With the four of them working, it didn’t take long to gather the needed wood. Had they needed traditional pikes, they would have been cutting down trees to get the lengths they required. Thanks to Gwen’s method, branches were large enough. Not only were they able to find some deadfall that was ideal, but several trees willingly dropped limbs for them.

  They headed back into town and set about cutting the wood down to foot-long pieces with one end sharpened. When all of the pikes were ready, they loaded them into a handcart and headed for the town hall at the end of the road.

  While Cord and Nissa laid out the pike sections, Shasta and Gwen got to work removing the bricks from the road. For some roads, they would have to chip the bricks out of the mortar or dig up the gravel around them, but these had been fitted together so tightly there wasn’t a gap.

  Since she wouldn’t be prying them up, Shasta went for a more natural approach. She rested a hand atop a brick and lowered her shields. The earth’s hum traveled through the road and to her hand. With it came a wash of steadiness and peace. Shasta directed her words at the earth. “Please lift the brick.”

  The background vibration remained, but it was joined by a faster and more insistent tone. The brick rose up. As soon as there was enough of it exposed, Shasta grabbed the brick and slid it the rest of the way out. “Thank you.”

  After setting the brick to the side, she moved over and did it again with its neighbor. She slowly repeated the process across the entire row. Gwen did the same with the adjoining row. By the time they were finished, there was an eight-inch wide section of roadbed. That was where they would insert the small pikes.

  Shasta sat back on her heels. Maybe tomorrow, Shasta would have some spare magic and add an additional spell, but today it would be all she could do to make sure they had enough spelled weapons to injure the deer.

  “Need a hand?” Gwen offered.

  “Thanks.” Shasta gripped the other woman’s hand.

  Gwen pulled her to her feet. “Nissa went home to check on Shiloh, our sister. She’ll meet us at one of the other sites with dinner.”

  “Thank you, again.” Shasta smiled. “By the time we’re done, we’ll have a hearty appetite.”

  She surveyed the road. With the two rows of bricks missing, it wouldn’t be a pleasant car ride. Godric had assured her it shouldn’t be an issue. The town wasn’t expecting any deliveries for more than a week.

  Cord got to his feet with a groan. “I hope the next batch goes faster.”

  “Me too,” Shasta said. When they were finished here, they had to do the other side of Main Street.

  Gwen studied the stack of bricks. “I’m glad we don’t have to do this in the gaps between the buildings.”

  As much as Shasta wanted a break, it would have to wait until later. She knelt at one end of the road and picked up a small pike. She scooted back and forth in the sand, trying to find the best place to stick it into the ground. It was a little tricky because when it expanded to full size, it would come out at an angle and need to be able to clear the remaining bricks. When she finally had it just right, she opened herself up to the earth. “Could you soften for a moment?”

  The earth did better than that, opening up a space just large enough for the pike. When the earth solidified, the sharpened end was even with the sand layer.

  “Thank you.” Shasta moved on to the next pike, and it went as well as the first. With the earth’s assistance, Cord and Gwen were moving just as quickly. In a fraction of the time it had taken them to remove the bricks, the row of pikes was installed.

  Finally, it was the moment of truth. Standing on the town side, with her feet braced, Shasta held up her arm, palm toward the growth pikes. She pushed energy into them. “Full-size.”

  The pikes burst out of the ground. In hardly more than the blink of an eye, they were a full fifteen feet. A trickle of energy they hadn’t needed flowed back into Shasta. She took a steadying breath. That had gone well, and the final structure looked good. With only five inches separating each pike, there wasn’t enough space for a deer to walk between them. Plus, the sharpened ends were more than fifteen feet off the ground. A deer could jump the barrier, but it would have to be very motivated.

  Now it was time for the part only Shasta could do. She closed the gap between herself and the structure. Drawing up a thick vine of magic, she sent it twisting through the pikes.

