Chapter 32 #2
I roll my eyes at him while putting on a clean dress. The moment we’re both dressed, Malakai lifts me up and throws me over his shoulder, making me let out a startled scream.
“What are you doing?” I yell at him as he strides toward the hallway. “Put me down!”
He slaps my ass in response, hard. “It’s either this or dragging, love.”
“But why?” I brace myself for the descent down the stairs.
“Why not?”
I bounce against his back with every step he takes. “Just,” I manage to say before accidentally biting my tongue. “Put me down.”
Malakai laughs, and I decide I’ve had enough. I summon my magic to bite at him, hoping to make him let go. Caught off guard, he drops me. My magic wraps around me just in time to keep me from tumbling down the last few steps.
Malakai, on the other hand, stumbles, barely managing to regain his footing. He looks at me with a flash of anger in his eyes, and his magic crackles against my skin. He lunges for me, but I easily dodge, spinning on my heel and running away.
I dash for the front door, pulling it open and sprinting outside into the night.
Malakai is right behind me as I cross the street and head for the park, laughter bubbling up as I run.
I glance over my shoulder and see him rapidly closing in.
His red skin is on full display, and for once, he seems not to care about it.
A grin breaks out on my face; he’s usually so self-conscious about it despite how often I tell him I prefer the red.
I turn around again, and barely a second later, his arms wrap around me. Malakai lifts me up and spins us. My magic is ready to lash out at him, but then something catches my eye. A fraction of a second later, he notices as well and sets me down.
All traces of playful banter vanish as we approach the wrought iron gates that enclose the park. Several gruesome things are draped over the spikes at the top of the gates. My stomach turns as I realize what it is—intestines.
Blood drips down the spikes onto the ground, littered with blossoms.
I raise my hand to my mouth in shock, unable to speak. The sight is unsettling, even for me. I turn away, but another vision flashes before my eyes—Henry, and the way his guts spilled out onto the floor after I cut him open. It can’t be a coincidence; it’s too specific.
“What’s he even trying to accomplish with this—all of this?” I finally manage to say.
Malakai strides past me to the gates. “You reckon they’re all... yours?”
“I would have to check, but I suspect so.”
My stomach churns as Malakai’s magic removes the intestines. He then pulls up the wards around the park, adjusting things to restrict access even further. It doesn’t take long before he’s done. The wards vanish, and Malakai returns to my side.
“What are we going to do about this? About him?” I ask as we cross the street back to the house.
“The tracking clearly isn’t working, no matter what we do.
And while today was a great opportunity to get his sister, she slipped right through our fingers.
” I sigh, running my fingers through my hair, pulling at the strands.
“There’s only so much our magic can do without something to guide it. ”
If there’s one thing I’ve learned while mastering magic, it’s that we can accomplish a lot with the right sacrifice.
But we still need something to go off of…
We can’t magically find Nagamaru or his sister without a direction.
It’s like a hound catching a scent, which is why I used their magic as a guide for the tracking spell.
And if they have their own spells and protections in place to prevent them from being found…
Malakai closes the front door behind us, and we head to the library. We settle on the sofa, and he pulls me onto his lap, resting his chin on top of my head while his eyes remain fixed on the fire.
“It shouldn’t be this hard to get a lock on him.
On either of them.” He sighs, frustration leaking into his voice.
“Even if they’re twins. Fuck, don’t let them be twins.
” He shudders, then falls silent for a moment.
“Even then, their signatures shouldn’t be a perfect match. It’s like we’re missing something.”
His fingers begin to play with my hair absentmindedly, and I turn my attention to the fire. After a few minutes of silence, Malakai shifts behind me. I move to let him up, and he presses a kiss to my cheek.
“Be right back. We’re going to need that drink.”
Malakai returns shortly with a tray in his hands. On it is a bottle of Dead Man’s Drink, a glass, a mug that smells like hot chocolate and cinnamon, and a small plate of cookies. He hands me the mug and points at the small fluffy rectangles atop the whipped cream.
“Those”—he grins—“are marshmallows.”
He pours himself a glass of the shimmering alcohol while I carefully take one of the marshmallows out of the mug and pop it into my mouth.
“Sweet,” I say, “and fluffy. But mostly sweet. This is pure sugar, isn’t it?”
“Pretty much,” Malakai confirms as he settles back down next to me.
I take a sip from my mug, and the combined sweetness of the chocolate, whipped cream, and marshmallows explodes in my mouth. The cinnamon softens the sweetness, but it looks like I’m in for quite the sugar rush by the time I finish this.
Malakai takes a drink from his glass, his eyes distant as he thinks.
Then he sighs and looks at me. “I don’t know why Nagamaru is being so elusive, even though he’s clearly.
.. sticking around. We should have enough to find him, to get a lock on him.
” He takes another drink. “Which means…” He hesitates, weighing whether what comes next is worth it.
“If we can’t go to him, then we have to make him come to us. ”
“You mean a summoning spell?” I ask, and Malakai nods. “What makes you think we’ll have more success that way?”
“First,” he says while topping off his glass, “you’ll be doing the spell, so that should be enough on its own.” I roll my eyes. “Secondly, a summoning spell can’t be resisted. As long as we have the correct ingredients, it will succeed in bringing him forth.”
“Like?” I ask, my voice sharp. Malakai is beating around the bush, which isn’t like him.
“The blood of his parents.”
I give him a long, pointed look, certain that I misunderstood. “How?” is all I manage to say.
