Read Online Magic on the Hunt by Devon Monk - Free Book Online

so. Give me time to hit the gym. How’s the farm?”
    “Oh, that’s part of why I’m in town. My big news. I’ve had an offer to sell.”
    I made a little wounded sound. “No. You aren’t going to consider it, are you?”
    Her smile faded, and she studied my face. “Well, I’m thinking about it, yes. I love the place, but the farm really was John’s lifework. Since we don’t have children to hand it down to, and it’s a lot for me to manage on my own, I keep wondering if I’m just holding on to it for myself or for John.”
    “But what about Cody?” Okay, I was really saying, what about me? Her farm was more a home to me than the condo where I’d been raised. It felt like she was selling off a part of my past, cutting off a root that held me strong to this world.
    “He’ll stay with me. He’s making great progress with his skills. I think he might be able to hold down a job, and maybe one day live on his own, with some assistance. He has an amazing touch with plants—and can nurse almost any living thing back to health. And you won’t believe the art he’s been doing. I was knitting one night, and he wanted something to do, so I pulled out my old watercolor set. He’s . . . really talented.”
    Cody looked away from the window he’d been staring out and smiled. “I like paint.” He made a gesture in the air, half glyph, half mimicking a paintbrush, and I found myself wondering what that stroke would look like against canvas. Or with magic.
    “Where are you thinking about moving to?” Zay asked.
    “Here. Saint Johns maybe, or one of the coastal towns off the grid. Cody would still be out of the reach of magic, and I’d be closer to you, Allie, and closer to . . . to living a life that suited me better.”
    “You mean closer to Paul,” I said.
    “Yep. Pretty much. Do you blame me?” She smiled, and I saw a spark in her eyes I hadn’t seen since she met John in high school. “And the next time you catch a ‘flu’ ”—she did the air-quote gesture—“I’ll be here to help instead of almost four hundred miles away.”
    “You really want to take up city life?” It wasn’t what I wanted to say. I wanted to tell her this was a bad idea. A very bad idea. If she moved into the city, she’d be one more person I’d have to look after, I’d have to keep safe. The very reason to get Cody out of the city was because people like James Hoskil, people like other members of the Authority, wanted to use his talents for their own gain, no matter the consequences. He was amazing with magic, and I had a feeling even St. Johns wouldn’t be a safe place for him.
    His ghost was currently in St. Johns with Mama, but if he, the real, living Cody, also stayed here, there would be no way he’d go beneath the notice of people wanting his ability with magic in their hands.
    Dad shifted in my head, like a bag of sand pouring all its weight to one side of my brain. He was interested in Cody, interested in his ghost and him being here together, moving here.
    Great. Anything that interested my dad usually made my life miserable.
    “Maybe not city life,” Nola said.
    The waitress showed up again, and we gave her our orders.
    “But I need a change,” Nola continued. “I’m looking for a change. And since you’re my best friend”—she shrugged—“I thought you might like it if I was a little closer. Not that I’m going to take up all your time, but, you know, we could catch a movie once in a while, or go shopping.” She gave me an up and down. “You haven’t bought new clothes in the past year, have you?”
    “Of course I have. Okay, no.”
    “When was the last time you went to a movie?”
    I took a drink of my Coke. “It’s been a while.”
    She gave Zay a hard look, then glanced back at me. “You work all the time.”
    “Not all the time,” Zay murmured.
    She chuckled. “Fine, maybe not all the time, but a lot. You’d agree with me on that, right, Zayvion?”
    He nodded. “She puts in