custody. They’re not always communicative, but I’m pretty sure they would have let me know if he’d escaped from them, and I don’t see them just letting him go. It’s in their best interests that Wormwood and the wellspring are protected.”

“Alright.” Artemis nodded. “So, what do we do now? Stake out the ley lines?”

“We need to monitor the nexus point,” I said with a nod.

“Where’s that?” Lily asked.

“In the middle of the woods,” I replied.

“Camping trip!” Chanterelle clapped her hands together in excitement.

“Camping?” Diana wrinkled her nose. “It’s November. Camping season is over.”

“Only if you’re not trying hard enough,” Lily said with a grin. “Camping is year-round fun!”

“Is it?” Diana lifted one dark, sculpted eyebrow. “Is it, really?”

“I’m guessing you don’t like camping, then?” Lily asked.

“I like it just fine,” Diana replied in a dignified tone. “When I don’t have to huddle on a hole-filled groundsheet under wet canvas and eat raw eggs for breakfast.”

“Alright, that explains it,” Lily said with a nod. “You’ve just camped wrong before.”

“How do you know?” Diana protested. “Maybe I’m just not the camping type.”

“Maybe,” Lily conceded. “But you have to do it right at least once before you make up your mind.”

“Fine,” Diana sighed.

“When did you go camping?” I asked Diana in amusement. “And why were you eating raw eggs?”

“They weren’t supposed to be raw,” she said. “Our campfire kept going out, so they wouldn’t cook.”

“I can’t imagine you camping,” I said with a grin. “Why did you go?”

“It was with the coven,” she replied with a sigh. “It was a special coven outing to Monhegan Island.”

“Oh, yeah!” Artemis exclaimed. “That was actually a really good trip.”

“Only because you wandered off by yourself and we had to spend an hour trying to find you,” Diana said with a sigh.

“The High Priestess was being… herself.” Artemis gave a little shudder at the memory.

Artemis and Diana had once been members of a coven in Portland under the rule of one of the most manipulative women I’d ever met. Artemis had always had a hard time fitting into her strict rule, but when she was sent to Wormwood to spy on and enchant me to find out more about the ley lines, she’d finally cut off all ties with the coven.

But then Diana turned up and complicated things. The two witches previously had a long-standing rivalry that the High Priestess had played on to turn them against each other. Once they’d started to get to know each other, and once Diana had seen the real error of the High Priestess’ ways, the two of them had quickly bonded and became best friends.

They’d both made a lot of progress with moving on from that period of their lives, but the past still reared its ugly head from time to time.

Now Diana and Artemis shared glances, and Diana leaned her head against Artemis’ shoulder. Artemis rested her cheek against Diana’s locs for a moment and then gave me a reassuring smile.

“Even so,” she said. “Even with the High Priestess. It was such an amazing trip. We went out there to observe the Summer Solstice, so on the longest day, we stayed up to watch the sunrise and the sunset.”

“That sounds beautiful,” Chanterelle breathed.

“And you camped out there?” Lily asked. “I didn’t think that was allowed.”

“It’s not,” Artemis said. “The High Priestess did some glamor spell that kept our campsite hidden from anyone who might have seen us.”

“I don’t know why we couldn’t have just stayed in a hotel,” Diana said. “It would have been way less effort.”

“We were supposed to be embracing nature,” Artemis said. “It was a grounding trip to get out of the city and connect with our roots.”

“I’d love to visit Monhegan Island,” Lily said in a wistful voice. “The pictures of the coastline look amazing.”

“It was a load of gray rocks,” Diana grumbled.

Artemis rolled her eyes.

“Ignore her,” she said to Lily and Chanterelle. “It was fucking beautiful. We camped way up on the top of this cliff where we could watch the sun, and we toasted its rising and its setting with honey mead and camomile sugar cakes.”

“That sounds idyllic,” Lily said with a little sigh.

“Sure, that bit sounds nice,” Diana said. “But it rained in the night, and our tent leaked. I woke up with wet hair and a stiff neck, and in the morning, it was still drizzling, so we were huddling over a smoking campfire trying to boil eggs in water that wouldn’t boil because the fire kept going out.”

“You remember that part,” Artemis said with a chuckle. “I remember the mist rising up off the ocean, and the dew clinging to every blade of grass, and I went right to the edge of the cliff and watched the sky move while I drank hot chamomile tea.”

“And then the next day you got a cold,” Diana said. “Don’t forget that part.”

Artemis grinned. “Totally worth it, babe. That’s actually one of my nicest memories of being in the coven.”

“So what I’m taking away from this,” I said, “is that so long as the tent doesn’t leak and our fire’s hot enough to cook, we’ll be alright.”

“Yes, exactly.” Lily gave an excited nod. “And my tent doesn’t leak.”

“We’ll be cold,” Diana moaned. “It’s bloody November, people, it’s wintertime.”

“Down sleeping bags!” Lily countered. “Knit hats! A camping stove!”

“Camping stove?” Chanterelle looked up eagerly. “Can we cook things?”

“Oh, yes,” Lily said. “Camping stoves are the best way to do it.”

“We just had an open fire,” Artemis said. “The High Priestess liked to go old-school.”

“That was her mistake,” Lily replied. “You need a camping stove. I’ve gone camping in the snow, and so long as I had my stove, I was fine.”

“See!” Artemis said to Diana. “Lily’s an expert at camping!”

“Please, can we go camping?” Chanterelle pleaded. “Diana? Mike? I want to go camping in the woods.”

“Diana, you don’t have to come,” I said. “You can stay here in town and keep an eye on things.”

“No, it’s fine.” Diana heaved a deep sigh. “I’m going to come bloody camping.”

“Yes!” Chanterelle cheered, and she clapped her hands together. “We’re all going camping together!”

“If the tent leaks, I’m going to hold you personally responsible,” Diana said to Lily.

“Noted.” Lily grinned. “You’ll have an amazing time, I promise. This is going to be so much fun, we can roast marshmallows and make s’mores, and I have a portable griddle so we can make hamburgers as well.”

“Alright, alright.” I grinned. “Now you’re selling it to me.”

“Trust me, Mike,” Lily said. “You’re going to have a great time.”

“Oh, it’s going to feel so fucking good to be out in the woods again,” Artemis said with a deep exhale. “I love being out in the middle of the trees, it feels so good.”

“Spot the green witch,” Diana said with a smile.

“Damn right, I’m a green witch.” Artemis grinned. “And I bloody love trees, okay?”

Her imitation of Diana’s British accent was so bad that we all groaned.

“Okay.” I took charge of the situation. “So everyone is up for camping out in the woods tonight and seeing if anything or anyone is doing something to the nexus?”

“Yes!” Chanterelle cheered.

“Yes,” Diana sighed.

“What about all the serpents?” Lily asked with a gesture around at the Tupperware and pan-covered floor of my front room. “Do we just leave them here?”

“They’re going to need to eat soon,” Artemis said. “And they can’t live the rest of their lives in tiny containers.”

“I’m going to bet that won’t last that long,” I said. “Do you remember? All of Trevor’s cryptids only lasted a couple of hours, and then they disappeared.”

“So what do we do with them in the meantime?” Artemis asked. “Just leave them here while we go camping?”

“I guess so.” I rubbed the back of my neck. “I don’t really know what else to do with them. They’re just going to have to deal with it until we figure out what’s going on.”

“We could ask the Three about it,” Diana suggested. “They might know what’s happening.”

“We could do that…” I hesitated, but then I shook my head. “But given their track record of spotty communication, they might not get back to me quickly. I don’t want to contact them about this problem before we’ve even attempted to sort it out ourselves.”

“Besides,” Lily added, “we might find the person responsible for creating them when we camp out in the woods tonight.”

“True,” Diana acknowledged.

“Is this you just trying to get out of camping?” Artemis teased her.

“No,” Diana said in a dignified tone. “I just thought I would suggest the idea.”

“No, it was a good idea,” I agreed with a smile. “I just think we should at least try to work this out by ourselves before we get the Three involved.”

“Yes, that’s fair,” Diana agreed.

“We need to pack our things!” Chanterelle rocked up and down on her tiptoes. “It’ll be getting dark soon!”

“We’ve got a couple of hours of daylight left,” I said with a quick glance out the window. “But you’re right, Chanterelle, we should start getting ready to leave.”

“My camping stuff is at my apartment,” Lily said. “It would be nice to have some help to carry it back here.”

“I can help with that,” I said with a smile.

“Just as I’d hoped,” Lily responded with an answering smile.

“Mike, where’s your camping stuff?” Artemis asked.

“It’s in the attic,” I replied. “I’ll show you.”

I went out into the hall and reached up to grab the rope that hung from the ceiling, which made a panel swing down. I unfolded the ladder, and it let out a metallic squeal that made us all wince.

“You need some oil on that thing,” Lily commented.

“The oil’s probably up there,” I said with a nod toward the storage space. “Be my guest.”

“I have to go attend to my camping stove,” she said with a grin.

Artemis set one foot on the lowest step of the ladder and gave a throaty chuckle as the structure groaned.

“Be careful,” I warned her. “No hijinks. I don’t want to come back here and find you with a broken neck.”

“Don’t worry about that,” Artemis said. “I’m going to plant a ghost in your attic, that’s what I’m going to do.”

“No planting ghosts,” I said in a stern tone.

“Boooo,” she replied. “Party pooper.”

“Here.” I took my keys out of my jacket pocket and tossed them to Diana. “Someone sensible needs to be in charge while I’m gone.”

“I’m so sensible!” Artemis exclaimed.

“Sure you are, babe.” Diana smirked.

“Get what you need out of the attic,” I instructed, “and start loading up the car. We’ll be back soon.”

Artemis had already climbed the ladder and vanished into the dark depths of the attic before I’d closed the apartment door behind us. Diana came downstairs with us to lock the shop up after we left.

She waved goodbye to us as we stepped out of the store into the chilly, late fall afternoon.

“Who knew an attic could be so exciting?” I asked Lily as we headed down the sidewalk.

“I don’t know, actually,” Lily replied. “I kind of get it.”

“Oh, really?” I paused. “You want to go back to the shop?”

Lily laughed and gave me a gentle swat on the arm.

“No,” she replied. “I just mean, attics and basements are cool places. You can find all kinds of things hidden away inside them.”

“Rat droppings,” I said. “Cobwebs. Dead mice.”

“Forgotten manuscripts,” she countered. “Old artifacts. Historical things once thought lost.”

“Ah.” I nodded. “You’re coming at it from a historian’s perspective.”

“A librarian’s perspective,” she corrected me. “But a librarian who’s very interested in history.”

“Yeah,” I said. “Every attic I’ve ever been inside has only had spiderwebs and old vinyl in it. And sometimes asbestos.”

“But it’s the hope!” Lily exclaimed. “The hope that one day it’ll be different. That you’ll find something truly extraordinary that will change things as we know them or reveal some forgotten truth.”

“I don’t know.” I shrugged my shoulders. “I feel like we’ve gone through all the attics in the world by now.”

“That’s what everyone thinks,” Lily said with a grin. “And then something remarkable comes along.”

“I get how that might have been a thing, like, thirty years ago,” I said. “But I bet, if you had a look in every attic in Wormwood, the most exciting thing you would find would be some slightly rare pressing of The White Album.”

“That’s The Beatles, right?” Lily asked. “Are there lots of Beatles fans in Wormwood?”

“As much as any other band,” I said with a shrug. “But you know what I mean.”

“I hear what you’re saying,” she replied. “But I don’t believe it. How can I believe it, Mike, when you’re standing right in front of me?”

I looked at her with a puzzled frown, but I was a bit shocked to see the misty-eyed smile on her face.

“Lily?” I asked in concern, and I stopped to look at her more closely. “Are you okay? What’s wrong?”

“Oh, Mike.” Lily smiled up at me and shook her head.

She took my hand and raised it to her lips. She kissed the back of my knuckles, then linked her fingers through mine, and pulled me on until I started walking again.

“What was that about?” I asked in a mystified tone.

“And you don’t even know, do you?” Lily laughed softly. “I’m talking about you, Mike. If you’re not proof that miracles are to be found around every corner, then I don’t know what is.”

“I don’t think I’m a miracle,” I said with a slightly self-conscious laugh. “I know I make a mean latte, but…”

“Mike, you don’t know how rare you are,” Lily said. “You’re the whole package, you know? Looks. Personality. Kind. Oh, yeah, and you’ve got fucking magical powers. And I’m not talking about what you can do with your fingers.”

My eyebrows shot up in surprise to hear her speak so frankly about it. My face heated a little, but the warmth in my cheeks was nothing compared to the warm feeling that spread through my entire body at Lily’s words.

“Thank you,” I said. “It’s nice to hear that you…”

I had no idea how to finish that sentence. I wanted to say “it’s nice to hear that you appreciate my work,” but I didn’t know if I could get the words out without feeling like a total idiot about it.

What I wanted to do was take Lily in my arms right there and kiss her until both of us were dizzy.

Lily stopped suddenly, and I realized I’d completely lost track of where we were in the town.

Lily had stopped outside an apartment building and taken a key out of her pocket, which she inserted into the lock. She pushed the door open and held it for me to come inside.

I followed her into a small hallway with two doors. Lily went to the door closest to us, opened it, and showed me into her apartment.

I hadn’t been there before, and I looked around the place with interested eyes. I was always curious about the homes of people I knew, and I found a person’s interior design choices could reveal a lot about their personalities.

I was also very grateful for a distraction that would take my mind off the raging hard-on hiding in my jeans that had started as soon as I realized how much I wanted to kiss Lily.

We were in a small, comfortable living room with a bay window that looked out over the street. The floor was covered with a woven rug of blue, green, and red, and a tapestry in matching colors hung on the wall opposite the door.

There was a long sofa of dark green leather against the wall, and a matching dark green leather chair and desk made of dark brown, highly polished wood were set up at the bay window. It was arranged so whoever was sitting at the desk would be able to see out the window at the street and enjoy the natural light.

The walls were painted what looked like a landlord-mandated magnolia color, but as well as the tapestry, other woven wall hangings covered up the bland paint job. They made the room seem small, but cozy as well, like a well-insulated den.

“This is nice,” I observed.

“I’d love to paint in here,” Lily said with a glance around the room. “My landlord doesn’t let me, so wall hangings will have to suffice for now. Anyway, the camping stuff’s all packed away in boxes.”

“Do you have an attic?” I asked.

“A basement,” she replied, and then she flashed me a grin. “Which I keep very clean of cobwebs.”

“I’m glad to hear it,” I chuckled.

Lily tilted her head to the side and looked at me for a moment. That same soft smile from before played around her full lips, and I couldn’t help but gaze at her. She was wearing her customary bright red lipstick, and the dark, warm-toned hue perfectly brought out the flush of color in her cheeks and the bright sparkle in her lovely, dark eyes.

She looked so full of life and energy that I felt energized just by looking at her.

“What are you looking at, Mike?” Lily’s voice was low.

I took a step closer to her. My hand reached out and found hers, and just as she’d done, I raised her fingers to my lips and kissed them.

“Another miracle,” I said in a husky tone. “One that’s standing right in front of me.”

Lily drew in her breath in a quick gasp.

“Oh, Mike, you devil,” she whispered.

She leaned in, caught the front of my shirt with her free hand, and her fingers twined even more tightly with my own. Her wonderful red lips were parting to meet me, her mouth touched mine, and desire exploded between us like a box of fireworks going off on the Fourth of July.

Chapter 7

“Mike,” Lily murmured.

The sound of my name on her tongue made my fingers tighten convulsively around Lily’s fingers. My free hand went up to cup her cheek, and I tilted her face so I could kiss her even more deeply.

“You taste like coffee,” Lily whispered in between kisses. “I love that you taste like coffee. I love…”

She abruptly stopped, drew back a little, and looked up into my face. Her dark brown eyes searched my features with a sudden intensity that made my stomach flip over with a dozen different emotions.

My throat was suddenly dry as I looked down at her.

I hadn’t known Lily that long. It had only been a few months since we’d met, but in those months, I felt like we’d shared more than most couples might share in a lifetime. Life-and-death scenarios were pretty good for figuring out if someone was right for you or not.

And Lily was right for me.

I knew it with a bone-deep certainty that went far deeper than any lust or desire could hope to reach. She was beautiful, of course she was, and she turned me on like few women in pencil skirts could hope to achieve. I’d never known the power of a crisp blouse until Lily had entered my life.

But it was so much more than that. I loved Lily’s fire, her sassy tongue, her kind heart, her deep curiosity about the world, her unquenchable thirst for knowledge, and her passionate dedication to her areas of interest, like her people’s folklore and heritage.

I loved her.

It hit me like a wave.

I loved her.

I swallowed hard and gazed down into Lily’s face. Somehow, despite our frantic kissing, her lipstick looked just as good as ever.

“What are you thinking?” Lily whispered.

I gave a soft chuckle. “Actually, I was thinking about your lipstick. I feel like it should be smeared all over both our faces, but it still looks amazing.”

“That’s the power of a good liquid formula,” she said with a smile. “Worth every penny.”

“And I was thinking…” I took a deep breath. “I was thinking how much I love doing this. How much I love kissing you. Being with you. How much I love… you. I love you, Lily.”

Lily’s breath caught in her throat. She made a noise that was almost a sob, and then she fiercely grabbed hold of my shirt and dragged me in to kiss me again.

Her mouth was hungry, passionate, and relentless. She tasted like coffee as well, and she smelled like Diana’s rose-scented body wash that she must have used in the shower at my place. But underneath that familiar scent was the perfume of Lily’s skin, and that was a headier fragrance than anything that could come out of a bottle.

Without realizing it, we’d fallen back onto the sofa. I was on top of Lily and kissing her hard while my fingers pulled at her clothes.

She’d scrounged up her outfit from my closet after her clothes had gotten soaked in the rain, and she was wearing a pair of Diana’s black jeans and an oversized Taylor Swift T-shirt that Chanterelle had found in the thrift store. It was so different from Lily’s normal style that it almost felt like I was discovering her body for the first time.

“Normally, I’m unbuttoning things,” I murmured underneath her mouth. “Not just pulling them up.”

“Mm,” Lily sighed, and then she let out a little gasp of pleasure as my fingers slipped underneath the hem of her shirt and touched the soft, smooth skin of her stomach. “Oh, Mike… Oh, shit!”

She sat bolt upright on the couch, and I almost fell onto the floor. I caught myself just in time and leaned against the far arm.

“What?” I asked in concern. “What is it?”

“Mike.” Lily stared at me. “I love you.”

I burst out laughing.

“Don’t laugh!” she protested. “I just realized I forgot to say it back to you.”

“You don’t have to say it back–” I began, but she cut me off.

“Mike,” she said in a firm tone. “I’ve wanted to tell you I loved you for weeks. I just assumed I was going to say it first, so when you said it first, it threw me, and then I forgot I hadn’t said it back.”

“Okay.” I grinned with a delicious, warm feeling of happiness filling my whole body. “I love you, Lily.”

Lily sat up on the couch, and I slid off the cushions to kneel on the floor in front of her. She opened her knees and wrapped her arms around my neck to pull me closer to her.

“I love you, Mike,” she whispered, and she kissed me all over my face and down my throat.

I closed my eyes and enjoyed the sensation of her lips grazing my skin. Every touch sent tingles down my spine. Goosebumps rose on my arms and legs, my body fizzed, and my stomach turned over. My hands went to Lily’s waist and up inside her shirt.

My fingers found the soft underside of her breasts, and I inhaled in surprise.

“No bra?” I murmured against her lips.

“It got wet,” she whispered with a smile. “Remember?”

“I do remember.” My mouth grazed the lobe of her ear, and she shivered. “I guess that makes me wonder what your current… condition is.”

My hands reached higher up her shirt, and my fingers found the tight, hard diamonds of her nipples. I pulled on them gently and rolled them between my fingers, and Lily gave a sigh of pleasure and pushed her chest up to meet my touch.

“My current condition,” she breathed. “Do you want me to tell you or do you want to find that out for yourself?”

“Mm, let me think.” I kissed down the side of her neck while my fingers rolled her nipples back and forth.

I tugged on them and pinched them until Lily let out a breathless moan and tipped her head back in delight.

“Mike!” she gasped.

“Tell me,” I growled.

“I’m so wet,” she moaned. “I’m so wet for you, Mike, I can’t stand it.”

“Good.” I pulled her shirt up over her head in one quick motion. “Now show me.”

Lily moved her shoulders back to better show off her breasts, and I cupped the soft, heavy globes in my palms. Her skin was olive-brown, and her nipples were cocoa-colored with the faintest rosy flush to them. I traced my fingers down her throat and collarbones, between the deep valley of her cleavage, and down her stomach to the waistband of her jeans. They were a little loose on her, and my hand slipped easily inside the waist to dig my fingers into her ass.

Lily let out a little moan and reached down to undo the button holding her jeans closed.

She stood up, shimmied them down her thighs to her ankles, and then pulled down the red cotton underwear she wore. I looked up at her naked body as she stood over me, and I was in awe at the sight of her.

“Whoa,” I breathed. “You look… My god, Lily. You always look amazing, but from this angle… Holy shit.”

Lily gave a pleased smile, and then her eyes fluttered closed as I ran my hand up the inside of her thigh.

“Mm,” she breathed in pleasure.

My knuckles brushed against the glistening frills of her pussy lips, and she jumped in surprise at the sensation.

“Oh!” she gasped.

“Sit down,” I commanded.

Lily sat down, and I pulled her pants and underwear from her ankles and tossed them to the side. Then I took hold of her knees and pushed them back and open. Her thighs spread to reveal the full glory of her pussy, and I sucked in my breath at the sight. Her pussy lips were dark brown and glistening with juices that showed just how fucking turned on she was right now.

“You weren’t lying,” I murmured. “You’re fucking soaked right now.”

“That’s what you do to me,” she breathed.

“And if I do this?” I questioned. “What does this do to you?”

I slid my hands up and down her thighs until my fingers just grazed the delicious heat of her pussy.

Lily let out a little moan.

“You’re teasing me,” she whispered.

“Maybe a little.” My voice was a low growl.

Lily reached her arms up above her head and sank her tailbone deeper into the couch. The movement spread her thighs even wider, and I saw the gleam of her pussy juices as her body opened up like a flower for me.

“God,” I murmured. “You’re so beautiful, Lily. I love the way your body looks, the way it feels, the way you smell…”

“I love the way you touch my body,” Lily responded. “I love how you make me feel.”

I slid my fingers inside the slick wetness of Lily’s pussy, and she gasped as her thighs tensed.

“You’re dripping wet,” I murmured in her ear as I pushed first one and then two fingers inside her.

“I can’t help it,” she gasped. “That’s what you do to me.”

“And what else do you want me to do to you?” I asked.

I circled her clit with my thumb, and Lily let out a moan of pleasure and bucked her hips against my hand.

“That,” she groaned. “More of that. Oh, fuck, oh, god, Mike, please…”

She threw her head back against the couch cushions. Her nipples were tight, dark knots, and I pinched them hard with my free hand.

Lily gasped, and goosebumps broke out all over her skin.

“Yes!” she moaned.

Lily was so wet and excited, my fingers plunged inside her like a hot knife sliding into room temperature butter.

I fucked my fingers in and out of her, and as I did so, I cocked my wrist so I drove the heel of my hand against her clit.

“Yes!” Lily bucked her hips and moaned. “Oh, fuck, yes, Mike, that feels so good.”

I lowered my face to her cleavage and caught first one nipple and then the other in my mouth.

“Ohhhh, yes,” Lily gasped. “Mm, that feels so good.”

I sucked her nipples and pulled on them with my teeth. The hot, womanly smell of Lily’s body was in my nose and in my mouth, and her clit was an engorged bud that almost vibrated under my touch as I rubbed and caressed it.

“Mmm, yes, Mike, yes,” Lily moaned.

I had the perfect view of her face as I pushed her closer to orgasm. Her lips were parted, her eyes were closed, and her dark brown nipples bounced a little with the movement of my fingers inside her.

I drew circles around the librarian’s clit with my thumb and alternated the pressure and rhythm until her body shook with ecstasy. She gasped and threw her head back in a way that exposed the perfect lines and shadows of her collarbones.

“Oh, fuck, Mike,” she moaned. “Yes, yes, yes.”

With my other hand, I squeezed one of her nipples and rolled it between my fingers before pulling her breast into my mouth. I circled her nipple with my tongue, and Lily moaned as I worked her nipples with my mouth and her pussy with my fingers.

I bit her nipple gently and then more roughly, and Lily let out a sharp cry of pleasure. Then I increased the pace and rhythm of my fingers until she was moaning in time with the motion of my hand.

“Fuck!” she gasped. “Oh! Fuck! Oh!”

I felt the pulsing of her pussy quicken, and I increased the pace of my fingers. Lily thrust her hips back and forth against my wrist, and her moans urged me on.

“Yes!” she cried.

Her pussy tightened and then gushed out a wave of excited juices as my fingers brought her to orgasm.

“Ahh!” Lily moaned.

Her head thumped back against the couch cushions, and she arched her back and offered her breasts to me in one final thrashing moment of ecstasy. I licked her tight, dark nipples and worked them with my teeth, and Lily’s body shook with pleasure as her body crested its climax and came down on the other side.

“Oh, fuck,” she gasped.

Her eyes were closed at the moment she peaked, but now she slowly blinked them open again and gazed at me in breathless wonder.

“Oh, my god, Mike,” she whispered. “Oh, that was fantastic. Fuck. You’re so fucking talented, you know that?”

“I’ve had good reviews in the past,” I acknowledged with a bit of a smirk.

“Believe me,” Lily said, “you’re worth the hype.”

She pulled herself up to a sitting position and reached out to put her hands on my shoulders. She smiled at me, and then she tugged at the collar of my shirt.

“Can’t wait to get me naked, huh?” I teased her.

“That seems fair,” Lily said with a grin.

I let her pull my shirt off over my head, and then I stood up to undo my jeans.

Lily watched with bright, excited eyes, and she licked her lips as I pulled off my pants and stood in front of her in my boxer shorts.

“My, my,” she purred with her eyes fixed on my erection.

I grinned and pulled down my underwear. My cock sprang free, and Lily leaned back against the couch cushions with a small noise of satisfaction.

“Happy now?” I smirked.

“I can think of something that would make me even happier,” she returned with a grin.

“Really?” I leaned over her as she laid back on the couch. “And what could that be?”

Lily’s red lips parted in a smile. She reached up between our bodies, and her lovely fingers touched my cock with a mixture of tenderness, excitement, and raw animal lust.

“This,” she whispered. “You. Inside me. Right now.”

“Lie down on the floor.” The words fell out of my mouth in a hoarse growl. “On your back.”

Lily slid down from the couch to follow my instructions. She laid down on the floor on her back, and she looked up at me with her dark eyes like huge wet pools of desire.

I positioned myself between her knees and nudged her inner thighs with my palms.

“Open your legs for me,” I commanded.

Lily spread her thighs wide open, and I pushed her knees back until her toes left the floor and her feet bobbed in the air.

I planted my hands on the floor on either side of her shoulders, and with one quick jerk of my hips, I thrust my cock deep inside Lily’s waiting pussy.

“Fuck!” I moaned.

“Fuck!” Lily echoed as I filled her up with my shaft. Her eyelashes fluttered, and her red lips parted involuntarily as she took my cock inside her. “Oh, my gaaahhd, Mike, you feel so good inside me.”

“Fuck, Lily, you’re so fucking wet,” I groaned.

Sliding into Lily’s pussy was like sliding into a hot, silken sleeve. She was dripping wet for me, and her pussy fit my cock like a satin glove that was tailor-made for me alone.

I pulled out of her a little way and then slammed my cock into her again.

Lily writhed, and her breaths came in short, breathy moans each time I thrust into her.

“Yes,” she whimpered. “Yes, Mike, harder.”

I drove inside her even deeper, and she mewled and dug her fingernails into my shoulders.

“Your pussy feels so fucking good on my cock,” I gasped. “Fuck, Lily, I love you. I love you so fucking much.”

“I love you, Mike,” she panted. “God, I love you so much, too.”

My cock slipped in and out of her like a piston in an engine. Lily wrapped her legs around me to keep me close, and the feeling of her breasts crushed against my chest set my blood whirling in my brain.

My body moved like a machine, and the whole world narrowed down to the delicious pressure building inside me. My cock was my master, and I followed its bidding without thought.

Lily moaned in pleasure as I drove into her without stopping.

“Oh– fuck– yes!” she wailed. “Faster!”

I thrust my cock deep inside her. I slammed into her waiting pussy, and she welcomed me in. The inside of her pussy was hot, wet, and so goddamn silky on my cock. I drove into her again and again with deep, quick, hard thrusts, and Lily’s moans pushed me further.

But I wanted to make Lily cum again before I allowed myself my own release.

Together, the two of us created a rhythm to our fucking that was almost like a dance. I plunged into Lily like a surfer cresting the highest wave, and she moaned and writhed with pleasure in a way that was music to my ears.

“Mike,” she whimpered. “I’m going to cum… Fuck, I’m going to cum… Ah!”

She grabbed hold of my forearms, and her nails dug into my skin as her orgasm overtook her.

“Fuck!” she gasped.

She gasped, and her body jerked with pleasure. Her pussy throbbed and squeezed my cock, and her fists thumped against the floor as her body was rocked by the pleasure I’d given her.

The feel of pussy gripping my cock in orgasm was almost too much for me to bear, but I wasn’t ready to be done yet.

Lily knew I hadn’t finished, and she answered my question even before I could ask it.

“More,” she gasped. “Oh, fuck, Mike. Again.”

“Again?” I queried. “Are you sure?”

“Fuck, Mike, I’ve never been more sure,” she exclaimed. “I want you to cum inside me.”

My heart leaped with excitement at the thought, but I needed to double-check that this was okay.

“Is it a safe day?” I asked.

Lily’s mouth curved into a smile. “No.”

I frowned at her for a moment, and then my eyebrows lifted as I realized what she was saying.

“Lily,” I breathed. “Are you saying that… that you wouldn’t mind if you got pregnant?”

“Mike.” She cupped my face between her hands and kissed me gently. “That’s exactly what I’m saying. If you’re okay with it, then…”

“Yes,” I said. “A thousand times, yes.”

“Then that’s what I want.” Lily smiled. “I want a baby with the man I love.”

My heart was too full for words.

Instead, I leaned over her and kissed her hard. At the same time, I eased my cock almost all of the way out of her pussy. And then I slammed it into her again.

Lily moaned in pleasure. “Yes! God! Harder, Mike!”

I drove into her even deeper than before in a way that made her cry out with pleasure.

“Fuck,” I grunted.

Each thrust was like pure heaven. Lily’s pussy was like velvet on my manhood. She was slick and wet and hot with the previous two orgasms I’d given her, and her body was loose and willing as I thrust into her again and again.

“More, Mike,” Lily begged. “Harder.”

I worked my hips back and forth and pumped my cock in and out of Lily’s pussy. She arched her back, and I pulled back a little bit to get a better view of the way her full breasts bounced and jiggled every time I plunged my cock inside her.

“Miiiiike,” Lily gasped. “I’m getting close– I’m so close– I’m–”

Her words trailed away into a moaning gasp.

I drove into her, and the force of my thrusts sent her body rocking back and forth on the floor. I carried on hammering into her. I could feel myself getting close, and then with a mewling cry of completion, Lily came for the third time.

And as her pussy tightened around my shaft and held me fast, I finally let go.

My orgasm roared through me, and I let out a sound partway between a groan and a shout. My vision was spotted with black dots, my body spasmed, and my cock jerked as I gushed a wave of hot cum inside Lily’s pussy. I thrust into her again, and I shot more of my seed into her. It filled her up to the brim, and more of my hot cum overflowed out of her pussy and ran down the insides of her thighs.

“Fuck!” I choked out.

I grabbed hold of her shoulders as my whole body shuddered with the release of my orgasm. My heart was racing, and my breath came in ragged gasps.

I managed one more quivering thrust, and then I pulled my cock out of Lily and collapsed onto the floor beside her. She turned onto her side, and I dragged her into my arms and held her tight against my chest. We laid there together with our hearts racing and the breath whistling in and out of our lungs.

“Wow,” Lily finally whispered.

“Wow,” I agreed.

“Holy fuck,” she murmured.

“Yep.” I let out a breathless chuckle.

“Damn.” She turned her head to look at me.

Her dark eyes were soft and almost dazed, and her face and whole body seemed as relaxed as liquid. She reached her hand up and stroked my face with her soft fingers.

“You’re so incredible, Mike,” she whispered. “I’m so lucky to have you in my life. I don’t know what I did to have you here with me now, but I’m so damn thankful you are.”

“So am I,” I whispered.

Lily rested her head against my chest, and we stayed like that for a little while longer as we just enjoyed the sweet comfort of our naked bodies touching skin to skin.

But eventually, the lengthening shadows reminded us why we’d come to Lily’s apartment in the first place, and we reluctantly got up, cleaned off, and put our clothes back on.

Lily put her borrowed clothes in a bag that I could take back with me to my apartment, and she went into her bedroom to change into something warm and practical for our trip tonight.

While she was getting dressed, I went down into the basement and found a lot of plastic boxes full of everything from tennis rackets to old clothes to bundles of dried grasses and flowers. Everything was clearly labeled, and I quickly found several boxes with big stickers on them that read “CAMPING” in large letters.

Inside the boxes, I found sleeping bags, a tiny camping stove, a battery-powered lantern, a small kettle, some enamel cups, a couple of enamel plates and bowls, cutlery, several reusable water bottles, and a small box of what looked like homemade firestarters.

I carried all the boxes marked “CAMPING” upstairs so Lily could look through them. I was just carrying up the third and final box when Lily came out of her bedroom. She was wearing black quilted pants and a thick hoodie knitted out of black-and-blue yarn.

“What are you smiling about?” she asked me.

“I was just thinking about all the different clothes I’ve seen you in today,” I replied. “Your regular librarian clothes, then your borrowed clothes…”

“Then nothing at all,” she filled in with a devilish grin.

“And now your camping clothes,” I finished.

“Yeah.” Lily smiled. “It’s been a busy day, hasn’t it?”

“Yes, it has.” I put the third box down on the floor. “I wasn’t sure what you were planning on bringing with you, so I brought everything up just in case.”

“That’s great, thank you,” she said. “I’ve got a four-person tent in one of these boxes somewhere.”

“Four?” I lifted my eyebrows. “Wow.”

“I used to go camping with my cousins a lot,” she explained. “Whenever I go back home to spend time with my family, we’ll often arrange some kind of camping trip.”

“Your family lives on a farm, don’t they?” I remembered.

“A small one,” she said with a nod. “But, yeah, I love it there. There are so many trees, and when we go camping, we hike to this big lake nearby, and we camp on the shores there. It’s amazing.”

A soft smile curved Lily’s mouth, and I smiled at how happy the memory made her.

“The Wormwood forest might not be quite as idyllic as that,” I said.

“Nothing will be as idyllic as that,” she replied. “But that means the Wormwood forest will be free to form its own memory without any comparison.”

“That’s a nice way of looking at it,” I agreed.

We went through the plastic storage boxes and found loads of useful tools and pieces of equipment. Lily brought up a couple of huge backpacks from the basement, and we filled them with everything she thought we would need tonight.

When we were all packed, I helped Lily put on one of the backpacks, and then I heaved on the second one.

“Whoa.” I staggered a little under the weight of it. “These things are heavy.”

“Yeah.” Lily grinned. “I’m really glad we’re taking your car into the woods.”

“Would you normally walk somewhere carrying all of this?” I asked.

We went out of her apartment into the late-afternoon gloom of the sidewalk. The sun was sinking behind the rooftops, and the light was fading quickly. We’d have to move fast if we wanted to get out to the woods soon enough to make sure we weren’t setting up camp in total darkness.

“Yeah,” Lily replied with a grimace. “My parents always made me carry my own stuff any time we went camping as a family when I was a kid. They said it would make me appreciate the things I had because I’d carried them there on my own back.”

“I can see the logic there,” I said with a nod. “If you arrive with a car full of conveniences, it’s easier to wish you’d brought more. If you’ve carried every single piece of equipment there by yourself, it would give you a sense of satisfaction.”

“Yes, exactly,” Lily said, and then she let out a laugh. “I see that now, but at the time, I just really wished we were taking the car.”

We retraced our steps back to the store with puddles from the rainstorm still gleaming on the sidewalk and in the road. The backpack straps were cutting into my shoulders, and the hard edge of something inside the bag was digging into a knob of my spine.

We came around the corner, and the store was just up ahead.

“Phew,” I exhaled in relief. “I’m going to be glad to take this bag off.”

“Damn, Mike,” Lily teased. “You’ve only been carrying it for five minutes.”

“Five minutes while carrying enough equipment for five people,” I retorted.

Lily laughed. “No, you’re right, it is a lot. And I, uh, might have packed the bags a little unevenly.”

“What are you saying?” I narrowed my eyes at her.

“Well…” She grinned. “I might have put all the lighter items in my bag and all of the heavier ones in your bag.”

“Oh, my god!” I exclaimed. “You’re taking advantage of my good nature.”

“And your strong shoulders,” she agreed with a grin.

I rolled my eyes, got my phone out of my pocket, and shot Artemis a quick text to let her know we were outside the shop.

“Mike?” An angry voice called my name.

I turned around in surprise to see Annie stalking toward me down the sidewalk. She was wearing a bright yellow raincoat, matching yellow rain boots, and a furious expression on her face.

“Annie?” I asked in surprise.

Annie marched up to Lily and me. She was carrying something in her hand, and she shoved it at us with a quick, angry motion.

I saw what it was, and my heart sank.

It was a glass jar full of water with a tiny sea serpent swimming around inside.

Chapter 8

“Ah, shit,” I said.

“‘Ah, shit’ is right!” Annie exclaimed in a tart voice. “What the hell is this, Mike?”