“Appropriate question, at least regarding his mother.” He downs his glass in one go, grimacing before refilling it. “Nobody knows where she is. The only one with the means to find her”—he glances at me from the corner of his eye, and I know I’m not going to like this—“is my brother.”
Oh. “Shit.”
“Very,” he says, finishing his third glass. “Especially since there’s no way in hell he’ll agree to see me.” Malakai turns to fully face me. “You, on the other hand…”
“I don’t have much of a choice, do I?” I grimace at him, definitely not liking where this is going.
“Not really.”
“How do I contact him?”
“No clue.” Malakai reaches for the bottle but decides against it, putting his empty glass down instead. “You could ask your new friend.”
“She’s not my friend,” I retort, irritation creeping into my voice, fully aware that he means Azraella.
We sit there, staring at each other as if engaged in a contest of wills.
Eventually, I let out a long sigh, realizing that the bounty hunter is the only one we can ask.
I get up to find my phone, but Malakai already holds it out to me.
Grumbling some insults under my breath, I accept it and send Azraella a message.
Me
I need a favor.
“I don’t know if she’ll be willing to do this. We really aren’t friends,” I tell him while pointing the phone at his face.
Said phone dings a moment later, and my eyebrows rise because that was fast.
Azraella
My debt has been paid.
Azraella
This is going to cost you.
I sigh and mumble, ignoring Malakai’s I-told-you-so grin, “I need to offer her something.”
Me
I’ll owe you one, then.
Me
A favor for a favor.
“If I live to regret this, I’m blaming you,” I tell Malakai, knowing very well that offering a favor is a dangerous thing to do. He just laughs, and I bristle. “Asshole.”
Azraella
Fine.
Azraella
We should meet.
I send her the address of the coffee shop near the company.
“I’ll tag along then,” Malakai says. “I should probably get a few things sorted out now that the family is out of the picture.”
“Do you think William will be able to return?” I ask as I put my phone away.
He shrugs. “We’ll have to wait and see. But with everything that happened… I’m not sure if it’s a good idea.”
He thinks about his words for a moment before adding, “I trust him more than I did his father. But after what happened, he’s going to have to earn his place back.
He’ll have to convince me that he was innocent.
” Despite the harshness of his words, I can tell that Malakai is sincere about wanting to give William a chance.
“To be honest, I’d like him to come back. I had plans for him, even when I distrusted his parents. It would be nice to hold onto those plans. Convenient as well.”
“I would like that too,” I admit. “I hope he recovers.”
I glance at my mug, then back at Malakai. “What are we going to do about his sister?” I ask, shifting the subject.
“Nothing for now. We’ll deal with Nagamaru first. If we get lucky, we might end up summoning her as well. Two for the price of one and all that.”
I chuckle at that. “That would be the ideal outcome.”
Taking another sip of my hot chocolate, I almost choke on a marshmallow. Malakai bursts out laughing while I struggle to recover from the fluffy little thing. He clearly enjoys my suffering, no matter what form it takes.
Isit at one of the many round tables in the coffee shop, sipping my coffee—one with toffee this time, which is a seasonal offering, according to James. It’s good but not as good as the pumpkin one, which has apparently disappeared from the face of the earth with the new month.
It’s slightly past our meeting time, and part of me worries that Azraella might not show up. I drag my eyes away from the dreadful weather outside and check my phone again, sighing when there are no new messages.
The chair across from me scrapes over the floor as it’s pulled away. Azraella sits down, looking immensely annoyed while she crosses her arms and legs. And she doesn’t even know what I’m going to ask yet.
“Right, spit it out. I’ve got shit to do.”
She’s already getting on my nerves. Wonderful.
“Hello to you too,” I tell her as calmly as I can muster. “You want some coffee? My treat.”
Azraella frowns at me, as if she doesn’t understand the question. Then she says, “No.”
“Okay, fine, I tried,” I say after a long drink of my coffee. “I need your help to set up a meeting.”
Her frown deepens. “I can’t imagine anyone that I could possibly help you meet.”
“There is, though.”
It takes a second, but then she realizes who I’m talking about. “No, no fucking way.” The bounty hunter shakes her head, leaning back in her chair.
“You’re the only one I know who can get me in contact with him. We really need to meet with him,” I plead.
“We? You mean your husband”—she practically spits the word at me—“will be there as well?”
“Yeah, but he doesn’t need to know that. You just need to set up the meeting, and that’s it. We don’t want to show up unannounced,” I continue my attempts to persuade her. I try not to let her see how nervous this conversation makes me, how it knots my stomach. If she refuses…
Azraella gives me a long, hard look before saying, “Whatever you need from him, any small chance at getting it is out the window as soon as he sees your husband.”
“That will be our problem.” I give her a smile. “I’ll owe you big time.”
“Oh, you will”—she leans in, arms crossed on the small table—“and I plan to collect. Sooner or later.”
“Sounds perfect.” I smile broadly. I don’t give myself the chance to consider what someone like her would ask for in return. Part of me hopes that it will never come to that, and if it does, well, I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it.
The bounty hunter returns my smile, her own splitting her face from ear to ear. I find it unsettling and almost regret asking for her help. Regret offering a favor in return. I try not to swallow, to keep my emotions deep, deep down.
“Fine.” Azraella pulls her arms back and gets up from her chair. “I’ll let you know.”
“Azraella,” I call after her, and she looks back over her shoulder, her long black hair swishing with the movement. “Thank you.”
Relief floods me when she nods and walks away.
I let out a breath and sag in my seat, glad to have this over with.