Chapter 10

Ten

"Eat with rival magic users to keep the peace, but always check for the hidden blade aimed between your ribs." — Sorcery in the Age of Reason.

It felt strange to be going to see Mara outside the teashop. While Augustus couldn’t remember precisely what had occurred between them, he knew something had shifted.

It wasn’t just that his lips were still positive they had tasted her and that his body remembered strange heat burning through it or that he lacked his scars. It was that he was genuinely interested in someone else for the first time in years.

Augustus needed to approach the subject of her curses and how he could help break them in a delicate, non-threatening way.

Mara had proven that acting like a protective caveman wasn’t the way to win her over, and he wanted her to trust him and his magic enough to let him help.

Augustus needed to deal with the fucking Druids first, or they would continue to harass him, and he didn’t have the time for that particular drama. He didn’t know if he had time for the specific drama that was waiting on the front step of her teashop either.

Augustus ignored the tingling in his lips as Mara spotted him and smiled. She was in a jaunty red overcoat, the same color of her lips and the blush over her cheeks.

"How’s the hangover?" he asked, trying to sound more relaxed than he felt.

Did I kiss you the other night?was not a polite way to start a conversation, especially if she hadn’t reciprocated the sentiment.

"Hangover is gone after lots of sleep. Thank you for the food. It did make me feel better," she said. "So where are we off to?"

"Swanston Street. We’ve been summoned by the Druids. It would seem Seamus has sulked to Connor, and I need to clean up the misunderstanding before they annoy me too much," Augustus replied.

"Why? Seamus shouldn’t remember me at all from the alley. Besides, I thought you said you had a truce with the Druids," Mara said.

"I’d say Seamus remembers me and thinks that I gave him the ass whooping. I need Connor to know the truth, especially if his son thinks it is okay to harass women. And I do have an agreement with the Druids. Connor took over from his dad about eight years ago after a regrettable incident involving a possum and a dog."

"You better spit out the story before we get there. I don’t want to be walking in blind."

"Worried I wouldn’t be able to protect you from the scary Druids?"

"Trust me, Augustus, I’d be able to protect myself. My boxing skills aren’t the only card I have up my sleeve." Mara had a wicked grin on her face that made him feel worried, curious, and slightly aroused all at once.

Augustus decided there was no harm in telling her. After all, Connor or his son was bound to bring it up.

Augustus’s most recent disagreement with the Druids had been with Connor’s father, Brennan. He’d held a grudge for years against Augustus, considering him too big for his posh English boots, so he’d started a slur campaign to try and create a mob brave enough to either lynch the sorcerer or chase him back to England.

In the beginning, Augustus had tried to politely explain that Melbourne’s magic prevented him from leaving, and even if he could leave, it wouldn’t be because of an Irish loudmouth forcing him to.

This escalated to a public row at Brennan’s house in Kensington, where the feisty Druid crossed a line and tried to use magic on Augustus.

Tired of his shit, Augustus had turned him into an angry possum. What neither of them could anticipate was that Brennan had trained his mastiff to hunt small creatures, and the night had ended with a bottle of whiskey, Connor and Augustus signing an agreement to never use magic against each other again, and a shoebox filled with what remained of Brennan being buried in his back garden.

Mara’s laughter was loud and horrified when he finished. "No wonder they are angry with you."

"That was only the most recent incident. Connor is fine. He keeps the Druids out of my way, and I stay out of theirs."

"And you thought the other night was worth breaking the agreement over? I told you—"

"That you didn’t need my help, yes, I know. I didn’t use magic, so I haven’t broken anything. But if it had come to that, yes, I would’ve broken it and done a hell of a lot more if they’d hurt you in any way," Augustus said.

Mara looked shy and awkward as she glanced up at him. "Thanks. Not many people would do that for someone."

"Decent people would. Connor needs to know how his son acts when his father’s not around. Are you hungry?"

A statue of a traditional Druid looked down his long nose at them from his knave in the side of the building as Augustus and Mara crossed Swanston Street and stepped into a warm café.

"The food here is excellent if your appetite is back," Augustus said.

"My appetite never stays down for long. Saints need to eat a lot to counteract all the energy they use," Mara explained before ordering a latte and salad wrap. Augustus filed this fact in his growing mental folder of ’Saints and their magic’ before he ordered his own lunch.

They sat down at the back of the café and had only just received their coffee orders when the kitchen door opened.

Connor was a brawny widower in his forties that had a decent enough temperament when he wasn’t dealing with family bullshit. He gave them a nod in hello.

"Come on back, Vance. We need to talk."

"So your flaming arrow said. Bit dramatic, don’t you think?"

"Knew you’d ignore your phone." Connor gave Mara a careful once-over.

"Sorry, this is Mara. Mara, this is Connor. He heads up the Melbournian Druids. Mara has kindly come along as a witness to the events of the other night."

Connor’s frown deepened. "Seamus didn’t mention a girl."

"Then Seamus is a lying shit," Mara said sweetly.

"Aye, seems that way. Come on through, and we’ll get to the bottom of it."

Seamus was already waiting at a table at the back of the kitchen. Augustus took considerable satisfaction in the boy’s cocky smile slipping when he spotted Mara. He might not have remembered her previously, but he sure as hell was remembering her now.

