Which was good because the scheduling program at the tattoo shop could try anyone’s patience. Some glitch in the system had erased our color coding on this week’s schedule. I’d straightened out Bay’s appointments, but I still needed to do Will’s before I left.

Will did two kinds of piercings at the shop. The first were the kind of piercings you could get at any tattoo shop that had a body piercer. The second—and much more expensive and time consuming—was an arcane ceremony. Will had trained for years to learn how to do it and it was much harder to find a licensed practitioner. It also cost a pretty penny.

Arcane piercings took longer, so we needed to make sure we blocked out the time properly. We also color coded them so that Will could check at a glance and prepare for each appointment properly. I’d spent the last hour correcting the mistake before shooting off an email to Bay letting him know what I’d done and why. Hopefully, we could figure out what had happened so it wouldn’t do it again.

That done, I turned my attention to closing, going over the evening checklist since I didn’t usually close. The counter person scheduled tonight had a doctor’s appointment, so we’d switched. By now, the artists were all gone, their stations cleaned and ready for tomorrow. Will wheeled the mop bucket out of the dirty room, singing along to the music blasting through the shop. Lou was curled up on the waiting area couch, reading until I was done.

I’d dropped the deposit in the safe, finished my paperwork, and was just leaving a note for the opening staff when I felt it. The first pass was a faint brush, like someone sweeping past you in the street. My pen froze on the notepad as my whole body stilled.

I waited a minute.

Nothing.

Maybe I’d imagined it? I glanced over at Lou. She’d turned her face up to me, her brows pinched in worry. “Declan?”

A pulse of fear went through me and I broke into a sweat. No. Nononono—not again. I wouldn’t let her take me again. I was panting now, the pencil in my hand snapping in two.

Lou dropped her book, scrambling up from the couch.

“Eva—” That was all I got out before every muscle in my body went rigid. My eyes squeezed shut and I couldn’t open them. Magic rippled through me, my fear a pounding rhythm in my veins as I felt a mental shove. Eva was trying to force me to change. Revulsion at the violation welled up, chasing back some of the fear.

Fine tremors shook my body, sweat beading along my hairline. If I changed, it would be easier for her. She’d have more power over the wolf form—she was an animal mage. I would be closer to her sphere of magic. I needed to stay human. So far, I was shoving her back, but I couldn’t move or speak, my hold tenuous. We were locked in a mental shoving match.