Page 103 of Seas the Reckoning

Jackal’s fingers thread through mine, our hands resting on one of the Sea Wench high-top tables. Pickles is in my lap, and I give him a pet with my other hand, well aware that the basset hound is now sizable enough that he’s a bit too big for my legs but not wanting to put him on the floor.

We’re watching a light dusting of snow settle on the sand, a rare sight in Carolina Beach.

“This is the perfect time to have a beach-view bar,” Ji-hwan says to Starla as she and Brody arrive at the tables with trays full of cocktails. These are warmed, part of a special menu for the winter season.

“It’s a rarity. We can go years without snow, and most of that isn’t as early as Christmas,” Starla informs the Were before passing him his warmed drink. It smells like apples and cinnamon.

Ji-hwan takes a deep inhale, then takes a long sip. A contented sigh escapes.

“Just wait until I tell Never about this concoction. She’s going to want to visit again.”

The Were is already back at her vampire mansion and in possession of my necklace. I no longer need it, and after Hugh expressed curiosity, I agreed to let them have it. An easy payment to offer in exchange for their help, when I’d just as soon never see it again. It still glows, and there’s the possibility it could still hold magic. While I’m not totally certain of his motives, I did tell her about Arloc and that the vampire might be able to provide insight about the jewelry’s capabilities.

“If it can, I know a magic-stripping witch. It’s possible we could take the councilman’s power and put it in here. A fitting punishment, don’t you think?” she had said.

I’ve decided to follow Starla’s lead. So long as the councilman isn’t free, the punishment the Magikai or others choose for him is something in which I don’t want to be involved.

“That Were is a sucker for a tasty cocktail,” Ji-hwan says, bringing me back to the present.

“Does she craft them herself?” Starla asks.

Jackal chuckles.

“Hardly. She has a rather cantankerous bartender friend named Elios who does it.”

Starla taps her chin.

“Sounds familiar. Met a man with that name at a bartending conference once. Although, he was pretty old and wrinkled. Ran a dive bar out in California, as I recall. I remember being shocked at his appearance, because I could sense he was magical.”

Ji-hwan spews his drink, and Brody brings over a towel to wipe the table clean.

“Watch it!” the red wolf warns.

“That’s him! That’s Elios!” Jackal says, all excitement.

Ji-hwan chuckles.

“Not that you’d recognize him now.”

“What do you mean?” Starla asks.

The two just look at each other conspiratorially.

“Come visit again and see for yourself.”

“Maybe I will. I’ve been thinking I could use some more of Never’s training.” Starla holds up her hand, letting sparks show.

Her electroshock is no stronger than before, but she’s started feeling hints of something else. Now, when she stands up to a misbehaving patron, there are consequences. Little bits of immediate bad luck that befall the targets of her ire. It hasn’t come on all at once, but it’s almost as if a bit of cursing power is flowing into her, little by little.

She undecided on how to handle it.

The least I can do is let her have the holidays to settle into her new reality.

We watch the waves and snow outside the bar.

Starla shivers, and Exos stands to wrap his wings around her, blocking a bit of the breeze.

“I know all you shifters are more than comfy here, but this winter weather is not made for witches of the beach,” my best friend says.