Interesting, I wonder how shes’s doing it.As if sensing what he was thinking, Mara very subtly smiled and winked at Augustus. He filed the wink and the grin into a very different mental folder.

"Seamus has said he was out with the lads when you picked a fight with him. They all came home battered and bruised. Poor Darren has a broken nose, and Llew has two black eyes. Didn’t peg you for one to strike out at young lads, Augustus," Connor said once they were all seated around the table. "I know they become gobby shites when they’ve been drinking, but you know boys—"

"I swear to Christ if you say the words ’boys will be boys,’ I’ll break the little bastard’s legs, and then I’ll break yours. Don’t condone his behavior. Do you think it’s okay that your boy here likes to pin women to brick walls and hold them there when they refuse to drink with him?" Augustus replied, folding his arms.

Seamus started to make sounds of protest when Connor hissed something in Gaelic and took his voice away.

"Is this true, lass?" Connor asked Mara.

Augustus knew he shouldn’t be surprised by anything the saint did, but he almost fell off his chair when Mara opened her mouth and started to retell the night to Connor in perfect Gaelic. Connor listened, nodding his head a few times before switching back to English.

"I apologize sincerely, Mara. If I had known, I wouldn’t have bothered with the summons and dealt with Seamus’s behavior on my own." Connor turned to his son. "Well? Anything to say for yourself?"

"Pa, seriously, I didn’t mean to lay hands on her. I just needed to know what she was. Really, look at her. She’s not like anything I’ve ever seen!"

"I am, and you know that it’s disrespectful to ask a supernatural creature what they are. It’s their bloody business and not yours. Augustus was in the right to step in. Is this how you behave when you go out? Accost women and demand things they don’t want to give?"

"It wasn’t like that at all. Look, I’m sorry you were offended, Mara, but I was just curious."

Augustus’s temper flared, but Connor beat him to it. He slapped his hand over Seamus’s and laid a curse on him hard in Gaelic.

"Until you learn to act like a man when you’re drinking, you don’t get to drink at all."

"What did you do?" Seamus asked in a small, horrified voice.

"Sober curse. Nice one, Connor," Augustus laughed.

Seamus lunged for him across the table, but Mara was too quick. She grabbed Seamus’s face tightly and squeezed. He stilled as Mara’s black eyes grew larger and wild magic drew up around her. "Do you want to know what I am, little Druid? I am not to be fucked with. If you ever try to cross my sorcerer or me again, I’ll rip your darkest nightmares from your soul and make you live them daily for the rest of your miserable life."

Augustus rested a gentle hand on her back, and she let Seamus go with a hard shove. Connor pulled Seamus away and steered him towards the door.

"Feck off, I don’t want to look at you for the rest of the day," Connor growled, and Seamus scattered. "You’re a wise man not to have bairns, Augustus. I’m so sorry, Mara."

"It’s fine," she said coolly as she sat back down. Augustus removed his hand from her back, his ears still ringing from the words my sorcerer and his magic still fluttering from the wild power she’d summoned.

Connor pulled a bottle of vodka from a cupboard and poured them shots. "I think you’ve given Seamus the collywobbles for the rest of his life, so if you’re satisfied with that as a punishment, then we’ll drink and be done with this."

Mara made him sweat for a minute before nodding. "I am if Augustus is."

"More than satisfied." Augustus tried to hide his shit-eating grin as he picked up his shot. "Sláinte."

"Sláinte agad-sa," Mara and Connor both replied at the same time, and they all drank.

"Now, I want to know where the sorcerer has been hiding you, Mara. You are too fine of a lady to lower your standards and let this rascal court you," Connor said, pouring them another round.

"We’re just friends," Augustus pointed out a little too quickly.

"And how do you know it’s not me courting him?" Mara asked and knocked back her shot.

Connor’s laughter was a deep rumble. "I’m starting to think he’s met his match in you, lass. Best behave around this one, Augustus, or she might give you a belting like she did the boys."

"Noted," Augustus nodded.

They stayed with Connor, drinking and eating until the tension had finally vanished in the kitchen. Augustus didn’t mind Connor, the arrogant son of a bitch streak that his father had wasn’t present in him.

Mara charmed the Druid with ease, telling him about how she’d learned Gaelic (from a witch who’d traveled with them for a year before leaving the family to become an accountant) and discussing the Druid movements in Melbourne.

Augustus wondered if he had the same stupid look on his face that Connor did when speaking to the little saint. They dropped in and out of Gaelic, and Augustus was sure it was so they could talk about him.

"That was fun," Mara said when they left the café.

"I’m pretty sure you made Seamus piss himself. It was brilliant." Augustus decided now was the time to let out his proud smile. "You were brilliant."

"Nice guy, Connor. He asked me out."

Augustus stopped so suddenly, a group of Japanese tourists crashed into him awkwardly. "That bastard. I was sitting right there!"

Mara shrugged. "What do you care? As you said, we are just friends, and it’s not like you are trying to court me."

"Doesn’t mean I don’t want you to do better than a fucking Druid. Friends don’t let friends date Druids, Mara."

"Whatever you say, friend," she said, emphasizing the word in a way that made him even more flustered. Augustus needed to fix this and fast.

"Come over. I have a forest sprite cooking dinner tonight, and he wants to meet you."

"You know a forest sprite?" she asked, immediately brightening.

"Sure I do. His name’s Flynn, and he’s a pain in my ass too, so you will have lots in common."