“It’s a sea serpent,” I said. “Have you met Lily? She’s a librarian at the local library. She actually identified it as a version of Cassie, who was a cryptid from– Where was it?”

“Lake Casco,” Lily supplied.

“Yeah, Lake Casco.” I nodded.

“Nice to meet you, Lily,” Annie said with a quick smile, but then she turned to me, and the smile completely left her face. “Mike? What the hell?”

“Uh…” I frowned. “I’m sorry?”

“What the hell?” she demanded. “When were you going to tell me about this?”

“Oh.” A flash of guilt flared up inside me as I remembered that I’d promised to keep Annie in the loop about what was going on in town. “Shit. I’m sorry, Annie, I just haven’t had the chance to let you know about all of this yet. I’ve been so busy.”

“Too busy to even send me a text?” she demanded.

“Yes.” I took a deep breath. “Annie, we had to go out there and physically catch as many serpents as we could to make sure no one else saw them.”

“In the pouring rain,” Lily added. “With Tupperware and saucepans.”

“My apartment is like a really weird aquarium right now,” I said. “The front room floor is covered with containers full of serpents.”

“Oh.” Annie looked a little sheepish. “Okay.”

“I’m sorry,” I added. “I completely forgot that you wanted to be kept up to date with… weird things.”

“In Mike’s defense,” Lily said, “he’s been running around trying to figure out what’s going on and how to stop it.”

“Okay.” Annie lifted her chin. “So. Tell me now. What’s going on? How do we stop it?”

“Well,” I said. “Cryptids appeared in town very recently, and that was because of Trevor.”

“Right.” Annie’s eyes flickered for just a moment at the mention of the guy who’d possessed her. “He was burying things in the woods.”

“Along the ley lines,” I said with a nod. “So I figure the first step here is to go and stake out the nexus point in the woods and see if we find anyone doing the same thing.”

“Hence the backpacks,” Lily said.

“Wait,” Annie said, “you’re going out there right now? Are you camping out there?”

“I know, I know,” I said. “It’s November. But Lily insisted camping is a year-round activity.”

“A fun year-round activity,” Lily corrected.

“I want to come,” Annie said. “I have a tent. I have a sleeping bag, and a camping stove.”

“What stove do you have?” Lily asked in interest.

“An Optimus Svea,” Annie replied.

“Oh, nice!” Lily exclaimed. “Classic.”

“What do you have?” Annie asked.

“A Camp Chef Mountaineer,” Lily said.

“Oh, wow!” Annie’s eyes opened wide. “That’s got two burners, doesn’t it? I’ve thought about upgrading to something like that, but I really want something small that fits in my pack.”

“I’ve heard really great things about the Svea,” Lily said. “How do you like it? How’s the wind resistance?”

“Better than you’d think, actually,” Annie said, “considering it’s so small. And it’s so easy to clean as well. I’d recommend one if you were going to get a second stove.”

“Cool,” Lily said with a smile.

I looked from Lily to Annie. I was a little surprised to learn Annie was so into the great outdoors that she could chat about camping stoves for longer than two seconds. It wasn’t that I thought she was helpless or prissy, but every time I saw Annie, she was wearing long skirts and a pretty blouse of some kind, so I’d just assumed she wasn’t the outdoorsy type.

Even so, I wasn’t sure about the wisdom of Annie going back to the woods. It had only been a little while since her experience at Trevor’s hands out there.

“Are you sure you’re up to going into the woods?” I spoke carefully so she couldn’t misunderstand my words. “I’m not doubting your capabilities. But the last time you were out there, things got…”

“I know.” Annie lifted her chin. “But that’s exactly why I think it would be good for me to go back there. Face my fears.”

“And it’s always good to have an extra stove,” Lily said with a grin.

“See?” Annie nodded firmly. “I’d be useful. I’d be an asset.”

“Okay,” I said with a small grin. “Well, I can’t really forbid you from coming.”

“You could try,” Annie said with a deceptively sweet smile.

“I know better than that,” I chuckled. “Okay, then.”

At that moment, the shop door opened, and Artemis peered out.

“Sorry,” she panted. “I’ve been running in and out of the attic. Oh, hi, Annie.”

“Annie’s coming with us,” I told Artemis.

“Oh, cool,” Artemis said with a nod. “Does she have a sleeping bag she can bring?”

“Yes,” Annie replied. “I’ve got my own tent as well, and a couple of lanterns.”

“Great!” Artemis grinned. “We’re going to be so well-equipped for this expedition that we could open up our own Bass Pro.”

“That’s a good idea,” I said. “One thing, though. There’s not enough space in my car to take everyone out there, so you’ll have to take your car. How big is it?”

“It’s a Mini,” Annie said. “There’s enough space for a passenger or two.”

“Alright.” I nodded. “One of us can ride with you, and you can follow me out there.”

“A Mini?” Artemis lifted her eyebrows.

“Yes, it’s electric,” Annie replied. “It’s very eco-friendly.”

“Is it?” Artemis nodded her head in an interested gesture. “Maybe I’ll ride with you, if that’s okay, Annie? I’m interested in electric cars.”

“Sure.” Annie smiled. “I love showing off my car.”

“Okay,” I said. “Artemis, you go with Annie and help her pack up her things.”

“Okay,” Artemis said. “We’re pretty much ready to go here as well, we just need to load up the car.”

“Text me when you two are ready,” I said. “We’ll drive out there together.”

Artemis nodded. She darted back inside the shop and was back out in a moment with her coat on. She buttoned it up quickly, gave me back the keys to the shop, and then she and Annie headed down the street.

I held the door open for Lily, and then we went inside and upstairs to the apartment.

The floor on the landing seemed to be entirely taken up by bags. I recognized some ancient duffle bags I hadn’t touched in years. They’d been brushed free from dust and cobwebs and were now bulging at the seams with equipment. There were a couple of sleeping bags rolled up into coils as well, which were stashed with the duffel bags.

“Guys?” I called out.

Diana and Chanterelle came out of the bedroom, and they were well bundled up in warm clothing.

“I think we’re almost ready to go,” I told them. “We just need to load up the car.”

“We can do that,” Diana said. “You need to put some layers on.”

I looked down at my jeans. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. These aren’t going to cut it out there.”

“Light layers,” Lily said with an experienced nod. “That’s the trick. Do you have any long johns?”

I shot her a disdainful look.

Lily grinned. “I just thought I’d ask.”

“No,” I said. “No long johns. But I can layer up some pajama pants.”

“That’ll work,” Lily said in approval.

I gave Diana my keys, and while the women hauled the bags downstairs, I quickly went into the bedroom and prepared to face a cold night outdoors. I had some thin cotton pajama pants that I wore in the summer, so I pulled those on and then added some baggy sweatpants over the top. I layered a long-sleeved shirt underneath one of my larger T-shirts and added a thick pair of wool socks over the ones I was already wearing.

I paused and stared at the top shelf in my closet.

Then I sighed, reached up, and took out Uncle Billy’s trapper hat. I was going to get mercilessly teased about it, but it was a good hat all the same.

I jammed it down firmly on top of my head, shot a rueful look at my comfortable bed, and went out into the hall. There was one bag left, so I took it down with me as I left the apartment behind.

Diana, Lily, and Chanterelle were outside by the car. They turned around as I approached.

“Oh, my god,” Lily grinned. “You actually did it.”

“Mike, you have a hat!” Chanterelle exclaimed.

“Where did that come from?” Diana asked.

“You don’t want to know,” Lily told her with a chuckle.

“It was Uncle Billy’s,” I said in a stern voice. “It’s a very good hat, it has sentimental value, and I like it a lot, so I’m going to wear it.”

Diana gave a solemn nod.

“Of course,” she said in a grave voice. “And it’s your God-given right as a red-blooded American man to make choices like that.”

I shot her a suspicious glance. Her voice was so deadpan I couldn’t tell if she was laughing at me or not.

“Hmm,” I said.

Diana widened her eyes at me in an innocent way. I still couldn’t tell what she really thought, but I decided not to worry about it. I still had Artemis to face, and I knew she was going to be ruthless.

I tossed the last bag in the trunk of the car and then went around to the driver’s seat. I slid in behind the wheel and pulled out my phone to check if I had any messages.

Sure enough, Artemis had texted me a minute ago to let me know they were almost ready to leave.

“Artemis and Annie are going to be on their way soon,” I said to the others as they got into the car.

“That was quick,” Diana commented.

She got into the back of the car with Lily while Chanterelle took the passenger seat next to me.

“Annie’s very organized, I guess,” I said.

“And she didn’t have to stop to skin a dead rabbit on the way home,” Diana said.

I twisted around in my seat to glare at her.

Diana gave me an innocent smile while Lily smirked next to her. Chanterelle covered her giggle behind her hand.

“You’re lucky I’m in a forgiving mood,” I said. “And that I don’t care. And that it’s too good a hat to be hurt by your opinions.”

“Of course, Mike,” Diana soothed. “I would never want to hurt your hat’s feelings.”

I grunted and then picked up my phone with an exhale of relief.

“Okay, Annie and Artemis are on their way now,” I said. “Artemis will give Annie directions, so we can meet them there.”

“That’s good,” Lily said. “It’s almost dark, and I’d rather not put up tents in the pitch black.”

“Lovely,” Diana sighed. “I love camping.”

“You will!” Lily assured her. “You just have to give it a chance.”

I started the car and drove down the street away from the store. We turned onto the road that led toward the woods.

As I drove, I tried to work out just how many times I’d gone down this road.

Back when I was a kid growing up in Wormwood and living with Uncle Billy, I’d gone out to the woods every now and then for parties and late-night hang-outs with my friends. We would make a fire, share any alcohol we’d managed to either buy or steal from our parents or older siblings, and talk about random crap until even the bravest among us got too spooked by the trees to stay out there any longer.

I’d moved away from Wormwood after graduation and traveled around a bit. I’d come back to town for the holidays and the occasional random visit, but that time had been spent with Uncle Billy, and he’d never been the outdoorsy type. Our catch-ups had been spent at the bar with a beer or on his living room couch with takeout and a classic science fiction movie from his ancient collection of DVDs.

It was only in the past year that I’d really started to spend time out in the woods again. Both Chanterelle and Artemis loved it out there, and when Chanterelle was still getting used to her human body, we’d helped her become acclimatized to things by taking her for long walks in the woods. The fresh air had done her a lot of good, and through her excitement and Artemis’ enthusiasm, I’d learned to see the beauty in these old trees.

It was a feeling that had only become stronger since gaining my own earth-based magical power.

I remembered vividly the moment when I’d first realized I had that kind of magic. I’d been out in the woods, and plants had started growing around my ankles. At first, I’d thought it was something weird to do with the nexus point, but then it was like the plants responded to my will.

Now I could control plants and manipulate the earth. I wasn’t as skilled or as powerful as Artemis, but that was because earth magic was her specialty. She was a master of earth magic, whereas I’d been given a bit of each element’s power.

“Look, is that Annie?” Chanterelle’s voice broke into my thoughts as she pointed to a small Mini Cooper that had just turned onto the road ahead of us.

“Yeah, looks like it,” I replied.

The Mini and I headed along the long road. The last dregs of daylight were seeping through the black tops of the trees, and the road was covered in fluttering, harsh-edged shadows and a few bright scraps of sunset-colored light.

Ahead of us, the Mini pulled onto the side of the road at the place where we always parked. I followed them, parked, got out of the car, and waved to Annie and Artemis as they got out of the Mini.

“We should be able to get the tents up before dark if we hurry,” I called.

“Um…” Artemis stared at me. “Mike.”

“What?” I asked with a frown.

“Did a groundhog curl up and die on your head?” she asked.

I rolled my eyes. For a moment, I’d forgotten all about my hat.

“You can laugh all you want,” I replied. “It’s a good hat, and it’s going to keep my head damn warm tonight.”

“I’ve heard you lose eighty percent of your body heat through your head,” Annie said. “Hats are a good idea.”

“There!” I exclaimed. “Thank you, Annie.”

“Brown-noser,” Diana said to Annie, who grinned at the teasing.

We popped the trunks on the cars and grabbed the bags. It was a struggle to heave them out of the car, but we managed it, and then I divided up the load as fairly as I could between all six of us.

“Alright.” I heaved my pack onto my back and suppressed a groan as the heavy load slumped against my spine. “Let’s go.”

I’d walked to the nexus point quite a few times by now, so even though there was no official path that led there, I knew the way well. Even in the shadowy gloom, my feet led me in the right direction, and I wondered if there was something magical at work there. Perhaps the elemental magic inside me was responding to the magic of the ley lines and showing me the way to go.

Or maybe I just had a good memory for those things.

No matter what the reason was, we found our way to the nexus point in good time, and I let my pack slide off my shoulders with a groan of relief.

“Is this it?” Annie asked as she looked around the dark trees. “Are we here?”

“We’re here,” I confirmed.

“How can you tell?” she persisted.

I glanced around the area. It was a small clearing between the trees, and the ground was covered in damp grass and even damper old leaves that had fallen from the surrounding trees. In summer, flowers grew nearby, and the whole place was bright, green, and brimming with life and magic.

Now, on a dark November evening, the clearing looked gloomy and uninviting. The trees loomed overhead like jealous sentinels, the ground was wet and cold, and the sky that peeked out through the black branches was a weird, yellowish-gray color.

But even so, I knew it was the right spot.

And even with the darkness, the damp, and the shadows, part of me was really happy to be out there.

That was definitely the magic in my veins doing the talking.

“We’ve been out here quite a few times,” I told Annie. “I remember the way here.”

“That tree over there.” Diana pointed to a tree at the back of the clearing. “That’s where Keith had his tent, wasn’t it?”

“I think so, yeah,” I said with a nod, and then I explained to Annie, “Keith was the leader of the group of hippies who came and camped out here. They didn’t realize it, but they were camping right on top of the nexus point, and whenever they did their hippie rituals, they were unintentionally siphoning off the ley lines’ power.”

“Oh, wow.” Annie nodded, and then she lifted an eyebrow. “Hippie rituals?”

“Like, meditation and sharing circles, that kind of thing,” I said.

“Hippie rituals,” she repeated, and then she laughed and shook her head.

“What?” I asked with a smile.

“Nothing,” she said. “You just sound like you should be standing in Haight-Ashbury and shaking your fist about all the long-haired freaks doing drugs and protesting Vietnam.”

“I remember that!” Chanterelle exclaimed in a happy tone. “Good times in Hashbury!”

“I’m sorry, what?” I stared at her. “When were you in Haight-Ashbury?”

“I wasn’t.” Chanterelle frowned. “I don’t think I was. Maybe I’m remembering someone else who was there.”

“In ‘Hashbury’,” Artemis said with a grin. “Yeah, Chanterelle, I don’t think you were a hippie.”

“I could have been a hippie,” Chanterelle protested. “I like paisley.”

“You would’ve been a hippie, wouldn’t you?” Diana said to Artemis.

“Damn straight I would have,” Artemis declared. “Protesting the war and advocating for free love.”

“I think I would have been a hippie, too,” Annie said in a thoughtful tone.

“No, you wouldn’t,” I said. “I can’t picture you just lying around and talking about world peace. You’d want to do stuff about it, not just talk about it and get high.”

Annie shot me a look that was both surprised and pleased.

“Thank you,” she said.

“I mean it,” I said. “You’d be running a soup kitchen or something like that. Doing marches. Or like that woman who lived in a tree for a year. Actually no, that would be you, Artemis.”

“Alright!” Artemis grinned. “I love her.”

“Wait, who lived in a tree?” Lily asked.

“Julia Butterfly Hill!” Artemis’ eyes were shining. “My hero.”

“She lived in a tree for a year,” I replied. “Or maybe it was longer than a year, I can’t remember.”

“Why the hell did she live in a tree for a year?” Diana demanded. “I can’t think of anything worse to do.”

“It was to stop it from getting cut down,” I explained.

“Yeah!” Artemis nodded enthusiastically. “It was a giant thousand-year-old redwood tree, and she lived in a tiny tent on a platform in its branches.”

“She sounds like something alright,” Diana said. “But, yeah, that’s definitely something you would do, Artemis.”

Artemis grinned. “Definitely. Who’s joining me?”

“I’d join you,” Annie said with a nod.

“I’d be with you in spirit,” Lily said. “And maybe I’d camp at the bottom of the tree.”

“I would stay at the bottom of the tree,” Chanterelle said, “but in the night I would absorb up to the top and sneak you cookies.”

“I’d be standing at a distance,” Diana said. “Telling you how you’re going to fall out of the tree and break your silly neck.”

“I’d be at the bottom of the tree fending off loggers,” I said with a grin.

“Perfect.” Artemis nodded. “I’ll remember all of this next time we need to save a tree from getting cut down.”

“And in the meantime,” I said, “let’s get this camp set up.”

Annie immediately dumped down her rucksack and began opening it up to take out the contents.

“Tents first,” she said in a brisk voice. “That’s the way to do it.”

“Right you are, sister.” Lily began to open up her pack as well.

“So how many tents did we end up with?” Diana asked.

“There’s mine, which is a four-person tent,” Lily said. “Annie, how many people can fit in your tent?”

“Two people,” she replied.

“And we packed the tent we found in your attic,” Artemis said to me.

“I don’t know how good that tent’s going to be compared to Lily’s and Annie’s,” I admitted. “I got it a really long time ago.”

“Why do you have a tent?” Diana asked me. “If you’re not someone who goes camping a lot?”

I chuckled. “I bought it thinking that maybe Uncle Billy and I could have a guys’ weekend somewhere.”

“And did you?” Diana asked with a smile.

“No.” I shook my head ruefully. “We talked about it a lot. We were going to go fishing and drink beer, do the whole thing, but we just never got around to it. Uncle Billy wasn’t the outdoorsy type, so I never pushed it.”

“Well,” Lily said, “now you get to experience it with us.”

“Yeah,” I said with a nod.

“So yours is a two-person tent?” Annie asked me. “We’re going to have so much room.”

“I’d rather that than be huddled in together in cramped quarters,” Diana said.

Lily laughed. “You might not think that in the middle of the night.”

“Other people’s body warmth is really useful,” Annie agreed.

“I don’t want to think about other people’s body warmth,” Diana said with a shudder.

The rest of us laughed at the disgust in her voice and got to work setting up the tents.

I wasn’t very experienced at the whole camping thing, but that didn’t matter because Lily and Annie knew exactly what they were doing. They easily directed the rest of us on how to best help get the camp set up, and in a surprisingly short amount of time, the tents were all ready.

Annie and Artemis said they would both share Annie’s tent, and Diana, Lily, Chanterelle, and I decided to all squeeze into Lily’s four-person tent.

“Looks like this tent is never going to get used,” I said with a rueful chuckle as I looked at the bag holding my old tent inside.

“Oh, it will,” Lily assured me. “One day, I’m sure we’ll need more room. But for now, it’s easier to put up tents we’re familiar with.”

“Maybe we could practice putting up your tent in the front room sometime, Mike,” Diana suggested.

“Or I could donate it,” I said.

“No!” Chanterelle exclaimed. “We’ll need it for family camping trips in the future!”

I glanced at her, and she gave me a soft, happy smile and glanced down at her stomach.

“Chanterelle’s right,” Lily said. “And that’s a good idea of yours, Diana, about practicing putting up Mike’s tent. Maybe by the time we’re in a position to use it, we’ll know how to put it up.”

“It still seems strange,” Annie said with a shake of her head. “Every time I look at Chanterelle, she seems to have gotten even bigger.”

“Well, maybe she has,” Artemis said.

“Oh, I forgot to tell you,” I said to Annie, who was frowning in confusion. “We think Chanterelle’s pregnancy is progressing at an accelerated rate because of, um, well, because she’s a mushroom and mushrooms grow a lot quicker than humans do.”

“Oh.” Annie’s green eyes grew wide, and she stared at Chanterelle in a mixture of shock and horror. “Is that… okay? For the baby, I mean? And for Chanterelle?”

“I think so,” Chanterelle said in a cheerful voice. “Everything feels very good. I’m just big.”

“We think the baby might be here before the end of the week,” Lily said.

“That’s only a few days away!” Annie exclaimed. “Have you shopped? Do you have diapers? Clothes? What about a crib? Or toys, or formula, or pacifiers, or bottles, or a baby monitor?”

“I was planning to get all those things once this was settled,” I said. “We’ve still got a few days, and I don’t want Chanterelle having a baby while the town is actively under threat from someone abusing the ley lines.”

“That’s a good point,” Annie admitted. “I didn’t think about that. God, it’s hard enough having a baby anyway. I can’t imagine dealing with that while also trying to protect a whole town full of oblivious people.”

“That’s why Mike has us to help him,” Artemis said, and she nudged me on the back of my shoulder. “Right, Wainwright?”

“Right.” I smiled at her.

“I guess I kind of forgot we’re not just out here camping for the fun of it,” Annie said in a sheepish tone. “This is actually work for you guys.”

“Don’t worry,” Diana said in a wry voice. “I hadn’t forgotten this wasn’t fun.”

“You’re only saying that because we don’t have a fire going,” Lily said with a grin. “Come on, let’s go see if we can find any dry wood around here.”

“I thought you said we weren’t going to cook food over a campfire!” Diana wailed.

“We’re not,” Lily told her. “But you’ve still got to have a fire when you’re camping.”

“Why?” Diana demanded.

“The vibes,” Lily said, as though that should have been obvious. “And for heat. Come on, let’s go hunting.”

“I’ll go with you,” Annie said quickly. “I’m good at finding things. And starting fires.”

“Calm down, Charlie McGee,” Diana said with a grin.

“Who?” Annie stared at her.

“Charlie McGee,” Diana explained. “She’s the little girl in Firestarter.”

“I don’t know what that is,” Annie admitted.

“It’s a book by Stephen King,” Diana said. “They made it into an okay film in the 80s and a godawful film in 2022.”

“And I’m guessing it’s about someone who starts fires?” Annie said.

“You guessed correctly.” Diana smiled.

“Okay, well, I do make fires, but they’re good ones,” Annie said. “I’m not an arsonist.”

“See, the thing is,” Artemis said, “if you have to tell people you’re not an arsonist, that just makes me think that you are actually an arsonist.”

“I’m not an arsonist!” Annie exclaimed.

“Sure, Jan,” Artemis said with a teasing wink.

Lily laughed and linked her arm through Annie’s.

“Come on,” she said. “Let’s go hunting.”

“Take a lantern with you!” I called.

Diana bent down to take one of the battery-powered lanterns. She clicked it on, and its pale light illuminated the campsite.

“Roger, captain,” she said.

Diana, Lily, and Annie moved to the outskirts of the campsite and began to search for anything they could find to use as fuel for the fire.

Chanterelle and Artemis began to pass out the bedding between the two tents. We had enough sleeping bags for everybody, and Lily had brought along some extra blankets for us to use as well.

“Those will be good later on,” I said to Artemis as we made sure the blankets were safely tucked inside the tents.

“Yeah.” Artemis nodded. “Diana might not have liked the idea of sharing body heat with other people, but I bet she’ll change her tune at three AM.”

“It’ll be cozy when we all cuddle together inside here,” Chanterelle said in a satisfied voice. “I’m looking forward to it.”

“That’s good,” I said with a smile.

“I’m mostly just hungry now,” Artemis sighed. “Annie said she brought food with her, but I don’t know what she brought or how to start cooking it.”

“They’ll be back with wood soon enough,” I said. “And then we can start cooking. And if not…”

“Oh, Mike.” Artemis gazed at me with adoring eyes. “Did you bring snacks with you, you beautiful man?”

“I might have smuggled in a few packets of chips,” I chuckled. “And some marshmallows and cookies. Don’t worry, I got vegan marshmallows as well.”

Artemis gave a little squeak of excitement and flung her arms around me. I laughed, held her close, and kissed her cold cheek.

The night was well and truly upon us by now. I clicked on the biggest lantern, and it threw out a bright circle of cool, white light that turned the tents into harsh-edged shapes with all the color washed out of them. It made the surrounding trees seem a little further away, and it felt like the tents and the campsite were cupped in a hollow that protected us against the rest of the world.

The others came back with their arms full of branches and sticks. Lily had a couple of huge logs with her as well.

“I found them underneath a fallen tree,” she said in an excited voice. “They’re bone-dry, so they’ll burn perfectly.”

“Awesome,” I said with a nod. “Great find.”

Lily bent down to put the logs down on the ground, and Annie took one from her before she’d even let them go properly.

“I’ll start the fire,” she said quickly. “I can do it.”

“Okay…” Lily’s dark eyebrows pulled together into a slightly confused frown, but she stepped back and let Annie take the lead.

I glanced at Annie and then at Lily, but Annie was focused on the fire in front of her, and Lily just met my look with a shrug that told me she didn’t get it, either.

No matter what was going on with Annie, she worked quickly, and within a few minutes, she had a bright little fire crackling away merrily. Annie fed it with some twigs and broken pieces of branches for a bit before she placed one of the logs in the middle of the flames.

“There,” she said. “That should do it. I’ll cook dinner now.”

“I’ll help you,” Lily offered.

“No,” Annie said so quickly that it was almost a snap. “I can do it.”

“Annie, seriously,” Lily said. “You put up your tent single-handedly, you came with us to find firewood, you’ve made the fire. Let the rest of us help out.”

“I can do it,” Annie insisted. “I don’t need to be helped.”

“I didn’t mean we could help you because you can’t do it yourself,” Lily said in a calm voice. “I mean, let us get involved in the process. You’re not the only one who enjoys doing this kind of thing.”

Annie bit her lower lip. Her cheeks were already red from bending over the fire, but now they seemed to flush an even darker hue.

“Sorry,” she said, and she gave a slightly forced laugh. “I guess I got too much in my own head.”

“That’s okay.” Lily smiled. “Just let some of us have a turn.”

“Speak for yourself,” Diana said. “I’m very happy to sit on the sidelines and do nothing.”

That broke some of the tension that had begun to build between the women. Annie smiled, and Lily laughed.

“Have you found the folding chairs?” Lily asked Diana.

“We have chairs?” Diana exclaimed in delight. “Where are they?”

“Here, I know where they are.” Artemis picked up two long, thin canvas bags.

She pulled out a collection of poles and woven fabric shapes that unfolded into a camping chair.

“One for the queen,” she said to Diana with a teasing note in her voice.

“Thank you,” Diana replied as she took her seat.

“And one for the queen mother,” Artemis said as she took out and unfolded the second chair for Chanterelle.

“Well, they’re both dead,” Diana said. “So thanks for that.”

“Would you rather be King Charles?” Artemis asked.

Diana wrinkled her nose. “No thanks. I’ll take his dead mum.”

Artemis chuckled, and Chanterelle collapsed into the chair with a deep sigh.

“Oof!” she exclaimed. “Oh, it’s so good to sit down. I hadn’t realized how much my feet hurt.”

“You need to tell us if you get tired,” I scolded her gently.

“I know.” She nodded. “And I will. I think I was so focused on the tents and finding the wood that I forgot to remember I was tired.”

She stretched out her feet in front of her and turned her ankles in circles.

“Chanterelle, do you want me to make you a cup of tea?” Artemis asked her.

“I’ll do it,” Annie said. “As soon as I’ve got dinner started, I’ll make everyone a hot drink.”

“Annie,” I said in an amused tone. “It’s okay, chill out. We didn’t invite you here to wait on us hand and foot.”

“Sorry.” Annie shook her head. “I just need to focus. Okay. Dinner.”

“If I offer to help you with it, are you going to bite my head off?” Lily asked her.

“No.” Annie gave a small smile. “Sorry. Thank you for offering. I’d appreciate the help.”

While Annie and Lily got started on cooking food, Artemis investigated the rest of the bags.

“Here, Mike,” she said.

She pulled out more long, skinny canvas bags, which contained more folding chairs. Artemis set them up around the campfire, and then she and I sat down next to each other.

The firelight leaped and painted Artemis’ face with flickering shadows and a shifting golden glow. It turned her dark eyes into shifting pools and made her freckles stand out starkly against her pale skin. Her dark red waves gleamed like live copper wires, and the fire highlighted the shadows under her cheekbones and jawline.

She must have felt my gaze on her, and she turned her head to look at me.

“Perving, Wainwright?” she asked.

“Always for you, Black,” I replied.

Artemis grinned, and then her face grew serious. She glanced over to where Annie and Lily were pouring soup from a can into a pan that rested on Lily’s camping stove, and then she leaned in so she could whisper to me without being overheard.

“Is Annie okay?” she murmured. “She seems very on edge.”

“I know.” I nodded. “She hasn’t said anything to me. But I did wonder if it was the best idea for her to come back here.”

“Because of Trevor?” Artemis asked.

“Yeah,” I said. “I thought it might be too stressful or traumatic for her to come back here so soon.”

“Gee, Mike, why’s that?” Artemis deadpanned and then sighed. “Yeah, I don’t know. If it were me, I think I’d want to come back here as soon as possible. Get back on the horse, you know?”

“Yeah, I do know.” I looked at her fondly. “But that’s you. Annie’s different.”

Artemis nodded. “But I don’t want to say that to her. You can’t either, really. It’ll sound like we think she can’t handle it. Even though that’s exactly what we think.”

“But it has to be her choice,” I said. “She’s an adult. She knows herself. We just have to be patient with her while she comes to grips with it all.”

Artemis nodded and leaned back as Lily stood up from the stove.

“Alright!” Lily announced. “Annie’s got the soup heating up, so it should only be a few more minutes.”

“Nice,” I said. “Great job, you two.”

Lily nodded. She came to sit down next to me and flopped down into the chair so hard I worried it might collapse under her.

“You okay?” I asked her in a low voice.

“Yeah.” She nodded. “Yeah. I just–”

She stopped herself from speaking any further. She was silent for a moment, then she shook her head.

“What?” I asked her.

Lily pursed her lips and threw a meaningful glance toward Annie, who was still fussing with the stove.

I nodded sympathetically, reached over, and squeezed her hand.

“Artemis and I were just talking about that,” I whispered. “We think Annie’s probably stressed out a bit about coming back to the woods so soon.”

“So soon?” Lily frowned. “After what?”

“I told you,” I reminded her. “Trevor.”

“Oh!” Lily’s dark eyes widened. “Oh, shit, yeah. Fuck. I’d completely forgotten about that.”

She looked again at Annie, and she shook her head, but this time it seemed like the gesture was directed toward herself rather than at the other woman.

“God,” she murmured under her breath. “Yeah, no wonder she’s being a control freak right now. I’d be all kinds of freaked out if I’d gone through what she did.”

“Right.” I nodded. “So if you can cut her some slack, let her do her thing–”

“Yeah, no, of course.” Lily nodded.

“I think it’s ready,” Annie said.

She looked down at the pan of soup, and even under her thick raincoat, I saw her brace her shoulders in a firm movement. She lifted her head and smiled at Lily.

“Could you help me dish it up?” she asked her.

“Yeah, sure.” Lily smiled and got out of her chair.

She went to Annie’s side, and the two of them poured the pan of soup into six enamel mugs. Lily popped the lid on a plastic container and handed out thick, crumbling pieces of bright yellow cornbread to go with each mug.

“Don’t worry, Artemis, it’s vegan,” she said.

“So’s the chowder,” Annie added.

“Amazing, thanks,” Artemis said with a smile.

We all took a mug of soup with a piece of cornbread, settled down into the chairs, and ate our dinner.

“Holy fuck,” Artemis mumbled through her first mouthful. “This is fucking delicious. This cornbread is amazing, it’s so tasty and not dry at all.”

“And the soup,” Diana added. “What’s in this?”

“It’s a smoked corn chowder with potatoes,” Annie explained with a proud smile. “Lily made the cornbread.”

“This is delicious,” I agreed. “Bread and chowder. And they go really well together.”

“Just what we need on a dark, chilly night,” Chanterelle said with a happy wiggle.

“Diana?” Artemis pushed.

Everyone turned to look at Diana. The witch lifted her eyebrows, and a smile curved the corner of her full lips.

“Alright,” she said. “I admit it. This is bloody delicious.”

“Yes!” Lily held up her hand to Annie for a high-five. “We did it, we got the queen’s seal of approval.”

“Can you not call me the queen, please?” Diana complained. “I keep telling you, she’s dead.”

“Stop being British, and then you get to be dethroned,” I said with a chuckle.

Diana rolled her eyes and took another bite of cornbread.

After we’d finished eating, Annie made everyone a cup of tea. I missed my coffee, but at least it was black tea and nothing herbal, and I was very grateful for the hot liquid as it slid down my throat and into my stomach.

The evening was getting cooler by the minute, and Annie went into the tents and brought out the blankets. She went around the seats and carefully draped a blanket over every one of us.

“Annie, seriously,” I protested. “Come and sit down. Drink your tea before it gets cold.”

“Yeah, come on, Annie,” Artemis chimed in. “Mike brought marshmallows. We can roast them over the fire.”

“Like real Boy Scouts!” Chanterelle said in an enthusiastic voice. “And cowboys!”

“I don’t think cowboys were super into marshmallows,” Lily said.

“No,” Chanterelle said with a firm nod of her head. “They were.”

“You heard it from the expert,” I chuckled and nodded to Annie. “C’mon, sit.”

“Yes, come on, Annie,” Diana said. “I’ve only been partly convinced by this whole camping thing. You made a good start with the chowder, but the good work has to continue, and that means marshmallows.”

“And chips,” Artemis added.

“Chips!” Chanterelle clapped her hands together.

“Mike’s spoiling us,” Artemis said with a grin.

“Well, well, well.” Lily grinned. “Is this so we forget about the monstrosity that’s somehow still on your head?”

“Oh, my god!” I exclaimed with a laugh. “Can you stop bullying me for two seconds, please? Annie, you liked my hat, can you defend me?”

Annie gave a slightly uneasy smile.

“Come on,” I said again. “Sit down with us.”

“I will,” she said, and she took a quick breath. “I just need to gather some more firewood.”

“The fire’s fine,” I protested.

But Annie had already turned on her heel and marched into the forest.

The rest of us looked at each other in bewilderment.

“I’m going after her.” I knocked back the dregs of my tea, unfolded the blanket from around my shoulders, and stood up. “Maybe she just needs to clear her head a bit.”

“Take one of the lanterns with you,” Lily said.

“Good thinking.” I unhooked the lantern that was hanging from the nearest tent and set out after Annie.

It wasn’t hard to follow her. The lantern light illuminated the surrounding trees in a clear, bright circle of light, and as I raised the lantern and peered around, I almost instantly caught sight of the bright yellow of Annie’s raincoat.

“Annie!” I called as I ran after her.

She didn’t turn around, and when I caught up with her, she was bending down to peer at the ground for more twigs and branches.

“Annie,” I said.

“I’ll be back in a minute,” she said. “I just need to find some more firewood.”

She didn’t look around at me, and she didn’t stand up, either, and carried on searching the forest floor. She didn’t even have her phone with her to use as a flashlight, so the only way she could find something was by patting the ground with her hands.

“Annie,” I said again.

“I’ll only be a minute,” she replied.

I continued to stand by her side and watch her. Annie waited for a moment, and then she finally stood up and turned around to face me.

“What?” she demanded.

Her lips were pressed tightly together, and I could see the tension etched in every line of her face.

“Are you okay?” I asked her.

“Stop asking me that!” she cried. “Why does everyone keep asking me if I’m okay?”

“Because we’re worried about you,” I said in a gentle tone.

“Well, don’t be worried,” she snapped. “I’m fine. Would you be worried about Artemis? Or about Lily or Diana?”

“Yes,” I replied. “If they’d been through something like you’ve been through, then I would definitely be worried about them.”

“No, you wouldn’t,” Annie said in a voice that wobbled. “You wouldn’t be worried about them because they’d be fine. You’d all be fine.”

“And you’re not fine?” I asked.

“I am!” Annie almost screamed it. “I’m fine!”

“Annie, please–” I reached out without thinking and put my hand on her arm.

Annie jumped like a startled horse. She threw out her hands and shoved me in the chest so hard that I took a step backward.

“I’m fine!” she shouted.

“Clearly.” I lifted an eyebrow.

“Don’t patronize me!” she yelled. “I can do things, I’m not this frail, helpless damsel, I don’t–”

She lunged forward as though she was going to shove me again, but her foot caught on something, and she slipped. I caught her arm to save her from falling.

“Whoa,” I said in surprise. “Careful.”

Annie stared up at me with huge eyes. I was still holding onto her arm, and then Annie flung her other arm around my neck, pulled my face toward hers, and kissed me soundly on the lips.

Chapter 9

For a few stunned seconds, I was too surprised to do anything.

But even if my brain was having a hard time realizing what was happening, my body knew exactly what to do.

I let go of Annie’s arm, and instead, my hands went around her small frame and held her close against me. My lips softened on hers, and when her tongue darted out to tease my mouth open, I kissed her with a hungry passion that had been building up inside me since the first day I’d seen her.

Annie’s mouth tasted like soft fruit, and her sweet vanilla perfume filled my nose and set my blood fizzing and popping with desire. Her body was small and soft, and I held her against me like I couldn’t let her go.

Annie’s lips opened and closed underneath mine, and she grabbed handfuls of my clothes to steady herself. Then she reached up and cupped my face so she could keep my mouth locked on hers.

We kissed in a frenzy. our teeth knocked together in our passion, and my skin burned and tingled all over.

Annie made a tiny noise in her throat, then broke the kiss and gasped for breath.

For a moment, we just stood there and stared at each other as we both tried to get our breath back. The only sound in the trees was the ragged inhale and exhale of our two bodies.

Annie stared at me with eyes that seemed blacker than the night was all around us. Her lips were still parted, and there was a dazed expression on her face.

“Annie?” I whispered through lips that felt swollen and tender.

Annie took a deep breath.

And then she started to cry.

I put my arms around her, and she clung to me. Her fingers grabbed fistfuls of my coat, and she rested her cheek against me and sobbed helplessly into my chest.

