Crossing Boundaries

Chapter 20

Luin

Safiya and Fen took longer to get back than any of us expected, and I could see from the tension in Glenna's shoulders that she was getting as worried as me by the time they finally returned from spying on Fen's bond mate. I quickly looked them over and found nothing amiss, though there was clearly a story here. Safiya looked irritated and Fen looked lost.

"He's got some kind of cloaking spell over him!" Safiya complained. "I couldn't break through it without potentially alerting him or someone else that we were there."

"A cloaking spell?" Glenna repeated, frowning in confusion.

"He must not be human, then," Arrowan said. "Either he cast the spell on himself or someone else did, and no one would ever bother to cloak a human."

I wasn't so sure about that. "What about the people around him? What species were they?"

"Witches, mostly. Why?" Safiya asked.

"Because I could see a human needing a cloaking spell if he spent a lot of time around the supernatural. It could be a protective measure to keep them from knowing how much weaker he is," I explained.

"Fair point," Arrowan conceded.

"So we learned nothing," Safiya complained, looking seriously irked.

I noticed Fen looking glumly down at his feet. "Maybe not nothing," I pointed out, hoping to cheer him up. "There's a decent chance he knows about the supernatural already. It seems especially unlikely that a human would have a cloaking spell on without being aware of it."

Fen's eyes flicked up to mine and he smiled a bit. "That's good, right?"

"If it's true," Arrowan said. I glared at him – couldn't he just let me cheer up Fen?

"Glenna, think you can make a potion to get the spell off without alerting anyone?" Safiya asked. Between them, Glenna was better at potion work.

Glenna was already shaking her head no when Fen suddenly straightened. "No, don't! The spell might be there for his protection. I don't think we should just break it."

"I agree," Glenna chimed in. Safiya huffed, but knew better than to argue.

A heavy silence fell over our group and even after spending so much time holed up in that little house, I kind of missed the peace of it. "Thanks for trying," I said to Safiya. "We should probably head back home."

"Sorry I couldn't do more," Safiya said, snapping out of her pout session.

"Don't worry about it," Fen said.

I reached out for Arrowan's hand so I could teleport us back home, but he pulled back his hand before we could make contact. "Luin and I wanted to have another dinner with you, if you're interested."

That's right! In all the excitement of Fen's arrival, I had forgotten. Safiya squealed and Glenna said, "Of course! What about tomorrow? I think Magnus and Lachlan are free."

"Sounds good," Arrowan agreed.

"And Fen, you have to come, too," Safiya said. "Any friend of Luin's is a friend of ours." He nodded shyly, looking a little less upset.

"Tomorrow, then," I agreed, and we returned home.

Fen said he was tired and headed down the hall to his room. He was probably just stressed about his bond mate, and I really couldn't blame him. It must have been so disappointing to not even get to find out his species. Later, I promised myself, I'd check in with Fen to make sure he was okay. For now, I'd let him have a little space.