Can you feel that? Pain lanced through my brain as I said it, but it was a warning I ignored. I had no idea what would happen if I kept pushing this developing talent of ours, but right now I had no other option. I couldn’t voice the question out loud—I had no desire to inform whoever might be waiting out there that I could feel the caress of their spell.

He glanced at me, a frown creasing his forehead and a glimmer of pain gathering in the brightness of his eyes. Feel what?

Magic, I said. It has the same feel as the stuff that was used in Brooklyn.

I have no sense of it, but we did theorize that Luke’s witch might be a Rinaldo plant.

I’d certainly theorized that, but I hadn’t realized he’d caught those thoughts. If it is, then we should be protected.

We’d be protected, theoretically, because of the spell blockers we’d gotten from Grace Harkwell, the witch who’d asked us to find her missing friends. While said blockers resembled simple, multicolored string necklaces, they’d been designed to counteract any spell created to either restrict our fire or stop my access to the earth mother. It had certainly worked brilliantly in Brooklyn; I just had to hope it did so here.

But this spell had a stronger feel than that one. The witch had obviously amped things up in an effort to negate a possible repeat of the Brooklyn events.

Even if that is the case, it shouldn’t affect me, Jackson said. I’m not a phoenix.

No, but your fire is phoenix sourced, so that may not necessarily be true.

He grunted and continued on. The closer we got to the fountain, the stronger the spell became, until it felt like I was walking through a wall of razor blades that tore at my skin and sliced through my brain. Then warmth flared around my neck and the sensation fled. Grace’s charm, once again coming to my aid.

I continued to keep a tight leash on my flames, not allowing even the slightest flicker to escape. I’d done exactly the same thing in Brooklyn, so the witch might well be aware of the ploy, especially since he’d ramped up the strength of his magic. I wasn’t about to give him any indication that once again it wasn’t working.

I returned my attention to the gorgeous old fountain ahead, and awareness surged. Someone was there. I could feel them, even if I couldn’t see them.