“Shh,” I soothed. “Annie, it’s okay, you’re okay.”

I rubbed my hands up and down her back in long, gentle strokes.

“I’ve got you,” I whispered. “You’re safe now.”

Annie sobbed and hiccupped, and I held her close against me as I whispered soothing words into her ear. I didn’t know if the others at the campsite could hear her, but if they could, they wisely stayed put and let me deal with it. I wasn’t sure what was going on, but one thing I knew for sure was that Annie needed to let out whatever was preying on her.

Annie sobbed and heaved and sniffed, and finally she lifted her head to look up at me. Her eyes were red and swollen, and her cheeks were stained with tears.

“I’m sorry,” she mumbled. “I didn’t…”

“No, shh, it’s okay,” I said. “Don’t apologize.”

“God, I’m such a mess.” Annie sniffed and scrubbed at her nose with the back of her hand. “I must look disgusting.”

“No, you don’t.” I cupped her cheek in my hand and used my thumb to gently swipe at the tear marks on her face. “You look beautiful. You always look beautiful, Annie.”

Annie’s lower lip trembled, and she swallowed hard.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I didn’t mean to kiss you.”

“I liked it,” I said with a smile. “I’m glad you kissed me. If I’m being honest… I’ve wanted to kiss you for a long time.”

“You have?” Annie’s eyes widened, and she looked at me with a sudden hope flaring in her face.

“Of course,” I said. “I thought– I don’t know, I thought maybe you could tell I was into you.”

“Well, I hoped…” Annie looked down for a moment and then back up at me. “I didn’t want to assume anything…”

“Apart from just now,” I pointed out teasingly.

“Yes.” She bit her lower lip. “Apart from just now. Which I’m really sorry about. I should have asked first, or we should have at least had a conversation about it.”

“It’s okay,” I assured her. “You’re in a really weird place right now. I get it.”

“I am.” She swallowed. “But that’s no excuse for kissing you and then bursting into tears.”

“I could have done without the tears immediately after kissing you,” I acknowledged. “But I also got the feeling you really needed both of those things.”

“I did.” Annie took a deep breath. “Lord, I really did.”

“Annie…” It was my turn to take a deep breath. “I’m going to be honest with you. Is that okay?”

Annie nodded. “Yes.”

“Okay,” I said. “I like you. I like you a lot. But you have to know that being with me means you’ll be in my world. There’s going to be magic and weird stuff and–”

“I know that!” Annie interrupted.

“I just want to make sure you know what you’re getting yourself into,” I said in a gentle tone.

Annie chewed on her lower lip. She looked down at the ground for a long minute. My heart started to beat faster, and when Annie took a deep breath and squared her shoulders, I braced myself for the worst. I was ready to hear Annie say she’d weighed it all up and decided that, even if she liked me, she wasn’t ready to deal with all of the things that came as part of being with me.

But when Annie finally looked up at me, I was startled to see her smiling.

“I’m so silly,” she said.

“No, you’re not,” I said reflexively.

“I am,” she said. “This entire evening, I’ve been worried you guys thought I was too fragile and weak to deal with magic and handle this life you all lead. I was trying so hard to make you see me as capable and strong. But everything I did just made you see me as weak and weird.”

“No!” I protested. “Not weak and weird.”

“Mike.” Annie lifted one eyebrow. “Come on. I know how crazy I’ve been acting all evening.”

“A bit crazy,” I admitted. “But we don’t see you as weak and weird, Annie. Not at all. We’ve just been worried this was too much, too soon. That’s all.”

“Yeah, I can understand that,” Annie said. “It’s just funny, that’s all. Like one of those ‘be careful what you wish for’ moments. In trying to make you see me as one thing, I acted like the total opposite.”

“Yeah,” I said with a wry grin. “I guess it didn’t work out the way you wanted.”

Annie shook her head and let out a humorless laugh. “God, I’m tired.”

“Do you want to go back to the campsite?” I offered. “You could turn in and have an early night.”

“No.” Annie smiled at me and reached up to stroke my cheek. “Oh, Mike. Thank you. You’re so sweet. You take such good care of the others, and you’re so thoughtful and caring, and I really appreciate you being so patient and kind with me. But I don’t mean I’m tired like I’m sleepy. I just mean I’m tired of trying to prove myself.”

“You don’t need to prove yourself,” I said. “Not to me. Never to me, Annie. I see you.”

“And you know that’s enough?” she asked.

“Annie.” My voice was very soft as I spoke her name. “Of course it is. I would never want anything more than that.”

Annie’s eyes softened as she gazed up at me.

I stroked back her hair from her face and tucked a loose, bright golden strand behind her ear. My eyes catalogued her features: her wide green eyes, the gentle upturned slope of her nose, the soft red of her lips, the tiny gap between her front teeth, the sweet little point of her chin.

“You’re perfect,” I whispered.

“So are you,” Annie breathed.

She linked her hands behind my neck and rose onto her tiptoes. Our noses gently grazed against each other, and then our lips softly touched.

This kiss was different from our first one. If the first kiss had been pure passionate hunger, this one was an exploration of each other’s mouths and spirits.

Annie’s lips were soft but insistent, and the darting hot presence of her tongue teased at mine while her palms pressed against the back of my neck and kept our faces locked together. I kissed her and delighted in every motion of her lips and how her body responded to the variations in pressure. When I leaned deeper into the kiss, I reveled in the way her body leaned toward me and how her lips opened a little wider for me. When I pressed more fiercely against her mouth, I heard the quick suck of her breath as she gathered her reserves to meet me on the same plane.

Finally, the need for breath broke us apart.

We pressed our foreheads together, and I could have sworn the wild beat of her heart matched mine in the dark forest.

I opened my eyes and found that Annie was gazing at me. We just looked at each other for a long moment, and then we smiled.

“Hello,” Annie whispered.

“Hello,” I whispered back.

“I really, really like you, Mike,” Annie breathed.

“That’s good,” I said. “Because I really, really like you, too.”

We both laughed quietly.

Then Annie lifted her head and sniffed the air. “What is that?”

I sniffed as well, and then I smiled.

“I think that’s marshmallows being roasted over a campfire,” I said.

“I don’t think we actually need any more firewood,” Annie said.

“Then shall we go back?” I offered her my arm, and Annie took it with a smile as we walked back to the campsite.

“There they are!” Lily called as soon as we stepped through the trees into the circle of light.

“Annie, you’ve got to try these marshmallows,” Artemis said.

“And have a cookie!” Chanterelle added.

“I’ve decided,” Diana said with a grin. “I like camping now.”

“That’s great news,” I chuckled.

Annie and I sat down in the two free chairs, and Artemis handed us both a marshmallow on the end of a long stick. Lily passed us a container full of graham crackers and pieces of chocolate.

“Don’t worry, it’s vegan chocolate,” she said to Annie. “Mike, I have a regular Hershey’s bar if you’d rather have that.”

“Hershey’s bar?” I wrinkled my nose. “God, I haven’t had a Hershey’s bar in, like, twenty years.”

“That’s because they taste like ass,” Artemis said.

“By themselves they taste like ass,” Lily countered. “But trust me, they’re the best chocolate to make s’mores out of.”

“Hmm,” I said. “Okay, I trust you, Lily, I’ll try it.”

“Yes!” she cheered.

I took a graham cracker and a piece from the Hershey’s bar Lily held out to me. I stacked the cracker and candy, then leaned forward to stick my marshmallow over the flames of the campfire.

“Okay, controversial question,” Artemis said. “Marshmallows– better completely charred on the outside or toasted to golden brown?”

“Charred!” Chanterelle announced.

“Charred,” Annie agreed with a nod.

“You’re total barbarians,” Diana said. “Golden brown.”

“I’m with Diana,” Lily said. “Golden brown.”

“I like both,” Artemis said with a grin. “So Mike’s the deciding vote.”

“You know what,” I said. “It’s been so long since I had a s’more, I don’t think I can remember which one I like best.”

“Well, we can fix that,” Lily said with a grin. “Eat up, Mike, we’ve got a debate to win.”

I laughed and pushed my marshmallow deeper into the flames so it caught fire and started to turn black.

The others followed my example, and within a few minutes, everyone had assembled their s’mores and started eating.

“Oh, my goddess,” Artemis mumbled through a mouthful of sugar. “This is so good.”

“I can feel my arteries closing up,” Diana sighed. “But it’s so worth it.”

“Chanterelle, how have you already finished yours?” I asked in surprise.

“I’m eating for two, remember?” Chanterelle giggled as she reached for another marshmallow.

We loaded up our plates again with more ingredients, and the rest of the evening passed in a sugar-and-smoke-fueled haze. I had four s’mores and still couldn’t reach a decision on whether marshmallows were better toasted or charred. I lost count of how many s’mores Chanterelle ate, but eventually we reached the end of the bag of marshmallows, so for the last hour we slumped in our chairs and nibbled on the last of the Graham crackers.

Lily made more tea for us, and the steam from our mugs curled up in the dark night while the orange flames lit up the faces of the women around me.

The night was cold and still. There was a small breeze, but it was only strong enough to occasionally disturb the flames of the campfire and send bright orange sparks whirling up through the darkness. The sky overhead was a deep, rich, navy-blue color, and although there were a few wisps of pale blue clouds dabbed here and there, as though with a painter’s brush, most of the sky’s canvas was clear enough for the sharp white points of the stars to peer through.

“This is nice,” Chanterelle said.

I glanced over at her with a smile. The mushroom girl was snuggled down in many layers of cardigans, and a blanket was wrapped around her shoulders. Chanterelle always gave the impression of softness and roundness, but in all of her layers, she looked almost spherical.

I chuckled at the sight of her.

“You look cozy,” I told her.

“I am cozy,” she agreed.

“Yeah, I’m surprisingly warm as well,” Diana said. “I thought I’d be freezing, to be honest. My toes are a bit cold, but my face is really warm from the fire, and all the layers I’m wearing are keeping me pretty toasty.”

“I told you,” Lily said with a nod. “Layers are the way to go.”

“So what do you think?” Artemis asked Diana with a grin. “Does this wipe out the unpleasant experience of camping on Monhegan Island?”

“Well…” Diana thought about it for a moment. “I’m warm. My stomach is full. I’ve got a cup of tea brewed just right. I’m with people I love. Yes, I think this has completely overwritten my previous camping trips.”

“Yeah!” Lily cheered, and she leaned over to clink her mug of tea against Annie’s. “We did it!”

Annie laughed. “It was the marshmallows, wasn’t it?”

“And the chowder!” Diana said. “Seriously, the chowder with that cornbread was a magical combination.”

“Coming from a witch, that’s a real compliment,” Annie said.

The fire had started to sink down a little bit, and Lily leaned forward to place another log on the flames.

Chanterelle yawned deeply, and I reached over to take her empty mug from her hand.

“You should get some sleep,” I said.

“Mm.” Chanterelle nodded sleepily. “I think I should.”

“How are we going to arrange things tonight?” Diana asked. “Considering that technically we’re out here to watch the nexus point.”

“I figured we’ll take turns keeping watch,” I replied. “Artemis and I can take the first watch. Then Diana and Lily. Annie, I know you could take a watch, but I’d rather we stayed up in pairs rather than by ourselves, and I don’t want Chanterelle to go without sleep.”

Annie’s face had clouded over when I started speaking, but when I finished, she nodded in understanding.

“I would watch,” Chanterelle said with another yawn. “But I don’t want to.”

“You’re sleeping for two, after all,” I said with a chuckle. “You and the baby need all the rest you can get.”

“Lord knows you’ll need it once the baby actually arrives,” Diana agreed.

“So are we all happy with that?” I asked.

Everyone nodded.

“Okay.” I got up from my seat. “Chanterelle, let’s get you into your sleeping bag.”

Chanterelle stood up and took the blanket from around her shoulders.

“Phew,” she complained and unbuttoned the front of her coat. “I’m so snug.”

“Snug?” I looked at her closely, and then my eyes widened. “Holy shit, Chanterelle.”

“What is it?” She looked down at herself, and her mouth dropped open.

“My god,” Lily gasped. “You’re huge.”

“Chanterelle, you look about ready to pop,” Artemis agreed.

Chanterelle had tripled in size since this morning. When she undid the rest of the buttons on her coat, her belly protruded out in front of her like the figurehead on a ship.

Chanterelle put her hands on the front side of her bump, and then she looked up at me in shock.

“It’s so much bigger than it was before!” she blurted out. “I have to reach further to touch it now!”

“This looks like it’s progressing even faster than before,” Lily said with a frown.

“Maybe it’s the nexus point,” Diana suggested. “Perhaps it’s accelerating the pregnancy because of how magical it is out here.”

“Yeah.” I frowned. “That makes sense. I was worried about you going into the information, I guess being out here could be having an affect.”

Part of me was freaking out at how huge Chanterelle had suddenly become and was frantically going over the scenario of her giving birth in the middle of the night out here in the woods. But another part of me said reasonably that although Chanterelle was definitely getting bigger, according to our calculations, she still had some time yet before she was ready to give birth. Tomorrow I would take her home and move the baby shopping forward.

“I’m so huge,” Chanterelle said as she looked down at herself. “I’m like a balloon.”

“Even balloons need their sleep,” I said in a firm voice, and I reached forward to take her arm. “Come on. Into bed with you.”

Chanterelle yawned widely and didn’t protest as I guided her into the tent and settled her down in her sleeping bag.

“Mm, thank you, Mike,” she murmured as she snuggled down into the folds of the bag. “I will be cozy and warm here tonight. Like a caterpillar in a cocoon.”

“Yes, you will be,” I said.

Chanterelle looked up at me with sleepy blue eyes. Her cheeks were flushed with the chill air, and her face seemed a little fuller than normal. I stroked a strand of silvery hair back from her face.

“You’re so beautiful,” I murmured.

“You’re so beautiful,” Chanterelle said with a yawn. “And I’m so sleepy.”

I chuckled softly, leaned over, and kissed her soft cheek. She smelled of woodsmoke and freshly turned earth, and the scent of her in my nose made my heart turn over with love for her.

I kissed her again, and Chanterelle let out a little sigh. She was already almost asleep.

I crept out of the tent to find Diana, Lily, and Annie all smiling at me.

“What?” I asked a bit self-consciously.

“You.” Lily smiled. “You’re so cute with her.”

“That’s one lucky baby in there,” Diana said. “They’re going to be so loved when they come out.”

“You and Chanterelle are going to be the best parents,” Annie said.

“I think we’ll do okay.” I smiled.

Artemis had already taken her seat by the fire. She looked around as the others spoke, but when I looked over at her and made eye contact, she quickly looked away.

I frowned. Something was up there, but I decided not to push it for now.

Diana, Lily, and Annie all headed into their tents, and I sat down in my chair next to Artemis.

“Are you warm enough?” I asked her. “Do you need another blanket?”

“I’m good,” she said with a shake of her head. “I’ll make us both a cup of tea in a bit, if you’d like.”

“Thanks,” I said. “You know, I’m actually starting to enjoy tea.”

“No.” Artemis gave a theatrical gasp of disbelief. “It can’t be true. Mike, is everything okay at home?”

“Shut up.” I rolled my eyes. “I’m talking about Diana’s kind of tea, alright? Not that herbal stuff you drink, which is all dusty leaves and bits of wood.”

“You have such an unrefined palette.” Artemis shook her head sadly. “You just can’t understand the true beauty of dusty leaves and bits of wood.”

I chuckled softly.

We sat in silence for a little while, and we both watched the flickering flames that lit up the dark night. It was a peaceful sight, and I shifted deeper into my blanket with a little sigh and looked up into the sky above.

The stars prickled in the dark blue, and as the pale clouds drifted across the sky, I caught a glimpse of the moon. It was a thin, bright crescent, like the white of a fingernail, and it gleamed with a clean, cool light for one shining moment before it was covered once again by the shifting clouds.

I drew my gaze down from the sky and looked over at Artemis. She was staring into the flames, and a casual observer might not have thought there was anything wrong. But I knew Artemis, and I recognized the tension in her jaw and the way her full lips were slightly pressed together. She was thinking about something that was bothering her.

I drew breath to speak, but as if she could tell that I was about to bring up the subject, Artemis spoke first.

“What did Annie say?” she asked with a nod back toward the trees. “Is she okay?”

“She’s okay,” I said. “She was just feeling anxious. I think she was feeling a bit–”

“Lost?” Artemis guessed.

“Inadequate.” I shook my head. “She was worried about how she compares to the rest of you.”

“Well, my tits are better than hers,” Artemis said in a very serious voice.

I snorted out a laugh, then covered my mouth with my hand so I didn’t wake the others.

“You know there’s no way of proving that,” I said sternly.

“Not yet, anyway.” Artemis wiggled her eyebrows at me in a teasing way.

“Well, tits didn’t come up in the conversation,” I said.

“Lame,” Artemis said with a cluck of her tongue, and then she became more serious. “What was she worried about?”

“Being seen as capable,” I replied. “She didn’t want us to think she was weak.”

“How could we think that?” Artemis exclaimed. “She’s the one coming back to the site of her trauma, like, a day after it happened.”

“That’s what I said to her,” I replied.

“And she’s been so capable out here.” Artemis gestured around the campsite. “She put up the tent, she cooked dinner, she made us all tea. Seriously, what else does she think she has to do?”

“Yeah, I said all of that.” I lifted one shoulder in a shrug. “I think it’s one of those anxiety things that doesn’t really respond to the reality of a situation.”

Artemis grimaced. “Yeah, anxiety’s a real bitch. Still, we all think she’s great, so hopefully, she’ll be able to see that.”

“Yeah, I hope so.” I nodded.

Silence fell between us again.

I glanced at Artemis, and then I spoke quickly before she could get in before me and change the subject.

“Artemis,” I said. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” she said too quickly. “Of course.”

“Come on, Black,” I said. “Cut the bullshit.”

Artemis twisted around in her chair to face me. Her light-brown eyebrows lifted in an expression of shock that quickly changed to wry amusement.

“Wow,” she uttered.

“Well, it is bullshit, isn’t it?” I countered.

“Ugh.” Artemis shook her head and let out a deep sigh. “Damn it, Wainwright, you know me too well.”

“Yep, I do.” I grinned. “So, come on. Tell me. What’s up with you?”

Artemis sent me a sideways glance from her dark eyes. For a moment, I was struck solely by how fucking beautiful she was. Her hair glowed as brightly as the sparks that escaped the fire, and the flames warmed her pale, freckled skin as they painted it with shadows.

The light of the fire played in her eyes and turned them green and then dark brown and then golden. It was just a trick of the light, but it made her look like the magical warrior queen I’d always thought of her as, even when we were both gangly, awkward teenagers in high school.

“Artemis.” My voice was soft, but hoarse with my sudden, deep need to know what was going on with her.

Artemis chewed on her lower lip and then turned her face back to stare into the fire.

“I guess I was just thinking about our future,” she said in a low voice.

“Our future?” My heart gave a sudden thump of fear. “Artemis, you’re not… You don’t want to…”

“No!” Artemis said in so vehement a voice, it was almost a shout. “Fuck, Mike, no, no fucking way. I fucking love you, alright?”

She glared at me like she was declaring war rather than professing her love.

“Okay, okay,” I said in relief. “Phew.”

“I love you,” she said again.

“And I love you, too, Artemis,” I said. “So what’s the problem?”

Artemis nodded toward the tent where Chanterelle was lying asleep.

“I just…” She took a deep breath. “I see how happy you are with Chanterelle. Ever since you found out that you’re going to be a dad, it’s like… I don’t know, this sounds so fucking cringe… but it’s like you’ve lit up inside. You’re so happy. And I want… Fuck. Mike, I don’t know if that’s something I would ever be able to give you.”

“Artemis.” The relief that flooded through me was so strong it made my voice shake with emotion. “I don’t care.”

“You don’t?” Artemis swallowed. “But–”

“Artemis, I love you, okay?” I insisted. “Yeah, of course I’m happy about becoming a dad. I never thought I would ever find anyone I would even consider having a family with, and now my life is so full of love. You, Chanterelle, Diana, Lily… You’re all so perfect. And, yeah, sure, I’d love it if I got to give you all a dozen babies each, but that’s only one scenario, and I’m happy whether or not it comes to pass. The only scenario I want more than anything else is for us to be together. I want you, Artemis.”

“And you don’t mind if… if I never want to have kids?” Artemis’ eyes searched my face with a pleading intensity.

“The only thing I care about,” I said, “is that you’re happy.”

Artemis chewed on her lower lip.

I smiled at her, and she smiled back, but then quickly turned away and scrubbed at her eyes with the back of her wrist.

“Goddammit, Wainwright,” she said in a thick voice. “How do you always manage to make me cry?”

“Sorry,” I said.

“You’re not sorry.” She looked at me accusingly. “You love having this power over me.”

“Well, maybe a little,” I acknowledged with a chuckle. “It’s just nice to get to see your softer side sometimes.”

Artemis smiled and sniffed.

I leaned over to put my arm across her shoulders, and Artemis leaned her head against my shoulder. I inhaled the sweet scent of her wild hair and kissed her forehead.

We stayed like that for the rest of our watch until it was time for Diana and Lily to take over.

“Wake me if you hear or see anything,” I told them firmly.

“We will, we will,” Diana assured me. “Now shoo, go to bed and get some sleep.”

I crawled into the warm nest of the tent and found space to slide down into my sleeping bag next to Chanterelle. The mushroom girl murmured softly in her sleep, and I kissed her cheek lightly before lying down and falling asleep almost at once.

I woke up in the gray light of dawn with the birds singing their hearts out in the trees all around us. I worked my arms out of the sleeping bag, which had twisted around my body like a weird pretzel, stretched deeply, and yawned.

“Morning,” a sleepy voice said, and Chanterelle lifted her head to smile at me.

“Morning.” I smiled back at her. “How did you sleep? Do you feel okay?”

“I slept really well,” Chanterelle replied. “And I think I feel okay.”

She propped herself up on her elbows and looked down at herself for a moment, then unzipped the sleeping bag down the side and peeled it back from her body like a banana skin.

I whistled.

“Okay,” I said. “I think we need to start shopping for baby things today.”

Chanterelle’s baby bump had grown even bigger during the night. It stretched out in front of her like she was carrying an enormous basket of fruit, and when she tried to get up, the bump was so big, it trapped her like an upside-down turtle.

“No!” she wailed. “I’m so helpless!”

“Don’t worry,” I chuckled. “I’ve got you.”

I wiggled out of my sleeping bag, and I helped pull Chanterelle up onto her feet. There was barely enough room in the tent for me to stand fully upright, so I found both our shoes where we’d left them, pulled on my boots, unzipped the tent, and we went outside.

The morning outside was very fresh, and the air seemed to sing in my chest as I pulled it down into my lungs.

“Mm,” I said in appreciation.

“Good morning!” Lily called.

She was standing over the camping stove and boiling the little kettle. Annie and Artemis were by the campfire with slices of bread that they were toasting over the flames. Diana huddled in a blanket in one of the chairs.

“Good morning,” I replied.

“Mike.” Chanterelle spoke in a plaintive voice.

I turned around to find her looking at me with a woeful expression on her face.

“I can’t put on my shoes,” she said. “I’m too big to reach my feet.”

There was something so sweet about the sadness in her voice that it melted my heart.

“Aw, don’t worry, love,” I said. “I’ll help you.”

I located her shoes, and Chanterelle held onto my shoulders to keep her balance while she pushed her foot into the shoe. I tied the laces for her, and then we repeated the process with the other foot.

“There we go,” I said with a smile as I helped Chanterelle step out of the tent, and I guided her toward one of the free seats.

“You guys are so cute,” Annie said in a fond voice, and then her eyes widened in shock as she took in Chanterelle’s appearance. “Oh, my god.”

“Fuck me, Chanterelle,” Artemis exclaimed. “Can you stop growing for, like, two seconds?”

“No,” Chanterelle said in a woeful tone. “I don’t think I can.”

“It has to be the nexus point.” Lily shook her head. “It’s speeding things up for you even more than they were before.”

“I don’t think it’s a great idea for you to spend another night out here,” I said to Chanterelle.

“But we have to find out who’s making the cryptids!” she insisted.

I looked over at Lily and Diana.

“Did you guys see anything during the night?” I asked them. “Hear anything?”

“Nope,” Lily said.

Diana shook her head. “Not a sausage.”

I lifted my eyebrows at the weird Britishism, but I wasn’t caffeinated enough to question it.

“Damn,” I sighed. “I’d hoped we would discover someone doing something out here. After we’ve eaten, we should do a patrol of the area and see if we can find any disturbed patches of earth where someone might have buried something nearby.”

“Good idea.” Annie nodded.

“Well, breakfast is nearly ready,” Artemis said.

“Mm-mm,” Chanterelle said with a sigh. “I’m starving. After all, I’m–”

“Eating for two, we know,” I said with a chuckle.

Chanterelle wiggled happily in her chair and accepted the steaming cup of tea that Lily handed to her.

“Mike, tea?” Lily asked.

“Yes, please,” I replied.

I sat down in the chair and took the tea from Lily, and then I accepted a plate of buttered toast from Annie. It was simple food, but it was hot and tasty, and the bread had an interesting smoky flavor from being toasted over the open flames. We all filled our stomachs, and then while Chanterelle and Diana tidied up after breakfast, Artemis, Lily, and Annie came with me to search the area around the campsite.

It had been a dry night, so there were no signs of footprints in the earth. But even without that, it was pretty clear that we’d been the only people out on the nexus point last night.

There were no patches of disturbed earth, and we didn’t even see so much as a broken branch or crushed clump of grass that would suggest we’d had any company.

We went back to the campsite and told Diana and Chanterelle what we’d found.

“What does this mean?” Diana asked with a frown. “If the cryptids aren’t coming from someone burying stuff out here, what’s causing them?”

“I have a few theories,” I said. “Maybe the serpents weren’t created by this method, and there’s some other way of making them that we don’t know about.”

“That seems too coincidental,” Artemis objected. “The serpents are miniature versions of a recognized cryptid, just like Bigfoot, just like the Mothmen, just like the panther.”

“Yes,” Chanterelle said with a nod. “Do you remember the jackalopes that came into the town? They were normal-sized.”

“Right,” Artemis said. “Which would imply that these serpents aren’t the same kind of cryptid as the jackalopes.”

“The jackalopes didn’t disappear, either,” Diana added. “If the serpents disappear, we’ll know they were probably created by someone, like Trevor’s cryptids.”

“What’s your other theory, Mike?” Lily asked.

“Someone is making cryptids like Trevor did,” I answered. “But for some reason, they’re not burying their source items at the nexus point. They’re burying them somewhere else. Or they’re doing something else to create them.”

“But didn’t you say the nexus point is the most powerful spot on the ley lines?” Annie asked.

“Yeah,” I replied. “It is.”

“So if someone knows enough about the ley lines to bury something along them,” she said, “it seems weird that they wouldn’t know about the nexus point as well.”

“Good point.” I nodded. “It takes effort to find where the ley lines run through the town. So if you’re going to take the time to find that out, why not bury your source item where it has the best chance of success?”

“Do you have another theory?” Lily asked.

“I do, but it’s the worst one,” I said.

“Go on,” Artemis said. “Tell us what it is.”

I gave a humorless smile. “The serpents are something different. We’re dealing with someone new. This is magic we haven’t come up against before.”

“So we don’t know how to handle it,” Diana finished in a low voice.

“Like I said.” I shrugged my shoulders. “It’s the worst theory yet.”

“Yeah, Mike,” Artemis said, “what a downer. We just had breakfast.”

“Sorry,” I said with a wry chuckle. “I’ll try to keep my gloomier theories in check until after lunch.”

That made the others laugh.

“Well, then,” Diana said. “What do we do now? I guess we don’t need to stay out here any longer. We could go back to town.”

“Oh, my god, Diana,” Artemis said in teasing exasperation. “I thought you’d come around to camping.”

“I have,” she defended herself. “I was just suggesting it.”

I chuckled. “Well, I do actually need to get back to town to check on the store.”

“So do I,” Artemis said.

“Chanterelle,” I added, “I think you should come back to town as well. Being on the nexus point seems to be accelerating your pregnancy, and I think it would be better if you were at home.”

“Okay, Mike.” Chanterelle nodded.

“I have to go to work,” Lily said with a sigh. “I took yesterday afternoon off, but I had to agree to cover someone else’s shift today.”

“We should still keep an eye on the nexus point,” Annie said. “What if someone comes along today and buries something here?”

“I don’t know if it’s the best idea for you to be out here by yourself,” I said. “And I don’t mean that in a patronizing way, Annie, I just mean–”

“No, I know what you mean.” She gave me a reassuring smile. “It’s not great for anyone to be alone in the woods.”

“I’ll stay with you,” Diana offered.

“Diana?” Artemis lifted her eyebrows in surprise that wasn’t entirely feigned.

“Hey, it’s like you said,” Diana responded with a grin. “Camping’s not so bad.”

“Are you sure?” Annie asked her in an anxious tone.

“Yeah, of course, babe,” Diana replied. “It’ll be nice to spend some quiet time out here. You know. Connect to my roots and all that.”

“Aw, look at you.” Artemis gave Diana a fond smile. “We’ll make a green witch out of you yet.”

Diana rolled her eyes. “Don’t make me change my mind.”

“That’s good,” I said. “Annie’s got her car, so you can come back to town if you need to.”

“We’ll be alright, Mike,” Annie assured me.

I didn’t think it was the best idea for Chanterelle to spend another night on the nexus point, and I wasn’t going to leave her alone in my apartment, so we decided it was best to take down Lily’s tent and take it back with us.

That took a little while, but eventually the tent was packed up. Lily and I filled our backpacks with everything we’d brought with us, and Artemis carried the duffel bags. We left Annie’s small tent up along with her camping stove and the supplies she’d brought with her so she and Diana had shelter and enough food to see them through the day.

Annie and Diana tramped through the ferns and grass with us back to the road and helped us load everything into my car. Then I slid behind the wheel, Chanterelle went next to me in the passenger seat, and Artemis and Lily sat in the back. We waved goodbye to Annie and Diana, and I carefully swung the car around and drove back into town.

I dropped Lily off at her apartment so she could shower and change her clothes before her shift at the library, then drove Artemis to her apartment, and finally, I pulled up outside Time & Space.

“Phew,” Chanterelle said with a sigh. “It feels like I’ve been away for so long.”

“I know what you mean.” I got out of the car and went around to the passenger side to help Chanterelle out of her seat.

It took a bit of huffing and puffing, but eventually Chanterelle was out of her seat and standing upright.

“Oof,” she breathed and pressed a hand against her lower back. “This is so strange.”

“It is,” I agreed. “But it’s natural, and it’ll all be over soon.”

“I hope so,” Chanterelle said with a sigh. “Unless I just keep getting bigger and bigger and bigger. And then I get so big I can’t move at all.”

“Then I’ll put you in a wheelbarrow and push you around,” I chuckled. “I’ll take you to the diner and Artemis’ place, and I’ll install an elevator in the shop so you can get in and out of the apartment.”

“In my wheelbarrow,” Chanterelle giggled and gazed down at her huge stomach with a look of loving exasperation. “This baby is going to be the biggest baby there ever was.”

“It’s definitely going to be the best baby there ever was.” I smiled and offered Chanterelle my arm. “Come on. Let’s get you inside.”

I led her up to the door and was about to get out my keys when the door opened from the inside.

“Hi, guys!” Jay said. “I was just opening up, Mike.”

“You’re very punctual,” I said with a smile.

Jay’s mouth dropped open as he looked at Chanterelle.

“What–” he stammered. “But– what–”

“I am enormous,” she told him with a deep sigh.

“The pregnancy is progressing even quicker than we first thought,” I said.

“Oh, my god.” Jay stared at Chanterelle for a moment longer before he realized he was blocking the door, and then he jumped out of the way so we could come in.

I led Chanterelle over to the door that led up to the apartment.

“I’m going to get Chanterelle settled upstairs,” I called to Jay over my shoulder.

“No problem, boss,” Jay replied.

I carefully guided Chanterelle up the stairs to the apartment. She managed the stairs well enough, but I still watched every move she made with an anxious tension, and I was very glad when we were finally inside the apartment.

I threw a quick look inside the front room to check on the serpents. None of them had vanished. The containers that covered the floor were still full of the tiny, wriggling creatures.

“I’m sleepy,” Chanterelle said with a yawn. “I know I just woke up, but I’m sleepy. And I know we just had breakfast, but I’m hungry again.”

“How about you take a nap?” I suggested.

Chanterelle nodded and yawned again. I took her hand and led her toward the bedroom door.

Chanterelle sat down on the bed, and I undid her shoes and helped her take off all the layers she’d put on to go camping. When she’d finally shed everything and was only in the oversized red T-shirt that had been underneath everything else, I pulled back the covers on the bed and helped her lie down.

Part of me had assumed that all of her layers of clothing were helping Chanterelle look so big, but it was actually the opposite. Once most of her clothes were off, it was even more obvious how big her baby bump had grown. It was astonishing, and she looked, as Artemis had put it, just about ready to pop.

Chanterelle let out a sigh of relief as she laid down on her side, and the mattress helped take some of the weight of her stomach.

“Would you like an extra pillow?” I asked. “Under your bump?”

“Yes, please, Mike,” Chanterelle yawned.

I hurried out to the front room, grabbed a pillow from the sofa, and brought it back to her. I slid it gently underneath her stomach, and she let out another sigh of relief.

“Mm,” she murmured. “That’s nice.”

I pulled the blankets up over her shoulders and stroked her hair back out of her face.

Chanterelle’s silvery-brown lashes fluttered, and she looked up at me with a soft smile on her face.

“Sleepy,” she whispered.

“I know.” I stroked her velvet-soft cheek. “Just rest now. It’s good to sleep.”

“Good to sleep,” she breathed.

Her eyes blinked closed, and her soft little hand reached up to hold mine. I linked my fingers through hers, and I held her hand until her breathing slowed and steadied.

After Chanterelle was peacefully asleep, I stayed for a moment longer by the bedside and watched her as she rested. Even with her enormous stomach, she seemed very small in the bed. The covers were draped over her, her cheek was buried in the pillow, and her breath sighed in and out of her slightly parted lips. Her face was rosy and glowing, and I couldn’t resist leaning over and gently touching my lips to her soft cheek as I untangled my fingers from hers.

Chanterelle murmured in her sleep, but she didn’t wake up as I crossed the room, flicked off the light, and quietly closed the door behind me.

I let out a sigh. I was glad Chanterelle was at home. I might not know exactly what was going on with her pregnancy, but at least she was here, where she was safe and warm, and I could keep an eye on her. Part of me was seriously tempted to sit in the room and watch her sleep, just to make sure she and the baby were both okay.

I shook my head.

Coffee.

I needed coffee.

I crossed the landing to reach the kitchen. I went through the familiar ritual of prepping the coffee machine, and I instantly felt more relaxed when I opened the bag of coffee grounds and inhaled their rich aroma.

I poured water into the top of the machine, then dropped in a filter and the coffee grounds, and flicked the switch on. Underneath the sounds of the machine gurgling, I heard the patter of water against the windows. It must have started to rain again.

As soon as I realized the significance of that thought, I stiffened.

I left the coffee machine and went into the front room, where I crossed the floor to the big windows and looked out over the square.

The rain had come on suddenly and all at once, like it so often did in Wormwood. Fat droplets of water trickled down the window, and I pressed my forehead against the glass and peered through the distorted, watery view of the square.

I was worried I might see more serpents coming down with the rain, and my eyes scanned the square for any more of the weird little beasts.

The only thing I could see was a stray dog that was sitting in the middle of the square near one of the planters. I narrowed my eyes and stared at it hard.

Then my eyes widened.

My breath fogged up the glass, but I wiped at it with my sleeve to clear it and stared again.

It wasn’t a dog at all. It was a beaver.

Chapter 10

I didn’t know much about wildlife, but I was pretty sure a beaver didn’t belong in the middle of the Wormwood town square.

I couldn’t get a good enough look at the animal through the rain-splattered glass, and my breath kept on fogging up the window so I couldn’t see anything. I swiped at the clouded surface with an impatient gesture, then took my phone out of my pocket.

I pressed the screen against the window and opened the camera. I zoomed in on the beaver as much as my phone would go.

“Okay,” I murmured under my breath. “I don’t think that’s a beaver.”

It was roughly the same shape as a beaver, but instead of a beaver’s flat, webbed back feet, this thing had long, narrow feet that stuck out in front of it. They looked like kangaroo feet. And instead of a beaver’s blunt muzzle and black nose, this creature’s face ended in a massive hooked beak like an eagle.

It was a cryptid.

“Oh, great,” I mumbled.

Well, at least Chanterelle was asleep, so she didn’t need to worry about this.

I wove my way between the serpents and out of the front room, threw a longing glance at the coffee maker, and hurried down the stairs to the shop.

“Jay!” I called as I stepped out of the door. “Jay!”

A quick glance at the clock showed me it was still before opening time, so there were no customers in the shop.

Jay was behind the counter, and Amber was with him.

Thankfully, they weren’t making out like the last time I’d interrupted them, but now it was my turn to feel awkward as both Jay and Amber looked up at me expectantly.

“Hey, Mike,” Jay said.

“Hi, Mike,” Amber echoed, and she gave me a little wave.

“Oh, uh, hi,” I said.

I liked Amber– she was friendly and responsible and sweet, and she and Jay seemed like the perfect match for each other, but I didn’t know how much Jay had told her about the situation in Wormwood. I didn’t want to be the one to tell her about magic and leave Jay to pick up the pieces of what that would mean for his relationship.

“Is everything okay, Mike?” Jay asked with a worried look on his face.

“Uh, yeah, everything’s fine.” I edged toward the door so I could get a look out of the window without alerting Amber to the fact that something was off.

In the few minutes since I’d left the window upstairs, the beaver had moved a little bit closer to the store, and now I had a better view of it.

