Filed To Story: Secret Shifters Next Door Series PDF Free
I pointed at the jewelry. “Can you tell us about this stuff?” I dumped it all out on the desk.
The woman stepped forward and glanced at it, then at me. “This was given to you?”
I shook my head. “No.” I hesitated. “To my mate.”
She touched each item in turn, slowly, almost lovingly. She placed them back after handling them. After she was done, she glanced at us and smiled.
“There is magic in these, but it is not harmful. It’s more like simple charms. Spells for luck.” She pointed at the opal necklace Harley had almost put on. “That one has a protection spell on it.”
Had I heard that right? Protection? “So, this Emily woman is trying to protect Harley and her daughters?”
Siobhan stared at me for a long time without answering. It was like she’d not even heard my question. She just held me with her eyes. For a minute, I was certain she was reading my soul, or my mind.
Finally, exasperated, I asked, “What the hell are you staring at?”
Siobhan took a deep breath. “The town. There’s a spell on the entire town.”
A stunned silence fell over us. Shocked silence was more accurate.
“The entire town? What does that even mean?” Miles asked.
She looked at him like he’d asked the dumbest question she’d ever heard. “It means what I said. Someone has cast a spell over the whole town. Don’t ask me what kind of spell, I can’t sense that. All I know is that as soon as we crossed over the Lilly Valley city limits, I felt it.”
“Is there any way to figure out what it is?” Blayne asked.
She sighed, as though she were tired. “Let me focus. I can try my best.”
She stood in the center of the room and held her hands out at her sides. We gave her complete silence to help her focus. After a few seconds, I felt a prickle along my arms, almost like static electricity was playing across the hairs of my forearm. I’d never felt anything like it. She seemed to be changing the energy
in the room. Her hands vibrated slightly, but not like she was doing it, more like some force encircling her was influencing the movement. Eyes closed, Siobhan winced and flinched. As calm as she looked, it also looked like she was working really hard. At last, when she looked ready to collapse, she opened her eyes and wobbled on her feet. Miles jumped up to steady her.
She took a breath, then said, “There’s definitely a spell.” She moved her finger around the room, pointing at all of us. “And the threads of the spell are all attached to the four of you. Threads that come from the epicenter of the spell and center on you all.”
Blayne looked at himself like he would be able to see what Siobhan saw.
“No, boy. You can’t see it. It’s all I can do to make it visible to myself. It’s like a wispy golden vapor rising off you in a thin stream. As for you…” she nodded at me, “…your thread is attached to someone down the hallway. I can see it turn the corner there.”
My heart stuttered. Harley was down the hall. This spell was somehow attached to us. How could this be happening? Why was this happening?
“What does all this mean? What will the spell do?” I asked.
She shook her head. “My opinion? By how the spell feels? I think a fate spell has been cast on the town, on you four specifically.”
Steff had gone pale, and his voice had a nervous lilt when he spoke. “Fate? Explain that?”
“I can see faint red threads in the spell. The red thread of fate. If it’s what I think it is, a witch has cast a fate spell that will force a mating bond. Bending your will to the whims of the witch and the spell.” She shrugged and shook her head. “I’m sure there’s more to the spell, but without either being there at its conjuring or speaking to the witch herself, I can’t tell you more. This is like nothing I’ve ever encountered. I can’t tell you the pros or cons of
the spell, either. All I can tell you is that it has connected you all to your fated pairings. Whether you want pairings or not.”
Miles pointed at me. “Tate is the only one with a mate so far, but she’s a human. How can a shifter be mated to a human? That’s nothing I’ve ever heard of, have you?”
“No, not in all the history of your species. All I can imagine is that the spell was so strong that it somehow defied our natural, and supernatural, laws. It’s allowed a pairing that has never happened before.”
The next question had to be asked, so I went for it before I lost my courage. “My mate. The human woman down the hall. She’s carrying my child. A baby, that is mine, one-hundred percent. Could this spell have caused that pregnancy, too?”
Siobhan had looked so calm and composed since she entered the office, that the look of shock on her face now was almost comical. She leaned forward, her mouth open in surprise, and looked me dead in the eyes.
“A human is carrying a shifter baby? You’re sure?”
“Yes.”
“Well, if such a thing truly has happened, then there is no doubt the spell is involved. Quite a powerful spell indeed,” she said to herself.
A spike of fear and dread shot through me. What if the spell had done more than force a pairing? If it was powerful enough to create a human and shifter child, it could do other things, too. Things that were too scary to think about.
“What about the feelings we have for each other? Did the spell create that, too?”
Siobhan seemed to come out of deep thought. Her face creased into a smile. “My boy, unlike folk and fairy tales, there is no such thing as a love spell. Nor a love potion. Yes, the spell perhaps forced you to meet or come together. Any feelings you