MAKING MAGICKAL ALLIANCES: A Paranormal Women’s Fiction Novel Leigh Raventhorne (read the beginning after the end novel TXT) 📖

I must have voiced the question out loud, because Rand answered. “It’s a Peregrine Falcon. It has one of those action cameras strapped to it, so I’m going to go out on a limb and say it must be the spy from the marina Jeremy sent after Harris.”

Jeremy removed the camera, set the bird on the floor of the foredeck along with a small bundle of clothes, and stepped away. The bird fluttered its wings and began to shift. I turned away to allow the shifter privacy, pulling Rand with me. Sam, Tess, and the coven followed suit.

“Oh, it’s good to finally get that thing off.” The voice was female and I chanced a glance over my shoulder to see if she was decent. She’d pulled on sweatpants and a t-shirt, and was running her fingers through her spiky, brownish blonde hair. She had sharp, angular features that looked so much like those of her hawk form it was hard to imagine her as anything but a shifter. It was hard to place her age, but she looked as though she could be anywhere between thirty and forty. Shifters aged slowly compared to humans, so she could have been a hundred years old, for all I knew.

Jeremy motioned me over, “Dis Shaylynn.”

“Nice to meet you, Shaylynn. I’m Roxanne.” I held my hand out.

She looked at it, her head tilt looking disconcertingly bird-like, then gave it a quick, firm shake. Her sharp, golden-brown eyes met mine. “Everyone knows who you are, Madame Witch. The honor is mine.”

It was all I could do not to sigh. “Please, call me Roxie.”

The grin she gave me lit up her face, softening her features. “Only if you call me Shay. This one,” she pointed a thumb at Jeremy, “is the only one that ever calls me by my full name and lives to tell about it.”

I liked her already. I smiled back. “Done. Now what can you tell us about Harris disappearing into thin air?”

The conversation shift to business didn’t faze her. “Just that. One second he was there, the next he was gone. The harness I wore has a device that indicates the strength of the tracking signal I’m following. It speeds up when I’m close, slows down when I’m not. It told me I was really close but, unless he’s directly underwater, I don’t know where else he could be. I’ve been flying over this area again and again, testing the signal. It’s got to be right out there.” She pointed toward the front of the boat.

“Thank you.” She nodded and started to say something else when her gaze cut to something behind me, her brow furrowing in curiosity.

“Hey, Rox? We’ve got company coming aboard.” Sam watched as Olen assisted Arella up the ladder. Dorn followed close behind.

The three water fae took us in, their faces unreadable as they gripped their wicked-looking tridents. I crossed over to them, Rand right behind me. “King Olen. Arella,” I greeted them, giving Dorn a quick nod of acknowledgement. I started to tell them what we knew—which wasn’t much.

Olen cut me off before I got far, his voice sharp. “We are aware; we heard everything. I sent three water shifters to investigate the area. There is something out there, but they cannot get close to it. Whatever it is . . . repels them, somehow.”

“How close were your people able to get?” I asked Olen.

“They tested the barrier repelling them from all directions. If we had to guess, it is a large vessel—several times the size of your own—within. One of our water shifters tried to use echolocation, but he said the signal just faded, as if there was nothing there.”

Ruthann spoke up. “That sounds like a cloaking spell with a ‘go-away’ component worked into it. Keep in mind, just because we can’t see them, doesn’t mean they can’t see us.”

Processing this, I turned to the coven. “Ideas anyone?”

Olen shifted his weight impatiently. “We need to act. Now.”

Rand held up his hands, palms forward in a placating gesture. “We need to be smart. Who knows what kind of firepower they’ve got? If we go in blind, they could shoot us down without breaking a sweat. We don’t know where the children are being held on the vessel or whatever it is—or if they’re even still there. Do you really want to risk putting them in more danger?” Olen glared at Rand, only calming when Arella placed a hand on his arm.

“My love, he is right. We must think about the children’s safety.” Closing his eyes, he covered her hand with his own, his jaw tight. When he opened them again, the pain they held made my chest constrict in sympathy.

Tess spoke up. “How far can you cast your magick, Rox?”

The last time I had cast a spell with any distance involved was when my magick got away from me and I ended up putting a protection spell on Jeremy’s place. From the estate. And I’d ended up magick drunk. Frowning at her, I answered, “I don’t know. Why?”

“Well, the coven managed to break the spell around that ring. Why not just break the one around whatever is out there the same way?”

That ring was small and we’d been maybe a foot away from it at the time. If what we were facing was as big as Olen thought it was, I didn’t know if that was even possible.

Arella and Olen looked at me expectantly. “You can do this? I will ready my people for the attack.”

“Wait, wait. I don’t know if I can. It will probably take all of us,” I waved at the coven, “and even then, it might not work. If it does, I don’t know what condition we’ll be in after to help with the rescue.” I stressed the word. If the water