It was covered in brown fur that was slicked close to its chunky body. Its enormous kangaroo back legs and its short, stumpy front legs weren’t furry, and instead were covered in smooth, dark brown skin. Its front feet were also webbed, and as I watched it, the not-beaver took a bouncing leap forward and showed that the long toes of its back feet were indeed webbed as well. It had a tail, but unlike a beaver’s signature wide, flat tail, it had a short, pointed nub that was only about five inches long at the base of its spine.

I had no idea what the hell the creature was, but I had to get it out of the square before anyone saw it.

The beaver turned up its beaked face to the rainy sky and appeared to sniff the air. Then it bounced forward again, cocked its head, and examined a large puddle by its feet.

It leaned forward and started making a strange paddling motion in the puddle with its front paws. It looked like it was sifting through the water, like a prospector panning for gold. It reminded me of videos I’d seen of raccoons picking up food in their front paws. The beaver-thing had the same quick, slightly furtive way of looking around while its paws were busy, almost as though it was seeing its task with its fingers instead of its eyes.

It was kind of cute, I had to admit.

Cute, but capable of starting a riot in the middle of the town.

“Mike?” Jay asked again, and I abruptly came to a decision.

“I’m just going out,” I said.

“But it’s pouring!” Jay protested.

I didn’t answer, and I ran upstairs to the apartment, grabbed my jacket from behind the door, and pulled a towel from inside the bathroom. I pulled on the jacket while running down the stairs two at a time, then burst through the door, darted across the shop floor, and went out onto the sidewalk.

I hoped Amber hadn’t had enough time to notice I was carrying a towel, but even if she had, I didn’t have time to worry about that.

The rain was getting stronger, which either meant it was going to continue for hours or it was suddenly going to stop altogether. I shaded my eyes against the pelting water and scanned the square in front of me. Somehow, in the brief few moments when I’d stopped watching the beaver creature, it had completely vanished.

I spun around and scowled through the rain as I tried to locate it.

Then I spotted it.

It had bounced away from the puddle it had been examining, and now it was leaning over another puddle and searching through the water with its busy hands. The rain slicked its coarse fur close to its chunky barrel of a body, and now that I was closer to it, I could see the gleam of its small black eyes and the slightly discolored yellow of its big, hooked beak.

I reckoned the beak looked like it could do some damage, but apart from that, it didn’t look too fearsome. I hoped there weren’t any teeth hiding away inside the beak. Creatures with beaks like that normally didn’t have teeth, but also beavers didn’t normally have beaks at all, so I couldn’t apply normal world logic to this situation.

I crept up behind the beaver as quietly as I could and hoped the splashing rain would help disguise the sound of my approaching footsteps.

I took the towel from underneath my arm and unfurled it as I got even closer to the cryptid.

The beast was about the size of a small terrier, so I figured if I could just get the towel over it and wrap it around its body, I could restrain it without sustaining any serious damage to myself.

I needed something like those thick leather gloves that metalworkers used.

Damn, if only I’d been a blue-collar worker instead of a shop owner. That would have come in so handy for situations like this.

The rain was trickling down my cheeks and down the back of my neck. I blinked away the drops that dribbled into my eyes, held out the towel in front of me, and crept up behind the cryptid.

I threw out the towel.

It landed across the beaver, and I pounced on top of it and wrapped my arms tightly around its body.

The creature let out a high-pitched squeak of indignant fury and snapped its big hooked beak at me. I snatched my hand out of its way, and at the same time, the beaver wiggled out from underneath the towel. I made a grab for it, but the creature’s fur was soaking wet and weirdly slimy, as though it was coated with oil.

It slid out of my grip, and my arms closed on nothing but heavy folds of wet towel.

The beaver bounced away from me and made a loud chattering noise of disapproval.

“Come on, dude,” I said in frustration. “You don’t belong here.”

The beaver evidently didn’t agree with me. It bounced away a couple of feet from me, then stood and fixed me with its beady, black eyes. There was a definite expression of indignation on its beaked face.

“Come on, beaver,” I said in a soothing voice. “Good beaver. Nice beaver.”

I advanced on it again, but the cryptid bounced out of reach. It kept looking at me and at the towel, so I rolled up the towel and held it under my arm again where it wouldn’t be so conspicuous.

The beaver still wouldn’t let me come closer to it, so I took a seat on the edge of one of the benches and pretended I wasn’t looking at it. Instead I stared up at the sky and just kept tabs on the creature by shooting glances at it from the corner of my eye. I prayed this approach would work better than an out-and-out confrontation. It certainly would draw less attention than trying to chase the thing around the town square like an insane game of tag.

The not-beaver stared at me suspiciously for a little while, but then it seemed to decide that I’d learned my lesson. It started snuffling around on the ground again and sniffing the air. It made little grunting noises as it did so, and then it bounced over to the nearest puddle. It dunked its beak into the water and stayed there motionless for a few minutes before it straightened up again.

Its beak was still closed, but the water from the puddle gushed out of the sides of its beak. I wondered if it had some kind of filter-feeding system in its beak where it could take a mouthful of water and sift out any interesting morsels or creatures that were hiding there. I felt like there were whales that did a similar kind of thing to find their prey.

The beaver did its filtering thing a couple more times in the same puddle, and then it hopped over to another puddle and paddled in it with its front paws.

I threw a wary look up at the sky. It was still leaden gray and thick with dark clouds, but that could mean anything in Wormwood. I blinked away the raindrops from my eyes, and carefully and slowly, I tightened my grip on the towel. Then I stood up.

The beaver ignored me.

I took a slow step forward, another, and then another.

The beaver still ignored me.

I gripped the edge of the towel tightly in both hands. I was so close to the beaver, I could see the way each individual drop of rain landed on its coarse, greasy back. I remembered how slick and oily it had felt, and I prepared myself to grip it even more tightly this time.

I took another step.

And then another.

Finally, I launched myself at the beaver-like creature.

It let out a shrill squeal of alarm and leaped for safety. I managed to tangle the towel around its back legs, and for a brief moment, I had it, but then it gave a great kick that landed squarely in the middle of my chest. It wasn’t hard enough to do much damage, but it tore a shredded track down the middle of the towel and completely knocked the air out of me.

I doubled over with a wheeze, and the beaver bounced away from me as it made the same outraged chattering noise.

“Mike!” Jay’s voice rang out through the rain.

I looked up blearily with my arms wrapped around myself to see Jay hurrying toward me.

“Jay,” I wheezed out.

Jay had another towel under his arm. But he also had something in his hand, and as he got closer, I saw it was one of the containers from upstairs. A tiny bright blue serpent was wriggling around inside it.

Jay held out the container with the serpent and shook it. The bright movement of the serpent inside immediately caught the beaver-thing’s attention. Even though it was still wary, it cocked its head and fixed its gleaming dark eyes on the serpent.

Jay leaned over the nearest puddle and dropped the serpent into it.

I managed to pull a proper breath into my aching chest, and Jay and I watched in tense silence as the beaver stared into the puddle.

I could almost see the cogs turning in the beaver’s brain as it weighed how much it wanted the serpent against how much it distrusted us.

The serpent helped solve the issue by flipping its tail out of the shallow puddle and making a splash that sent droplets of water spattering everywhere.

The beaver decided it was worth the risk.

It leaped forward and stuck its hands in the puddle.

Jay started to unfurl the towel from under his arm, but I stopped him with a look. I shook my head and bugged my eyes out at him in a signal to wait.

The beaver threw both of us a suspicious look, but then its searching paws found the serpent in the puddle. There was a splashing frenzy in the water as the serpent tried to escape, but the beaver’s webbed toes were relentless. It seized the serpent in its paws, its hooked beak darted out, and it snapped down on the serpent’s tail. In one quick movement, it threw back its head and gulped the serpent down its throat.

“Now,” I breathed.

Jay lunged at the beaver and threw the towel over it. It was so focused on swallowing the serpent that it was too distracted to fight back. Jay landed almost on top of it, and I followed him with the ragged remains of my towel, which I flung into the cryptid’s face.

It squeaked in fury, wriggled, and tried to break free, but Jay managed to kneel over the beaver and keep its body pinned against the ground while I wrapped the towels tightly around it.

“Watch its beak,” I panted. “And its back feet.”

Jay let out a muffled yelp of alarm as the beaver kicked at him, but it was too tightly swaddled in the towel to do much damage. I pulled the towels even tighter around its body and over its head.

“We’ve got it,” I gasped. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah, I think so,” Jay wheezed.

“Okay, let’s lift it. One, two–” I wrapped my arms around the front part of the creature while Jay clutched at the back end. “Three.”

The beaver kicked and wriggled and squeaked, but together we managed to stagger back to the shop with it.

“Wait, Jay,” I gasped as we reached the door. “What about Amber?”

“What about her?” Jay asked.

“How’s she going to react to this?” I nodded toward the struggling bundle of towel-wrapped beaver-cryptid in our arms. “This magical beaver burrito?”

“Oh, she’s cool,” Jay explained in a breathless voice. “I told her about the magic in the town ages ago. She’s seen stuff here, too, you know, so it was a relief for her more than anything. In fact, she–”

“Jay,” I interrupted. “I’m dying here.”

“Oh, yeah, sorry!” Jay nodded.

Then Amber quickly opened the shop door for us and held it open while we staggered inside.

“Oh, my god?” she exclaimed. “You got it! Do we know what it is yet? Is it dangerous? Is it a good omen? It’s from the ley lines, isn’t it?”

“Amber,” I wheezed. “Can you open the door to my apartment, please?”

“Oh, sorry!” Amber scurried across the floor to open the door for us.

“Thanks,” I gasped.

“Don’t worry about the shop,” she called after Jay and me as we staggered up the stairs. “I’ll keep an eye on things down here for you!”

The beaver didn’t stop its wiggling or its squeaky complaints, and it was a full-body workout trying to keep it from escaping its towel cocoon. As soon as we were inside the apartment with the door closed, the beaver took full advantage. It gave one big wiggle, squirmed out of the folds of the towel that imprisoned it, and landed on the floor with a thud.

“Oof!” Jay exclaimed in surprise.

The beaver bounced toward the nearest open space, which happened to be the kitchen.

Jay and I followed it, and a great clattering and banging sound greeted us as the beaver squeezed in between the trash can and the side of the fridge. It sent the bin toppling over onto its side, and the broom I kept there came clattering down as well.

“Phew.” I massaged my ribs, which still ached from the creature’s vicious kick. “God, what a handful.”

“It’s so small,” Jay agreed. “I didn’t think it would be so hard to capture.”

“It’s kind of oily,” I said. “When I grabbed it the first time, it managed to get away from me because I couldn’t keep my grip on it.”

“I think beavers are oily,” he said with a frown. “It’s to keep them warm in the water.”

“That makes sense,” I said.

“Even though it isn’t a beaver.” Jay exhaled. “Do we know what it is?”

“A cryptid of some kind,” I said with a shrug. “I don’t know anything more than that.”

“And now it’s hiding behind your trash can.” Jay peered around the edge of the kitchen door and tried to get a better look. “Can we call it Oscar?”

“We’re not keeping it,” I said. “To be honest, I’m hoping it’ll vanish like the other cryptids did.”

“The serpents haven’t vanished,” Jay pointed out.

“I know,” I sighed and rubbed the back of my neck. “That was good thinking using the serpent to distract the beaver, by the way.”

“That was Amber’s idea,” Jay said with a proud smile. “We were watching you try to catch the beaver from the store, and Amber said she wondered if it was hungry, and that was why it was looking in all the puddles. Then I remembered how the serpents had come down in a rainstorm, and maybe that’s why the beaver was looking in the puddles for something to eat.”

“Good call, both of you,” I said. “And I guess if worse comes to worst, we can always feed the serpents to the beaver since we know it likes them.”

“We should put the serpents in the bathtub,” Jay agreed with a grin. “It’d be like a buffet.”

There was a brief pause while we both thought about what Jay had just said, and then we looked at each other at the same time.

“Holy shit, Jay,” I said. “That’s a really good idea.”

“It’s way more convenient than keeping them in Tupperware in the front room,” Jay agreed.

“Come on.” I went into the front room. “Let’s give these babies a bath.”

I picked up two Tupperware containers from the floor and took them into the bathroom. I plugged the drain, then tipped the serpents into the tub along with the water that had been in their containers. Jay was right behind me with two more containers that he emptied into the tub.

We went back and forth between the front room and the bathroom until all of the serpents were in the bath. The bath was obviously a lot bigger than the serpents’ previous homes had been, so I turned on the faucet to add a bit more water to the tub. The serpents wiggled around at the bottom like tiny bright slashes of shimmering, reflective ink.

“Perfect,” Jay said in satisfaction.

As I watched the serpents dart and dive around in their new home, I was suddenly hit by another idea.

I picked up one of the Tupperware containers and dipped it back in the tub to collect some water and one of the serpents. Then I did the same thing with another container.

“What are you doing?” Jay asked.

“If we can lure the beaver out of the kitchen into the bathroom, then it’ll be contained instead of having free rein of my apartment,” I said. “And if it eats all the serpents, that takes care of one of our problems.”

“Good idea.” Jay nodded.

I put one of the containers on the bathroom floor halfway between the door and the tub, and the second container on the floor halfway between the kitchen doorway and the bathroom.

Then Jay and I went into the front room. I pressed myself against the wall so I was hidden from view, but I could still get out quickly if I needed to. Jay went to stand by the window. I gave him a thumbs up at his position. It was still raining, which could mean that more cryptids were on the way.

Jay nodded back, and we settled down to wait in silence and see what the beaver would do next.

We didn’t have to wait long. After a couple of minutes, a scuffling noise came from the kitchen. Something fell over with a thud, and then there was a scratching and a clatter. The beaver let out a squeak of indignation as presumably it objected to the new environment it found itself in.

There was a brief moment of silence, then the beaver started its grunting snuffles, and its feet slapped against the floor as it approached the kitchen door.

There was another pause.

Then I heard an excited chatter and the splashing of water.

I peered around the edge of the doorframe and saw the beaver stuffing the first serpent down its throat.

I carefully eased my phone out of my pocket, opened the camera, and took a series of pictures of the beaver as it finished up its serpent meal.

As I put my phone back into my pocket, the beaver’s head swung around, and it let out another excited chatter when it spotted the second Tupperware container on the bathroom floor.

Its big feet made quick slapping sounds against the floor as it shuffled over to the bathroom. It didn’t bounce, presumably because there wasn’t as much space as outside, and it moved with a gait more like a penguin’s waddle.

I waited with bated breath and my ears straining to hear what was going on.

There was a splashing sound, which I guessed was the beaver discovering and chowing down on the second serpent, so I carefully crept out of the doorway and closer to the cryptid.

The bathroom was right next to the front room, on the other side of a tiny hallway, and I could see perfectly inside, so I was just in time to watch as, in one excited bounce, the beaver leaped into the bathtub with a splash that sent water sloshing over the sides and up the walls.

I darted forward, grabbed the handle of the bathroom door, and yanked it shut. There wasn’t a lock on the outside of the door, but I didn’t think the beaver would be able to navigate the knob.

“You got him!” Jay exclaimed as he came out of the front room.

“Yeah.” I exhaled in relief.

“Is this a bad time to say I need to pee?” Jay deadpanned and then chortled as I threw him a joking scowl. “What do we do now?”

“You go downstairs and help Amber with the shop,” I directed. “I’ll update the others about this new cryptid. They might have seen something connected with it.”

“Okay.” Jay nodded. “Keep me updated about everything.”

“I will,” I said.

Jay went downstairs, and I went to the bedroom and opened the door a crack to check on Chanterelle.

The room was dimly lit, but I could see the shape of the mushroom girl as she laid curled up under the covers. She’d turned over in her sleep so she was facing the door, and her face was illuminated in the light from the hall behind me. Her eyes were closed, her lips were slightly parted, and her bangs hung down over her eyes. She looked like a sleeping doll.

I smiled softly to see her like this, then quietly closed the door.

I was glad Chanterelle hadn’t been disturbed by any of the events. She’d always been a heavy sleeper, and I guessed the pregnancy was taking its toll on her energy, so it made sense that she would need to sleep even more than usual. I knew I’d be tired if I were growing a whole other being inside my body.

I went to the bathroom door and listened outside for a minute, but all was silent inside, which I hoped was a good sign.

I went into the front room and got out my phone to call Lily.

She answered almost immediately.

“Mike, hey!” she said. “What’s up? Have there been any developments?”

“You could say that.” I gave a dry chuckle. “We found a new cryptid.”

“What?” Lily almost shouted. “Where was it? What is it? Oh, my god, I’m so pissed off I didn’t see it. Where is it now? Where did it go?”

“It was in the square,” I replied. “It was searching in the puddles, but Jay and I managed to capture it, and now it’s in my bathroom. Possibly eating all the serpents, maybe just chilling in the tub. Status is unclear.”

“Okay, so what is it?” Lily asked in an impatient tone.

“Well, it looks like a beaver,” I said. “But it has a beak, and kangaroo legs, and a little tail, not like a beaver tail.”

“So… not a beaver, then,” Lily said, and she chuckled. “Sorry, Mike, I know what you mean. Can you get a picture of it to send me?”

“Already thought of that,” I replied. “I’m sending it to you now.”

I quickly texted over all of the photos I’d taken of the cryptid and was rewarded with Lily’s gasp of recognition.

“Oh, shit!” she exclaimed. “I know what this is! It’s called a bildad.”

“A what?” I frowned. “Why do I know that word?”

“It’s the name of a man in the Bible,” Lily replied.

“I know,” I said, then chuckled. “It’s from the second season of Good Omens.”

“I think it was from the Bible first,” Lily pointed out.

“And it’s also the name of a cryptid?” I mused. “Why?”

“Who knows?” Lily said. “I don’t know how these things get their names. But the creature you have in your bathroom is definitely a bildad.”

“Jay suggested we call him Oscar,” I said. “Because he hid behind the trash can in the kitchen.”

“Well, I guess Jay can call him whatever he wants,” Lily said. “What have the others said about it? Have they seen anything in the woods?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “I called you first because I thought you’d be the best person to identify it.”

“And I was,” Lily said in a pleased voice. “So are you going to call them now?”

“Yeah,” I said. “I’ll let them know about it, and then I guess we’ll decide what to do next depending on whether they’ve seen anything in the woods.”

“Okay,” Lily said. “Keep me updated on what’s happening.”

“Sure thing,” I replied. “See you later.”

I ended the call, then selected Diana’s name in my contacts.

Diana picked up after a couple of rings.

“Hey, Mike,” she answered. “What’s going on?”

“I was going to ask you that,” I replied. “Have you guys seen anything out there?”

“No,” Diana answered. “I’m going to put you on speaker so Annie can hear you as well.”

“Hey, Mike,” Annie called.

“Hey, Annie,” I said. “So you guys haven’t seen anything?”

“No,” Annie said. “When it started raining, we took shelter in my tent, but we’ve had the door partly unzipped so we can still keep watch. But no one’s come here. I’ve seen some squirrels and birds, but that’s about it.”

“Why, Mike?” Diana asked. “Did something happen?”

“Yeah,” I said. “We got another cryptid.”

“Oh, really!” Annie gasped. “What is it?”

“It’s a bildad,” I replied.

“Oh.” Annie sounded disappointed. “I’ve never heard of that one.”

“Me, neither,” I said. “I took some photos of it and sent them to Lily, and she was able to identify it. It basically looks like a beaver but with a bird beak and kangaroo legs.”

“That sounds so strange,” Annie breathed. “Where was it?”

“It was in the square,” I said. “But Jay and I captured it, and now it’s in my bathtub.”

“A bildad,” Diana said in a thoughtful voice. “But how does that work? We’ve been here this entire time, and no one’s planted anything on the nexus point.”

“I know,” I sighed. “I don’t know what’s going on, to be honest. But I guess there’s not much point in you guys staying out there any longer. The weather’s terrible, and whoever’s making these cryptids is somehow able to do it without being at the nexus point. So you can come home.”

“Oh, thank the Lord,” Diana sighed.

“Oh, come on,” I teased her. “It wasn’t that bad, was it?”

“No,” Diana admitted, and then she laughed. “It was actually really fun. And this morning’s been nice as well. We made tea and listened to the birds and chatted, and it’s been so quiet and laid-back.”

“Diana taught me some new techniques for meditation,” Annie said. “I’m going to start using them in my practice right away.”

“That’s good,” I said. “Diana helped me with some breathing techniques that were useful in controlling my magic.”

“Oh, yes, I remember that.” Diana gave a nostalgic sigh. “That was when I’d first come to Wormwood. It seems so long ago now.”

“It does,” I agreed. “So much has changed since then.”

“Yeah.” Diana sighed again, and then she spoke in a more practical tone. “We’ll pack up here, Mike, and come straight back to Wormwood.”

“How’s Chanterelle?” Annie asked.

“She’s okay,” I replied. “She’s asleep right now. She slept all the way through the whole bildad incident, so I guess she must be pretty tired.”

“That’s good, she can rest.” There was a fond note in Annie’s voice that I was pleased to hear. “We’ll see you and her pretty soon, Mike.”

“Alright,” I said. “I’ll see you guys in a bit.”

I ended the call and exhaled slowly. I was about to pull up Artemis’ number and call her as well, but just then, my stomach let out a growl.

I glanced at the clock on my phone and was startled to see that it was almost midday. The morning had passed by so quickly.

I weighed what to do, but I didn’t want to wake Chanterelle by clanging around in the kitchen, so I went downstairs to the shop.

Jay and Amber were behind the counter. The rain was still coming down, and the shop was empty of customers.

“How’s everything upstairs?” Jay asked me.

“What is it?” Amber asked in an excited tone. “Jay said it’s a beaver.”

“Well, apparently it’s called a bildad,” I replied.

“A bildad,” Amber repeated as if to commit the strange name to her memory.

“It’s all okay,” I said. “It’s contained in the bathroom, and it seems okay. It’s not thrashing around or trying to escape. Chanterelle is asleep upstairs, Jay, and I don’t want to wake her, so I’m going over to Artemis’ for lunch and to let her know what’s going on. Can you keep an ear out for anything?”

“Sure, Mike, no problem,” Jay said with a nod.

“Let me know if anything weird happens,” I said. “Even if it’s something small and weird. Or even the regular kind of weird.”

“I’ve got it,” Jay assured me.

I threw one last look at the apartment door, then headed out of the store. The rain was easing up a bit, and I turned my collar up against the weather and headed quickly across the square to reach Artemis’ place.

I hoped the rain would stop long enough for Diana and Annie to take the camp down, but if it came to it, I guessed they would just have to pack up in the rain and dry everything out later when they came home. Diana would probably be thrilled to pack up no matter what the weather was.

I grinned to myself at the thought, but I felt a tinge of pride as well at Diana’s willingness to change her mind about camping. She hadn’t been eager about the experience, but she hadn’t let that close her off to having a good time. Plenty of people would have decided there was no way they’d change their mind and would have sulked their way through the entire trip. But not Diana.

A warm feeling snuggled around my heart as I thought about how much Diana had changed and grown since she’d come to Wormwood. I remembered that day in my store when she’d offered to teach me some breathing exercises that would help me control my growing magic. I still wasn’t sure then if Artemis and I could trust her or not, but when we’d talked, I’d been surprised at the witch’s character and heart.

And then everything had changed between us.

It was something special to look back on, and I loved that we had that shared history. I wondered if one day I’d look back on this time with Annie and have the same kind of feelings.

My mind flew back to the moment when Annie had kissed me in the woods. It had taken me by surprise, but it had been amazing all the same. The memory of Annie’s soft lips, so hungry, so intense, so persistent, so full of desire, sent sparks fizzing all through my bloodstream, and even with the cold rain hitting my body, my face grew hot.

My thoughts at that moment were so filthy that I couldn’t help throwing a furtive glance around me to make sure no one was nearby and able to tell what I was thinking. But the square was empty, and there was no one there to witness the guilty expression on my face as my body buzzed with pure, animalistic lust.

I was grateful for the rain that fell on my face and soaked through my jeans, but part of me was surprised it didn’t sizzle and evaporate into vapor the second it touched my skin.

Get it together, Wainwright.

I made myself take a couple of calming breaths to get myself back under control, and concentrated on placing each foot firmly on the ground as I crossed the final stretch of the square and ended up at Artemis’ shop.

I pushed open the door and walked into a sweet, smoky haze of incense and herbs. Artemis’ shop smelled like an extension of herself, and it was full of fragrant woods, dried herbs, flower bundles, and various witchy goods.

Artemis was behind the counter, and she looked up expectantly as I came in. Her customer service smile was firmly in place, but when she saw who it was, it shifted into a genuine smile.

“Hey, Mike,” she greeted me. “I didn’t expect to see you here. Wow, you’re wet.”

“Yeah…” I grimaced.

I walked over to the back end of the shop, where Artemis had put up a row of hooks and hung up my jacket.

“Mm, undressing already?” Artemis’ eyes glinted with mischief. “Careful, Wainwright, I might start to think you’re easy.”

I snorted out a laugh. “I thought I’d come over and update you. Have you been busy?”

“No.” She shook her head. “It’s the rain, I think, everyone’s staying at home. I was actually thinking about closing up for lunch soon.”

“I was hoping you’d say that,” I said. “Chanterelle’s asleep in my apartment, so I didn’t want to disturb her by making food, but I’m starving.”

“Wait, hang on.” Artemis stared at me. “You said you came to update me. What’s happened?”

“A new cryptid appeared,” I replied.

“What!” Artemis gasped.

I filled her in on everything that had happened and ended by telling her that Diana and Annie were going to pack up camp and come back from the woods.

“But what does this mean?” Artemis asked with a frown once I’d finished speaking. “There’s a new cryptid in town, but no one’s buried anything at the nexus point.”

“I don’t know.” I sighed deeply and rubbed the back of my neck. “There must be something else we haven’t thought about.”

“Hmm.” Artemis nodded slowly.

“Is it okay if I hang out here for a bit?” I asked. “Then we can have lunch together, if you’d like.”

“That would be great,” Artemis said with a smile.

“Can I use your laptop?” I asked.

“Sure,” she replied.

I went behind the counter to stand next to her. Artemis shifted her weight slightly and reached up to push her hair behind her shoulders. I caught the spicy scent of her wild red waves, and the resinous perfume rising up from her skin, and I was struck by so many feelings at once, I could barely contain them.

More than anything, I wanted to take Artemis in my arms and hold her and love her with my body and my soul.

But there was a chance a customer might come in, and I didn’t want to come onto Artemis while she was working.

So instead, I opened up the laptop and Googled “what things do I need to get before my baby comes?”

“What are you doing?” Artemis asked.

“I figured I should start ordering some baby things,” I replied.

“Oh, yes, exciting!” Artemis leaned over my shoulder and pointed at some contraption on the screen. “Oh, yeah, you’ll definitely need one of those.”

“What even is that?” I asked.

“Ultimate XXL Diaper Disposal Bundle with Twenty Refills,” Artemis read aloud. “Ooh, that’s going to be useful, you need to dispose of diapers.”

I shot Artemis a disbelieving look. I couldn’t believe she wasn’t pushing me to buy a stack of reusable cloth diapers. Then I saw the twinkle in her eyes and realized she was joking around with me.

I clicked on the link and scanned the webpage. “It’s a trash can.”

“It’s a special diaper trash can,” Artemis said.

“It’s one hundred and thirty dollars!” I protested.

“It’s the number one diaper disposal system in America!” Artemis countered with a teasing grin. “You want your baby to have the number one diaper disposal system, don’t you? Otherwise, all the other babies will look down their noses at it.”

“Its diapers can go in the regular trash can,” I said in a firm voice. “The baby will just have to deal with the peer pressure like the rest of us.”

“Click on that.” Artemis pointed to another listing on the website. “It sounds interesting.”

“The Sunny Egg Deluxe,” I read out. “What is that, a lamp?”

“It’s a nursery thermometer,” Artemis said.

“Why the heck do I need a thermometer?” I exclaimed.

“It changes color to indicate the temperature of the room,” Artemis read from the item description. “That way, you can adapt your child’s bedding, clothing, or room temperature accordingly.”

“Can’t I just use common sense?” I asked.

Artemis shrugged. “I don’t want to sound like some crusty old fart who doesn’t believe in vaccines or sleep safety, but, like, I don’t think we had any of this stuff, did we?”

“I don’t think I even had a nursery,” I said. “I had a bedroom.”

“It’s like everything nowadays,” Artemis said. “It’s become a business, so of course they’re going to convince you to buy things you don’t really need but which they make seem really important.”

“But what if it is really important?” I countered. “What if you and I are deeply fucked up in ways we can’t even comprehend because we didn’t sleep in nurseries where the temperature was controlled by the Sunny Egg Deluxe?”

Artemis and I looked at each other seriously for a second, and then we both chuckled.

“I think we’re okay,” Artemis said.

“You know what,” I said. “I’m going to get the basic stuff and worry about all these new-fangled inventions later on.”

“That’s a good idea.” Artemis nodded. “So… like, diapers? And onesies?”

I opened up the Notes app on my phone and started making a list of everything I could think of.

“Baby bottles,” I said. “And formula. Toys. Pacifiers.”

“Oh, I think you need something special to clean the baby bottles in,” Artemis said. “Like a special sterilizer or something like that.”

“Sterilizer,” I said with a nod. “Okay.”

“Is Chanterelle going to breastfeed?” Artemis asked. “Or am I dumb to think that?”

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “I mean, mushrooms don’t normally breastfeed their young… but then they also don’t normally have young at all. But not every human mother can breastfeed, anyway, I know that much.”

“Yeah.” Artemis nodded slowly. “So I guess we should prepare for the likelihood that she won’t, just to be on the safe side. Ooh, what about a crib? And a stroller?”

“Do newborns go in a stroller?” I asked, and I went back to Google.

I typed “ways of carrying a newborn” into the search bar.

“Oh, look, these sling things look good.” I turned the laptop toward her.

“Oh, yeah, I’ve seen those,” Artemis said. “The baby rides inside like a kangaroo joey. That’s really cute, and the baby gets to hang out next to you as well, so they’re not all alone in the stroller.”

“I’ll get a sling,” I decided, and I added it to the list, which was already looking very long. “Damn, I need to research all of these things to find out which is the best one. I don’t want to buy the first thing I find online and have it fall apart in two seconds.”

“I bet Lily could help with that,” Artemis said. “You know what a fiend she is for research.”

“That’s a really good idea,” I said.

I took a screenshot of the list in the Notes app, then sent it over to Lily.

“Hey,” I texted her. “If you have a spare moment, could you research these items and find ones that get good reviews and won’t break the bank?”

Lily texted back instantly with a dozen heart-eye emojis. OMG yes!! Are you buying baby things???

“Lily’s on board,” I said to Artemis with a chuckle.

Then I texted Lily back. Yeah, I figured I should start looking for the essentials, but it’s hard to know what to buy when there’s so much stuff out there.

Don’t worry. Lily wrote back. I’ll research all of this and get back to you. This is so exciting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I laughed at the number of exclamation points and texted back a heart and a laughing-face emoji. Thanks, Lily.

What are godmothers for? she texted back. I’ll let you know what I learn.

“I like the idea of being a godmother,” Artemis mused in a thoughtful tone. “It feels witchy.”

“You’ll be an amazing godmother,” I told her with a smile.

Artemis smiled back at me, and our eyes locked. All at once, I found I couldn’t look away from her. My heart was suddenly racing with excitement, with desire, happiness, and exhilaration, and the only thing I could think to do was to reach out and cup Artemis’ cheek in my hand.

Her thick, dark eyelashes fluttered briefly under my touch. She drew in a quick little breath and leaned into my hand, and she looked at me with unfathomable emotion swirling in her dark eyes.

She reached up to cover my hand with hers, and then she pulled my hand around so she could kiss the palm. Then, boldly, she guided my hand down to the open neck of her shirt and the soft swell of her cleavage.

It was my turn to draw in a quick breath as my fingers traced a path over the silky, soft skin of Artemis’ breasts. I went lower, slid my fingers inside the lacy cup of her bra, and found the tight button of her already-hardened nipple.

“Mm,” Artemis breathed in pleasure.

“You know, earlier I wanted to kiss you,” I murmured. “And I stopped myself because I didn’t want to be unprofessional in the workplace.”

“You can be unprofessional in my workplace anytime, Wainwright,” Artemis purred.

I closed the distance between us, wrapped my arms around her strong, slender body, and kissed her.

Artemis pressed her lips against mine and grabbed handfuls of my still-damp shirt to pull our bodies even closer. She murmured with pleasure as my hand pushed back her hair from her face, and then lifted the heavy red waves out of the way so I could lay a trail of burning kisses down her throat and into the sweet hollow of her throat.

“Mm,” she whispered. “Mike. Let me lock the door.”

My hand snaked up inside the oversized plaid shirt she wore and slipped inside her bra again. My thumb pressed against her nipple, and Artemis shuddered with pleasure at the touch.

“Really?” I murmured. “Is that what you want right now?”

“Goddess,” she groaned. “Fuck.”

I worked her nipple back and forth with my thumb until Artemis’ fingers dug into my arms with a painful grip. She groaned with pleasure, and then with a huge effort of will, she detached herself from me and pushed me away.

Her eyes were deep, dark liquid pools of desire, her cheeks were flushed, and there was a frenetic energy in the way she moved that instantly sent every drop of blood in my body rushing south.

“Go upstairs,” Artemis whispered in a hoarse voice.

“Make me?” I smirked.

Artemis reached behind her and did something I couldn’t quite see. Then she put her hand inside her shirt, shimmied her shoulders, and then pulled out her bra.

My eyes widened as she triumphantly dangled the black lacy garment from her hand.

“Well?” She gave me a devilish grin.

“Yes, ma’am,” I breathed.

Artemis went to lock the shop door, and I hurried through to the back of the shop and took the stairs up to her apartment two at a time.

I hurried into the bedroom and took off my shoes. I undid my belt and started taking off my jeans when a small sound made me look up.

Artemis stood in the doorway of her bedroom.

And she was completely naked.

Chapter 11

My eyes traveled over the glorious vista of her body.

Artemis’ skin was as pale as milk and scattered with freckles like the night sky full of stars. Her arms and legs were long, slender, and toned, her hips were narrow, her waist was small, and her breasts were heavy, pale globes crowned with dark pink nipples that were already tight enough to cut glass. They were the exact same pink as her lips, as the flush of color that filled her cheeks under my frank appraisal of her body, and the same pink as her pussy lips which peeped out between her thighs.

Artemis leaned against the door frame with an elaborate casualness.

“Hey, Wainwright,” she said. “How’s it hanging?”

For a moment, I was too stunned to even form words. Every fiber of my body was focused on one thing, and it wasn’t making small talk.

I swallowed hard.

“Come here,” I said in a husky voice.

Artemis sauntered over to me. She had the casual grace of a panther, and when she reached me, she put her hands lightly on my shoulders and looked at me with her eyes burning. She was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.

“Jesus,” I whispered through a dry mouth. “You take my breath away, Artemis.”

Artemis’ eyes shone with love, arousal, and excitement.

“Take off your pants,” she breathed.

I finished unzipping my jeans and kicked them off. Artemis pulled my shirt up over my head and tossed it to the side.

I stood in front of her in only my underwear, and Artemis’ slender fingers immediately went to the waistband of my boxers and slid them down my hips.

“There you are,” she purred.

I jumped as her fingers curled around the stiff, hard length of my cock, and then I let out a groan as she gently massaged the tip.

“Artemis,” I breathed.

“Does that feel good?” she whispered in my ear.

“God, you know it does,” I groaned.

My hands clenched into fists at my sides as Artemis deliberately ran her thumb over the sensitive head of my cock.

“God!” I choked out.

“Mmm, yes,” she breathed. “That’s what I like to hear.”

“You’re loving this, aren’t you?” I managed to gasp out.

“Mmhmm,” she purred. “Yes, I am.”

My hands went to Artemis’ narrow hips. I kneaded her flesh there, then reached around to squeeze her ass cheeks, and I dragged her close against me. She gasped as she felt the heat and stiffness of my cock pressed against her abdomen.

I gripped Artemis at the waist and swung her around to throw her onto the bed. Artemis gasped with surprise, and then she smiled as I kneeled over her.

“Mm, now this is what I like to see,” I growled.

“I can think of something better,” Artemis returned.

She hooked her leg around my hip and used the motion to push me over so I was on my back. Then Artemis straddled me with her knees on either side of my hips.

I had to admit it: the view was fantastic.

“Better?” Artemis grinned.

“Oh, yeah…” I breathed. “This is pretty fucking good.”

The heat of Artemis’ pussy awoke my cock in a gorgeous, maddening haze of desire.

I looked up into her beautiful face. Artemis’ dark eyes were shining, her lips were wet, and her breasts bobbed gently as she adjusted her weight on top of me. I ran my thumb over her lips, and my heartbeat quickened as Artemis opened her mouth and sucked my thumb inside. She sucked it deliberately with her eyes fixed on mine before she released it.

I cupped her face in my hands and pulled her mouth down to meet mine. Artemis kissed me hungrily with one hand pressed against my shoulder, and her other hand traced a path down my bare chest. She rocked her hips forward as she ground deliberately against me, and I couldn’t muffle the groan that sprang out of me as her heat moved so close to my cock.

“You like that, huh, Wainwright?” Artemis whispered.

“You feel so good,” I whispered back. “Can I cum inside you?”

“Yes.” She wiggled against me in a way that dragged a groan of pleasure from my lips. “God, I love it when you cum inside me. It makes me feel so fucking sexy.”

I slid my hands up her smooth thighs. I cupped her delicious ass and squeezed it before my hands traveled up and over her flat stomach. My knuckles brushed the heavy curve of her breasts. Artemis sighed in anticipation, and goosebumps sprang out on her arms and thighs.

