Chapter 20 #2
My blood was already heating with anger, anticipating what was coming next. “Got it.”
“He cornered me in a deserted hallway and tried to kiss me. I stopped him. I didn’t—wouldn’t have wanted to anyway—but that was dangerous.
” Kit lost what little colour he had in his face.
“We could have gotten caught and both lost our jobs. I don’t know what the hell he was thinking!
Or maybe he wanted me to get caught. Maybe the only one who would’ve lost their job is me.
He’s at the top, after all, and since when do men like that face consequences? ”
It took everything in me to uncurl my hands from fists. I wanted to go slug the creep, but that would only make things worse for Kit. “Not very often. Why would he want you fired?”
Kit shook his head. “I don’t know. But I can’t see how I’m so desirable he’d take that kind of risk. Don’t look at me like that. I know I’m good-looking, but I’m certainly not someone to risk losing everything for.”
He was wrong, but that was beside the point. “What happened when you stopped him?”
“Nothing. I told him no and said I had to leave. And I kept thinking about you, so I ended up here. Again. Even though I knew you’d say you told me not to go.”
“I wouldn’t—”
“Fine, you’d think it.”
He had me there. Before I could deny it, the phone rang. “Hold on, I’ll be right back, we need to finish this conversation.”
I made it to the kitchen in time to answer, surprised to hear George’s voice on the line. “Gus, there’s… you have to keep this to yourself, we haven’t notified the family yet.” He sounded apprehensive, and that was the second time I’d been asked for my silence tonight.
Fear for Ted shot through me, and I squeezed my eyes shut. If he was dead, it would destroy Kit, and Ted would be another innocent person I lost too. Another sibling I couldn’t help. We weren’t blood, but we were close as. “You know I will. What’s wrong?”
“It’s the medical examiner who sent Kit the strange letter.
Albert Salter.” Relief washed through me, leaving my knees momentarily weak, followed by guilt.
“His body was dumped in the woods. He’s been there a while from the looks of it.
And Gus? Whoever did it was brutal. He was a little old man, couldn’t have put up much of a fight. What they did to him…”
“Jesus.”
“Yeah. And there’s magic involved. He’s frozen completely solid. A sheet of ice all over him. It’s spooky.”
“That sounds like—”
“Look. We don’t know if this is related to Mr. and Mrs. Lovely. It could be a coincidence,” George said half-heartedly.
“But you don’t think it is.”
He sighed. “My gut says no.”
“Mine too. We aren’t both wrong.” Kit wouldn’t think it was happenstance either.
“Tell Kit to be careful. This isn’t going to make him stop any more than my last warning did, but he needs to understand how deadly this is. I might not like the guy, but I don’t want to see him wind up like Salter, and I sure don’t want you to wind up like Salter either.”
“I’ll do what I can.”
“Yeah. I’ve got to go. I just got in, and I need to shower and get some sleep.”
“Take care, George.”
“You too.”
For a few seconds, I slumped against the wall beside the telephone before replacing the receiver.
I wasn’t looking forward to the discussion I was about to have with Kit.
We’d already been over this twice, and he hadn’t balked at the danger then.
This needed to be different. This was proof someone was murdering people to keep something quiet.
I wished I knew how to make him see that.
Wished I was confident I could get him to.
“Tell me,” Kit said from behind me. His eyes were tight at the edges, brows drawn together, already braced for the worst news.
“It’s not Ted. They found Salter. Murdered.”
Emotions flashed across Kit’s face, the same relief and guilt I’d felt, and then resolve. “This proves Ted running wasn’t irrational.”
“Maybe.” I thought the shots fired at my house proved it too, but if I said so and Kit did something risky, I’d never forgive myself for not talking him down. He needed to be cautious. And I knew he wouldn’t be. He didn’t have a cautious bone in his whole damn body.
“It does. It proves he’s right to be scared. Salter knew something! I knew Ted was lying in that note. Salter talked to him.”
“We don’t know that, but it seems probable.
It also seems probable that you’ve been putting yourself in a lot more danger than you knew.
George said it was brutal, Kit. It involved magic.
The same kind that killed your parents.” Images of Kit broken, bloody, lifeless, and covered in ice flashed before my eyes.
Bile rose in my throat, and I fought to keep myself steady.
“Someone’s hiding something they’re willing to kill over. You need to lie low for a while.”
Kit tensed, defensive. “I can’t do that, you know I can’t.”
“If you keep pushing it?”
“If I don’t, Ted could be next! We need to find him and learn what he knows so we can figure a way out of this that saves everyone’s skin.”
“This isn’t a detective novel, Kit! It’s life and death and I get that you’re addicted to chasing trouble, but you can’t throw your life away when everyone, even Ted, is telling you to lay off.”
Kit backed away from me, shaking his head. “I’m not…” He rubbed a hand over his mouth and shook his head again. “I can’t leave him to fend for himself. Not again. If you’re okay with that, maybe I came to the wrong person for help.”
That stung. None of this was coming out the way I wanted it to.
“I’m doing everything I can to find them.
I’ve got my contacts searching, I’ve got calls in to detachments across the province, New Brunswick, and Quebec too, just in case.
I’ve been investigating this with and without you, trying spells.
It’s all I’ve been working on, ever since you asked.
And we’ve got nothing. Sometimes we can’t find missing people, Kit.
Especially when they don’t want to be found.
And sometimes we shouldn’t. If I could easily find them, so could whoever wants to do them harm. ”
“You could do a blood spell with my blood,” Kit argued, gaze uncompromising.
“No. Hell no.” Kit knew as well as I did that blood magic was unpredictable and dangerous enough for the wielder using their own blood.
It could cause an explosion, maim, or kill me if anything went wrong, but it was a risk I was comfortable taking given my affinity for controlling it.
Kit’s blood having a strong familial tie to Ted meant it could potentially break through the magic concealing him, but it was still more likely to outright kill Kit than give us a location.
The unpredictability of second party blood magic was so much more difficult to manage that even my mother’s family wouldn’t do it.
And that was without adding in the fact that Kit was half-fae.
There was too little to gain, and way too much risk. A location wouldn’t do us any good if Kit died and then all I found were two more bodies. Whether Kit wanted to face reality or not, I wasn’t going to help him kill himself.
“I’m not addicted to danger,” Kit said.
Of course, he ignored everything else I’d listed in favour of picking out the second worst thing I’d mentioned.
“Then why have you been throwing yourself into it for years? Overseas and now here? Why the hell is it so much to ask that you back off and let things cool down? Between Salter’s murder and my house being shot at, I can’t understand why you don’t have the slightest hint of self-preservation.
And I saw your face that night, Kit, the look in your eyes when you came in the door.
It was the most alive I’d seen you since you came home.
If that’s not an addiction, it’s for damn sure close. ”
Kit stiffened and drew himself up for an angry reply, but for once, one of us had some sense. He held back whatever cutting thing he was working up to. “We can’t discuss this right now. I’ll say something awful.”
Like how I kept disappointing him? My pulse pounded, half-spoiling for a fight anyway. But if he was going to be a grownup, so could I. “Let me drive you home. We can finish this tomorrow, once we’ve both calmed down.” At least then I’d know he got home safe.
“Fine,” he replied, bitterly.
Well, fuck.