Page 48 of Enchanted to Meet You

“Yeah, research was never Rosalie’s forte in school. And I don’t think she’d like it if she found out I was chosen for anythingand she wasn’t. But it wouldn’t be the worst thing if she was looking for the Bringer of Light, too, would it? We’re all on the same side.” When he didn’t say anything right away, I prodded him in the shoulder. “Aren’t we?”

“We are.” He didn’t take his gaze off the road, but I had a feeling he wasn’t really seeing it. “Of course we are. But it doesn’t matter what Rosalie wants.” That was when he finally turned to look at me, and I saw that the muscle in his jaw was leaping. “Only you and the Bringer of Light can stop what’s coming. Do you understand?”

“Yeah, about that, I’ve been meaning to ask you. How are we supposed to do that? Did you bring along any weapons we should be training to use against these demons, stakes or crossbows or anything? Because it’s getting kind of late to order some. I guess we could try Walker Hardware tomorrow, but I don’t know if they even carry—”

“All you need are yourselves.” He turned his face back toward the road, his lips pressed together, his expression grim. “Together, you and Estherarethe weapons. That’s why I can’t imagine that Rosalie, even if she knew about any of this, which I doubt, would be thinking about selecting another Bringer of Light. If anyone else were to attempt it, it would end in...”

“What? It will end inwhat?”

“Exactly what we’re trying to stop.”

“Oh. Great. So the end of the world.”

“Not the world,” he said. “Just—”

“West Harbor,” I said, at the same time he said it. “I know, I know, you don’t have to keep telling me. So was there really a wolf?”

“A wolf, or a really big dog that looked just like one.”

“Damn. You know, Mark Giovanni said he saw one while he was out jogging a few weeks ago.”

Derrick threw me an incredulous look. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because there hasn’t been a wolf sighted in Connecticut in three hundred years!”

“Exactly,” he said. “And yet just in time for the Tricentennial, one makes a reappearance.”

“What does that even mean?”

“I don’t know,” he said, tightening his grip on the wheel. “But I intend to find out.”

Jessica

To enhance thy beauty in his eyes, serve him garlic.

Goody Fletcher,Book of Useful Household Tips

Walking around train tracks in the semidarkness, looking for wolves, was not my idea of a fun night out.

But when Derrick reminded me of the window in my office that was stuck open—the one Pye used to get in and out of my shop—and how much a cat would look like prey to a wolf, I agreed to a short walk along the tracks.

Not that I thought Pye was in any actual danger, especially given that he was currently trapped in a box in Derrick’s rental car. I didn’t believe there was a wolf, and if there was, I knew Pye could take care of himself. I’d once seen him defend himself against an entire pack of raccoons.

But it never hurt to be sure.

Fortunately there was no sign of wolf paw prints, something Derrick was apparently an expert in.

“So are you going to call them?” I asked him as I used the flashlight on my phone to pick my way through the rocks andweeds back to where he’d parked at the West Harbor train station (designed to look like a quaint Colonial farmhouse, even though thousands of commuters used it every day to get to and from the city).

“Call who?”

“Your supervisors, or whoever, and tell them about the wolf, and Rosalie and the Harvest Princess thing.”

“Oh.” He was using the flashlight on his own phone to scan the brush on the other side of the tracks. He hadn’t said what, exactly, we were going to do if we found the wolf. Call Animal Control? Cast a spell over it? Unclear.

What was clear, however, was that he was sticking close to my side in case the wolf did reappear. That kind of old-fashioned chivalry was definitely something that had been lacking in the guys I’d met lately through dating apps.

“I might. But I think Esther is right about the Harvest Princess. It’s only a beauty pageant,” he continued. “Harmless.”