I shifted into a half-sitting position so I could kiss her. My hands grabbed at her ass to steady myself while my lips traced a path down her throat and over her collarbone.

Artemis threw her head back to expose her throat to my hungry mouth. I paused at the base of her throat before dipping lower and pressing my lips to the deep valley of her cleavage where the smell of her skin was strongest. That special perfume that was one hundred percent Artemis sent a shudder throughout my body, and my cock twitched in hungry anticipation. Desire sparked through my bloodstream, and chemicals fizzed through my brain.

“Mm, Mike,” Artemis moaned. “That feels so good. Kiss me again. Kiss my breasts.”

“Tell me how wet you are,” I whispered.

“I’m so wet,” she gasped. “I’m– Goddess!”

Her voice broke off into a gasp as my lips closed around her nipple.

Artemis linked her hands at the back of my neck and kept my face at her breasts as I tongued her nipples and sucked on them until they became rosy, aroused points.

“Mmmmm, yes, yes,” Artemis whispered. “Oh, goddess, yes.”

I pinched her free nipple between my finger and thumb, and Artemis let out a tiny, high-pitched mewl of pleasure as I aroused her breasts with my fingers and with my mouth. My other hand slipped between her thighs, and she jumped and then let out a gasp as my fingers pressed against her hot, wet pussy.

“You weren’t lying.” I smirked. “You’re dripping for me.”

My fingers glided inside the silken, wet folds of her womanhood, and her juices burned deliciously against my skin.

“God, Mike,” Artemis moaned. “You turn me on so fucking much. I can’t handle it. You’re just so fucking good at that.”

My cock was throbbing with desire. Blood was pounding in my ears, and my heart was drumming a wild beat behind my ribs.

I captured her mouth again as my fingers began to probe the dripping depths of Artemis’ pussy. She gasped as I slipped first two and then three fingers inside her, and then she jumped as my thumb found the swollen, eager bud of her clit.

“Mmm, yes,” she moaned. “Right there, oh, yes, fuck. That feels amazing.”

She took a tight hold of my shoulders to steady herself. I kissed her again and began to work my fingers into her molten core. The scent of her was overpowering, and I couldn’t wait to feel the gorgeous heat of her on my rock-hard cock. My thumb flicked her quivering clit while my fingers massaged the inner workings of her pussy, and Artemis flung her head back and moaned with the power of the pleasure I was giving her.

“Yes,” she gasped. “Oh, fuck, Mike. Oh, fuck, yes.”

The rest of her words trailed off into ragged gasps as I circled Artemis’ slippery clit with my thumb. It was deliciously swollen, and I fucking loved the feeling of her juices coating my fingers and lubricating them as I pressed her toward the finish line.

Artemis moaned and gasped, but she wasn’t there yet.

I pushed her back down on the bed and moved her thighs wide so she was spread open for me. Artemis’ pussy was glistening with excitement, and the sight of her so aroused was almost more than I could handle. She looked so hot, I wanted to take her right there without another second’s thought about it.

“Fuck, Artemis,” I growled. “God, your pussy is so fucking beautiful. You’re so wet for me.”

“You make me so wet,” she gasped. “You make me feel incredible.”

I slid my fingers even deeper inside her and increased the pace of my hand, which made Artemis gasp and arch her back in delight.

“Yeeeeess…” she moaned. “Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes–”

My fingers plunged in and out of her, and her inner walls constricted and flexed as I pushed her toward her climax. I kissed her hard, and with my other hand, I squeezed her breast and rolled her tight nipple between my fingers.

“Yes,” Artemis moaned. “Yes, yes, that feels so good… Fuck, Mike, yes, yes!”

With one practiced motion of my wrist, I made Artemis cum.

“Goddess,” Artemis choked out.

Her body arched back against the bed, and she drove her hips back and forth to get even more delicious pressure from my hand. Her pussy tightened around my fingers, and the bright bud of her clit throbbed with intensity as she came.

“Ohhhhh, fuuuuuuck,” she gasped.

She laid limply on the bed underneath me, pressed her hands to her face, and shoved her hair out of the way. Her breasts heaved up and down as she recovered her breath, and she let out a gasping laugh of delight.

“Oh, my god,” she said. “Oh, that was fucking incredible.”

“I’m glad to hear it,” I said with a grin.

“And now…” Artemis matched my smile. “I want you inside me, Wainwright. I want your cock inside me right now.”

She brought up her knees and locked her legs around my waist so I was pinned in place.

“I think I can manage that,” I chuckled.

“You’d better,” she said, “otherwise–”

Artemis’ voice suddenly stopped. Her wide eyes looked past me in disbelief.

I turned around to see what she was looking at.

Annie was standing in the doorway of Artemis’ bedroom. She was staring at us with her green eyes stretched wide in surprise, and her face was as pink as a rose.

“I’m sorry,” she blurted out. “The, uh, I mean– I didn’t–”

“Oh, shit.” I scrambled out of Artemis’ grip and grabbed frantically for something to cover myself with.

I could either cover my chest or my quivering erection, which refused to go down even with this new development.

“Shit,” I muttered, “I’m so sorry, Annie, we didn’t– I wasn’t–”

“No, I’m sorry,” Annie stammered out. “I didn’t mean to– Diana gave me the shop keys and told me to tell you she’s going back to your place, Mike, to check on Chanterelle, and she didn’t say– I mean, I didn’t know what I was walking in on, and–”

“But did you like what you saw?” Artemis asked.

I gawked at Artemis in amazement.

Artemis hadn’t made any move to cover herself at all, and she was sprawled on the bed with her entire naked body on display. A wicked smile curled her lips, and she lifted one light-brown eyebrow as she gazed at Annie.

Annie swallowed hard and licked her lips.

“I…” she whispered. “I mean…”

“Artemis,” I said in a low voice. “What are you doing?”

“Just asking Annie a question, Mike,” Artemis said in a voice that was velvety soft and loaded with potential. “Well? What did you think?”

“I’m sorry, Annie,” I said quickly. “You don’t have to answer that, you’re not–”

“I liked it.” Annie’s voice was low, but the smile that slowly spread across her face was bold and fearless. “I liked it a lot.”

I stared at her in shock for a moment.

“Are you… Are you sure?” I double-checked.

“Mike.” Annie gave a little laugh. “I’m very sure. That was… Well. I mean, you’re quite a sight, the two of you. Together.”

“Mm, I bet we are,” Artemis said. “I should think about installing a mirror in here.”

“No mirrors!” I exclaimed.

Artemis chuckled, and Annie hid her smile behind her hand.

“You’re– You’re serious?” I said to Annie.

“Mm-hmm.” She nodded.

I slowly dropped the edge of the bedsheet that I’d been using to cover myself, and Annie’s eyes widened as she saw my cock uncovered.

“Ohhhh…” she breathed.

And to my surprise, she licked her lips eagerly and looked at Artemis with a grin.

“You weren’t lying,” she said with a note of laughter in her voice.

“I told you,” Artemis chuckled.

“Wait, have you two talked about this?” I asked in surprise. “About me?”

“What did you think we talked about in the tent last night?” Artemis laughed. “That’s what girls do at sleepovers, Mike, they talk about boys.”

“I thought that was just a myth…” A smile spread across my face.

“Well, we are in Wormwood,” Artemis said. “Myths and legends come to life every day around here.”

“That’s true,” I acknowledged and then looked at Annie. “So…”

“So…” Annie licked her lips.

“I have a suggestion,” I said.

“Mm, this is going to be good,” Artemis purred.

“Annie,” I said. “How about you come in here and shut the door?”

Annie took in a quick little inhale of breath. Then she came into the room and closed the door behind her.

“And now what should I do?” Annie’s whisper might have sounded innocent, but the knowing gleam in her eyes was anything but that.

“And now,” I said, “I think you should start taking off some of those layers.”

Annie had already taken off her coat in the hall outside, which left her in a warm, wool sweater and thermal leggings. She bent down to undo her shoes and took them off along with her socks. She pulled the sweater off over her head to reveal a long-sleeved black shirt. It was skintight, and combined with the leggings, the outfit hugged every curve of Annie’s form.

I didn’t think my cock could get any harder, but somehow as my eyes traveled over the contours of Annie’s body, it became so stiff I could barely breathe.

“Mm,” Artemis sighed in approval.

“Come here,” I said.

Annie crossed the room to stand by the side of the bed.

“Sit down,” I directed.

Annie sat down, and I leaned back from Artemis a little bit so she could sit upright.

“Artemis,” I said. “Would you like to help Annie get undressed?”

“Mm, you know what,” Artemis said, “I think I might.”

She crawled over to Annie’s side and put her hand on Annie’s shoulder to turn the blonde around to look at her.

Annie’s eyes fell on Artemis’ naked swinging breasts, and then she gazed up into Artemis’ face. Artemis smiled down at her, and then she leaned forward and kissed Annie on the lips. Annie made a little noise of surprise in her throat, but then she leaned into the kiss and reached up to touch Artemis’ cheek.

Artemis reached down for the hem of Annie’s black shirt. She pulled it up over Annie’s head, and then she reached around to undo the clasp of the plain white cotton bra Annie wore.

Annie bit her lower lip, but then she stood up, pulled off her bra, and threw it to the floor. She turned around quickly so her back was toward us, and she stood up long enough to hook her thumbs in the waistband of her leggings and peel them down her thighs, along with her panties.

I sucked in my breath as the round ripe peach of Annie’s ass appeared from her clothing.

Annie stepped out of the final pieces of her clothing and then turned around to face us.

My mouth was dry, and for a moment, I couldn’t breathe.

Artemis said it all for me.

“Holy shit, Annie,” she whispered. “You’re so fucking gorgeous.”

“God,” I managed as I found my words again. “You’re so beautiful.”

Annie blushed a little and gave a pleased smile.

I couldn’t look away from the sight of her naked body in front of me.

Her waist nipped in and then flared out with the swoop of her hips. Her stomach was a soft curve, and her breasts were perfect globes with cherry-pink nipples that were already tight with arousal. Between Annie’s thighs was the flushed pink of her pussy lips, and I thought I saw the gleam of moisture there as though she was already aroused.

“Come here.” My voice was a low growl.

Annie stepped to the edge of the bed and then crawled onto the mattress.

“Artemis,” I said. “Lie down in Annie’s lap.”

The two women arranged themselves so Annie was leaning back against the headboard of the bed with Artemis lying back against Annie’s chest.

Artemis leaned her head back against Annie’s shoulder, and Annie smiled and then moved to kiss the redhead. The two of them pressed their lips against each other, and then Artemis took Annie’s hand and pressed it to her breast.

Annie boldly rolled Artemis’ nipple between her finger and thumb, and Artemis let out a gusty sigh of pleasure.

“Ohhhh,” she breathed. “Mm, yes.”

“Artemis,” I said. “Tell me what you want to happen.”

“Mm, well…” Artemis wriggled with desire. “Mike, I want you to fuck me. I want to feel your cock inside me. And then I want to see you fuck Annie.”

“Annie?” I asked. “What do you want to happen?”

“I want…” Annie took a deep breath. “Mike, I want you to suck on my nipples and kiss me all over. And I want you to fuck me with your huge cock.”

Hearing two of the most beautiful women I’d ever seen tell me things like that was such a fucking turn-on, it was a wonder I didn’t shoot my wad right then.

But instead, I leaned over Artemis and kissed her, and then I kissed Annie. The taste of their two different mouths mingled on my lips, and the scent of their two bodies whirled in my bloodstream until I felt dizzy.

“Artemis.” My voice was a hoarse whisper. “Open your legs.”

Artemis obligingly threw her legs wide open to welcome me in.

“Annie,” I said. “Do you want to touch yourself while I fuck Artemis?”

Annie’s bright green eyes met mine, and she nodded eagerly. I gestured with my head, and Annie slid out from behind Artemis and instead crouched on her knees near the head of the bed.

I positioned myself with the tip of my cock just brushing Artemis’ entrance, then I carefully eased the very tip of my cock inside her pussy.

“Yes, Mike,” Artemis breathed.

“Fuck,” I grunted. “Your pussy is so perfect.”

I groaned in pleasure as the witch’s pussy welcomed me in. Her inner walls were silken with arousal and so tight, it almost hurt my cock when I pushed inside her. The velvety wetness of Artemis’ pussy was incredible, and the sensation of being inside her raised goosebumps all over my body.

“Fuuuck, Artemis,” I groaned. “You feel amazing on my cock.”

A tiny moan of pleasure fell from Annie’s lips. Her fingers were busy inside her own pussy, and I could see her fingers pulsing back and forth inside her gleaming folds. She met my eyes and gave me a breathless but delighted smile.

“I love this,” she whispered.

I leaned over Artemis and kissed Annie hard while I shifted my hips and pressed even deeper inside Artemis’ pussy. A groan of pleasure came from the witch underneath me.

“Goddess,” Artemis moaned. “Yes, Mike, fuck, that feels amazing.”

My redheaded witch was slippery wet and as hot and smooth as melted butter, and the sensation of her innermost place allowing me in was enough to make my head spin.

I eased my cock out of her only to thrust it in deep again and again. Artemis gasped and rocked her hips with me.

“Fuck,” I groaned. “Artemis, you feel so good.”

I drove deep inside her in a steady rhythm. Her breasts jumped with each deep thrust, and her nipples were so tight with arousal I longed to suck on them like the pink candies they looked like.

I kept a smooth, steady rhythm, and my cock seemed to plunge further and further inside Artemis’ pussy with every stroke. I moved with the unrelenting precision of the Terminator, and I concentrated on pressing my cock inside her as deep as it could go.

Artemis’ dark eyes were locked on mine, and she linked her hands around the back of my neck as I drove in and out of her. Her breasts bounced up and down with every thrust. Her eyes never left mine, and the warmth of her breath was a constant presence against my cheek.

“Yes,” she breathed. “Mm!”

She let out a gasp as my cock probed some new tender spot inside her, then she half-closed her eyes and arched her hips up to take full advantage of this new sensation.

Annie was panting with desire as she watched Artemis get closer and closer to her second orgasm.

“Miiiiiike,” Artemis moaned. “I’m close, I’m so close…”

I groaned with delight as my cock drove inside her.

“Fuuuuck,” I panted. “You feel so good on my cock.”

“Yes!” Artemis gasped.

She clung to my forearms with an iron grip as I pounded her pussy in the same hard, unrelenting rhythm. Her pussy was silken and hot, and she started to clench around my cock, so I increased the pace of my thrusts.

“Yeeeees,” Artemis moaned.

She let out a half-scream that trailed away into a breathless mewl of ecstasy as I thrust into her one more time. I was balls deep inside her, and her pussy clenched around my cock in delight and held me there.

“Yes!” Artemis screamed.

Her body jerked, her back arched, and her head craned back on her neck. Her nails dug into my shoulders like the claws of a wildcat as the orgasm rushed through her body. Seeing and feeling Artemis cum on my cock was so perfect, I almost finished, too, but I gritted my teeth and held myself back.

“Oh!” Artemis screamed again.

Her eyes were closed in the exquisite, overwhelming sensation, and then her eyelashes fluttered, and she blinked up at me in a dazed way.

“Oh, my god,” she mumbled.

“My turn,” Annie whispered eagerly.

She’d stopped moving her fingers between her thighs and was gazing at me with a look of fiery longing in her eyes.

I pulled my cock out of Artemis, and she rolled over onto her side and watched with delirious eyes as Annie shimmied over to take her place.

“Is it a safe day?” I asked Annie.

Annie bit her lower lip and shook her head.

“Can you cum outside me?” she asked.

“I can,” I said with a nod.

“Mike,” Artemis complained breathlessly. “You said you’d cum inside me.”

“I’ll try,” I promised her. “I’ll do my best.”

Artemis scooted back on the bed a little bit to give me room as I knelt over Annie.

The blonde licked her lips and looked up at me excitedly, but I wanted to savor the moment for a bit longer.

First, my eyes, and then my hands, roamed all over her body. Annie’s eyelashes fluttered, and she let out a shuddering sigh as my lips traced a burning path of kisses down her throat. I planted kisses on her shoulders, on her collarbones, and underneath her chin, and her whole body shivered in my embrace. I kissed Annie’s cheeks, her nose, her forehead, and underneath her ears.

“How does that feel?” Artemis asked in a whisper. “I bet that feels good.”

“Yes,” Annie breathed, and then she gasped as I gathered her breasts in my hands.

Her skin was so soft, it was unreal. I ran my thumbs over her nipples, and they knotted with excitement under my touch.

“Oh, my god,” Annie gasped and threw her head back against the pillow.

“How does that feel?” I pinched her nipples with my thumbs until she wiggled with arousal.

“It feels so good,” she whimpered.

I pinched her cherry-pink nipples between my forefingers and thumbs. They were like a garnish that topped an expensive sundae, and I loved rolling them between my fingers. I loved how Annie gasped and arched her back when I pulled on them.

“Yeeees,” she breathed.

I lowered my head to her chest and let the warmth of my breath ghost over her breasts. Annie shivered, and goosebumps broke out over her whole body as I touched her nipples with the very tip of my tongue.

“Mike,” she gasped. “God, what are you doing to me?”

“Does that feel good?” Artemis’ voice was low and sultry. “Does it feel good to have Mike touch you?”

“Mmhmm,” Annie gasped. “It feels so good. I’ve never felt like this before.”

The blood was whirling in my head and pulsing in my groin. My cock was so hard, it was almost painful. Every single part of me was wolfishly starving for the moment of consummation.

Annie’s breath was coming in excited gasps that set her breasts heaving. Her pink lips were parted, her cheeks were flushed, her blonde hair was tousled, and she’d never looked more beautiful to me than she did in that moment.

I lifted her breasts again, and I buried my face in her skin. Every part of Annie’s body was smooth to the touch, and every part of her flesh was soft and warm.

Annie dug her fingers into my hair as I kissed the pale skin of her cleavage. Her skin smelled fresh and sweet like a bouquet of lilac flowers.

I sucked on her nipples like they were the cherries they reminded me of, and she moaned and pulled my head down until I rested my cheek against her sternum.

The sound of Annie’s racing heartbeat thundered through my skull. I looked up at her, and I was captured by the expression of pure bliss on her face. Her lips were parted, her cheeks were flushed, her eyes were half-closed, and when I bent my head again and flicked one of her nipples with my tongue, she shuddered like she was having a fit.

“Mike,” Annie moaned. “I can’t take it anymore. This is killing me.”

“That’s Mike’s specialty,” Artemis said with a chuckle. “But oh, my god, it’s so worth it.”

“Please, Mike,” Annie begged. “You’re teasing me. I need you inside me right now.”

I smirked. “Open your legs for me.”

Annie spread her thighs to reveal her pussy gleaming with excited juices. Her pink pussy lips were frilled and beautiful, and I caught a glimpse of the secret opening that was just waiting to welcome in my manhood.

I placed my hands on Annie’s knees and pushed her legs open wider so the rosy, flushed flower of her pussy was on full display. Her pussy lips were swollen with desire and dripping with moisture. Annie’s clit was like an engorged pearl peeping out between the rim of an oyster. It was just as precious and just as beautiful to me.

I glided my fingers down the inside of her thighs to reach her entrance where the pulsing heat of her pussy sent the blood thrumming through my veins. My heart thumped, my cock sprang to attention, and every fiber of my body zeroed in on the sight of Annie’s body waiting to receive me.

“Miiiiike,” Annie gasped.

A rustle of fabric caught my attention, and I looked around to see that Artemis’ hand had crept down to touch her pussy.

“Artemis, no,” I said in a stern voice. “If you want to cum again, you have to wait for my cock.”

“But it’s torture watching something this hot without any release,” Artemis moaned.

“What did you just say to Annie?” I grinned. “It’ll all be worth it.”

I leaned over and kissed her while one of my hands went to her breasts and pinched her nipple. She moaned and wiggled with pleasure as I dragged my thumb over her nipple again and again.

“Mike,” Annie begged.

In one movement, I transferred my kiss from Artemis’ mouth to Annie’s, and then I slid my hands under her ass cheeks. The feeling of her peachlike ass under my hands made my cock tremble with need.

I carefully eased the very tip of my cock inside her pussy, and Annie let out a moan of pleasure as I penetrated her. My cock was throbbing with arousal, and the blood was pounding in my veins like a bass drum. The pressure was both amazing and almost unbearable.

“Fuck, Annie,” I grunted. “Your pussy is so perfect.”

“Go deeper,” Annie panted. “I can take it.”

I shifted my hips and pushed a little more of my shaft inside her.

“Yeeesss,” Annie moaned. “Fuck, that feels so good.”

“Is that too much?” I asked. “Can you take it?”

“Yes, yes, you feel so good inside me,” she whispered in an eager tone. “Come on, Mike, give me more, give me everything.”

I carefully shifted my hips and slid more of my length inside her.

“Yessss…” Annie gasped. “Oh, Mike, is there more?”

“A little bit more,” I whispered.

“Go on,” she begged. “Fill me up.”

With one final press of my hips, I pushed my entire cock inside her waiting pussy.

“Yes!” Annie whimpered. “God! That feels so good!”

Artemis was panting with desire at the sight, and Annie gasped as I began to thrust inside her.

“Is that good?” I gasped.

“Yes!” Her green eyes sparkled with need. “Yes, Mike!”

I increased the pace of my thrusts. We moved in a steady rhythm, and our bodies danced together.

Annie’s cherry-pink nipples bounced and jumped each time I thrust into her. Her sweet, dripping walls hugged me, and I groaned again as her pussy clung to my cock and held me tight inside her. She was so slickly perfect it made my heart hammer, and as I slammed my cock into her again and again I could hardly believe I was really making love to this beautiful woman.

My whole world narrowed to the sensation of driving my manhood into Annie’s pussy. The gasps and moans she made with each thrust were music to my ears. Her moans started to become more breathless, and I felt the tension in her body build.

“God!” she gasped out. “I’m cumming– Fuck, Mike, I’m–”

Her words died away in a choked moan. Annie’s pussy convulsed, and I grunted at the amazing sensation of her finishing on my cock. Her body arched as her pussy embraced my shaft, and I had to grit my teeth hard to stop myself from following her over the edge into ecstasy.

Annie let out a string of gasping moans. Her eyes were tightly closed at her moment of climax, but then she opened them again and gazed up at me with bleary-eyed wonder.

“God, Mike,” she whispered. “You didn’t finish, did you?”

“Not yet,” I gasped.

“How?” she whispered in awe.

“Skill,” I told her with a breathless laugh.

“I’ve never felt anything like that before,” Annie whispered. “I can’t… I can’t believe this. And you’re not finished yet?”

“Not yet.” I smiled.

“Mike,” Artemis pleaded. “I’m dying over here.”

I chuckled and slid my cock out of Annie.

Artemis had already assumed a position in front of me on her hands and knees, and she looked over her shoulder at me expectantly. I grabbed her waist with both hands, and the delicious, pulsing heat of her pussy rubbed against my abdomen.

I pressed myself against her entrance, and then I guided my cock to the dripping folds of her throbbing pussy lips between her thighs.

“Mike,” Artemis crooned, like my name was a magic spell she was casting.

And with one jerk of my hips, I drove my cock deep inside her again.

Artemis gasped, and her head fell forward as I pounded into her from behind, and I couldn’t hold back a groan as I felt her hot wetness take over my cock. I grabbed a handful of her gorgeous red hair and pumped into her with deep, quick, and powerful strokes.

“Yes,” I growled. “Fuck, yes, that feels so fucking good.”

Artemis gasped and strained her head back toward me. I saw the curve of her flushed cheek, and it reminded me so much of her nipples that I had to let go of her hair and fondle her breasts again. I pinched her nipples between my fingers and thumbs until Artemis was gasping. My hips still rocked us back and forth, and then I released her breasts and held onto her shoulders instead.

“Mm, yes, Mike,” Artemis moaned. “Go harder. I need more.”

“Are you sure?” I gasped.

“Yes,” she begged.

So I stopped holding back and drove into Artemis with everything I had.

Annie watched with wide, thirsty eyes. Her lips were parted, and she was still trying to get her breath back after our epic love-making. She watched me fuck Artemis with a look of wonder, amazement, and awe on her face.

“Yeeeesss,” Artemis gasped. “Harder! Harder!”

My cock drove deep inside her soaked pussy, and Artemis’ body was pushed back and forth with the power of my thrusts. My breath came in ragged gasps, and Artemis moaned with every thrust of my cock.

“Yes!” she gasped.

I jackhammered my hips against her ass, and the witch moaned with delight as our bodies met and parted again and again.

“Mike,” Artemis gasped. “I’m… Oh, goddess…”

“You feel so good,” I groaned. “Cum for me, Artemis. Cum on my cock.”

“Ohhhhhh…” Artemis moaned. “Ohhhh, yeeeeeess…”

She was getting closer, and with a grunt, I drove into her so hard, she overbalanced and fell forward onto her elbows. I carried on hammering into her. I could feel myself getting close, and then with a mewling cry of completion, Artemis climaxed. She melted face down into the bed with all of her energy spent. Her pussy walls clutched my manhood, and the feeling of the woman I loved reaching completion was too much for me to hold back from anymore.

I gasped and then let out a groan as my orgasm hit me.

The edges of my vision blurred like a cloth fraying at the hems, and for a moment, I was totally dizzied by the sensations that rolled through my body. I gasped, and my hands tightened around Artemis’ waist with my fingers digging deep into her soft flesh as I shot my seed into her waiting pussy.

Artemis moaned low and long as the pleasure worked through her, and her long red waves draped over her back in a way that made me want to build a nest in it.

I held onto her body as my hips jerked, and my cock throbbed as the last aftershocks of ecstasy trickled along my every nerve.

Finally, I was spent.

I pulled my cock from Artemis’ tunnel and sank back onto the mattress. Then I threw out my arms for Annie and Artemis to crawl closer to me, and I held the two of them close against my thundering heart.

“Fuck,” Artemis mumbled. “That was so good.”

I watched her chest rise and fall as her heart rate steadied itself, then I leaned over and kissed her softly.

“That was incredible,” I whispered to her, and I turned my head and kissed Annie as well. “You were both so amazing. I can’t believe it.”

“I can’t believe it, either,” Annie whispered. “I can’t believe that just happened. It was… I don’t have any words. It was magical.”

“So magical,” Artemis agreed.

“I never thought I would ever get to experience anything as special as this,” Annie said.

Her voice shook a little, and I turned to her and gazed into her lovely face. She was so beautiful with her hair mussed from sex and her eyes both bright and soft as she gazed back at me.

My heart was too full for words, so I just held both women tightly in my arms.

We probably could have stayed like that for hours and just enjoyed the warmth and presence of each other’s bodies, but my phone started buzzing against the floor. It was still in the pocket of my jeans where I’d thrown them aside.

I sat up and dislodged Artemis and Annie from my embrace.

“Mm, noooo,” Artemis complained. “Where are you going?”

“Come back,” Annie moaned.

“My phone’s ringing,” I said. “It might be important.”

Both women let out identical huffs of frustration.

I bent down and located my phone in the middle of the tangle of my discarded clothing. The caller ID said it was Diana.

“Hey,” I said as I accepted the call. “Is everything okay?”

“Mike?” Diana’s voice came through the phone as a distorted cry. “Mike, are you there?”

“I’m here,” I said quickly. “Diana, calm down, what’s wrong?”

“Chanterelle’s water just broke,” Diana gasped. “She’s having her baby right now.”

Chapter 12

“Oh, fuck!” I exclaimed.

I almost dropped the phone as I lunged for the rest of my clothes.

“Mike?” Artemis demanded. “What’s wrong?”

“Chanterelle’s having the baby.” I shoved my leg into my pants, realized they were still damp from the rain, and dropped them to the floor. “Fuck, I need pants.”

“Mike?” Diana’s voice was plaintive on the other end of the phone. “I don’t know what to do.”

“It’s okay, Diana,” I said in a reassuring tone. “I’m coming over. You’re both still at my place, right?”

“Yes, yes, we are,” Diana replied. “I came over here to check on Chanterelle, and she was asleep, so I made tea and waited in the front room until she woke up. Suddenly she was calling for me, and I went into the bedroom, and the bed was all wet, and Chanterelle said it hurt, so I’m guessing that’s cramps? Contractions, I mean? But there are those false ones you can get sometimes, aren’t there? But they’ve got a funny name, I can’t remember what they’re called, but the water breaking doesn’t happen until the actual thing’s happening, does it? I can’t–”

“Diana.” I cut into her panicked flow of words while I stumbled into my underwear. “It’s okay. I’ll be there in just a moment, okay? Just keep calm until I get there. It’ll all be okay.”

“Okay.” Diana took a shuddering breath. “Okay. Okay. Fuck. Okay.”

“Oh, and don’t go into the bathroom,” I added. “The cryptid’s still in there.”

“But what if Chanterelle wants a water birth?” Diana wailed.

“Diana,” I said in a stern voice. “Keep it together.”

“Okay, okay, okay!” Diana gasped. “Okay.”

“I’ll see you really soon,” I promised, and then I ended the call.

Artemis and Annie had leaped out of bed and grabbed their discarded clothes from the floor. They were half-dressed already, and Artemis threw a pair of jeans at me.

“Here,” she said. “These are yours. They’re not freshly laundered, but they’re dry.”

“Thanks.” I dragged them on, zipped them up, and grabbed my shirt from the floor.

I put on my socks and shoes, then hurried down the stairs into Artemis’ shop. I grabbed my still-wet jacket from the hook at the back of the shop and hurtled out into the street.

There was a fine, thin drizzle falling from a leaden, gray sky. The wind was cold, and it smacked my jacket against my body. The abrupt change from being warm and snug and relaxed in Artemis’ bed to battling against the weather in a panicked run made me feel a bit dizzy, but the overriding thought in my head was that I had to get to Chanterelle.

My feet pounded against the sidewalk as I hurtled across the square.

The shop was in my field of vision, and I charged across the road without even checking for cars and threw myself into the shop.

Amber was behind the counter, and Jay was pacing up and down the floor, but he spun around as I came in.

“Mike!” he cried.

“I know, I know,” I spoke soothingly. “It’s going to be okay, Jay.”

“That’s what I told him,” Amber said in a calm voice. “People have been having babies for ages, and Chanterelle has so many people around her who love and support her.”

Jay was actually wringing his hands. But oddly, the sight of his anxiety suddenly made me feel much more in charge of the situation.

I smiled at Amber with a quick nod.

“Thanks, Amber,” I said. “Jay, listen to your girlfriend. It’ll all be okay.”

The bell above the shop door jangled wildly as Artemis and Annie came running after me.

“My god, Mike,” Annie gasped. “You left us behind.”

“Shit, sorry,” I said.

“Don’t apologize.” Artemis slapped me on the shoulder. “I’ve texted Lily, and she’s coming over. She said she delivered a foal once on her family’s farm, so she knows what to do.”

“Chanterelle’s not a horse!” Jay exclaimed.

“And I took a course on how to aid in childbirth,” Annie said in a calm voice.

“Chanterelle’s not a human, either!” Jay wailed.

“Okay, well, as soon as there’s a course on how to deliver a mushroom baby, I’m sure Annie will get right on that.” Artemis gave me a little shove. “Come on, Mike, let’s go.”

“Let Lily in when she arrives,” I told Jay and Amber, and then I vaulted up the stairs to my apartment.

I threw a wild glance around and saw the bedroom door was ajar.

I ran into the bedroom. “Chanterelle!”

Chanterelle was kneeling on the bed in one of my oversized black shirts. The coverlet was in a bundle at the foot of the mattress, and Diana was hovering by Chanterelle’s shoulder and anxiously patting her on the back.

They looked up as we arrived, and it was difficult to see which one of them was more relieved.

“Mike!” Chanterelle gasped out in a voice that was almost a sob. “You’re here!”

“Of course.” I rushed to her side and put my arm around her shoulders. “How are you feeling?”

Chanterelle’s body was trembling, and she dragged down a shuddering breath.

“Sometimes it hurts and then it doesn’t,” she whispered. “But I can feel it, I can feel it happening inside me.”

“Can I see?” I asked.

She nodded, and I gently pulled up her shirt to expose her stomach. Her bump had somehow grown even bigger since this morning, and the way Chanterelle was kneeling meant that it rested on the mattress between her knees. As I looked, a strange ripple passed over the flesh of Chanterelle’s stomach, and the mushroom girl let out a gasp in response.

“Oh!” she moaned.

“Does that hurt?” I asked.

“Yes, a bit,” she gasped. “Oh, it feels so strange in my insides.”

“That’s okay,” I said. “It’s going to feel strange, but that’s okay, it doesn’t mean anything is wrong.”

I was fighting hard to keep my voice calm and steady, but it tore me up inside to see Chanterelle in pain like this. More than anything, I wished I could take the pain away from her so she didn’t have to deal with it. But this was something Chanterelle had to face herself, and as I looked at her I was blown away by how she was able to do something like this. She was incredible, and I was in awe of the strength and power she had. Very soon I would be holding my child in my arms, and it would be all down to Chanterelle’s efforts.

It was a humbling, awe-inspiring thought.

I took her hand, and Chanterelle clamped down so hard on my fingers that I had to fight not to wince. Still, it was nothing compared to the pain of what Chanterelle was going through.

Annie was suddenly there with us. “Chanterelle, honey, can you scoot over a little?”

I hadn’t even noticed what she, Artemis, and Diana were doing. Everything had faded into the background the second I saw Chanterelle.

Annie had an enormous stack of towels in her hand, and she was busy spreading them on the bed and over the floor. Chanterelle managed to shuffle over enough so Annie could get the towels underneath her. I hadn’t even thought about that side of things. Thankfully, I’d put a good mattress protector on when I moved in, and I made a mental note to replace it once this was all over.

“That’s it,” Annie said in a soothing voice. “That’s great, honey, you’re doing amazing.”

“I don’t feel like I’m doing amazing,” Chanterelle whimpered. “I feel like I’m turning inside out. And like I need the toilet.”

“That’s perfectly normal,” Annie replied calmly. “Now, is it okay if I have a look and see how you’re doing?”

“Mmhmm.” Chanterelle nodded.

“Can you lie down?” Annie asked.

“No,” Chanterelle gasped. “If I lie down I’ll never get up again. I want to stand up. I want to get off the bed.”

“Okay,” Annie soothed. “That’s fine.”

“Here, Chanterelle, I’ll help you.” I started to guide her off the bed, but Chanterelle stopped suddenly and let out a moan as another contraction ripped through her.

“I can’t move yet.” Chanterelle’s breath was coming in short, panicked gasps. “I’m going to burst open.”

“Chanterelle, it’s okay.” I tried to speak calmly and mirror Annie’s tone.

We all waited for about half a minute before the contraction released Chanterelle’s body.

“Here, hold onto my hand,” I said. “I’ve got you, it’s okay.”

Chanterelle squeezed her eyes tightly closed. Her breath whistled in and out through clenched teeth.

“Chanterelle, babe, you’ve got to breathe,” Artemis said.

She was standing in the doorway with Diana, and they were both looking at something on Artemis’ phone.

“I am breathing,” Chanterelle whimpered.

“I know, babe, I know,” Artemis said. “But try to breathe in through your nose and sigh out through your mouth.”

“It says to imagine you’re making a candle flame flicker when you sigh out,” Diana added helpfully.

“I can’t,” Chanterelle wailed. “I want to get up, I can’t lie down, but I can’t move, I can’t get off the bed.”

“Chanterelle, it’s okay.” I squeezed her hand tightly in mine until she raised despairing blue eyes to meet mine.

Chanterelle’s face was flushed, and her bangs stuck to her forehead with sweat. I smiled at her encouragingly and didn’t break eye contact with her, as though I could send her my strength through the gesture.

“Let’s do it together,” I whispered. “Copy me. Breathe in long and slow, like this… Okay, now breathe out slowly… Just like that, okay?”

A single tear spilled down Chanterelle’s cheek, but she nodded.

“Okay, so first we breathe in…” I sucked in a slow breath, and Chanterelle copied me. “And out… In… And out…”

I guided Chanterelle through several rounds of long, slow breathing. She eased up her crushing grip on my fingers a little bit, and after a while she managed to shuffle toward the edge of the bed.

I helped her, and Chanterelle gingerly slid off the bed.

“That’s it,” Annie breathed. “That’s perfect, Chanterelle, you’re doing amazing.”

“I’ve got you,” I whispered to her. “It’s okay.”

Chanterelle steadied herself on my arm and carried on with the low, slow breathing technique while Annie knelt down to check between Chanterelle’s legs.

“Oh!” Annie exclaimed.

“What?” Chanterelle gasped, and then she dug her fingers into my arm and her face screwed up into a grimace. “Oh! Oh!”

Her whole body shuddered, and I could almost feel the contraction that racked through her small frame.

“What is it?” I demanded. “Annie, what’s happening?”

There was a footstep in the hallway, and then Lily was there in the room.

“Oh, shit,” she exclaimed when she saw the scene in front of her.

“I can feel the baby’s head,” Annie gasped.

“You washed your hands, right?” Lily demanded.

“Yes, of course,” Annie replied in a slightly indignant tone. “Everyone here has. Apart from Mike.”

“Fuck,” I gasped. “I forgot.”

“That’s okay,” Lily said. “You just stay up at that end, and Annie and I will take care of the rest.”

Lily came to stand with Annie behind Chanterelle. She knelt down with Annie to inspect what was going on, and then they both straightened up.

“Okay, Chanterelle,” Lily said in an encouraging tone. “We can see the baby’s head, which means you’re doing amazing.”

“Incredible,” I added as I squeezed Chanterelle’s hand.

Chanterelle started to say something, but her words were cut off by a gasp of pain. She gripped my hand so tightly, it felt like she was going to break my fingers. Her eyes squeezed shut, and every muscle in her body tensed.

“Oh!” she whimpered.

“That’s it, Chanterelle!” Lily cried. “It’s coming, the baby’s coming!”