  Strength. Solidity. She gave the magic structure and purpose. Then she shoved it into the pikes. Every mote of power darted into the pikes until each of them was infused with magic. Shasta could feel it moving through the wood, distributing evenly. Hopefully, she’d given them enough magic to counter whatever was making the deer invulnerable to mundane weapons.

  Satisfied with her efforts, she centered herself, keeping a steady connection with the earth, and focused on the pikes. “Small.”

  For a moment, nothing happened. Then the pikes relaxed, letting the excess energy slide into the earth. As the energy flowed out of them, they shrank down to their previous size.

  “Are they magical now?” Gwen asked. “I thought I felt something.”

  “Yes.” Shasta turned to face her. “And you probably did. My Dad is a full elf and sometimes he can sense magic. I’ve also met elves who aren’t sensitive at all.”

  Gwen glanced at Cord with one eyebrow raised.

  “I felt it.” He pointedly turned and headed for the cart. “We have more to do.”

  As they followed him, Shasta leaned over to Gwen and whispered, “I’ll answer any questions you have during dinner.”

  Chapter Four

  By the time they finished setting up the pikes on the other side of Main Street, everyone was too tired to talk over dinner. Shasta could feel the long day catching up with her. Aches that had been minor earlier were protesting more, and her eyelids were getting heavier every few seconds.

  Her feet protested when she got up, but there was still more to do. Between her and Cord they were carrying six bows, more than a hundred arrows, and two swords to be infused with magic. The additional burdens made the walk back to their house especially slow.

  In the low evening light, Cord looked downright grim. She’d been wrong before, and people had gotten hurt, so she knew how terrible he felt. What she didn’t know was how to help him.

  That wasn’t the only thing she didn’t know. It had been easy to tell Godric they would find the deer and neutralize them, but doing it was a different matter. Especially considering how the buck had vanished, and the blood hadn’t been enough of a connection to track it.

  Cord huffed out a breath.

  Shasta peeked over at him.

  “I’ll be fine.” He forced his lips into a semblance of a smile.

  “Reading minds now?”

  “Just yours.” Cord turned off the road and onto the path to the house. They walked to the door and he reached for the knob. “I know better than to feel guilty, but I still do.”

  “Me too,” she said softly.

  Cord’s hand fell off the doorknob as he swung around to face her. “You do?”

  “For two weeks it bothered me that I couldn’t track the deer. I tried everything I knew, everything you know, everything my dad mentioned. When all of them failed, I thought it was a quirk of the area. Godric said no one had seen deer in the woods for a long time, so I didn’t think too much of it, but this isn’t natural.” She stared at the rosebush like it held answers. “Mom’s tracking charms need something specific … like the blood or hair we found. We didn’t have anything specific to track, so I let it go. Maybe if I’d tried them anyway, this wouldn’t have happened.”

  “And if I’d taken them seriously about aggressive deer we would have set up defenses two weeks ago.” Cord patted the little bit of her shoulder that wasn’t covered by weapons or their straps. “I don’t feel good about the choices I made, but the best thing we can do now is make peace with regret and do better moving forward.”

  “I know.” Shasta held up two bows. “I’d feel a lot better if I could go inside and set these down.”

  “As my lady wishes.” Cord hurried inside.

  Shasta followed, using a foot to shut the door behind them. For a moment, they were in almost total darkness. Then Cord flipped open the box holding the enchanted rocks. A warm glow filled the room. Shasta set the weapons on the floor and flopped into a chair.

  Cord sat down across from her, elbows on his thighs, hands clasped together. “Are you sure you have enough energy to magic the weapons?”

  Shasta couldn’t stop herself from looking down at the pile of stuff waiting for her. After working on the town’s defenses, she didn’t have a huge reserve of magic left. It would help if she knew exactly what part of the weapon needed to be magical. Since she didn’t, she would have to figure out the best spells for the bows, arrows, and every part of the two swords.

  “Shasta?”

