Pandora’s jaw fell open, and for a moment, she couldn’t form words. “That’s BS as far as I know. There’s no feather protection amulet for aura-readers. Lila wants to know if there are feathers around because she wants to know if you’ve shifted. She wants to know that you know who you really are.”

Cole shifted his weight from one foot to the other. “I did my best not to react to any of it, but I think I failed. I asked Kaley about the phone call that she’d had with her mother, the one that led Lila to come here. Kaley didn’t want to say much about it. So I asked her straight out if she’d told Lila about me being a familiar.”

Pandora swallowed. “I think I already know the answer to this.”

Cole took a breath. “Kaley told her. She said she thought her mother counted as family.”

Pandora’s phone chimed with an incoming text. She reached for her purse, then stopped.

“Get it,” Cole said. “It could be Kaley reaching out to you.”

Pandora grabbed her phone and checked the message. “It’s not Kaley, it’s my mom.”

She tapped the screen to bring up the text.

Dug deeper into Lila’s file. Call me.

Pandora glanced at Cole. “I need to talk to my mother. It’s about Lila.”

He nodded. “You want to go somewhere for lunch? I could stand to get out of this house for an hour.”

“Sure.”

“Good. I’m going to grab a quick shower and change while you talk to your mom.”

“Okay.” She started to call Corette back, then hesitated. “Why didn’t you call and tell me about this feather business this morning?”

He put his hand on the stair railing. “I knew you were going to talk to your mom and that you had that showing. I didn’t want you to be preoccupied with my problems while you were trying to work.”

“Our problems.” She smiled. “You’re my familiar, after all.” Just saying the words caused a little charge to zip through her. “Now get showered so we can work this out over lunch.”

He grinned. “Yes, ma’am.” He saluted and jogged upstairs.

She shook her head as she tapped the button to call her mother, then put the phone to her ear.

“Pandora?”

“Yep. What did you find out?”

Corette sighed. “I looked into the last six years of Lila’s records, all the way back to when she was listed as Lila Van Zant. I called the ACW headquarters and spoke to…someone I know there. Someone in charge of the records that aren’t computerized because of security reasons.”

Top-secret stuff. “And?” Pandora held her breath.

“She’s been married and divorced two more times in those six years.” Corette’s voice held an angry edge. “Both of her ex-husbands were listed on the registry of human familiars.”

Pandora let the breath out, but it did nothing to quell the rockslide of emotions sluicing through her. “She’s after Cole, not Kaley.”

Cole threw on a clean T-shirt and jeans and headed downstairs. Pandora was pacing in the foyer.

“Everything okay?”

“No.” She turned to him, her emerald eyes lit with anger and purpose. “Lila’s been married and divorced twice in the last six years.”

“She should be pretty good at it by now with all that practice,” he joked.

Pandora’s expression didn’t waver. “Both times the guy was a human familiar.”

His smile faded. “You know that for sure?”

“Yes, we know it for sure. My mother is the coven secretary. She has access to information most people don’t.” A muscle in her jaw ticked. “Lila’s after you, not Kaley. Or maybe it’s both of you. Either way, she’s not here to make up for being a lousy mother. I’d say you’re on her radar again.”

“We need a plan.”

“Agreed. But I need to check something first.”

“Sure. What?”

“That book in the attic. You mind if I grab it?”

“Be my guest.”

Pandora closed her eyes, held her hands out, palms up, in front of her. The air above them wavered, and a second later, the book appeared in her hands.

“Wow. That was impressive.” And kind of hot.

“For me, too. But strong emotion can strengthen a witch’s magic, and I’m definitely feeling some right now.” She opened the book and ran her finger down the table of contents, found what she was looking for and flipped to that page.

Cole came around to stand next to her so he could see what she was looking at. He took the opportunity to enjoy how good she smelled before focusing on the book. The top of the page read “Cautions.”

“There,” she said. She pointed to a line about halfway down and read out loud. “The hair, skin, feathers or fur of a human familiar’s animal form can be used to create a bonding spell.”

She looked at him. “Now you know why she wants one of your feathers.”

“She’s going to force a bond with me. Or try to.” It bothered him more that Lila might come between him and Pandora, than that his ex was about to try to force herself on him. “I am sure as hell not going to let that happen.”

Pandora nodded. Then she closed the book. “Look, nothing’s going to happen until she gets that feather. We have time to figure this out. Let’s go have lunch, and tonight, I’ll talk with my mom and sisters, and we’ll come up with something.” She smiled. “I don’t want her getting in the way of our time together. Not right now.”