I couldn’t see what they were doing, but I just focused everything I had on Chanterelle.

“That’s it,” I whispered. “You’re doing so well, Chanterelle, you’re doing amazingly. You’re so strong, you can do this, I know you can.”

Chanterelle gritted her teeth and let out an agonized noise. She doubled over, and I gripped both her hands in mine. Tension tore through her body, Chanterelle let out a sharp cry, and her body seemed to shudder.

“Yes!” Annie almost screamed.

There was a strong smell of blood. But for a second, underneath the metallic tang, I caught the smell of something else, something like wet earth and dripping leaves and mossy tree trunks in the forest.

Then everything else vanished into unimportance as I heard my child’s first cry.

“It’s out!” Lily cried.

“Oh, my god.” My eyes blurred with tears as I saw Lily hold up a small, perfect baby in her hands.

“It’s a girl,” Annie said in a voice that shook with emotion.

The top of her head was smeared with blood, and her tiny toes were blue, but as she let out another gurgling cry and then started to scream in earnest, her body started to turn pink.

“Oh, my god,” I whispered again. “Chanterelle. Chanterelle, you did it, you… Oh, my god.”

“Let me see,” Chanterelle gasped.

The baby was still attached to Chanterelle by the umbilical cord, but Lily was able to pass the baby up to us, and Chanterelle took her in her trembling hands and pressed her against her chest.

“Oh…” she whispered. “Oh, Mike, look at her.”

The baby squirmed against Chanterelle’s chest and screamed in outrage at what she’d just experienced. I cupped my daughter’s head in my hand and marveled at the soft, living warmth of her body. She was wet and a little slimy and alive, and she was mine. Her eyes were closed tightly as she wailed her disapproval.

“She’s so perfect,” I whispered.

Chanterelle let out a breathless laugh, and then she suddenly gasped.

“Oh!” she cried.

“What?” I demanded. “What is it?”

“Oh, it– it’s happening again,” Chanterelle panted.

“Fuck, what?” I gasped.

“Let me take her.” Artemis was there by my side, and she gently scooped my daughter out of Chanterelle’s arms with a clean towel.

I would have protested about that, except for the fact that another contraction was rippling through Chanterelle’s body. Chanterelle let out a gasp of pain, gritted her teeth, and groaned.

“Another one?” Diana gasped from the doorway.

“Okay, yes…” Annie looked flustered, but she still managed to keep her tone calm. “Chanterelle, I think there’s another baby coming now, but you just need to do exactly what you did before.”

“You can do it, my love.” I held onto Chanterelle’s hand as her fingernails gouged deep into my knuckles. “You’re doing so well, you’re fucking fantastic.”

“I can feel it,” Chanterelle panted. “I can feel it coming out. Another baby, Mike, how can there be another baby?”

“I guess we’re just lucky,” I said with a breathless laugh. “Two babies, Chanterelle! We’re going to have two babies! Isn’t that incredible?”

Chanterelle let out a groan. Her breath came in short, sharp gasps.

“I can see it!” Annie cried. “I can see the second baby!”

“It’s coming!” Lily exclaimed. “Push, Chanterelle, that’s it, it’s coming!”

Chanterelle gasped and then let out a scream.

“Yes!” Lily cheered. “Baby Number Two!”

“Well done, Chanterelle,” I gasped. “Fucking amazing, you’re incredible.”

“It’s a boy!” Lily held up the second baby in her bloody hands.

But I had barely enough time to take that in before Chanterelle doubled over again.

“Oh!” she gasped. “It’s still happening!”

“Fuck me, Chanterelle,” Artemis called. “You’re only meant to be having one baby, you absolute diva.”

Chanterelle let out a long, wavering scream that ended in a gasping shriek.

And then Annie was standing up with a third baby in her arms. Tears were streaming down her face, and she looked at us with an enormous smile.

“It’s another girl,” she almost sobbed.

“Bloody hell,” Diana uttered. “Triplets.”

“Let me see them.” Chanterelle was panting, and tears were making shiny tracks down her cheeks.

“Lie down first,” I urged her.

“Wait, Mike,” Annie broke in, “Chanterelle still has to pass the placentas, and we have to cut the cords.”

I held onto Chanterelle’s hand tightly. I prepared myself for this to cause her even more pain, but to my surprise, it was over very quickly, and Chanterelle barely seemed to notice. Annie and Lily guided me as I tied and cut each baby’s cord with fingers that shook slightly.

“Three placentas,” Lily said. “That means the girls aren’t identical twins.”

“That means they won’t look like each other?” Artemis asked.

“No more than any other siblings,” Lily confirmed.

“I’m just glad they’re all safe and healthy,” Chanterelle said with a deep sigh.

Carefully, I guided Chanterelle back onto the bed. She sank back onto the pillows with a groan of relief. I adjusted the towels underneath her so she was comfortable, then sat next to her and threw my arm around her trembling shoulders.

“They should be against your skin, Chanterelle,” Annie said. “It helps your body know that it’s all over, and it’s good for bonding with them.”

Chanterelle peeled off her shirt, which was soaked with sweat, and Annie, Artemis, and Lily placed our babies carefully on Chanterelle’s chest.

Chanterelle looked down at the three babies and let out a tiny sob.

“Oh, Mike,” she gasped. “They’re so beautiful. Look at them. We made three little people.”

“I know.” My own eyes were stinging with tears of pure joy.

The babies wriggled and squirmed against Chanterelle’s skin. Our firstborn had stopped crying, but all three of them were making urgent, seeking noises that sounded a bit like the mewing of kittens.

“Are they hungry?” Chanterelle asked. “Should I feed them?”

“On this website,” Diana said, “it says you should start nursing within an hour of your baby’s birth. Oh, this is interesting– this site says that until your milk comes in, your body produces something called colostrum, which is a nutrient-rich fluid that helps boost a baby’s immune system and protects them against infection while also feeding them.”

“Like a Soylent shake,” Artemis said with a grin.

“The milk comes in later,” Diana finished.

Chanterelle looked down at the three babies, and then she let out an exhausted giggle.

“I need to grow another breast,” she said.

“That’s what bottles are for,” Lily told her with a grin.

“Oh, my god,” I realized. “We don’t have anything ready. I literally haven’t bought anything.”

“Relax, Mike,” Lily said. “I researched all of the things on that list you gave me, and I made a load of purchases for you. In a few days, you’ll have everything you need.”

“And in the meantime,” Annie added. “You can get whatever you need from the grocery store.”

“Yeah…” I shook my head in wonder and looked down at the babies.

Our babies.

My babies.

My children.

All at once, my throat was so tight I couldn’t speak, and my eyes blurred with tears again. I didn’t try to hold them back but just gazed through bleary eyes at the triple miracles nuzzling against Chanterelle’s breasts.

“Mike?” Chanterelle spoke in a soft voice. “You should hold them.”

“Oh, yeah, Mike,” Annie said. “You should do the skin-to-skin contact as well.”

I pulled off my shirt, gently scooped up one of the babies, and held him against my bare chest.

“Hello, there,” I whispered.

My son’s tiny body pressed against my skin, and a tear dripped down my cheek and fell on his fuzzy head. His arms and legs moved with strange jerky motions, and when I cupped the back of his head in my palm, I felt how soft and vulnerable his skull was. The absolute helplessness of this tiny, fragile person suddenly overwhelmed me.

How could it be that he had survived being expelled from his mother’s body like he was? How could it be that he would grow up to become a boy and then a teenager and then a man?

How was it that I had managed to help create something so perfect?

My son opened his mouth and made gulping motions against my chest. I touched his tiny, perfect face with the tip of my little finger and traced the bump of his nose, the soft, perfect seashells of his ears, and the dark lines of hair on his head. His eyes were the same shade of blue as Chanterelle’s, and his gaze flickered around the room.

I looked up to see Chanterelle gazing at me with pure adoration in her eyes.

She rested her head against my shoulder, and I kissed her sweaty forehead.

“They’re so beautiful,” I whispered.

“He looks like you,” Chanterelle said.

I chuckled softly. “Do you think so?”

“Yes.” She nodded and then looked down at our two daughters in her arms. “They all look like you. But they all have my eyes.”

It was true. All of our babies had the same bright blue eyes as Chanterelle.

“This one looks like she has your hair, too.” I stroked the back of one of the babies’ heads where her hair clung to her scalp in silvery lines. “The boy has my dark hair.”

“And this little girl has no hair.” Chanterelle laughed softly as she looked down at our babies. “They’re so beautiful, Mike. I can feel them. I can feel their bodies and their hearts. The information of them.”

“Are they…” I hesitated. “Are they okay? Are they healthy?”

Chanterelle nodded, and her blue eyes fogged with happy tears.

“They’re perfect,” she whispered. “I was so worried. I thought they might be– not right. Too mushroom to stay alive. Or some strange creature that wasn’t like you or me. But they’re perfect. In their insides and their outsides.”

Relief flared up inside me like a shot of whiskey. I’d tried not to let Jay’s worried talk about spores and zombies rattle me, but a part of my mind had still held onto a terrible fear about what Chanterelle’s and my children would be like.

It wasn’t even really about what they might look like; I was of the opinion that if a person couldn’t love a kid who turned out a bit different, then they had no business procreating at all. But I had been worried about whether they would be able to survive. Whether their mushroom side would be so dominant that the birthing process might destroy them or hurt them irrevocably.

But the babies were fine.

They were perfect.

A little noise made me look up in surprise.

I’d been so focused on Chanterelle and the babies that I’d managed to forget about the others, but now I looked up to see them all gathered around the bed and watching us. Artemis was grinning widely, Diana and Lily were smiling, and Annie was sniffing as emotional tears ran down her cheeks.

Somehow, the sight of them brought the whole thing firmly into reality. A laugh of pure joy spilled from my mouth.

“We did it,” I gasped.

“Chanterelle did it,” Lily said.

“But you guys helped,” I insisted. “God, I can’t imagine what it would have been like without your help. Thank you.”

“Thank you,” Chanterelle echoed, and she reached out her hand to the others.

They smiled and came to sit on the bed and coo over the babies, who were all passed around to give everyone a chance to hold them. Chanterelle guided first one baby and then a second to her breasts to let them feed while I cuddled the third baby in my arms until it was their turn.

It didn’t take long for all three babies to drink their fill. The feeding made them sleepy, and Artemis, Diana, Lily, and Annie were all very excited to take the opportunity for more cuddles.

Chanterelle looked up at her babies and smiled, then let out a wide yawn.

“Oh,” she said in a sleepy voice. “Why am I so tired?”

“I can think of three reasons,” I said with a soft chuckle, and I leaned over and kissed her forehead. “Rest for a bit.”

“Are you going to be here?” Chanterelle murmured as her eyes fluttered shut.

“I’m going to go out and get some stuff,” I replied. “Just essential things we need right now. But I won’t be long, and the others will be here with you.”

“Where will the babies sleep?” she asked. “Can they sleep in the bed with me?”

“That’s not the safest option,” Annie said in an apologetic tone. “I thought maybe we could get a load of pillows and cushions and things and make a bed for them on the floor in the front room until Mike comes back with a crib. Three cribs?”

“Shit.” My eyes flew wide open.

“We only need one to start,” Lily assured me. “I ordered one for you online, so that’ll be here in a few days. That’ll be enough for a few weeks.”

“Oh, good,” I sighed.

“Okay…” Chanterelle mumbled and then yawned again. “They’ve got to be safe… Got to make sure the babies are safe…”

“They’re safe, my love,” I whispered. “Just sleep now.”

Chanterelle let out a sigh and turned her cheek into the pillow. In a few seconds, she was asleep.

I looked down at her for a moment, and my heart swelled with so much pride and love for her, I thought my eyes might mist over again. But I got a hold of myself and quietly went out of the bedroom with the others.

Lily and Annie went into the bathroom to wash up, and when that was done, they came into the front room and helped set up the bed arrangements for the babies. We spread out several blankets on the floor and then arranged pillows and cushions around them like a donut so there was a barrier between the babies and the rest of the room.

Diana, Artemis, and I carefully placed our precious bundles down in the middle of the nest.

I chewed on my lip and shook my head. “God, it doesn’t feel right to put them on the floor.”

“I know,” Diana said in a sympathetic tone. “But they’re too little to know about it.”

“And we’ll be watching them,” Artemis added. “They’re not going to get stepped on or squashed.”

My eyes widened in horror, and I stared at her in outrage.

“I didn’t think that was going to happen!” I exclaimed.

“Well…” Artemis gave a sheepish grin. “It’s not going to happen.”

“Okay.” I shook my head again. “I’ve got to get a crib.”

“Do you want any help?” Lily offered. “I’m very knowledgeable now about baby supplies.”

“I can help, too,” Annie added.

“Yeah, okay, thanks.” I nodded. “I just need to grab a shirt, and then we can head out. I want to get back before Chanterelle and the babies wake up.”

“We’ll get ready now,” Lily said.

I slipped quietly back into the bedroom and snatched a fresh shirt from the closet. My old one was on the floor, and I wasn’t sure if it had been splattered with blood or other fluids. I didn’t like putting on a clean shirt when my body was dirty, but there was no time to shower, so I’d have to make do.

I came out of the bedroom and paused outside the bathroom. Annie and Lily were waiting for me by the front door, and they gave me confused looks.

“The bildad,” I said by way of explanation.

“Oh, shit,” Lily gasped. “I totally forgot about it.”

“That’s the cryptid, right?” Annie asked. “Can I see it?”

“Yeah, okay,” I answered. “I want to take a quick look at it before we go out, just to make sure everything’s alright.”

Annie and Lily came to stand behind me as I cracked open the bathroom door.

There was a faint splashing noise coming from inside. I glanced at the others, pushed the door open properly, and stepped inside.

The bildad was happily relaxing in the half-full bathtub. It laid with its back against the curve of the tub like it was having the best spa day imaginable, and it held the body of a serpent in between its webbed front feet.

It shot me a suspicious glance as I came into the bathroom, then ignored me and went back to chewing on the raw end of the serpent it held.

“Oh, my god,” Annie breathed. “It’s… God, I don’t even know what it is. It’s crazy.”

“It’s amazing.” Lily had the biggest smile on her face. “An honest-to-God bildad! In the bathtub!”

“It ate all the serpents,” I said in shock.

“What?” Lily frowned.

“Jay and I filled the bathtub with the serpents that were in the front room,” I said. “We figured it was better to keep them in one safe place rather than spread out across a room where someone might trip over them.”

“All of them?” Annie stared at the bathtub, which was empty of everything except the bildad and the chewed remains of one small serpent corpse.

“Well, that does take care of our problem of what to do with them,” I admitted.

“But it ate them!” Annie exclaimed. “It ate them all!”

“Circle of life,” Lily said with a sympathetic shrug.

Annie sighed and shook her head. “I guess.”

“Come on,” I said. “Let’s leave the bildad in peace.”

We went out of the bathroom, and I closed the door behind us, took one last peek in at the sleeping babies in the front room, and hurried down the stairs.

Jay pounced on me the second I stepped onto the shop floor.

“Is she okay?” he demanded. “What’s happened? Did the baby come? Is it okay? Is it a mushroom? Is it spores?”

I surprised both Jay and myself by bursting into laughter.

“Oh, Jay.” I slapped him on the back so firmly it made him gasp, but I couldn’t stop grinning. “I’m a dad.”

“It’s okay, then?” Jay wheezed. “Chanterelle’s alright?”

“Chanterelle’s doing fine,” I chuckled. “And the babies…”

“Wait, babies?” Jay’s mouth dropped open.

“Babies?” Amber called from behind the counter.

“Who cares about babies?” the customer Amber was serving asked in a disgruntled tone. “I just want my trading cards.”

“There you go, sir,” Amber said as she finished ringing up his purchase.

The customer left the shop with a suspicious glance at me, and Amber hurried out from behind the counter to stand next to Jay.

“Babies?” she repeated. “Plural?”

“Chanterelle had twins?” Jay breathed in amazement.

“Triplets.” I was grinning so wide, it hurt my face. “Two girls and one boy.”

“Triplets!” Jay squawked. “But– but–”

“Wow,” Amber breathed. “Three babies. One after the other?”

“That’s generally how it works,” Lily said in a slightly wry tone.

“Wow,” Amber repeated in awe. “That’s so hardcore.”

“Yeah.” I nodded proudly. “Chanterelle did amazing. It was incredible to see. And Annie and Lily were amazing, too. They helped her through the whole thing.”

“It wasn’t anything really,” Annie said with a self-deprecating smile. “I took a course ages ago.”

“Ooh, I’ve often thought about taking a course on delivering a baby,” Amber said eagerly.

“You have?” Lily lifted an eyebrow.

“Well, you know,” Amber said. “It’s the kind of thing that always happens in movies. You’re stuck in an elevator, or you’re in a jail cell, or you’re on a ship that’s sinking, and then bam! Suddenly, water is breaking and everyone’s screaming, and no one knows what to do.”

“Yeah, I guess so…” I said.

“I’ll send you the website of the place I used,” Annie said with a smile.

“Thanks,” Amber replied.

“So where are they?” Jay asked. “Where are you going?”

“The babies and Chanterelle are all asleep,” I said. “And we’re going out to get some essentials.”

“I bought some things online,” Lily explained. “But we need things like diapers and formula and a breast pump.”

“A br…” Jay’s face flamed red. “A br–”

“A breast pump,” Amber said in a stage whisper. “To pump breasts. For breast milk.”

“Oh, my god.” Jay’s whole body cringed in embarrassment. “Don’t say that out loud, Amber!”

Amber giggled mischievously, and Lily, Annie, and I all grinned.

“We won’t be long,” I said to Jay.

“Okay,” he mumbled with his face still flushed bright red.

I went out of the store with Lily and Annie following close behind. I headed toward my car and got out my keys.

“So what are we thinking?” Lily asked. “Walmart?”

“Yeah,” I said as I opened the driver’s door. “I figure–”

But then my voice died in my throat.

Across the road stood a familiar figure.

Chapter 13

“Shit,” I hissed. “That’s Jayden.”

“Who’s Jayden?” Lily asked.

“Him.” I nodded toward the teenage boy standing on the other side of the road and a little further up the way from the shop.

There was an old woman next to him who was clearly waiting to cross the street.

The last time I’d seen Jayden, I’d dropped him off in town after rescuing him from Trevor’s clutches. The wizard had kidnapped him as part of his plan to make cryptids, and he’d been prepared to bury Jayden alive at the nexus point in the woods to see what happened.

Jayden and his buddies had spent the days leading up to that incident terrorizing the town with antics that ranged from blatantly dumb to potentially criminal, but he was still just a stupid kid who didn’t deserve to fear for his life at the hands of a creep like Trevor.

“Him?” Lily frowned, and then her eyebrows shot up. “Oh, that’s the little shit who was throwing eggs at the coffee place where we had that date. Didn’t you say Trevor kidnapped him?”

“Yep.” I gave a quick nod.

I kept my eyes on Jayden. He was standing at the edge of the road with one hand very close to where the old woman’s purse hung over her arm.

Fuck.

What was the kid planning?

“Trevor took him?” Annie’s voice was tight with horror. “To do what? Did he possess him?”

“No,” I said. “He was going to bury him alive to create another cryptid.”

“Oh, my god,” Annie gasped. “That’s horrible.”

Another thought suddenly crossed my mind.

Jayden had seen what Trevor was up to. What if he had decided to carry on his kidnapper’s fucked-up work? How quickly did Stockholm Syndrome start to set in?

Jayden moved closer to the old woman, and she looked around at him with an innocent smile.

Fuck.

I had to stop this.

I slammed the car door shut and began to move around the front of the hood, but before I’d taken more than a couple of steps, Jayden moved.

He held out his arm for the old lady to hold onto, and he slowly and carefully helped her into the crosswalk.

I watched with a rising feeling of disbelief.

Jayden reached the other side of the road and helped the old lady step onto the sidewalk. She turned to him and gave him a big smile.

“Thank you, young man,” she said in a tremulous voice.

“You’re welcome, ma’am,” Jayden replied.

The old lady carried on her way, and Jayden crossed the street back into the square. He bent to pick up a black trash bag and a long tool with a handle at one end and a claw at the other. And then he went back to what he’d been doing before: picking up litter.

“Wow,” I uttered.

“What a nice young man,” Annie said.

“Yes,” I said in a grave tone.

I was kind of stunned to see the transformation in Jayden. He was nothing like the loud-mouthed, arrogant, sneering kid he’d been before.

Apparently, getting his life threatened by a megalomaniac wizard was exactly what he’d needed to straighten out.

I shook my head to myself and joined Annie and Lily in the car.

I hit the gas and headed on the main road that led away from the square toward the big complex of superstores that laid out on the state route between Wormwood and the next tiny town. There was a Michaels, a Walmart, a Dunkin’ Donuts, a Savers, and a Hannaford.

Despite these being all the New England essential establishments, I rarely came out here. Chanterelle had been impressed by the size of the Savers, but she and Artemis preferred the thrift store by the square. I didn’t like Dunkin’s coffee, and I usually got my groceries from Jay’s family’s store.

I might end up coming out to the plaza more often now to get things for the babies. Perhaps I should start trying to cultivate a taste for Dunkin’ Donuts’ coffee after all.

“This is so exciting!” Lily exclaimed as I pulled into the parking lot and found a spot.

I killed the engine and looked at her in surprise. I knew Lily liked kids, but it still was a more gushy statement than usual. Then again, I guessed literally helping bring three babies into the world had doubled down hard on her baby fever. Well, that was good, I wanted Lily on her A-game to help me navigate the aisles.

“Alright,” I said as we got out of the car and walked toward the entrance of Walmart. “We need to focus so we’re not away from the apartment for too long.”

“Mike, relax,” Lily said with a smile. “Annie and I’ve got this. All you need to do is stand there and look pretty.”

“And maybe choose which colors you like best,” Annie added.

“You’re a new dad,” Lily said. “You need to save your brain cells for taking care of the babies and Chanterelle. Leave the decision-making to us.”

“Thanks, guys,” I said with a smile. “That means a lot.”

“No problem.” Annie shot me an answering smile. “Like Lily said, this is really exciting. And really fun.”

Lily seized a cart from the long train of them by the door and marched into the air-conditioned interior of the store with a gleam in her eyes.

“Okay,” she said. “Diapers first.”

“Have you considered cloth diapers?” Annie asked me in such a serious tone that I almost wanted to laugh.

“Uh, yeah,” I said. “Only because Artemis would kill me if I didn’t.”

“And quite rightly so,” Annie agreed.

“Sorry, folks,” Lily said as she scanned the shelves. “Doesn’t look like this Walmart’s realized yet that cloth diapers are the next big thing. They only have the disposable ones.”

“Oh, no,” Annie sighed.

“How about we get some disposable diapers for now?” I suggested. “And then we can look online for the reusable ones.”

“Okay,” Annie said with a nod.

Lily grabbed a ten-pack of Gerber disposable diapers and dropped them in the cart. Then she paused and added two more packs.

“I keep forgetting we’re going to need three of everything,” she said.

“Believe me, I haven’t,” I said in a wry tone. “God, I’m going to have to mortgage the store at this rate.”

“Oh, no,” Annie asked in dismay. “Do you need help, Mike?”

“No, sorry, I was joking.” I gave her a reassuring smile. “The store’s doing really well, and even if it wasn’t, I get so much from managing the wellspring, I could retire right now if I wanted to.”

Lily reached over and dropped another pack of diapers into the cart.

“Lily,” I protested.

“What?” She lifted her eyebrows innocently. “You earn enough to retire right now and you don’t want your children to have clean asses?”

“Will they need this many?” I asked.

“Yes,” both women said at the same time.

I couldn’t help but smile at them.

“Burp cloths,” Annie said and dropped a pack of them into the cart.

“Oh, look, this is so cute!” Lily held up a three-pack of soft blankets in different shades of green. “They’re swaddle blankets.”

“Drop them in,” I said with a grin.

The contents of the cart grew higher and higher as we made our way down the aisles. I wasn’t really sure we needed special baby nail clippers, but both Annie and Lily insisted they were essential.

“You’d be surprised at how sharp newborn fingernails are,” Annie said.

“I don’t mind a few scratches,” I protested.

“It’s not just you,” Lily said. “They can scratch their own faces by accident.”

“Ah.” I grimaced. “Okay, toss them in.”

“Oh, my god!” Annie exclaimed so loudly that for a moment I thought something bad had happened. “Lily, look at these!”

Annie held up a tiny onesie made out of some soft yellow material. It had a hood with little brown fluffy bear ears at the top.

“Oh, my goooooooood,” Lily moaned. “Mike, isn’t that the cutest thing you’ve ever seen in your whole damn life?”

She grabbed the onesie and held it up in front of my face. To my utter shock, she almost looked like she might burst into tears.

“Uh, yeah,” I said. “It’s really cute.”

Lily let out a groan like she was in physical pain.

“My god!” she almost shouted. “I love baby shit!”

I smothered a chuckle as a woman further down the aisle turned around to give us a scandalized stare.

Lily was completely oblivious to her fellow shoppers. She dropped the fluffy onesie in the cart and then let out a huge gasp.

“Oh. My. God,” she said.

She reached for another onesie and held it up. It was made of soft tan fabric with a little hood, and it had a bright red and white mushroom embroidered on the front.

I chuckled.

“Okay,” I said. “We’ve got to get that.”

“It comes in different colors!” Annie exclaimed.

She rustled through the rack and pulled out a white version and a black version.

“Oh, my god,” Lily moaned. “They’re going to look so, so cute in these.”

“Chanterelle’s going to love them,” I said with a grin.

“Aha!” Annie grabbed a box from the shelf. “Instant Baby Bottle Warmer. You have to get this, Mike.”

“Drop it in.” I nodded.

After the bottle warmer came the bottles themselves, several enormous tubs of baby formula that made my eyes bulge when I looked at the price, some bibs, an enormous diaper bag, pacifiers, pacifier clips, three little hats, a stuffed monkey, a stuffed rabbit, a stuffed bear, sleeping sacks, bamboo washcloths, a tummy time play mat in the shape of an elephant, another mat in the shape of a lion, a third mat in the shape of a tiger, and something called a “lovey blanket” that to me looked like a regular blanket with a load of crap stitched on it around the edges.

“Do we really need that?” I asked with a skeptical look.

“Yes,” Lily said in a firm voice. “We need three. They need a personal comfort item. Trust me.”

She dropped them in the cart with a stare at me that dared me to question her judgment.

“This looks good.” I reached for a large box that showed a foldable structure made of netting, poles, and canvas, and read from the description. “The Portable Pack ‘n’ Play. Suitable for naptime, playtime, and traveling.”

“Hmm.” Lily lifted her eyebrows. “One of these things is not like the others.”

“What do you mean?” I deadpanned. “Every baby I know naps, plays, and travels.”

Lily snorted out a laugh as I fitted the playpen into the cart.

“Ointment,” Annie said and tossed in a thick tube of it. “Diaper rash cream. Baby body wash.”

“Oh, I was reading about that,” Lily said. “You should wait twenty-four hours before you give a newborn baby a bath. When they’re born, they come out with this funky hydrating stuff on them that protects their skin while they’re in the womb. If you wash it away too soon, it can irritate the baby’s skin.”

“Wow,” I said. “That’s pretty cool. Not the irritation part, but the fact that they’re given something like that to protect them, and it just happens naturally.”

“Yeah.” Annie smiled. “Nature’s pretty great like that.”

“Still,” I added, “we are going to need to bathe them at some point. They’re still covered in… everything.”

“Ooh, look.” Annie pulled down a huge box. “It’s a baby bath, and it comes with a sling to support them.”

“Newborn to Toddler Bathtub,” I read from the side of the box. “Sounds good.”

Annie balanced it precariously on top of the rest of the contents of the cart.

“We might have gone overboard a little bit,” she admitted with a sheepish smile.

I laughed. “Well, it’s better to have more things than not enough things. We still need to find a crib.”

“I don’t know if it’ll fit in the cart,” Annie said. “Or in your car.”

“There’s the crib I ordered online,” Lily said. “It’ll be here soon, and you can use the playpen until then.”

“Yes, ma’am,” I said with a grin.

Lily paused and then gave a rueful laugh.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I’ve kind of hijacked this whole shopping trip, huh?”

“A little bit,” I said. “But that’s good. You’re right, it’s nice to have someone else know exactly what to get. My head is still so full of the babies and Chanterelle. I want to know how they’re doing and what they’re up to, so I know I would probably forget something important if I was doing this by myself.”

“Well, okay.” Lily nodded. “But tell me if I start turning into that guy from Full Metal Jacket.”

“I will,” I promised.

Lily turned to scan the shelves again and let out a soft exclamation of delight as she spotted a row of breast pumps.

“Oh, nice!” she exclaimed as she took one down. “I read so many good reviews online for this one.”

She carefully fit the box into the cart. I watched her face and the way her dark eyes sparkled as she surveyed the overflowing cart. A soft smile curved her lips, and she let out a little sigh of satisfaction at the sight.

She glanced up and saw me looking at her.

“What?” she asked with a smile.

“Nothing.” I smiled back. “You’re just very good at this.”

“I spent my entire morning researching everything baby-related,” she replied. “My head feels so full of baby stats, I could write a book about it. Guess what three things newborns are born without?”

“Um, teeth?” I guessed.

“That’s one thing,” Lily said. “The other two things are kneecaps and tear ducts.”

“No tear ducts?” I was surprised. “But they can cry right away.”

“They can, but it’s just noise,” Lily said. “They don’t start crying tears for about two weeks after they’re born, which is when the tear ducts develop.”

“Wow,” I said. “That’s so weird.”

“I’ve got a baby fact,” Annie chimed in. “Babies are born with fifty percent more bones in their bodies than adults.”

“Wait, what?” My eyes widened. “How? They’re so small.”

“Exactly.” Annie grinned. “They need small, soft bones so they can be born without breaking anything. The bones fuse together later on.”

“Oh, yeah.” I nodded. “I think I knew that their skulls did that. But still, fifty percent more bones? That’s crazy.”

“Nature is crazy,” Annie agreed.

I rounded the corner of the aisle and had to quickly grab the box containing the breast pump to make sure it didn’t topple to the floor.

“I think we’ve got enough stuff,” I said.

“For now,” Lily said in an ominous tone. “You just wait until your packages start arriving in the mail.”

I steered the cart toward the checkout lane and gave the employee there a polite smile. She raised her eyebrows in amazement at our stacked cart, shook her head briefly, and then started ringing up our purchases.

It took a while, but eventually everything was bought and paid for and loaded into the back of my car. We had so much stuff, we had to pile the boxes that wouldn’t fit in the trunk on the back seat next to Lily.

Annie sat in the passenger seat next to me and balanced the box containing the bath on her lap.

“Alright?” I asked.

“I’m drowning in baby paraphernalia,” Lily said from the backseat. “But I’m not mad about it.”

“Okay, then, let’s hit the road.” I turned the key in the ignition and pulled out of the parking lot.

In a very short while, we were back outside Time & Space.

I popped the trunk, and Lily and Annie started carrying the bags and boxes inside. Jay and Amber came out to help us as well, and together we lugged everything upstairs to the apartment.

Amber went back downstairs to mind the shop, but Jay hovered by the doorway with an eager expression on his face.

“Can I see them?” he asked in a stage whisper. “Can I see the babies?”

“Yes, you can,” I said with a chuckle, and I nodded toward the front room. “They’re in there.”

“Mike?” Chanterelle called from the front room.

At the sound of her voice, my heart gave an enormous leap. I forgot the bags of purchases that needed to be put away and hurried into the front room.

Chanterelle was sitting on the sofa with Artemis and Diana. Each woman had a baby in her arms, and they all looked up with joyful smiles on their faces as I came in.

“There he is,” Chanterelle whispered to the tiny baby in her arms. “There’s your daddy.”

I sternly promised myself that I was done with tears for the day, but at Chanterelle’s words and the sight of the tiny, perfect, precious bundle in her arms, my throat grew so tight I could barely breathe.

“My loves,” I whispered.

I sank down on the floor by Chanterelle’s legs and gazed at the tiny baby in her arms. Chanterelle gently ran her hand over my head.

“We missed you,” she said.

My heart leaped at the “we”.

“I missed you, too,” I whispered. “But we got you all so many nice things.”

“Let me see.” Chanterelle held out the baby for me to take. “You can take him.”

The gesture was already so familiar, it was like she’d been doing this for years. By contrast, I felt clumsy and awkward as I tried to figure out the best way to hold my tiny newborn son.

“Bring your knees up,” Artemis suggested.

“That’s a good idea.” Chanterelle slid off the sofa and knelt down by my side.

I sat with my knees bent, and Chanterelle helped me lay our son down on his back along my thighs where I could see his small face and wandering blue eyes.

“Hello, there,” I whispered.

My son opened and closed his mouth like a fish, and I laughed softly at the sight. I stroked his soft round cheek with my knuckle, and he turned his face toward my finger like he wanted to suck on it.

“No, baby boy,” I said softly. “Not my finger. That’s why I’ve been out, I’ve been buying you all kinds of things you can put in your mouth that are much nicer than my finger.”

“What did you get?” Chanterelle asked.

She sat down by my side and rested her head on my shoulder. I turned my head and kissed her forehead. The familiar scent of Chanterelle’s skin and hair made my heart swell with love for her.

“We got bottles,” I said, and I waggled my finger in front of my son’s face. “Bottles for you and your sisters, baby boy. And formula, and blankets, and toys, and a breast pump, and a bathtub, and a bottle warmer, and onesies– you’re going to love the onesies, by the way. Lily and Annie almost lost their minds over them.”

Chanterelle laughed softly and pressed against me.

A tiny sniff made me look up.

I’d completely forgotten about Jay, but the poor guy was still standing in the doorway. He was staring at the babies like they were the most amazing things he’d ever seen, and his eyes were full of tears.

“Oh, Jay,” Chanterelle exclaimed. “Don’t be sad.”

“I’m not,” he insisted in a hoarse voice. “I’m– I’ve got allergies.”

“Allergies to what?” Artemis smirked.

“Artemis,” I protested. “Don’t be mean to Uncle Jay.”

“I get to be an uncle?” Jay gasped.

“Of course you do,” I replied. “Come over here and look at your nieces and nephew.”

Jay approached the sofa like he was facing a man-eating tiger. He hovered at a distance but craned his neck forward to take in every detail.

“Here.” Artemis patted the empty spot on the sofa next to her. “Come and hold one.”

“Oh, no.” Jay shook his head wildly. “I’ll drop them.”

“That’s why you’ll be on the sofa,” Artemis told him. “Come on, you can’t be an uncle and not hold them.”

Jay gingerly sat down on the sofa next to Artemis and bent his arms at the elbows like he was flexing his biceps.

Artemis gently placed the baby in his arms. Jay drew in his breath in a quick gasp and stared down at the yawning baby. He was almost trembling with excitement and emotion.

“Jay, my man, relax,” I said with a grin.

“It’s just– it’s a baby,” Jay gasped. “Your baby! And I’m holding it!”

“Her,” Artemis said with more gentleness than I would have expected. “She’s a girl, not an it.”

“She,” Jay repeated breathlessly.

“Have you thought about names yet?” Annie asked.

She and Diana swapped places on the sofa, and Diana went to sit on the floor next to her so she could still gaze adoringly into the face of the baby she’d just given up.

“No,” I admitted. “Not really.”

“I have,” Chanterelle said in a soft voice, and then she looked at Artemis with happiness sparkling in her blue eyes. “What’s that list of mushroom names you have memorized?”

Artemis laughed. “You remember that?”

“Of course,” Chanterelle said. “We were in the woods, just you and me and Mike, and you told me I should choose my own name.”

“I remember that,” I said with a nod. “You said at one point you’d been called Sorry-For-Sin, and at another time you were called Karen-Marie.”

“I did not like being Sorry-For-Sin,” Chanterelle said, and she brushed the tip of her finger against our son’s nose. “You will never be Sorry-For-Sin, or any other name that fills your heart with dread.”

“Go on, then,” Diana said to Artemis with a grin. “I know you’re dying to show off your mushroom knowledge.”

“They’re just so funny!” Artemis exclaimed. “Like, who was in charge of this? Did no one regulate it?”

“Okay, go on.” Lily grinned. “I have to know what this list is.”

Artemis chuckled. “Cramp Balls. Lawyer’s Wig. Slippery Jack. Terracotta Hedgehog. Common Stinkhorn. Hotlips Disco. Hairy Curtain Crust. Portobello. Oyster. Morel. Button. Cep. Bolete.”

“Excuse me?” Annie exclaimed. “Cramp Balls?”

“I can’t get over Hairy Curtain Crust,” I chuckled.

“I’m calling Social Services on you if you call any of your children Hairy Curtain Crust,” Lily giggled.

“Button is cute, though,” Annie said. “And Slippery Jack. He could just be called Jack for short.”

“Oh, I like that!” Chanterelle said. “What do you think, Mike?”

I smiled and looked down at my son resting against my legs.

“Jack,” I said softly. “What do you think about that, hmm?”

The baby made a snuffling sound and clenched his tiny fingers. His little legs kicked out, and I cupped one of his perfect feet in my palm.

“Slippery Jack,” I whispered, then looked at Chanterelle.

She was smiling widely, and we both nodded.

“I think we’ve found our first name,” I said.

“That’s so fucking cute!” Lily made a noise like she was in physical pain and clenched her hand over her heart. “I can’t even breathe, it’s so adorable.”

“What about the little misses over here?” Annie asked.

I looked over to where Jay was still sitting bolt upright with my daughter held in his arms.

“You alright, Jay?” I asked.

“Mmhmm,” Jay got out.

“Relax, dude,” Artemis said. “Look, you’re supporting her head just fine, and she’s totally chill. Just relax your body a bit. You won’t drop her, I promise.”

Jay let out a sharp sigh and leaned back against the sofa cushions. Slowly, he let his shoulders relax a little bit.

