Magical Midlife Meeting (Leveling Up #5)(10)

“Everyone freeze,” Ulric murmured, holding out a hand.

A woman down the bar squealed, another shrieked, and a man’s booming laugh shattered the scene.

Austin’s focus shifted, his head snapping to the Dicks and Janes down the way.

The pleasant feeling of Jessie’s magic changed in an instant, turning pressurized and angry, bearing down. Ulric swore. Pain twisted along Niamh’s spine and boiled through her blood. She barely stopped from wilting over the bar.

Grunts erupted all around her, people starting to sink down. Screams and shouts reverberated down the way.

“Silence,” Jessie said, her voice a whip crack of power, ominous and full of authority. Niamh’s limbs tightened until she couldn’t move them if she’d tried. The shouts and screams died off. The entire bar ceased movement until it was dead silent.

“Hi,” Jessie said to Austin softly.

His focus came back to her, and passion flash-boiled through the link, Austin’s response to Jessie’s dominance.

No, his animal’s response. Her gargoyle was calling the shots right now, and the polar bear in him liked it. She was much deeper into the mating slide, as the shifters called it, than any of them had realized. Earl wouldn’t be pleased, the wanker.

For a moment, Austin’s brow creased. He looked like he was on the verge of asking her questions, but a rush of wariness flooded the Ivy House link from Ulric. Although no words transferred through the links, just feelings, the message was clear: Don’t question her, just go with it.

Austin took a deep breath, and his bearing relaxed, his eyes softening. A moment later, a little smile tickled his lips.

“Hey, babe,” he replied, easy and confident.

His blistering passion at the dominance she was displaying cut away, as did Jessie’s sudden surge of heat. She’d made their link private, keeping her emotions—and his—to an independent line, no longer shared amongst the whole crew.

A soft breeze blew through the stagnant air, carrying the smell of daffodils and crisp mountain mornings. The pain eased from Niamh’s spine. A little thrill of adrenaline wormed through her blood, giving her a shock of energy. The bubbles resumed their slide across her skin, pleasant again. A sense of peace filled Niamh as Jessie smiled.

“Good to see you,” Jessie said to Austin as she finally lowered into her seat.

Ulric shook himself a little before stepping forward and pushing in Jessie’s chair. The pressure from around Niamh ceased, her ability to move restored as the magic ebbed from the room.

Gasps sounded from down the bar, the Dicks and Janes clearly freaked out or at least very confused by what had happened.

“Go sort that out,” Niamh told Ulric.

“Yep. Life of the party, coming right up.” Ulric peeled away.

Jessie took a deep breath and looked around. The link opened back up, and a thread of confusion leaked through it.

“Want a drink?” Austin asked her, recapturing her attention.

“Oh, uh…yeah.” Jessie frowned, tilting her head to the side, and glanced behind her. “I just told everyone to…be silent…right? My head went foggy there for a moment. Is my magic getting away from me again?”

“And why wouldn’t ye tell them so?” Niamh said, holding up her glass, the ice nearly melted.

“With all that screeching down there, ye couldn’t get a word in edgewise, so ye couldn’t.”

“What do you say we duck out of here early and I make you dinner?” Austin asked her, reaching behind the bar to grab Niamh a cider.

“Get two,” Niamh said. “Who knows when the other yuk-ups will make their way down here again.”

He pulled out another without looking, his eyes on Jessie as she smiled. “That sounds amazing,”

she said to Austin. “Do you mind if I have a glass of wine first? I’ve had a day.”

“Of course. I’ll come around and join you.” He pulled out a bottle of Merlot and poured two glasses then pushed them across the bar and winked. “Be right there.”

Jessie frowned again, watching him go. “He winked.”

“Did ye fall on a rock and hit yer head? Why are ye so slow all of a sudden?” Niamh stared at her glass for a moment. He hadn’t freshened up her ice. What a balls. They needed to get this mating thing out of the way so they could go back to being functioning adults. Watery cider was just ridiculous.

“No, but”—Jessie picked up her glass of wine—“alphas don’t show that kind of emotion. It invites challenges.”

No one in their right mind would challenge either of them after Jessie’s show of power. It was quite prestigious for anyone to land an alpha, but everyone in this bar was quickly realizing that it was just as prestigious to land a female gargoyle.

That would’ve filled Niamh with pride if the heir’s magic hadn’t just given her a good rattle, and if she didn’t now have watery cider. The joy of her position had gone out of her. She just hoped those Janes at the end of the bar kept their wandering eyes and especially their hands to themselves until Jessie and Austin Steele got out of there. Niamh liked seeing fireworks, but she didn’t like being blown up by them.





FOUR

I SLOUCHED against the chair and sipped my wine, happy for the background noise of other people chattering. Mr. Tom had been doing my head in, quizzing me on various spells, randomly trying to attack me to see if I could defend myself, going over various clothing options for the trip, and asking if I might want to take Nathanial or a gargoyle in town for a sexual spin for comparison reasons. I think the pressure was getting to the guy. His grip on reality was starting to fray.