  She jerked her eyes back to Cord. “Sorry. I doubt it. We only have one Energy Boost. Do I use it now and risk not having it later, or use it now because it might prevent me from needing to use one later?”

  Cord shook his head. “I’m not the one with magic.”

  “I know. My magic, my choice. But we are a team.” She wagged a finger. “The decision could affect both of us, so we need to be on the same page.”

  Cord opened his mouth to say something and then closed it.

  While she waited for him to reply, her eyes got so heavy she blinked, and by the time she opened them again, several seconds had passed. As much as she wanted to go crawl into bed and leave all this until morning, that wasn’t the job. Tonight she had to go until she’d done everything she could do; right now, that meant she still had to call her mom, and spell weapons. Though she had to be awake to do all that.

  Shasta groaned as she got out of the chair. Sitting down had felt so good, and now that she was back on her feet, they were aching in protest. Since Cord was still thinking, she shuffled over to the kitchen and put a pot of water over their camp stove. The kitchen had a stove and oven, but they were both wood-fueled and would take too long to heat up.

  She fished around in the cabinet until she found the peppermint tea. It wouldn’t interact if she took the Energy Boosting potion later, and it would help keep her eyes open. She added a pinch of leaves to the mug.

  “Can you make me a cup?” Cord asked as he got up and crossed over to the kitchen, leaning a hip against the counter.

  “Sure.” She got another mug out of the cupboard and dropped a few peppermint leaves in it.

  “Call your mom. Since she has magic, she’ll have a better perspective on what you should do.” Fatigue laced his words. “Either way, we’re playing the odds. We probably won’t know the right choice until it’s too late to make it.”

  She was still trying to formulate an answer when the water came to a boil. She turned off the stove, picked up the kettle, and filled the mugs. Her tired brain slowly worked through the idea. Since she joined Oaks Consulting, she’d been trying to prove herself capable and competent. Part of that had been forcing herself to be independent, but both her parents had always said there was no shame in admitting a lack of knowledge.

  “I’ll go get my phone.” Shasta picked up her mug and headed to the bedroom. Her phone was on the nightstand where she’d left it. Since the only calls she’d been making were to the company, and those happened at scheduled times, she hadn’t been carrying it around. Today that had likely saved it from being broken in the fight.

  She kicked off her shoes and sat on the bedside rug, leaning back against the nightstand. After taking a sip of her tea, which tasted as good as it smelled, she called her mom. Three rings in, she started to worry that her mom had already gone to bed.

  “Shasta? Is everything okay?” Michelle sounded awake and alert.

  “I’m fine.” Tired wasn’t injured, so that was the truth. “The deer attacked again.”

  “What happened?” Michelle asked. “Wait, you said they attacked, not that you dealt with them.”

  “Because we didn’t. They were different.” Shasta sipped at her tea as she explained the day to her mom. It took a little bit, but she got to their theory about the weapons as she heard Cord turn on the shower. “I’m hoping the magic I put into the town’s defenses is enough. I have weapons here so I can spell them, but I’m running out of energy. Do you think spelling them will even work?”

  There was a long silence before her mom responded, speaking slowly. “If I was there, I could tell you with more certainty. If your swords were the only weapons that worked, I’m not sure if it’s the magic or something the elven smith did that is making them effective. They are so different from mundane weapons.”

  “So what do I do?” Shasta had been hoping her mother would agree the magic was going to work against the deer. She didn’t want to tell a town of scared people they didn’t have any effective weapons.

  “It’s a tough choice, but it’s worth trying to add your magic to the weapons. How many energy boosting potions do you have?”

  “One.” It had sounded like more than enough when they were planning the trip here. Now it felt like they had under packed.

  “It’s a risk, but I’d take it. Arming the town is good public relations and allows them to defend themselves.” Michelle paused. “I’d send you a care package, but Godric isn’t accepting any deliveries to the town right now.”

  “I can’t blame them for wanting to keep this quiet.”