The baby in his arms let out a yawn like she was totally unbothered by her uncle’s concerns.

“She’s so cute,” Jay said in a hoarse voice. “I just don’t want to break her.”

“Trust me, you’re doing fine,” Annie said in an encouraging voice.

Jay swallowed hard and gave a tight nod.

“Here, do you want me to take her?” Artemis asked.

Jay gave another nod, and Artemis scooped up the baby in her arms and rested her against her shoulder. She supported her in the crook of one bent arm and gently cupped her other hand against the back of her head.

I smiled at the sight.

“You’re a natural,” I said.

Artemis looked at me quickly. For a moment, alarm flashed in her eyes, but then she relaxed and smiled at me. She kissed the baby’s head softly.

“So slimy,” she cooed to her. “Aren’t you so slimy? Don’t you smell like blood and cheese?”

“Band name,” Jay said with a breathless laugh.

“Blood and cheese,” Diana chuckled. “Our first album, Colostrum, is out now on all streaming platforms.”

“With these three adorable beans on the cover,” Annie said. “Jack and…”

I looked at Chanterelle to see if she had any ideas.

She smiled a little shyly.

“I like Amanita,” she said.

“Oh, yeah!” Artemis exclaimed. “They’re the classic red ones with white spots. Very poisonous.”

“That’s because she’s not to be messed with,” Lily said.

“Amanita.” I tried it out thoughtfully. “I really like that.”

“I think it would suit her best,” Chanterelle said, and she nodded toward the baby in Artemis’ arms. “She was the firstborn.”

“Amanita.” Artemis looked down at the baby she held, and her face was transformed into a smile. “That’s beautiful.”

“That leaves just this little one,” Annie said.

“Such a precious and beautiful little one,” Diana cooed.

“Mike?” Chanterelle asked. “What do you think?”

Artemis suddenly let out a snort of laughter.

“Oh, my god,” she said. “You already are a mushroom, Mike.”

“Huh?” I lifted an eyebrow in confusion.

“Mike,” she said like it was obvious. “Mycellium.”

I rolled my eyes. “Mycellium doesn’t have a hard k like Mike.”

“My-kellium?” Artemis grinned.

“Or change your name to Mice,” Lily suggested.

“I think I’m going to stick with Mike,” I chuckled. “Artemis, hit me with some more mushroom names to think about.”

“How about Destroying Angel?” Artemis’ eyes danced wickedly.

“Then we’re definitely calling Social Services,” Lily said.

“God, you’re so mainstream.” Artemis thought for a moment. “Fly Agaric. Funeral Bell. Pig’s Ears. Black Tooth. Turkey Tail. Grisette. Silky Piggback. Wood Blewit.”

“Wait, go back,” I said. “What was the second one?”

“Funeral Bell,” Artemis answered.

I looked at Chanterelle. “What about Belle?”

“Yes!” Chanterelle’s face broke into a delighted smile. “Oh, that’s perfect!”

“Amanita, Jack, and Belle.” I laughed softly as I looked around at my children. “That is perfect.”

Chanterelle rested her cheek on my shoulder, and I turned to kiss her head.

“This is the happiest moment of my life,” I whispered into her hair.

“Mine, too,” she whispered back. “I can’t believe it’s really happening.”

I looked around the room at the makeshift nest of cushions on the floor, then shook my head.

“I’ll set up the playpen we got,” I said. “That way they don’t have to sleep on the floor anymore.”

“Oh, Chanterelle, you need to see their new sleep sacks!” Annie exclaimed. “They’re so cute, they’re like little sleeping bags that you pop them into, and it keeps them toasty warm.”

“You literally went out to get a crib,” Artemis pointed out.

“It wouldn’t fit in the cart,” I admitted sheepishly. “We got so much other stuff, there wasn’t any space for it in the car, either.”

“You’re going to have to find space for everything else we bought today,” Annie said. “It’s going to be pretty cramped in here.”

“Yeah…” I looked around the front room with a critical frown. “That’s a good point. I wasn’t expecting three babies to turn up.”

“You’re going to need a bigger place,” Artemis said.

“We can fit three babies in here,” Chanterelle protested.

Diana cleared her throat.

“Actually,” she said. “It, um, it might be more than three babies in here.”

“I’m not giving birth to any more!” Chanterelle exclaimed. “I’m empty, I’m done!”

“No, Chanterelle,” Diana giggled. “Not you. I mean…”

I stared at Diana with my heart suddenly leaping into my throat.

“You–” I stammered. “Do you mean that you–”

“Yes.” Diana nodded, and her face was covered in an enormous smile. “I’m– I’m pregnant.”

Lily gasped. “Are you serious?”

Diana nodded, and Lily’s dark eyes suddenly filled with tears.

“Me, too,” she whispered.

Chapter 14

The shock was so great that, for a second, I was almost sure I was going to pass out.

“Are you– are you sure?” I stammered. “Both of you? Both of you are– you’re both pregnant?”

Diana and Lily looked at each other, grinned widely, and nodded.

“Yes,” Diana said.

“Positive,” Lily added. “In every sense of the word.”

“Oh, my god!” I choked. “I can’t believe it!”

I carefully slid Jack into Chanterelle’s arms, then went to Diana and Lily’s side. Diana was still on the floor next to Annie, but she stood up and accepted my embrace. I threw my arms around her and held her tightly against my wildly pounding heart.

“I can’t believe it,” I whispered again. “This is incredible.”

I let Diana go, and she smiled up at me with her eyes shining. I went to Lily and wrapped my arms around her.

“I’m so happy,” I whispered.

“Are you sure?” Lily whispered back. “I mean, five babies, Mike, that’s a lot.”

“It is,” I agreed, and I kissed the side of her neck and then her forehead. “And I love it. The apartment is going to be so full of love.”

“And stinky diapers,” Artemis said in a wry voice.

“Yeah, that, too.” I laughed.

Even the thought of five babies’ worth of poop couldn’t dampen my spirits. I felt as though my blood had been replaced with champagne. I was fizzing and almost dancing with happiness.

A sudden sound cut through my joy.

My eyes bulged as I realized it was my stomach grumbling.

“Holy shit, Mike,” Artemis chuckled. “Do you think you’re hungry?”

“Oh, my god,” I realized. “I haven’t had lunch. I went over to your place, Artemis, to have lunch or dinner. But, uh, I got distracted. And then Diana called me, and… Jesus, I’m starving.”

“I’m hungry, too,” Chanterelle said.

“I read somewhere that breastfeeding burns an insane amount of calories,” Annie said. “So no wonder.”

“Okay.” I pulled my phone out of my pocket. “What are we thinking?”

“I need to get home,” Jay said with a yawn. “And I–”

He’d been sitting quietly on the couch next to Artemis and gazing at Amanita, but now he leaped to his feet.

“Oh, my god,” he gasped. “Amber’s still downstairs.”

“Oh, shit.” I looked at my phone. “It’s almost closing time.”

“I’ll go and help Amber close up,” Jay said. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Mike.”

“See you tomorrow, Jay,” I said.

I made a private note to ask Amber about her current employment situation. She was a good worker, and she made a great retail assistant. Plus, if she was going to make a habit of helping out at the shop, I should at least pay her for her time.

Jay lingered by the door for a moment longer and gazed at the babies with a huge smile on his face. Then he went out of the room and down the stairs to the shop.

“Alright, then,” I said. “What was the verdict on ordering in? Pizza?”

“Mm, yes, please,” Chanterelle said with a happy wiggle. “With bacon!”

The others nodded in agreement.

“And a vegan for Artemis,” I added before she could.

“And Netflix?” Chanterelle asked in a hopeful tone.

She was so fucking cute, I had to go back to her side and kiss her. She smiled up at me with love shining in her eyes.

“And Netflix,” I told her. “After what you’ve just done, we can watch whatever you want.”

“Something gory!” Artemis said with a grin. “Body horror, that’s what we need.”

“Uh, yeah, sure.” Diana rolled her eyes. “Never mind that Chanterelle just lived through literal body horror.”

“I’d rather not see body horror,” Lily said. “I want to feel good about what’s happening inside my body right now.”

“So I’m guessing Alien’s out of the question?” Artemis asked in an innocent tone.

“Yes,” the rest of us said in unison.

“Party poopers,” she chuckled.

Diana turned on the TV, and Chanterelle started scrolling through Netflix while I placed the order for pizza. Chanterelle had strange tastes sometimes, so I was half-expecting her to pick something like 127 Hours or Predator, but to my surprise she settled on Monsters Inc. It still wasn’t a typical post-childbirth movie, but it was a far more wholesome choice than I’d expected.

The evening passed by peacefully.

We stuffed our faces with pizza, watched Monsters Inc., and I set up the playpen in the bedroom. Chanterelle oohed and ahhed over everything we’d bought at Walmart, lost her mind over the mushroom onesies and the lovey blankets, and investigated the breast pump and cans of formula.

The babies had another feed, we prepped some bottles for nighttime feeds, and then Chanterelle and I fitted our children into their new sleep sacks and placed them gently in the playpen. They immediately fell asleep, and Chanterelle watched them with misty eyes.

“They’re so beautiful,” she whispered.

“They are.” I put my arm around her shoulders and squeezed her tight. “Whether we still think that at three AM when they need feeding…”

“We will,” Chanterelle affirmed. “I will always think they’re beautiful. They are precious and worthy, and I will cherish them.”

There was such simple conviction in her tone that it made my throat clench with emotion.

“I agree,” I said softly.

We went back into the living room and found that Artemis, Diana, Lily, and Annie had already started to change the babies’ nest of cushions into a makeshift bed that would fit all four of them.

“What’s happening here?” I asked.

“We’re sleeping over,” Artemis informed me calmly.

“I assumed that,” I chuckled. “But Diana, Lily, you shouldn’t be on the floor.”

“The floor’s surprisingly comfortable,” Lily said. “Even Diana agrees.”

“Hey,” Diana complained, then clucked her tongue. “It is, though. Comfortable, I mean.”

“It’ll be fine, Mike,” Lily assured me. “We’re comfy down here. We get to spread out like we’re on a king-sized mattress, and there are so many blankets, it’s really cozy.”

I was only partly convinced by this, but they seemed very confident about it, so I didn’t want to voice my doubts.

“Is it alright to use the bathroom?” Annie asked.

“Ah.” I frowned. “Let me go check.”

I went to the bathroom, listened at the door for a moment, then peered inside.

The bildad was still lying in the bathtub full of water. It looked around sleepily at me as I came in, then turned away and let out a sigh.

Its clear contempt for me was weirdly funny, and I grinned to myself before I went back into the front room.

“I think it’s okay,” I said. “The bildad is still in the tub, but it seems quiet. Just keep a really close eye on it, and I’ll wait outside the door until you’re all done.”

“Is this just an excuse to listen to us pee?” Artemis smirked. “God, Mike, you need to be more subtle.”

“That thought never even crossed my mind,” I said in a lofty tone. “I think that’s a you problem, Artemis.”

Artemis grinned in delight at my teasing.

The women got ready for bed, and I helped Chanterelle clean herself with a soft washcloth. It wasn’t as good as a proper shower, but there wasn’t anything we could do about that with the bildad still taking up the tub.

I told Chanterelle what Lily had said about waiting twenty-four hours to give a newborn a bath.

“I hope the bildad will be out of here by then,” Chanterelle said with a sigh. “I want to focus on the babies, not on cryptids.”

“Me, too,” I said. “Unfortunately, that’s the reality of life in Wormwood. But I’ll make sure it’s out of the bathroom tomorrow so we can all shower.”

Chanterelle smiled. She reached up to put her hands on my shoulders, and she gazed up into my face.

“You’re going to be such a great dad,” she whispered. “You’re a protecting-from-cryptids dad and a shopping-for-diapers dad and an ordering-takeout dad and a bathing-newborns dad.”

“I am,” I agreed with a smile of my own. “The perfect all-around dad, that’s me.”

Chanterelle laughed, stood up on her tiptoes, and kissed me.

I heard the tone of Netflix starting up again, and Chanterelle gasped with her eyes wide.

“They’re watching something else!” she gasped, and she hurried out of the bathroom.

I finished brushing my teeth, gave the bildad one last look, and went into the front room. The women were lying together on their big floor bed and watching The Exorcist.

“Oh, my god,” I complained. “What kind of movie is this to be watching late at night?”

“Hey, I voted for Rosemary’s Baby,” Artemis said.

“Jesus,” I said. “What about, I don’t know, 500 Days of Summer?”

“Oh, like that’s better than The Exorcist,” Artemis scoffed.

“It’s sweet,” I protested.

“It’s sad,” Chanterelle said.

“And The Exorcist isn’t?” I countered.

“Good does triumph in the end,” Lily pointed out.

“Spoilers!” Annie exclaimed. “I told you, I haven’t seen it!”

“You haven’t?” I sat down to her with a chuckle. “Boy, you’re in for a wild ride.”

Annie leaned against me, and I put my arm around her.

“Is it very scary?” Annie whispered to me.

“Um…” I patted her arm. “I think you just need to see it for yourself.”

I wasn’t sure how I expected Annie to react to one of the grossest and most disturbing horror movies I’d ever seen, but I definitely didn’t expect her to watch the whole thing with her eyes wide open, her mouth ajar, and every muscle in her body locked tight with tension. At every gruesome bit, she shuddered and gasped, but she never looked away from the screen.

When the credits rolled, she sat bolt upright, looked around at us all, and exhaled.

“Wow,” she said. “That was incredible.”

“Isn’t it?” Artemis exclaimed in delight. “Yeah, I knew you had taste.”

“I’m surprised you liked it that much,” I said to Annie. “I thought it might be too gross for you.”

“I mean, yeah.” She wrinkled her nose. “It was gross. That bit with the crucifix as well? Oh, my gosh, I’m going to be thinking about that for weeks.”

“But it’s interesting, isn’t it?” Chanterelle said in an eager tone. “Badness and goodness, and they’re all captured inside one little girl. It’s like the town.”

“What do you mean?” I asked. “You mean like Wormwood?”

“Yes.” Chanterelle nodded. “The town is a vessel, and good people and bad people come to do battle here and see which one will triumph.”

“Huh.” I frowned. “I hadn’t thought about it like that before.”

“That makes you the priests, Mike,” Lily said.

“Oh, great,” I said with a grimace. “Happy ending for me, then.”

“No, I think Mike is the mother,” Chanterelle said. “You care about the place, as well as the great battle that rages inside the place. You love Wormwood, just like Chris loves Regan.”

I smiled. “I like that idea.”

“Me, too.” Lily nodded. “I changed my mind, Mike, I think Chanterelle’s right. You’ve done so much for Wormwood, you’re definitely like its parent.”

“That’s how it’s easy to see you’ll be a great dad,” Diana said. “You care for Wormwood like it’s your child.”

I shrugged, but the compliment pleased me all the same. It was true, as well. I’d grown up in Wormwood, but I hadn’t developed any real strong feelings about the town while I was a kid living here. It had just been the place where I lived. But since moving away and then coming back, and defending the place on a daily basis, my feelings for Wormwood had changed. I loved this place with its bad weather and narrow roads and constant shadowy presence of the trees nearby.

I wanted to protect this place and make it the best it could be. Which I guessed was a kind of parental attitude to have.

Annie sighed and stretched out her arms and then yawned deeply.

“Alright,” I said. “I think it’s time to call it a night.”

“It already is night,” Chanterelle said in a sleepy voice. “It’s dark outside.”

“I know, hon.” I smiled at her. “Let’s get you to bed.”

Chanterelle stood up, and I guided her toward the door.

“Night everyone,” I called.

“Goodnight, Mike,” Diana called. “Goodnight, Chanterelle.”

“Do you want me to leave the light on?” I teased. “I don’t want anyone having nightmares.”

“We’ll be fine,” Lily said with a roll of her eyes.

I switched off the light, and Chanterelle and I went into the bedroom. We couldn’t resist another peek at the babies in their playpen.

“Oh, they’re awake,” Chanterelle exclaimed softly.

The babies were wiggling against each other, and kicking out their little arms and legs. Jack was making a grunting noise that was getting louder and louder.

“They’re hungry,” Chanterelle said.

“How can you tell?” I asked.

“I just know,” she replied.

I was too tired to investigate that any further, so while Chanterelle got settled on the bed with Amanita and Belle, I rested Jack on my arm and took him into the kitchen to prep a bottle of formula.

Jack wiggled against my shoulder, and when I peered around at him, he was opening and closing his mouth like a strange little fish.

“You’re hungry, I know, I know,” I said in a soothing voice. “Don’t worry, it’s almost ready.”

Jack clearly didn’t believe me, and he started to wail.

“I know, I know.” I patted his back as I finished getting the bottle ready, then took it back into the bedroom.

I sat on the bed next to Chanterelle and fitted Jack into my arms. I pressed the bottle to his mouth, and he eagerly began to drink.

“There you go.” I smiled down at him. “I told you, didn’t I?”

In a little while, all three babies had drunk their fill and had fallen back to sleep. Chanterelle and I snuggled them back into the playpen and then almost fell into bed ourselves.

Artemis had stripped it and changed the sheets while I’d put up the playpen, and it was good to slide into a clean bed.

Chanterelle snuggled down against the pillows with a little sigh. Her eyes fluttered closed, and her breathing almost immediately started to even out.

I leaned over to drop a kiss on her soft cheek.

“Goodnight, my love,” I whispered.

“Mm,” she murmured. “Night-night, Mike.”

One of the things Lily had mentioned was that it would take a while for Chanterelle’s body to return to its regular size, so it might be days or weeks before Chanterelle didn’t look pregnant anymore. But as I lay down and wrapped my arms around her waist, I realized that her bump was already starting to shrink. It must be a symptom of her mushroomness, I decided. She’d sped through her pregnancy in abnormal time, compared to humans, so perhaps she was going to speedrun her recovery as well.

It had been a long, long day, and I hadn’t realized just how tired I was. I was asleep within seconds of my head hitting the pillow.

It seemed like only another second before I was awakened by the sound of the babies crying.

I instantly catapulted up in bed with my heart going at a thousand miles an hour.

Chanterelle was already slipping out of bed and going to the playpen.

“Shh, shh, my fine ones,” she whispered. “There you go. Do you want to feed? Are you hungry?”

I went to her side, and we carefully lifted the screaming babies out of the playpen and placed them on the bed. Amanita wasn’t properly screaming yet, so I took her with me into the kitchen to warm a bottle for her while Chanterelle lifted her shirt to nurse Jack and Belle.

In a few minutes, I was back in the bedroom with my daughter in my arms, and the room stilled into a peaceful silence.

I gazed down at Amanita as she suckled at the bottle. Her tiny fingers curled around the side of the bottle, and she made tiny snuffling noises as she eagerly filled her stomach.

“Such a big appetite,” I said softly. “So big for someone so small.”

Amanita blinked slowly and carried on sucking.

I looked over at Chanterelle. She expertly balanced Jack and Belle in her arms as she held them to her breasts, and she gazed down at her babies with a look of absolute tenderness on her face.

She glanced up as though she could feel that I was looking at her, and we exchanged smiles.

“Our little mushroom babies,” she said in a soft voice, then laughed. “Our smelly mushroom babies. I really want to bathe them and dress them in their new clothes.”

“I know.” I looked down at Amanita and shook my head. “We just need to figure out the bildad situation first.”

“Yes.” Chanterelle sighed. “I keep thinking about that. I was trying to figure out if the serpents were connected to the bildad in some way.”

“How?” I asked.

“That’s the problem,” Chanterelle admitted. “I don’t know.”

The door to the bedroom creaked open, and Artemis poked her sleepy face around the edge.

“Is everything okay?” she asked. “I heard the babies cry.”

“Yeah, it’s okay,” I answered. “They were hungry.”

Artemis nodded and came to sit on the bed next to me. She smiled down softly at Amanita.

“So hungry,” she said. “You’re going to have an appetite, aren’t you, little Amanita?”

“You can tell them apart,” I noted.

“Of course,” Artemis said in surprise. “All three of them look completely different from each other.”

She reached out a gentle finger and lightly touched the curve of Amanita’s cheek.

I smiled at the sight with a warm feeling glowing inside me.

As Artemis leaned back, she caught sight of my smile, and that mixture of happiness and alarm flashed in her eyes like it had before.

“Artemis,” I said. “I meant what I said the other day. I don’t need you to have a baby to affirm my love for you, or anything like that.”

“I know,” she said.

“And it doesn’t matter how good you are with the babies, either,” I said. “Just because you’re really good with them doesn’t mean that I’ll start thinking you should have a baby as well. I think you’d make a fantastic mother. But it’s your choice, Artemis, it’s always your choice. And if you don’t want that, if you want to be the loving, caring, nurturing, fierce godmother that I know you to be, then that’s still a perfect outcome for me.”

Artemis bit her lower lip and looked away from me. She swallowed, then glanced back with a smile.

“Thank you,” she said in a soft voice.

Chanterelle’s arms were full, but she extended her foot along the bed and gently poked Artemis in the thigh with her toes.

“We were talking about the bildad,” I said in an effort to move the conversation away from heavier topics. “Chanterelle was wondering if it was connected to the serpents in some way.”

“I was thinking about that, too,” Artemis said. “The serpents are probably reptiles. And the bildad could be a mammal, like a beaver.”

“So no immediate connection there,” I said. “What about their behavior?”

“The bildad ate the serpents,” Chanterelle said.

“They both appeared in the rain,” Artemis said.

“Yes.” I nodded. “That seems like a pretty strong link.”

“Okay, so, rain.” Artemis hummed in thought. “Water. Water is connected to emotions, it’s an element of transformation and change…”

“It’s the one elemental power that Mike doesn’t have,” Chanterelle whispered.

My mouth dropped open.

“Holy shit,” I breathed.

“Oh, my god.” Artemis stared at me. “That would make total sense. It could be a targeted attack on the town by someone who knows that you have elemental magic, but not water magic.”

“But who could that be?” I questioned. “I don’t go around talking about my magic that much.”

“Someone who’s seen it in person,” Artemis said. “Perhaps someone who’s been on the receiving end of it.”

“Or someone who’s been watching us.” I frowned. “Someone close to us who we don’t know is a villain.”

“Oh, no,” Chanterelle said in an unhappy voice. “I don’t like betrayals.”

“I don’t think anyone likes betrayals, babe,” Artemis said.

“And it might not be a betrayal,” I added in a comforting tone. “It could be an old enemy who’s returned to take revenge on us for stopping them the first time… That actually isn’t very comforting, but you know what I mean.”

“I would rather have an old enemy than a new one,” Chanterelle said.

“Maybe in the morning you can try a locator spell,” I suggested to Artemis. “See if you can track the source of where the cryptids are coming from, now that we know it’s probably not someone burying things along the nexus point.”

“Yeah, okay.” Artemis nodded.

“Oh, I can become information again!” Chanterelle exclaimed. “I’d forgotten about that. I can absorb into the ground and find the information of the bildad and see if I can track it back to its source.”

“Let’s try the locator spell first,” I suggested. “You’re still recovering, Chanterelle, you just gave birth to three babies. Giving birth just once is hard enough, you don’t want to overtax yourself and make yourself ill.”

“I am strong,” Chanterelle insisted. “I can do it, I know I can.”

I looked at her consideringly. It was true, she was already showing signs of getting back to her old self. Her bump was shrinking by the moment, and I guessed her mushroom abilities would help her recover from the birth faster than a regular human would.

“Okay,” I conceded. “But let’s try the locator spell first, please? For my peace of mind, if nothing else.”

“Alright.” Chanterelle smiled.

The babies were done with their feeding, and Artemis helped us place them back into the playpen. Then she crept back to her bed in the front room.

Chanterelle and I went back to bed and immediately fell asleep.

I slept without dreams, and woke up slowly to the late morning sunlight filtering through the curtains. For a moment, I laid still in the bed as I tried to figure out what was wrong with this picture. Then I remembered the babies, and I sat up quickly in bed.

Chanterelle still lay next to me in peaceful sleep.

But the playpen was empty.

I scrambled out of bed, threw open the bedroom door, and hurtled out into the hallway.

“Mike!” Lily called. “We’re in here.”

I charged into the front room to see Artemis, Diana, Lily, and Annie cuddling the babies on the sofa.

“Oh, my god,” I gasped. “I almost had a fucking heart attack.”

“Sorry, Mike,” Annie said in a contrite tone. “We wanted to let you sleep.”

“I was expecting them to need more bottles in the night,” I said.

“They did,” Diana said. “We slept in watches so you wouldn’t be disturbed by them.”

“We figured you and Chanterelle would need your sleep after yesterday,” Lily added.

“God.” I collapsed onto the arm on the sofa and pressed my hand over my still wildly beating heart. “Next time you plan something like that, let me know in advance, please?”

“We will,” Annie promised. “We didn’t mean to freak you out.”

“No, I know,” I reassured her. “I’m grateful. You’re right, I feel so much better after sleeping, and I bet Chanterelle will as well.”

“We figured this would be a good way to split the labor between us all,” Artemis said. “That way you won’t end up like sleep-deprived zombies, which is normally what happens to new parents.”

“Thank you.” I smiled. “It takes a village, right?”

“Yeah, exactly.” Artemis nodded. “Speaking of, I was talking to Diana about the locator spell, and I’m ready to try it right away.”

“Great,” I said. “But you should have some breakfast first.”

“We’ve actually already eaten,” Artemis said with a smile. “We’ve been up for a while.”

“I set some aside for you and Chanterelle,” Annie said. “Are you both okay with omelets?”

“Yeah, definitely,” I replied. “Thanks. I’ll just go check on Chanterelle and see if she’s awake yet.”

I turned around just as Chanterelle came into the room.

“Good morning,” she said with a smile that grew softer and warmer when she saw her babies. “My little loves.”

“The others fed them during the night,” I explained.

“I know,” Chanterelle said in a calm voice.

“How do you know?” I asked in surprise.

“I can feel them,” Chanterelle replied. “I know the babies’ information, and I can tell where they are and how they feel.”

“Wow,” Lily said. “That’s a handy skill.”

“I wonder if we can develop it by the time our babies are born?” Diana grinned.

Chanterelle smiled. “I would like an omelet, please, Annie.”

“Great.” Annie stood up. “I’ll get them started.”

“Artemis is going to try a locator spell to see if she can locate where the bildad came from,” I said to Chanterelle, and then I spoke to the others. “Have any of you checked on the bildad this morning?”

“Only briefly,” Lily replied. “But it looked alright.”

“Yeah, just the same as it did last night,” Diana added.

“Hmm, okay.” I glanced at Artemis. “What do you need for the spell?”

“Star anise, I think,” she said. “Bay leaves. Ooh, maybe some of the water in the tub as well. The bildad’s been stewing in it overnight, so it’ll be a good suspension liquid. Do you have an old jar I can use?”

“Yeah, probably,” I replied.

I went into the kitchen, rummaged through one of the cupboards, and retrieved an old jam jar. I’d started getting into the habit of saving them ever since Artemis had explained how useful they were in her witchcraft practice, so now I had a fine collection to choose from.

Annie was busy getting ingredients out of the fridge, and she looked over as I straightened up with the jar in my hand.

“Artemis?” she asked with a smile.

“Artemis,” I confirmed. “She’s going to try a locator spell to see if she can figure out where the bildad came from. And she needs some of its bathwater.”

“Gross.” Annie wrinkled her nose.

I chuckled and went out of the kitchen. Artemis was waiting for me by the bathroom door, and together we slid inside the room.

The bildad was balanced over the tub with one large foot on each side of it. It looked up at us and let out a suspicious churring sound.

“Aw, he’s doing the splits,” Artemis said.

“And I don’t think it’s going very well,” I said. “Let’s get the water and leave it alone.”

I took a careful step closer to the tub. The bildad watched me with its bright, beady eyes fixed on me. Artemis was behind my shoulder, and she reached around and pulled the jar from my hand.

“He’s staring at you,” she whispered. “Keep him occupied, and I’ll get the water.”

“Good plan,” I whispered back.

Artemis crept closer to the tub. I kept my eyes on the bildad with my body tense and alert for any action. It stared at me, and then suddenly snapped its head around to glare at Artemis.

“Nice bildad,” Artemis soothed. “Good bildad. Look at you, so greasy and cryptic, aren’t you a good bildad?”

She slowly lowered the jar into the tub to collect some of the water.

Something gurgled behind me.

There was a loud clanking sound, then a metallic clang, and a deep, resonant clank.

I spun around just in time to see the toilet bowl crack open and a huge chunk of porcelain fall to the floor. Water gushed out after it.

My mouth moved to form a warning to Artemis.

But before I could get the words out, there was an enormous bang. The toilet seat and lid flew up into the air, hit the wall, and clattered to the floor, and the biggest snake I had ever seen burst out of the toilet.

Chapter 15

“Oh, shit!” Artemis yelped.

“Fuck!” I gasped.

The widest part of the snake’s body was as thick as my forearm. It was covered in scales that shimmered blue and green, and its yellow, slit-pupiled eyes were furious. A few drops of toilet water rolled down the massive length of its body, and its scales caught the light and flashed like a neon sign.

The lower half of its body was still trapped in the bowl, but it reared up until its flat head almost touched the ceiling and glared down at us. Its forked, black tongue flicked out of its mouth as it tasted the air.

“Mike?” Lily’s voice came from the other side of the door, and to my horror, the handle began to turn.

The snake’s head swiveled around at the sound.

“Get back!” I roared.

“What’s going on?” Diana called.

The snake moved before I could open my mouth and slammed its head against the bathroom door.

A shriek of alarm came from the other side.

“It’s a cryptid!” I yelled. “A big one, a snake, and it doesn’t look friendly!”

“Do snakes ever look friendly?” Artemis demanded.

“Oh, my god, not now, Black!” I exclaimed.

The snake rammed its head against the door again. The wood panel thudded in the frame, but it held, and the beast swung around and fixed its yellow eyes on Artemis and me.

“Fuck,” I muttered under my breath.

I slowly lifted my clenched fists in front of me. The magic tingled in my wrists and itched in the palms of my hands.

The snake stayed perfectly still. It hovered above us with its enormous gleaming girth half-in and half-out of the toilet bowl. The harsh bathroom light made its pupils shrink to almost invisible black slits, and its forked tongue flicked out once more.

Then it struck.

It dove at me, and I threw out my arm and opened my hand in a gesture like I was throwing something. Sparks burst from my fingertips and landed right in the snake’s scaly face. It snapped its head back so violently that it slammed against the wall behind the toilet.

“Artemis, go!” I bellowed.

I drew back my other fist and hurled fire at the snake. This time it wasn’t just sparks, but a fireball burst from my palm and sizzled on the snake’s scaled body.

It let out an unexpected shrieking cry that sounded more like a bird than a snake and writhed back against the wall.

Artemis hurled herself at the door, fumbled it open, and almost fell out into the hall. Before I could follow her, I felt a rushing movement through the air and jumped back just in time to avoid the snake burying its fangs in my shoulder.

I whirled around, threw out my palm, and a blast of hot air burst out of my hand and knocked the snake back. It opened its jaws to reveal long, curved fangs that ended in needle-like points. A quivering droplet of something dangerous-looking gathered at the end of one of its fangs.

It struck at me again, and this time I threw out one hand with a gust of air to knock it off course, and I followed up with another fireball that burst into smoke when it encountered the snake’s body.

Even so, it seemed like the fireballs had hurt it, and it let out another shriek that sounded a bit like an eagle’s cry crossed with a rusty bicycle. There was a black scorch mark on its scales where the fireball had hit.

I drew my fists back again to launch another attack.

But then the snake’s horrible yellow eyes darted past me. Its pupils abruptly widened. And its head lunged forward.

I jumped out of the way and shot a gust of air at it. The snake’s head bounced off the back wall of the bathroom, but it barely seemed to notice it. Its eyes were fixed on the bildad, which was crouched in the bottom of the tub and making furiously indignant chattering noises.

The two cryptids stared at each other for a split second.

Then the snake lunged forward with its jaws stretched open to an impossible width, even with what I knew about snakes unhinging their jaws. It snapped down, and the bildad vanished headfirst inside the snake’s cavernous mouth.

I didn’t stop to see what happened next.

The snake was distracted by swallowing the bildad, and I ran for the door, tore it open, stumbled into the hall, and slammed the door shut behind me.

“Mike!” Artemis grabbed my arm to catch me. “Are you okay? Did it get you?”

Annie was hovering in the doorway of the front room with a panicked look on her face.

“I’m okay,” I gasped. “It ate the bildad. I got out while it was distracted.”

“It ate the bildad?” Lily asked in shock. “How? How did it fit?”

“I don’t know,” I said, and my stomach turned at the memory of the bildad disappearing into the snake. “Magic probably. All I know is it fit.”

But almost before the words had left my mouth, something hit the bathroom door from the inside. I guessed it was the snake’s huge head thudding against it.

“Oh, god,” Annie whispered.

“Annie,” I said, “take Chanterelle and the babies downstairs. Lily and Diana, too, we can’t risk them getting hurt.”

“Oh, but I’m expendable?” Artemis gave me a mischievous grin that was completely at odds with the current situation.

“Do you have your knife?” I asked her.

“Of course.” She hiked up the hem of her sweater to reveal her long witch’s knife strapped to her hip.

The snake slammed into the bathroom door again. This time, it groaned, and a crack appeared in the middle of the wood.

“Annie!” I yelled.

“They’re here, we’re moving.” Annie hurried Chanterelle, Diana, and Lily toward the front door. The babies seemed to know that something was wrong because all three of them started wailing.

“Hurry, hurry!” Annie cried as she threw open the front door.

At that moment, the bathroom door gave way with a crash. The snake’s enormous blue-and-green head forced its way through the splintered wood, and its yellow eyes immediately fixed on the group of women and babies right in front of it.

Chanterelle let out a gasp at the sight of it, and Annie seemed to forget everything and froze on the spot like a statue.

I drew back my fist.

“Get out of here!” I shouted.

The snake dove toward my family.

I stepped into its path and flung a fireball first out of one fist and then from the other. The impact knocked the snake off its trajectory, and it let out its rusty screech in outrage.

Lily and Diana each grabbed one of Annie’s arms and hurried her down the stairs. The snake screeched again as its prey disappeared, and its ugly head swiveled around, its yellow eyes fixed on me and Artemis, and it bared its fangs at us.

“Oh, great,” Artemis said. “It’s between us and the door.”

“Artemis, we can’t run away from it.” I spoke with a sick realization sinking into my stomach. “If we don’t kill it, it might go back down the pipes and appear in someone else’s bathroom.”

“Ah, fuck,” Artemis sighed. “You’re right. What–”

Her words were cut off as the snake lunged at us. Its range of movement was hampered by the fact that the majority of its body was still stuck in the toilet, and we were able to jump back from it.

But then the snake opened its jaws wider. I saw the clear fluid glistening on the ends of its fangs, and I’d seen enough nature documentaries to guess what was going to happen next.

“Get back!” I yelled.

I grabbed Artemis’ arm and dragged her back into the kitchen. As our feet crossed the threshold, the snake’s venom landed on the floor of the hallway. It immediately began to sizzle and eat through the flooring.

“Oh, shit!” Artemis yelped. “Its venom is fucking acidic, too?”

There was a banging and clanking noise from the bathroom, and I guessed it was the snake trying to free itself from the toilet bowl. There was a thud that shook the floor, and then there was silence with only the sound of trickling water.

Artemis’ eyes met mine. She grimaced.

“I think it got out of the toilet,” she whispered.

“Grab a pan,” I said.

“Do what?” she hissed.

I grabbed the pan that Annie had put on the counter to make breakfast in.

“It probably won’t hold up against the venom for long,” I said. “But it should give at least some protection.”

“Sick.” Artemis nodded. “What are you going to use, the cheese grater?”

I gave a humorless smile and flexed my fingers. “Magic.”

I took a deep breath and a second to compose myself before I brought my hands together and breathed out.

The air I’d breathed out was caught by my magic and turned into a shield of moving air that whirled in front of my body like a little tornado. I hoped it would be enough to deflect any venom the snake shot at me.

I waited for a moment and listened hard. The only sound I could hear was the gentle whistle of air moving around me.

I moved to the kitchen door.

The snake had broken out of the bathroom. Its head and the front of its body were in the living room, with the back of its body and its tail sprawled out in the hallway.

The venom was still bubbling on the laminate flooring, and there were pock marks all around where the acidic droplets were eating into the walls.

I turned back to Artemis and mimed a stabbing motion.

She widened her eyes at me in confusion, then looked past me out into the hall. She saw the snake, and she immediately realized what I meant.

She handed her knife to me, and I held it tightly in my hand and approached the snake’s huge body.

It seemed like the snake was investigating the front room. When I peered into the room to see where its head was, it looked like it was curiously examining the curtains. Its thick black tongue flicked out and tasted the air like it was checking the place out before moving in.

I tightened my grip on the knife.

I was about a foot away from the lower part of the snake’s body. Its scales gleamed like jewels, and its impressive girth seemed even bigger compared to the knife in my hand. I shook my head in bafflement because how the fuck had that thing fit in the toilet pipes?

I kept my breathing steady so my shield would stay intact.

And then I struck.

Perhaps I made a noise. Perhaps the snake heard the soft whoosh of my shield. But its head snapped around, and the end of its tail whistled through the air. I sank the knife lower than I’d intended. I’d aimed for its spine, but the snake’s sudden movement affected my intended target, and I only managed to gouge a deep line in its side.

Then its tail hit me with a solid thwack.

The blow was softened a bit by my whirling magic shield, but it was still enough to make me stagger and drop the knife.

The snake whipped around, hissed, and spat another stream of venom right at me.

“Mike!” Artemis screamed from the kitchen doorway.

My shield worked exactly as I’d hoped it would. The spinning current of air caught the flying drops of venom and threw them away from me. They splattered against the floor, the ceiling, and the walls.

