Galena
Chapter Sixteen

Maggie woke up and stared across her bedroom. It had been a few days since Jace left to see Emma. She received a telecom the day he said he’d be staying with Emma and received another one last night stating he was still at Emma’s. She really hoped they were working things out. She thought about going to Emma’s and checking on everything herself, but she didn’t want to intrude on their personal time. So instead she figured she’d take a trip to the bookstore and replace a book in her favorite aisle.

At the bookstore, she stood in the aisle and scanned the shelves for something that interested her. She picked out a few books and read the covers, then put them back and went in search for the next.

On her sixth pick, she looked over at the person who leaned against the bookcase close to her. Maggie smiled at Heath. “What’s going on?” she asked, dropping her eyes to his duffle bag.

“Something’s not right,” he answered then looked around.

Maggie gave him a look, thinking he was being a little paranoid. The aisle they stood in was in the back of the store where there were no windows or tables. “What do you mean?” she asked, leaning towards him.

Heath shook his head, “I’m going to have to be distant for a while.”

Maggie felt her stomach flip. “This has nothing to do with what we did, does it?”

Heath let out a laugh, “No. You know how I feel about you,” he added, biting his lip and looking down at her. His eyes flickered in adoration and he took her hand. “This is something bigger. The Commander’s a little more uptight than normal. And in order to keep you safe, I need to do this,” he added then lifted her hand to his mouth. He gently kissed the back of her hand, saying, “I will try to send you a message if anything happens.”

Maggie nodded, and he went to go around her, but she put her hand on his arm to stop him. She looked up at him with worry filling her eyes. He wrapped his arm around her stomach and gave her a small smile.

“It’ll be alright,” he said, then dipped his head to gently kiss her.

Maggie watched him leave and turned back to the bookshelves. She took in a deep breath wondering if he knew something. She picked another book but put it down after hearing her stomach growl.

The first time she saw Heath with a duffle bag, they had gone to breakfast together. She thought about going to the same diner, but she wanted something closer, so she decided on the cafe. If Heath was nervous about what was happening within the Garzil, then she needed to do the same as him and stay away - perhaps even out of Galena until she received his message.

She left the bookstore and went across the square and into the small cafe. All she wanted was a corn muffin to hold her hunger over and a cup of black tea. She sat at the small bar in the cafe and ended up ordering eggs with fried tomato slices, her muffin, and tea.

As she sat and sipped her tea, waiting for her meal, she found herself being joined by another person. The cafe was busy like it normally was, but only a few people sat at the cozy bar. The customers usually took seats at the window and from what Maggie could see from the corner of her eye there were plenty of other seats for this person to sit in, but the woman picked the seat right next to Maggie.

Maggie glanced at the girl then turned back to thank the worker for her plate. Before she could eat, the girl caught her attention, asking, “You used to own that bakery on the eastern strip, right?”

Maggie turned to her and narrowed her eyes on the girl. “Yes?” Maggie answered, “Creed’s Baked Goods.” The girl’s eyes were a blue Maggie had never seen before. They seemed to give off a chill, even though the girl seemed very warm talking to Maggie.

“I used to love those pudding pastries my grandmother would bring home for me. You know the ones with the fruit on the top?” the girl continued.

Maggie nodded, knowing which this girl meant.

“It’s a shame you had to get rid of the bakery. I would’ve loved to have had that pastry one more time,” the girl said, pouting.

“It wasn’t easy giving it up, believe me,” Maggie answered, turning to take a bite out of her food before the eggs got cold. Maggie looked back at the girl. She was looking at Maggie’s hands which made Maggie uncomfortable. She adjusted her hand placements to take the girl’s gaze away from them.

“I can imagine, but at least that burden is no longer on you,” the girl said, which Maggie found strange. She knew the girl could’ve been talking about the burden of constantly working, but something didn’t sit well with Maggie hearing this statement. The girl reached across the counter to take her bag from the waiter. “Well, it was nice chatting with you, Maggie Creed,” she said and smiled. Seeing this smile made Maggie swear the girl’s eyes turned colder.

Then, just like that, the girl was heading out the door.

Maggie watched the girl walk past the front windows then went back to her food. She had never seen her before until now. She wondered who her grandmother was and finished her meal. She asked for the corn muffin to go and another cup of tea to be put in a travel cup.

She left the cafe and noticed that the Garzil activity in Central Galena was becoming heavier than normal. It was as if another hunt was getting ready to start, but she didn’t recall a broadcast announcing it. She hurried her way out of Central Galena and down the streets into Kent towards the house. She wrapped her arms around her chest, thinking about that odd interaction in the cafe, then her mind went back to Heath in the bookstore.

Here she was fantasizing for the last few days about the next time she was going to spend the night with him and he needed to take a step back. She went upstairs and turned on the hot water for a bath. She needed to put today’s events out of her mind, but she began to wonder what the Commander could be doing to make Heath decide what he did.

She slowly sat in the water and leaned back. Her eyes went to her gloves on the counter and her eyebrows scrunched down. That girl looked at Maggie’s hands like she knew what covered them. Maggie shook her head, telling herself that was crazy. She raised her hand out of the water and looked at her magic. She should’ve taken Marie up on her offer to help her with her magic when she was in Vorik. She couldn’t get back into that mindset Diana was helping her get into.

She closed her eyes and took in a deep breath, smelling her lavender scent candles. She felt herself relaxing, but her mind kept chattering. She pulled the plug on the tub and stepped out to dry off. She wrapped a towel around her body and changed into her pajamas.

Since the bath didn’t ease her mind about what was going on, perhaps going to bed would.