  Michelle snorted. “I’ll blame him for you since I can’t get you the supplies you need. Now, you still have a lot to do before you get to bed. Good luck, call if you need anything. I’m doing negotiations out in Arizona for a new clan of witches, so I’ll be in and out of meetings for hours. I love you.”

  “I love you too, Mom.” A soft beep of the call ending was her only answer. She turned the phone off and set it back on the nightstand.

  Shasta shifted position to lean against the bed. While she’d been hoping for more information, there was only so much her mom could do from halfway across the country. Unfortunately, even the great Michelle couldn’t diagnose magical problems from a different state.

  A soft tap on the door was followed by it swinging open enough for Cord to poke his head in. “What did she say?”

  “Take the potion and try to put enough magic into the weapons to make them effective. She can’t get supplies here because Godric has closed the town.” Shasta gulped down the last of her tea. “She’s not sure if the magic is really what’s making our weapons effective.”

  Cord pushed the door the rest of the way open and leaned against the frame, arms crossed over his chest. “I’m not sure I follow.”

  Shasta shrugged. “She said between the way they are made and the spells on them, it’s almost impossible to know what’s making them effective.”

  “But she still thinks it’s a good idea for you to put effort into infusing the rest of the weapons with magic?”

  “We don’t have any other theories, and magic is the key difference between the weapons.” Cord didn’t look convinced, and she couldn’t really blame him. “I know, but it’s better than telling these people we don’t have anything to help them. And it has a chance of working.”

  Cord studied her for a moment before nodding. “Take a shower. I’ll clean up and lay out the weapons.”

  “Deal.” A nice warm shower should be just the thing to wake her up.

  Cord came across the room and offered her a hand.

  Smiling slightly, Shasta put her hand in his, letting him pull her to her feet. The muscles in her legs and back protested. She reached out to steady herself against the bed, but there was no need. Cord tugged her against him, wrapping his arms around her. She leaned into him and hugged him tightly.

  He rested his cheek against the top of her head. “I love you.”

  Shasta leaned back just enough to look him in the eye. “Love you too.” She closed the distance, pressing her lips to his. Tonight the kiss was soft and gentle. Perfect after the day’s stress.

  When Cord pulled away, they were both a little breathless. “As much as I’d love to spend the rest of the night doing this and more, there’s still work.”

  “Right. Work, then more kisses,” Shasta teased as she headed for the bathroom.

  “Kisses and more,” Cord corrected cheekily.

  After a late night of spelling weapons and a slow start to the morning, Shasta was preparing their packs while Cord delivered the weapons to town. Along with ample water and food, she made sure they both had a few healing charms. She even double-checked their own bows and arrows, ensuring the late-night magic infusion had worked. It had, and she hoped it was enough for the arrows to function as designed the next time they encountered the deer.

  Between last night’s magical efforts—which flowed over into the early morning—the after-effects of the fight, and the insufficient sleep, she was still tired. More importantly, she had very little magic left. The potion had done its job in helping her get through all of the work, but it had its limits. Right now, time, good food, and rest were what she needed to be back in top shape. It shouldn’t be too much of a disadvantage while they were hunting the deer; she and Cord had faced far more serious situations and made it work.

  The front door creaked as it swung open. Cord stepped in, spots of sweat dotting his shirt. “The weapons have been delivered, and there are guards at each end of the street ready to activate the defenses.”

  “Good. Were they upset I didn’t make the delivery?” Shasta buckled her pack closed and turned to Cord.

  “It was better this way. They asked how the spells worked and would have had you explaining for hours. I was able to say they just did.” He shrugged. “If the weapons fail to perform, we’ll revisit the issue.”

  That was something she was very much afraid of, but another incursion of the deer would test the weapons. The best way to prevent the townsfolk from having the opportunity to test the weapons was to find the deer and neutralize them. Which was exactly what they were planning to do. She hoped they proved less elusive today than they had for the past two weeks. “We should get moving. We have deer to find.”