Artemis yelped as a couple of them rang against her frying pan shield, and the snake screeched as its own venom landed on its throat and face and started to smoke.

“Artemis!” I shouted. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m good,” Artemis called back. “The pan worked!”

I drew back my hand to hurl a fireball at the massive monster towering above me.

But as I started to call up the fire magic, I felt my air shield begin to weaken.

“Damn it!” I yelled. “I can’t use my fire magic while I’m using the air magic to protect myself.”

“Use the knife!” Artemis called from the kitchen doorway.

I glanced down, saw the knife on the floor a few feet away where I’d dropped it, and dove to pick it up. My fingers closed around the handle, and I whipped around with it in my hand.

The snake bared its teeth and hissed aggressively. It had pulled its entire body into the front room, and its tail coiled and thumped against the floor in an angry beat.

It lunged at me, and I dove out of the way, then spun around in an attempt to counterattack, but Artemis’ knife was too short.

I would have to get close to the snake to use the knife effectively, but I wasn’t sure if my shield would be able to withstand the impact of an up-close blast of venom.

“Artemis,” I called. “I’m going to rush in and try to stab it.”

“Mike, no!” she gasped in horror. “It’ll get you!”

“I’ll be okay,” I assured her with a confidence I totally didn’t feel. “But when I run into the front room, you need to run downstairs and get out of here.”

“No!” Artemis shouted. “I’m not leaving you!”

“Can you do a spell that’ll take it out?” I demanded.

“No,” she admitted. “I’m not strong enough.”

“Then you need to get your ass out of here,” I shouted.

“Fuck my ass!” she retorted. “I’m not leaving you! I’m running in with you!”

Artemis left the safety of the kitchen doorway and ran to my side. She had one of my kitchen knives in her hand, and she held it out to me. I took it, and she snatched her witch’s blade back from me.

“Let’s stab this bastard together,” she said.

“Fucking hell,” I managed to dig up a grim, humorless smirk. “You never quit, do you?”

“Nope.” Artemis’ eyes gleamed with reckless excitement. “Are you fucking ready or not, Wainwright?”

“I’m fucking ready,” I said.

The snake had been running its nose along its body as it examined the raw patches in its hide where the acid had eaten through its scales. But now it raised its head and stared at us with furious yellow eyes.

It hissed.

Artemis lifted her witch’s blade. I tightened my grip on the kitchen knife.

A part of my mind registered hearing the front door of the apartment open, but I didn’t think about what that might mean until suddenly I heard a breathless, shaking voice behind me.

“Mike!” It was Jay.

In his hand, he held the replica of Narsil that we’d just gotten into the shop.

All fifty-three glorious inches of it.

He held it out to me, and I stretched my hand out and took it. My body seemed to act on instinct. My muscles moved without thinking, and without any conscious decision or effort on my part, I lifted Narsil high in the air.

The snake hissed again.

Venom was gathering on the ends of its fangs for another attack.

I saw it all so clearly that, for a moment, I wondered if time had somehow slowed down. But it hadn’t, it was just the adrenaline and me knowing exactly what to do.

I kept my shield up and my sword high, and I charged into the front room to meet the snake threatening my home and family.

The monster lunged forward to meet me.

I blocked its first blow on the edge of the blade and then shoved. I dropped my shield so I could throw some magical air at the beast, and the move forced the snake’s heavy head back. I used the momentum of that shove to swing Narsil around in a curve.

The last foot of the blade bit into the side of the snake’s neck, and the force of my swing shoved the sword deeper and deeper.

And then Narsil came out the other side, and the snake’s head fell to the floor with a heavy thud. Its body thrashed wildly, and its tail smashed against the wall and left a small crater in the drywall. The snake spasmed and hit the window with a sharp crack. Finally, it toppled over in the opposite direction to where the head had gone, and the stump of its neck hit the wall and slid down with a messy smear of gore trickling down after it.

For a moment, the only sound in the room was my own wild breathing.

I turned around slowly to face Jay and Artemis, who were standing in the hallway.

They stared at me like they’d never seen me before.

Artemis’ eyes were blazing with pride, joy, and triumph.

Jay looked like he was about to throw up.

“Holy shit,” I gasped. “Thanks, Jay.”

“N-no– no problem,” he stammered.

I looked at Narsil in my hand. The blade was smeared with the snake’s bluish blood, and there was a notch in the metal near the tip.

“I guess we’re going to have to write this off,” I said with a chuckle.

“You can mount it over the fireplace,” Artemis said. “Tell the babies it’s the sword you used to kill the snake and save the town.”

I grinned, wiped my forehead with the back of my hand, and looked around at the front room.

The snake had done more damage than I’d first realized. Its venom had eaten away at the rugs on the floor, and there was a large hole in one of the couch cushions. Its tail had cracked the glass in the window, and there was a dent in the wall with a small pile of drywall dust below it on the floor.

“Oh, Mike.” Artemis came to my side. “I’m sorry.”

“Hey, it’s okay.” I lifted my shoulders in a shrug. “I’ve been meaning to remodel anyway.”

“You’ll finally get it done,” she agreed with a smile.

“Jay?” Annie’s trembling voice came from the hallway. “Mike? Is it safe?”

“Yes!” I called, and I hurried out of the front room to see Annie, Diana, Lily, and Chanterelle spilling out of the stairwell and into the apartment with the babies in their arms.

“Mike!” Chanterelle almost sobbed, and she rested her cheek against Belle’s head.

Belle wasn’t loving the current situation, and she was violently screaming about it, along with her brother. Amanita, however, was oddly calm, and her blue eyes wandered over the scene in front of her almost like she knew what was happening. She was in Lily’s arms while Diana carried Jack.

“Oh, you killed it!” Annie’s hand flew to cover her mouth. “Oh, my god. With a sword? You killed it with a sword?”

“Bloody hell,” Diana gasped. “Is that fucking Narsil?”

“Yeah,” I said with a grin.

“Oh, my god, you killed a snake with a fucking nerd sword.” Lily shook her head in amazement. “Of course you did.”

“Hey, I run a comic book store,” I chuckled. “My options were limited. We can thank Jay for bringing it up.”

“When the others came running down with the babies, I didn’t know what to do,” Jay admitted. “And then we heard all the banging, and then something started to burn through the ceiling, and I thought, ‘I have to do something.’ And then I saw Narsil, and I just kind of– went for it.”

“It was a good plan,” I said with a nod. “All the knives we had were too short. But with Narsil, I could actually do some damage.”

Artemis gasped suddenly.

I looked at her in concern, but she grabbed my shoulder in excitement.

“Mike,” she said. “You know what this means?”

“What?” I asked.

“This is the third cryptid that’s appeared in town,” she said. “And it came from the fucking pipes.”

“Oh, shit.” I realized what she meant. “It’s another water cryptid.”

“Yeah!” Artemis exclaimed.

“The one element you can’t control yet!” Diana nodded her head. “Chanterelle and Artemis filled us in on your theory about the cryptids. So you think this is a targeted attack on you, Mike?”

“It seems that way,” I said.

“I bet that’s what it is,” Chanterelle said in a fierce voice. “Artemis, can you do the locator spell to find out which fucking assholes are doing this?”

It was kind of shocking to hear the anger in Chanterelle’s voice. She was always so mild, and she rarely used profanity. But she looked at me with her hand protectively cradling Belle’s head, and in her normally soft eyes, I saw the raw fury of a mama bear defending her young.

Artemis saw it, too, and she bared her teeth in a wolfish grin.

“Fuck, yeah,” she said. “Let’s get the bastards.”

She moved to stand over the severed head of the snake and looked down at it with her nose wrinkled in disgust.

“Careful,” I warned her. “There may still be venom on its fangs.”

“Don’t worry,” she said. “I’ll be careful.”

She bent down and reached out her hand to touch the snake’s scaly head. Her fingers grazed its hide.

And the air in the room suddenly fizzed with magic.

My vision blurred, and black spots burst in front of my eyes. I was dazzled, as though I was staring into a bright light, and I automatically threw up my hand to cover my eyes.

Then I lowered my hand and stared in disbelief at the three figures standing in front of me.

“Mike,” the oldest of the Three said in her low voice.

“Hello, all,” the middle woman said with a pinched smile.

The youngest of the Three merely sniffed and pressed her lips together.

“Uh, hi,” I said. “What’s, uh, what’s up?”

I couldn’t help the expression of stunned confusion that took over my entire face.

The youngest of the Three looked down at the beheaded body of the snake, and the corners of her mouth turned down disapprovingly.

“I see you approached this task with your customary finesse and subtlety,” she said.

“It’s dead, isn’t it?” I rolled my eyes.

“Hang on.” Artemis’ voice was sharp. “You called this a task.”

“Indeed.” The middle woman smiled at her. “It was a task, and Mike performed admirably.”

“A task,” I repeated. “You mean… Wait. Are you saying this was a task you set?”

“Indeed,” the middle woman said again with another smile.

“It was a test.” My voice was hard. “You put the whole town in danger, you trash my home, you endanger my family… for a test?”

“I don’t know why you’re complaining,” the youngest said. “You passed them just fine.”

“Okay,” I said in a voice that I struggled to keep calm. “I’m going to need to know what the fuck is going on right fucking now.”

“Did you say ‘them?’” Artemis demanded.

“Mike,” the oldest woman said like a patient but firm grandmother.

I swallowed and sucked in a deep breath. I chewed hard on the inside of my cheek for a moment before I spoke again.

“Please,” I said stiffly. “Explain what this test was all about.”

“Three tests,” the old woman said. “The serpents. The bildad. And the snake. We sent the cryptids here to test you.”

“To probe your weaknesses,” the young one said.

“To prove your worth,” the middle one added.

“Mike doesn’t need to prove his worth!” Diana exclaimed angrily. “Have you not been paying attention to everything that’s happened the past year?”

“Mike’s been working his ass off to protect the town and keep everyone safe,” Lily added.

“Often with no help from you, either,” Artemis snapped.

“And we are very satisfied with his performance.” The middle woman inclined her head toward me.

“Gee, thanks.” I scowled.

“And that is why we are comfortable with the decision we have made,” the middle woman continued.

There was a brief pause.

“What decision?” I finally asked.

“To give you the town,” the oldest woman said, and there was the tiniest glint of pride in her eyes.

“You’re going to give me the town,” I repeated her words in the hopes that saying them out loud would suddenly force them into making sense.

It didn’t work.

“What?” I asked.

The middle woman nodded.

“We will give you Wormwood,” the oldest woman said. “We will connect you to the ley lines so you are one with the space, with the land, with the people, with the magic that lives here. You will know it all, and that will help you fulfill your destiny of protecting this town.”

My mouth opened and then closed a couple of times as I tried to work out how to answer a statement like that.

“You will have sole authority over Wormwood,” the middle woman said. “You will be able to banish wrongdoers from the town and keep them at bay beyond the borders. If necessary, you will be able to send the worst offenders to us directly, where we will incarcerate them in our secure psychic holding cells.”

“It’s where we sent the Mithridate,” the middle woman explained. “And Trevor the enchanter.”

“You will be able to oversee everything within the town,” the oldest woman said. “You will know it all. You will see it all. The people, the animals, the trees, the ley lines. You will know it, see it, and protect it.”

“While still dealing with the wellspring,” the youngest woman said in a stern voice. “That part of your duty still remains. Don’t neglect it.”

“Do you accept our offer?” the oldest woman asked.

“Hold on.” I held up my hand and shook my head. “Let me process this for a second.”

The youngest woman looked pissed off by my request, but that was nothing new, and the other two women of the Three nodded in agreement.

I turned slightly away from the Three to face Artemis, Diana, Lily, Annie, and Chanterelle. Jay was there, too, but my focus was on the women who’d become my family somewhere along the way.

I was taken aback by the pure love shining out of their eyes.

“Oh, Mike,” Lily whispered. “It’s all happening now, isn’t it?”

“I said you were the mother from The Exorcist,” Chanterelle said in a voice that sounded close to tears. “I said so.”

“What do you think?” I asked.

“I can’t believe you even have to ask!” Artemis exclaimed. “Obviously, yes, this is amazing!”

“Mike, this is incredible,” Diana added. “You’re getting recognized for all the hard work you do. And this is going to make it all so much easier.”

“You protected me,” Annie said in a low voice. “You saved Jayden. Think how many more people you can help with all this extra power.”

I looked around at the proud, smiling faces of the women I loved.

I’d known in my heart what my answer was the instant the Three had made their offer, but it was something very special to hear such unconditional love and support from the people dearest to me.

“Okay.” My voice was a whisper. “I guess I’m agreeing.”

“Yes,” Artemis said in a firm voice. “Yes, you are.”

I smiled around at them all, and with my throat still a little tight, I turned back to the Three and nodded my head.

“Yes,” I said. “I accept.”

The middle woman smiled.

The old woman nodded slowly, and that glint of pride sparked in her eyes again.

The young woman folded her arms and looked at me like I’d just tread all over her rug with shit on my shoes.

“So be it,” the oldest woman said.

The middle woman held out her hands to the others, and the young woman and the old woman laced their fingers through hers on either side.

They took a deep breath in unison.

The young woman began muttering a chant under her breath, and the old woman started huffing her breath in and out of her open mouth. The middle woman smiled at me like nothing weird was happening at all.

“Put down the sword,” she said.

I hesitated and looked down at Narsil in my grip. I stared at it for a long moment. Then I released my grip and let it fall to the ground. It hit the floor with a resonant clang.

“Come here, Mike,” she said in a kind voice.

I stepped closer until I was only a foot away from them.

“Your hands,” the middle woman said. “Hold them out.”

I did so, and the old woman and the young woman linked their fingers through mine so we were all linked in a circle.

The old woman’s skin was startlingly soft, while the young woman’s hands were as rough as sandpaper.

“Breathe,” the middle woman sighed. “Breathe. Breathe.”

I breathed, and my spirit shifted inside me. I could feel it moving like another entity contained inside my body.

A few times before, I’d caught a glimpse of the ley lines that ran through Wormwood. But it was nothing compared to what I saw now.

The lines of magic gleamed deep in the soil like electrical wires, and they hummed above the ground like a lightly strummed guitar string. They were everywhere.

I saw them underneath my shop and running through the square. I saw them pass underneath the library and along the road toward the mall complex. I saw them rush toward the woods with the fierce energy of knowing the nexus point was just up ahead.

And, suddenly, just by wishing it, I was there with them.

I was standing in the middle of the forest. This was where we’d camped, but it looked different.

Before, it had just been a clearing in the trees, but now I looked around, and I saw the magical grid of power overlaying everything. I saw the trees with their roots wrapping around the lines, the flowers and grass that sprouted from the magically charged soil, and the potent presence of magic in the air that buzzed like a hundred bees and coated everything it touched like drifting pollen.

I bent down and pressed my hand flat against the ground. The magic soared through me, tingled through my palms and wrists, and filled me up inside, like water into a pitcher.

I could feel the moisture in the soil and in the air, and when I straightened up and moved my hand in front of my face, my fingers caught that water and held it. I gathered more and more until I was holding a condensed ball of water in my palm.

It was cool against my skin, and I smiled, raised my hand to my lips, and drank down the water in one gulp. It tasted like the first breath of spring, like the warmth of a baby held in my arms, like the smile of my lovers shining up at me.

There was movement on the trunk of the tree directly in front of me. I looked at it and saw a man pressing himself out of the trunk. He had a vague shimmering quality to him, and he was dressed in the clothes of a trapper with a simple cotton shirt, leather trousers, and a fur hat.

I’d seen this man before. He was my ancestor, maybe the first Wainwright to ever come to Wormwood. When I’d seen him before, it hadn’t seemed like he was able to see me. But now he looked me dead in the eye and gave me a gruff nod of either praise or recognition.

I had no time to dwell on that because, in the next heartbeat, another tree expelled another ghost.

It went on and on until I was facing a long line of my ancestors. The Wainwrights, who’d been a part of Wormwood since the beginning, whose destiny I was carrying on.

Uncle Billy squeezed out of the last tree. He gave me a big smile, but, just like the others, he said nothing.

I looked around at them all, and a strange feeling gripped my heart.

“Thank you,” I spoke softly. “Thank you for being here. For staying here so I could be born in a place like this. I’ll do my best to protect it. You have my word.”

The ghosts inclined their heads to me.

I did the same, and with my eyes locked on Uncle Billy’s smiling face, I was snapped back into the trashed front room of my apartment.

The Three were there. They looked at me for a moment, and then they nodded as one.

“Good,” they said.

And then they vanished.

The corpse of the huge snake vanished along with them.

I turned to look at the people who were waiting for me.

The women gazed at me with expressions of wonder on their faces, and Jay looked like he was going to hurt himself, he was smiling so wide.

Finally, Chanterelle spoke.

“Is it done?” she asked in a low whisper.

“Yes,” I replied.

“What did you see?” Diana asked.

“I saw my ancestors,” I replied softly. “I saw the line of them reaching back through the centuries to when this town was first founded. I saw them, and they saw me, and we all knew the truth.”

“The truth?” Artemis whispered.

I smiled. “There’s always been a Wainwright here to protect the town. And now there always will be.”

Epilogue

Snow fell softly from a leaden, gray sky.

I looked up at the swirling white flakes and smiled.

The snow whirled around me as I headed across the square back toward Time & Space. It clung to my coat and jeans, and after only a few minutes of the snow falling, it had already started to cover the sidewalk. The wind rustled the bare black tree branches against the sky, and I paused for a moment to close my eyes and stand underneath them.

In the stillness behind my eyelids, I felt the gentle hum of their energy as they pulled power from the ley lines to keep them sustained through the cold winter months. Beyond the trees, I felt every single strand of life in Wormwood just waiting to be watched, to be strummed, to be left alone.

The Three’s gift of binding me to the ley lines had taken a bit of getting used to.

The first week after, I’d come down with vibrant, intense migraines where the knowledge of everything and everyone in Wormwood hummed in my skull and painted flashing, painful images on the inside of my brain.

It had been more than just sight. My ears had rung with the sound of the thousand voices of Wormwood’s citizens, my mouth had tasted too many flavors to make out anything, and even my lungs had felt clogged and strained with the breaths of every person and thing within the boundaries of the town.

It gave me a new understanding of why Chanterelle had been so spaced out when she first woke up.

But now, eight years later, I’d conquered the Three’s gift just like I’d conquered my magic.

I’d mastered air, then earth, then fire, and as a little extra, the Three had thrown in water magic when they bound me to the ley lines. I could now bend every single one of the elements to my will.

Which, admittedly, came with its own unique and unexpected set of problems.

A wry smile tugged at my lips as I remembered the scene at the dinner table last night.

“But, Daddy, you can control the water and the air,” Belle had said in a wounded voice. “I don’t understand why you can’t do it.”

“I know, honey,” I’d said. “I’m sorry, the weather just doesn’t work like that. I promise you, if I could make it snow for you, I would.”

“What if we’re really good?” Elijah, Lily’s and my son, asked with his huge dark eyes fixed on my face.

His cuteness had absolutely melted my heart, and I’d hated that I had to shake my head regretfully.

“I’m sorry, little man,” I replied.

Lily had leaned over and put her arm around our son’s shoulders in a comforting gesture.

“Don’t worry, Elijah,” Hannah said in a firm voice, and she patted the top of her little brother’s head. “I will check the weather report for you.”

Hannah was barely eight years old, but she had the dignity and serious manner of a much older child. She was fiercely protective of her little brother, and she’d inherited Lily’s passion for facts and research.

Now I looked up into the gray sky and let another smile wash over my face.

It was gratifying to know my children had such confidence in my abilities that they thought I could control the weather and make it snow for them, but I hated disappointing them. They would be so excited that it was finally snowing and they could get the white Christmas they’d been longing for ever since they watched The Muppet Christmas Carol last year.

I moved away from underneath the trees and picked up the pace as I walked across the square. I wanted to see my kids’ excitement at the snow, and there was something else in my pocket that everyone at home would be delighted to see.

The square was quiet and empty. Almost all the stores had already closed, and only the diner on the corner was still open for the people who wanted to celebrate Christmas Eve with mince pies and hot chocolate. The golden light from its windows spilled out onto the rapidly thickening coat of snow on the ground, and it looked pretty damn picturesque.

I reached the far end of the square with only the road between me and home, and I paused there for a moment and looked up at the place that held my heart.

It had been pretty clear to everyone that we couldn’t continue living in Uncle Billy’s apartment the way it had been set up before. But I didn’t particularly want to move away from a place that held so many memories for me, and which was directly above the store that I ran and the wellspring that I was sworn to protect.

In a way, the snake’s acid attacks on the place had been a blessing in disguise. I was already having to organize repairs on the apartment, so when it ended up being an entire remodeling job, I already had a contractor ready for the job.

The exciting development came one day, about three weeks later, when I noticed the house beside the shop was up for sale.

Immediately, it had all become clear to me how I could solve our issue of space.

I bought the house for sale, and it had become our family home while Uncle Billy’s apartment above the shop was turned into a sort of daycare space where the kids could hang out and play while I was at work.

It had been an adjustment as I got used to living in a whole house rather than a small one-bedroom apartment, but like everything else in my new life, it was worth every second of effort I put into it.

And now things were about to get even better.

I grinned to myself, stuffed my hand into my pocket to check that the envelope was still there, and crossed the street.

The light was on in Time & Space, and when I cracked open the door and peered in, I saw Diana was still busy with a customer.

“I just really want an authentic WarAxe experience,” the customer was saying in an earnest voice. “It’s for his birthday, and I want it to be special.”

“Of course,” Diana assured the guy in a calm voice. “We’ve held lots of WarAxe parties in the shop; we can totally handle your son’s birthday.”

“Okay.” The guy let out his breath in a gusty exhale.

Then his attention went to the sword mounted on a plaque behind the counter.

“What about the sword?” he asked. “Is that for sale?”

Diana glanced up at Narsil with a little smile on her face.

“No, sorry,” she replied. “It’s display only. It has sentimental value for the owner.”

I quietly closed the door so I wouldn’t let in any more cold air, then walked from the shop to the front door of our home. I opened the front door, tossed my keys into the bowl, hung up my jacket on a hook, and turned around quickly as I heard the thunder of little feet on the stairs behind me.

“Daddy!” Amanita cried as she hurled herself into my arms.

“Daddy!” Belle panted. “You did it, you did it! You made it snow!”

“Snow!” Elijah shrieked.

“Snow!” Jack cheered.

Hannah followed a little more slowly behind the others with her hand clasped in Leona’s. The two girls had been born within days of each other, and even though Hannah was my daughter with Lily and Leona was mine with Diana, they couldn’t have been closer if they’d shared the same mother.

Leona gazed at me with her lower lip caught between her teeth.

I straightened up from embracing the other kids and smiled at the two girls while I held out my arms for a hug.

They came to me and rested their heads on my shoulders, then giggled as I swept them both up in my arms and planted a kiss on each of their cheeks.

“Why all these solemn faces, huh?” I asked them playfully. “It’s Christmas Eve, it’s snowing, and Uncle Jay and Auntie Amber will be here soon.”

I bounced both of them up and down in my arms until they were giggling breathlessly.

“You didn’t really make it snow, did you, Daddy?” Hannah asked me through her laughter.

“No.” I smiled at her. “You’re too smart for me to fool you, aren’t you?”

“I checked the weather report,” she said. “And it said there was a sixty percent chance of snow, which is more than half, which means it was likely that it would snow.”

“Very good.” I nodded approvingly, then kissed Leona’s forehead. “And what do you think, Leelee? Did I make it snow?”

“No,” Leona said in such a firm voice that I had to smile. “Ab-so-lute-ly not.”

“It is freaky how much you sound like your mom,” I told her.

“That’s because she’s my mom!” Leona exclaimed. “Except sometimes she’s my mum as well. But no one else is my mum, not even Mommy Chanterelle, or Mommy Diana, or Mommy Lily, or Mommy Annie, or Mommy Artemis.”

“That’s right,” I agreed. “They’re your mommies, but you only have one mum, don’t you?”

Leona gave a firm nod.

“Daddy, can we go have a snowball fight?” Belle asked. “Mommy said you would go out and play with us in the snow when you got back.”

“Well, if she said that, then that’s what’s going to happen,” I said with a smile. “I just need to talk to all the moms, okay? But how about you run upstairs and find your boots, coats, and gloves?”

“Okay!” Belle shouted.

All the kids thundered back up the stairs. I guessed it would take them quite a while to locate their winter clothes, and even longer to actually get dressed in them, so I had a little breathing room for a few minutes. Eventually, I’d go up there and help them dress warmly for the snowy afternoon outside.

I went along the hallway and up the single step into the kitchen. A delicious smell of baking wafted out to greet me, and I entered the room with a deep appreciative sniff. Lily and Chanterelle were at the stove while Annie sat in a chair at the dining table with her feet up on another chair.

“Something smells good!” I said.

The kitchen smelled tantalizing from the two chickens currently roasting in the oven, and there was an extra scent of something sweet overlaying the savory smell of our dinner.

“Oh, Mike!” Chanterelle turned around from the stovetop. “There you are!”

“Come taste this,” Lily said.

She held out a wooden spoon for me to taste. There was a little pool of steaming golden liquid in the bowl, and I sipped it gingerly.

“Well?” Chanterelle asked eagerly. “What do you think?”

“Good!” I exclaimed. “It tastes like apples.”

“It’s hard cider warmed through with sugar and spices,” Lily explained.

“It smells so good,” Annie said with a deep sigh. “And I can’t have any of it.”

“Aww, babes, don’t worry,” Lily said. “I’m going to make an alcohol-free version. I just want this to get to a simmer, and then I’ll start on yours.”

I went to Annie’s side and squeezed her shoulder gently. Annie looked up at me with a smile and reached up to take my hand.

“How are you doing?” I asked her.

Annie looked down at her huge belly with a rueful smile on her face.

“I’d really hoped he would come early and be a Christmas baby,” she replied. “But I don’t think that’s going to happen.”

“Maybe he’ll make an appearance by New Year’s,” Lily suggested.

“I was reading about a woman whose baby was almost two weeks late,” Chanterelle said. “They were about to induce labor, but then she went into labor naturally.”

“Two weeks!” Annie shook her blonde hair in a mournful way. “I really don’t want to wait two weeks to meet my firstborn child. I want him out now!”

“I remember that feeling,” Lily said with a laugh. “There’s that nice glowy period when you’re kind of near the end, but you’re not there yet. And then you get further along and you just want it to be over.”

“Yeah,” Annie said in a grumpy voice. “I’m there. I want this to be done with.”

“You’ll get there,” I said comfortingly. “He might be a New Year’s Day baby rather than a Christmas baby, but he’ll show his face soon enough.”

“What are good New Year’s Day names?” Annie wondered.

“That’s a good point.” Lily leveled the wooden spoon at her with a look of teasing menace. “I reckon the baby knew you wanted to call him Noel and is hiding inside you out of protest.”

“It’s a good Christmas name!” Annie protested.

“No, hon,” Lily said. “It’s a bad Christmas name.”

“Ugh.” Annie rolled her eyes. “Fine. Give me a New Year’s Day baby name. What do you think, Mike?”

“Hmm.” I thought about it for a moment. “Phoenix? Like rising again?”

“Phoenix,” Annie repeated thoughtfully. “Maybe.”

“Lazarus,” Lily said with a giggle.

“No!” Annie protested.

I chuckled. “I actually came in here to show you something.”

“A Christmas present!” Chanterelle guessed.

“Kind of,” I said, and I pulled the envelope out of my pocket.

I opened it and took out the set of keys that was inside.

“Oh, my god!” Annie’s eyes widened.

“Oh, yeah!” Lily cried.

“Are those the keys?” Chanterelle asked in delight.

“Yep.” I grinned and shook them so they jangled on the ring they were on. “As of about twenty minutes ago, we own the building on the left side of Time & Space.”

“Now you can expand the shop!” Chanterelle exclaimed.

“And we’ll have so much more space!” Annie said.

“That’s the best Christmas present you could have given us,” Lily told me with a smile.

I chuckled. “Don’t say that, I put tons of thought into your presents.”

“Yes!” Chanterelle clapped her hands together. “Ohhh, I love presents so much.”

I smiled. It might have sounded like a greedy statement coming from someone else, but I knew Chanterelle meant she literally loved everything about presents. She loved receiving them, but she also loved shopping for, wrapping, and giving them. The research and preparation that went into buying a present brought her so much genuine happiness, it was really damn heartwarming to see.

Just then, a car horn beeped outside.

“That’ll be Jay and Amber!” I grinned, and I hurried out of the kitchen.

I reached the front door just as the kids came charging down the stairs.

“It’s Uncle Jay!” Jack yelled. “Uncle Jay and Auntie Amber!”

“I love Auntie Amber!” Belle shouted in glee.

I opened the door just as Jay on the other side lifted his fist to knock on it. The look of surprise on his face was such a classic Jay expression that it instantly made me feel years younger and like no time had really passed at all.

“Jay!” I cried.

I dragged him toward me and thumped him on the back, then pulled him into a crushing hug.

Jay wheezed a little in surprise, but then he hugged me back, and I was surprised to feel the muscled strength in his grip.

“Damn, Jay,” I exclaimed. “Have you been working out?”

“Maybe a little bit,” Jay admitted in a sheepish tone, and then he dropped down onto one knee and held out his arms for his nieces and nephews. “Oh, my god, there you all are! Look at you, you’re all growing up so fast!”

The kids laughed and ran into his arms. They only moved away when Amber came to the door, and then they flung themselves at her instead.

There was a lot of laughter, hugs, and kisses exchanged between everyone. Jay and Amber went through to the kitchen to say hello to the others, and then I set them up in the living room in front of the open fire.

Annie heaved herself up from her position in the kitchen to come and talk to them, and I lingered there for a while to catch up on all the news since I’d last seen them.

Jay and Amber had moved away a few years after the triplets were born. I’d tried to get them to stay in Wormwood and carry on working in the shop, but I hadn’t really had the heart once I saw how excited they were at the idea of finally moving away from their hometown. They’d traveled around for a couple of years before finally settling in Portland. Jay now worked as a freelance writer, and Amber loved her work as a dog groomer.

I knew they’d struggled a bit financially at first, but then Amber’s dog salon had started to take off once she began posting videos online. Now she had over a million subscribers, and she earned more than enough to support both her and Jay, which was handy since Jay had started talking about taking a year off to write a graphic novel.

He’d gotten by before with random articles and bits of freelance work, but the graphic novel was where his heart was. We’d had many late-night brainstorming sessions over Zoom while he hashed out the finer details of the plot and character design.

Amber was telling us about some celebrity who’d brought their Maltipoo in for a haircut when the front door opened, and Artemis’ voice rang out.

“Hello!” she called.

“Hey, Artemis,” I called back. “We’re in here.”

Artemis came into the living room and greeted Jay and Amber with a wide smile. At first glance, she seemed perfectly happy and normal, but I could detect a tension in her jaw that I didn’t know the cause of.

I watched her closely in case I could figure it out, but Artemis just perched on the arm of the couch and listened to the conversation.

It was only when there was a gap in the talking that she looked up quickly at me.

“Can I borrow you, Mike?” she asked.

“Yeah, sure,” I replied.

I followed Artemis out of the front room. She was still in the coat, scarf, and boots she’d put on that morning to go to work at her shop.

“Is everything okay?” I asked.

“Mmhmm.” She nodded. “I just… Can we go somewhere more private?”

“Of course,” I said. “Let’s go outside.”

“Let’s go outside!” Belle shouted.

She and the other kids had all rushed downstairs to say hi to Jay and Amber, but small talk about Maltipoos didn’t interest her or any of the other children. Especially when she’d already made up her mind about what activities she wanted to do next.

“Outside!” Elijah begged.

I scooped him under my arm and held him like a surfboard, which always made him giggle and kick his little legs in happy spasms.

“Alright,” I said. “But where are your coats and hats?”

“I’ve got them!” Jack shouted, and he tore out of the living room and back up the stairs.

The other kids followed him.

Artemis and I looked at each other and laughed.

“I guess we should go help them get dressed,” she said in a rueful tone.

“Probably,” I agreed. “You just know one of them’s going to end up with their snowpants on their head at some point.”

I could feel Artemis’ tension rising all throughout the next few minutes while we managed to squeeze, force, and cajole my offspring into warm coats that wouldn’t let in the snow’s chill.

But finally, all the kids were zipped into their coats with their hats on their heads and their gloves on their hands. Artemis and I herded them down the stairs and out of the back door into the backyard.

“Snow!” Belle shrieked in complete and utter happiness, and she plunged into the rising drifts.

I watched fondly as all my kids threw themselves into the snow. The last few winters we’d had in Wormwood had been surprisingly mild, so this was the first time they would properly remember playing in the snow.

I watched every move they made like I was taking a snapshot, and I folded away each image inside my heart so I would remember them forever.

“Mike.” Artemis took a deep breath.

I instantly turned to face her.

Artemis took another deep breath, and then another.

“Mike,” she said again.

“What is it?” I asked.

My heart was suddenly thumping wildly as I tried to imagine what Artemis’ issue could be.

“I have an early Christmas present for you,” she said.

I was so relieved I almost burst out laughing. Artemis handed me a small jar that was stuffed with herbs and sealed with purple wax.

“It’s a spell jar to summon your Uncle Billy,” she explained. “I made one for Diana as well, so she can call up her grandma. I thought you could use them tomorrow if you wanted. Ghosts at Christmas, that tracks, doesn’t it?”

“I guess so,” I said and held up the jar to the porchlight. “This is perfect, Artemis, thank you so much.”

“You’re welcome.” She smiled, but I could tell there was still something else on her mind.

“Why did you give me this today and not tomorrow?” I asked curiously.

Artemis chewed on her lower lip. If it wasn’t for the dim lighting and snowy shadows, I would have thought she looked nervous.

“I have another present to give you,” she said. “And I wanted that to be what you remembered from Christmas Day.”

“That sounds intriguing,” I smiled. “What is this present? Can I guess?”

Artemis let out a laugh. “I’m going to tell you what it is.”

“Okay.” I waited.

Artemis took a couple of deep breaths. “Mike…”

“Yeah?” I asked.

“Mike, I’m… pregnant,” she whispered.

I stared at Artemis with a thousand different thoughts and emotions whirling around inside my entire body.

“But–” I stammered. “But I thought you didn’t–”

“I changed my mind,” Artemis said in a voice that was both soft and firm. “All these years, you’ve never once pressured me to get pregnant or made me feel like that’s the only reason you might be with me.”

“That’s because it’s not,” I said indignantly.

“But that’s been healing for me in ways I didn’t even realize,” Artemis continued. “And of course, seeing you with the kids has been wonderful. You’re the perfect dad, and I’ve seen how you respond to the best and the worst parts of parenthood. So yeah. I’m sure now. And I’m having this baby with you. Unless, of course, you object.”

“Object?” I caught Artemis in my arms and spun her around.

She stumbled in the snow and fell onto me, and her breathless laughter clouded in front of her face.

I kissed her chilled, rosy cheeks, her cold forehead, her wild and crazy red hair.

“Oh, my god,” I whispered to her. “I can’t believe this. This is perfect.”

Artemis grinned happily, and then she looked down as Belle leaned against her leg.

“It’s too cold,” she said with a deep sniff. “I thought it would be fun to throw snowballs, but they just make my gloves all wet.”

“That’s the problem with snow,” I agreed, and then I called to the others. “Alright, I think we’re going in now!”

“Alright,” Jack called back.

There was no fuss at all about going back inside, and I wondered if Belle wasn’t the only one of the kids who was a little underwhelmed by snow. Then again, maybe it was just because it was the end of the day, and they were tired and cold.

I turned to tramp back through the snow to reach the back door, but then Artemis put a hand on my arm and stopped me.

“Thank you,” she whispered. “All these years. You’ve done more than you’ll ever know. I love you, Mike Wainwright. I love you with every scrap and stitch of me.”

There was a lump in my throat that I couldn’t swallow.

My mind flashed back to those early encounters at Wormwood High, through to her return to the town, and everything that had happened since then.

I didn’t have the words to express just what Artemis Black meant to me. So I lifted her gloved hands to my lips, kissed them, and threw my arm around her shoulders as we went back inside the house to tell the others the good news.

The End

End Notes

Thank you for reading Dangerous Girls 6! This is the last book in the series. I hope you loved it! If you could leave a review here I’d appreciate it! Thanks again!

Don’t forget about my Patreon! You’ll get advanced audio chapters (for your ears) or written chapters (for your eyes), and nude/sexy versions of my covers (for your… uhhh… well…) I also have an audiobook subscription so you can get 3-4 of my books every month at a discount along with all the other stuff. Check it out here! Or search for my name on Patreon.com.

Amazon doesn’t update readers when an author comes out with a new book unless you follow that author on the store. Make sure you click this link and then click on the follow button. Then Amazon will update you a few weeks after my next book comes out.

If you want to get notified of my books the day that they come out, make sure you follow my Facebook author page and join my Facebook fan group. If you don’t follow me on Amazon or join my Facebook page, you’ll never get alerted that the next book is out.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

Copyright © 2025 by Eric Vall

….

Patreon

Don’t forget about my Patreon! You’ll get advanced audio chapters (for your ears) or written chapters (for your eyes), and nude/sexy versions of my covers (for your… uhhh… well…) I also have an audiobook subscription so you can get 3-4 of my books every month at a discount along with all the other stuff. Check it out here! Or search for my name on Patreon.com.

Amazon doesn’t update readers when an author comes out with a new book unless you follow that author on the store. Make sure you click this link and then click on the follow button. Then Amazon will update you a few weeks after my next book comes out.

If you want to get notified of my books the day that they come out, make sure you follow my Facebook author page and join my Facebook fan group. If you don’t follow me on Amazon or join my Facebook page, you’ll never get alerted that the next book is out.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

Copyright © 2025 by Eric Vall

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