Twenty minutes later, they were all back in the dining room without any answers and no closer to finding the culprit.
“How is she?” Cian asked gruffly.
“Better,” Bridget told him from a chair in the corner. “Carrick is minding the pub. Spring and I set up a protective barrier with Gran’s crystals. The wards seem to be holding.”
Cian tugged his sister to her feet and gave her a tight hug. He was exceedingly grateful for the affection and support of his family. Whenever the chips were down, they rallied around one another and made the world right again. Perhaps familial love was their true magic. “Thanks, Bridg.”
Stepping to the table, Cian gazed down into Piper’s pale face. Her color wasn’t quite normal, but it was better than the ghostly gray when they’d first been rescued from the cave in. Her lips were no longer blue but the pretty petal pink they normally were.
GiGi had worked tirelessly, it seemed, utilizing her magic to heal Piper.
“I owe you a debt of gratitude I can’t repay,” he told her.
Her eyes were soft as she looked up from her task. “No. She’s family.”
“But she was targeted because of me.”
“You don’t know that, Cian.” A deep frown settled between GiGi’s perfectly groomed brows. “She’s a Thorne, and our family comes with its own baggage.”
“If you were being targeted, why would they try to prevent Piper from healing?” Ryker asked with a thoughtful look down at her still face. “You just met her this weekend, and other than Bridget’s connection to GiGi through the coven, you have no ties to the Thorne family.”
Cian couldn’t argue with Ryker’s logic, yet in his heart of hearts, he was convinced this was in some way connected to him.
As GiGi soldiered on with the healing, Cian stroked Piper’s dirt-encrusted hair back from her forehead. “It’s time for you to wake up, Piper me love. You’ve worried the lot of us, to be sure. With every second you delay; my life remains in peril from Alastair.”
Her thick, dark lashes fluttered, but her lids stayed shut.
“I know you hear me, darlin’. Fight to return to us now.”
Her eyes flickered back and forth behind her closed lids.
Unable not to, he ran a thumb lightly over her parted lips. “Come back to us, Piper,” he commanded in a stern voice.
With a low moan, she opened her eyes. The color was muddied by her pain, and Cian’s heart contracted. “There you are, my beautiful cailín.”
A tear trickled down to her hairline. “Hurts.”
“I know, but GiGi is attemptin’ to make it better. You need to work from the inside out to help her.” He brushed her lips with his. “Pull strength from me if you need it, darlin’, just heal for me now.”
A shuddering sigh escaped her lips and her lids closed.
For a second, Cian’s heart stopped until he realized she hadn’t passed out or died on him. He pressed his cheek to hers. “Don’t be scaring me like that. This old heart can’t take it,” he murmured.
“Sorry.” The whisper was barely audible, but he heard.
“No problem. Let’s get you better.” He clasped one of her hands in his and touched his nose to hers in a butterfly kiss. “I think it’s all about the visualization of healthy lungs and cells, right? Let’s do that together.”
“Keep talking to her,” GiGi ordered urgently. “It’s working. I can feel the ribs knitting the way they should.”
Relief so great, Cian closed his eyes and compressed his lips as he inhaled deeply. The tension left his body, and optimism replaced it. “Picture pink tissues and open airways, darlin’.”
Within ten minutes, Piper was sitting up and breathing normally once again, much to everyone’s relief.
“You had us worried, child.” GiGi cupped Piper’s cheek and kissed her forehead. “Please don’t do that again.”
“I’ll try not to,” Piper responded wryly. “Does anyone know what caused the cave in? Spring?”
“No, but I’d bet my favorite rare orchids it wasn’t a natural occurrence,” she replied.
“It wasn’t.” All eyes shifted to Knox. “I didn’t say it earlier, but I felt malevolence in the air right before the earth shook. No one was in the area, though. If they were, my magical feelers couldn’t find them.”
“Do you think someone used a cloaking spell?” Spring asked.
“Don’t know. It would’ve had to be unbreakable after what I threw at it. Who has that kind of power?”
“There’s a spell in the Thorne grimoire to recall the past. What if we cast it to see if anyone entered the area around the time we did?” she suggested.
“It’s worth a try. But first, you and I need to go reinforce that ground above the cavern so this can’t happen to unsuspecting mortals.”
“Ryker and I can cast.” GiGi waved a hand in their direction. “You two go now. I’d feel awful if anyone else was hurt.”
“Spring? Did you find the root for the elixir?” Piper asked, clearly concerned about the wrong thing, to Cian’s way of thinking.
“Darlin’, that doesn’t matter right now.”
Grim determination was stamped firmly on her face. “It does. We promised to recreate the elixir for your family, and a Thorne never goes back on a promise.”
With a sigh of frustration, he glanced at Spring.
A small smile played on her lips as she watched the two of them. “We discovered it right before the earthquake. I know exactly where it is.”
