Chapter Fifteen
Maverick
I’d never thought of myself as a romantic until I met Tally.
Maybe meeting the right woman did that to you. Made you want to be better. To make more of yourself than the sorry condition you’d been in when she found you. Tally had offered me something no one else really had—she’d offered me friendship the day we met. I’d never be able to tell her just how much that had meant to me.
I stared down at her sleeping face, wishing I could paint her in soft pastels. I’d never been the artist that some of my family was. I could do passable stitchwork, enough to make up for Wanda’s lack of proficiency in potions, but I wasn’t a maestro in anything but magic. It wasn’t arrogance to say I was one of the best. I’d proved it over and over.
I wished I could bottle this moment. Let Tally feel how much it meant to me. My stupid mouth would only ever muck things up if I tried to explain with words, so I didn’t even try.
Tally cuddled closer to me, pressing her face against my chest. She’d drifted off to sleep not long after we’d finished. We’d donned our clothes and arranged ourselves in a more respectable position on the couch, just in case the boys rose early and needed something. Even having her curled like a kitten in my lap was a peace unlike anything I’d ever felt before.
“I love you,” I whispered against her hair.
She didn’t reply. I was too much of a coward to shake her awake and say it to her face.
It’s practice for the day when you finally pluck up the nerve, I reasoned.
Sure, I’d go with that.
I sucked in a deep breath and froze when the scent of ozone and copper pennies drifted to me on a nonexistent breeze. I twisted in my seat so fast that I almost gave myself whiplash.
At first, it was hard to see where the source of the smell was coming from. It seemed to pour, sourceless, from the shadows. The darkness all around us bunched and roiled, splashing like ink where it shouldn’t. It seemed to creep forward, blotting out the glow of the nightlight and infomercials. The announcer’s speech had become a solid drone of sound. I could feel, but not see, time dragging around us like a rock in a stream. This moment was stuck in space, while the world around us carried on merrily.
Which should have been impossible. Time was a tricky concept, magically speaking. You mucked with it at your own peril. Only a few species could even attempt playing with time, and witches were among them. Blood witches, in particular. Or a blood warlock, as the case may have been. When I glanced down at Tally, she’d frozen as well. So, it was just me and whatever magical fuckery this was.
“Knox,” I muttered under my breath. “Stop this, right fucking now.”
The worthless, incorporeal son of a bitch fizzled into existence, striding through Tally’s living room like he had every right to be there. He leaned his elbow on top of the TV, blowing a plume of red smoke from the end of a lit cigarette. He’d leaned into a gangster aesthetic this time. Pinstripes in red, and a bowler hat that looked old enough to be authentic. He tipped it at me with a wink. He looked more solid here than he had been in my dream.
But how was he here right now? And why?
“Sorry, champ, but it isn’t my choice this time around.”
“What are you talking about?”
“She wants Taliyah out of the equation. I’d like to avoid that, but I’ll take any avenue back into the world.”
The words settled like a chill into my bones. It felt like I’d splinter if I made any sudden moves. He’d all but just told me that the culprit behind Vivian’s murder was a Blood Witch. That meant there was another abomination like me roaming around, and whoever that abomination was, she’d struck a deal with the devil to kill my wife.
Fat fucking chance.
“You can have an hour,” I said.
Knox grinned and took another drag of his cigarette. “Oh no, I’m going to need more time than that, dear boy. A day at least.”
“Done.”
I blurted the words before I could think. Tally would probably hate me for them, but I couldn’t let her die. If Knox was what he said he was, he could kill her. I wouldn’t let that happen.
“Excellent,” Knox continued. “Let’s perform a sleeping curse, then, not a fatal hex. I have to make it look convincing, you know.”
I wanted to protest. Wanted to tell him to stop, but I couldn’t find my voice. The shadows loomed long, blotting out all the light in the room. I fell, silently screaming into the void, watching the gleam of Knox’s smile until it disappeared from sight.