Bridget touched Cian’s arm. “A word.”
After they separated from the others, she spoke in a low tone. “Ruairí was sitting at the bar today, asking questions about Piper and who she might be. He recognized her light.”
“So?”
“I may have told him you were at Glencar.”
“May have or did?”
“Did.”
Cian had known Ruairí since they were children, and he’d never detected any ill will from the man. Frustration whenever he looked Bridget’s way, yeah, but never the standard spite and loathing between two feuding families. “Was anyone else present?”
“A few regulars, but Ruairí and I spoke outside their hearing.”
“I can’t see Ruairí hurting her, Bridg. What’s the point?”
Her lips tightened and her expression grew stormy. “Maybe we aren’t the only ones those conniving O’Connors are at war with.”
“I’ll speak with the Thornes and have Ryker investigate Ruairí. If we’re speaking plain, I’m not convinced it’s him, though. He loves you, Bridget. He’d never do anything to hurt you that way.”
“But you weren’t hurt, now, were you? So by association, neither was I.”
“Does he know about the elixir? Did you confess to him we need it?”
“What do you take me for? A brathadóir?”
“No! But I’ve a mind not to let anyone know how close we are to losing our home,” he retorted.
Her glare softened with understanding. “We won’t, Cian. I’ve a back-up plan if need be.”
“Good. Perhaps we won’t need it.”
As Piper observed the fierce conversation between the siblings from her spot across the room, she thought about the earthquake and Knox’s claim it wasn’t brought on by natural means. If, as she suspected, Cian blamed himself, he was wrong. This incident felt more like a personal attack on her.
She hadn’t mentioned the feeling of her magic being suppressed, nor the pickling sensation along her ribs. Someone had been reversing GiGi’s healing in real time. With each knit of the bone, it came undone. With each rejuvenation of a cell, it transitioned back to damaged. Even now, she could feel the attempt on her psyche from an outside source.
“How strong are the wards?” she inquired after Spring left. “Are you two positive no one can get through?”
Ryker’s gaze sharpened. “Why? What are you thinking?”
“More like feeling. Am I right, child?” GiGi looked concerned and ready to do battle on Piper’s behalf.
She never adored her cousin more.
“It’s like a probe inside my brain,” Piper confessed. “I’m fighting it, but a headache is forming for all my effort.”
“I don’t like this.” GiGi wrapped a comforting arm around Piper’s shoulders. “How do we protect her, babe?”
Ryker shook his head. “I don’t know. I think it’s time to call Alastair.”
“No.” Piper held up a hand to forestall the argument. “He’s our last resort. The O’Malleys don’t need him sweeping in here with his boatload of henchmen unless it’s absolutely necessary. It could hurt their business.”
“Piper, you are one of ours and someone is targeting you specifically.” GiGi believed there was strength in numbers, and she wasn’t wrong, but Piper didn’t necessarily want to be inundated with family. They were all quick to drop what they were doing and arrive en masse.
“No, Cuz. I’ll take care of this my way.”
“What about your father?”
Her father was a good option. Formidable, laid back for the most part, and a bit of a pushover when it came to his daughter. Piper would have more freedom with him than with Alastair. Not that she needed to account to anyone, but her relatives could be stubborn fuckers when it came to protecting one another.
With a grimace and a nod, Piper agreed. “I hate to bother him, but maybe he’s the best option. You all can’t remain around me indefinitely.”
“We can and we will if that’s what it takes. But we’ll find the culprit sooner rather than later,” Ryker promised. “In the meantime, call your dad. I know Hoyt. He’ll drop everything to be here.”
“I don’t know what happened to my phone,” she said as a way of deflecting.
Cian happened to be returning to their side of the room and detoured to a side table to retrieve it. “Here you are, darlin’. It took a bath when the cavern flooded, but Knox restored it to new for you.”
“Great.”
His expression turned questioning.
“I’m being coerced into calling my dad,” she explained with a dark scowl. “Just what I want to do—not.”
“Why?”
“She needs protection when Ryker and I return home to cast the spell,” GiGi informed him. Hands on hips, she faced Piper and said, “It’s Hoyt or Alastair. Take your pick.”
Cian looked less thrilled than Piper, and she almost laughed. Both men would delight in cock-blocking the hell out of him, but she suspected he was chafing because he would feel the need to be the alpha of their little pack and his desire to protect was likely strong.
“If I’ve a vote, I’ll use it for the magical muscle,” Bridget said, then winced when her brother glared at her. “Cian, you’re a brave and strong man, to be sure, but you’ve no magical abilities with which to fight.”
Knees still weak, Piper climbed to her feet and placed a hand on his crossed arms. “As much as I hate to admit it, they’re all correct. We need my dad here or I need to go home. Not only for my safety, but for your family’s, too.”
Cian trailed his fingers down her cheek. “Call him.”