Chapter Twenty
Silas tried to ignore the weight of Sylvia’s caster in his pocket and focus on the papers in front of him.
It didn’t help that this collection of paperwork was, perhaps, the most boring collection of paperwork to ever exist. Silas had flipped through this exact same stack of forms at every coven he’d visited over the past few months, and it never changed.
Surprise, surprise, witches needed spells to keep their car tires full and their coffee hot (or cold, or oat milk–ed, or whatever it was that people who drank the infernal stuff instead of just having an energy drink like a normal person preferred).
He didn’t know why he had to examine page after page of Excel spreadsheets documenting that fact.
But it was part of the job, and at least Fiona was the most fun Recorder he’d gone through the process with.
When he arrived, he noticed her fiddling with bags of saltpeter for a cleansing spell she was working on, which had led to a wonderful discussion about the intricacies of old magic and the cultural loss that had come with the shift to runes.
He’d considered asking her to elaborate in a column for the Noctis newsletter, but he knew his parents would never publish it.
Runes kept people safe, and they wouldn’t want to put out anything that could encourage witches to take unnecessary risks.
Instead they’d gotten to the business at hand. They were perched at the bar in Sunspot’s dining room, Silas enjoying another glass of the superb Cranberry Red Bull re-creation while Fiona sipped on a nonalcoholic daiquiri that had been passed to her by the chef with a wink.
“And on here, we have, you guessed it, more requests for vacuuming spells,” Fiona said. “Are you not entertained?”
Silas chuckled, running his pen down the lines of the printed-out spreadsheet in front of him.
Just like the dozens of pages that had come before, it was all perfectly normal.
Part of the job of the yearly check-ins was to go through the records of every spell that had been lent out of the coven’s library in the last year, to make sure that they were all up to code and to confirm that they were being used at the expected rates.
Any discrepancies had to be reported back to Noctis using another exceptionally long and boring stack of paperwork, which would then be investigated and answered with, you guessed it, even more paperwork.
“Thank you,” Silas said, taking a much-needed break from the lines of the spreadsheet to look at Fiona. “For walking me through this. I’m sure this isn’t how you wanted to spend your Sunday.”
“Are you suggesting this is anything other than my very definition of fun, Silas Khatri? I’m insulted.”
“She was talking about how excited she was for it all night,” the chef—Tess, if he remembered correctly—chimed in from behind the bar. “Couldn’t get her to shut up about it.”
“I think you thought of a few ways to shut me up.” Fiona grinned as she leaned over and kissed Tess.
Silas’ heart crunched. Thirty years into his life and his longest relationship was a six-week stint with a girl in college—and it only lasted that long because she was too busy with the spring musical to find the time to dump him.
He’d known from the beginning every relationship he had was going nowhere.
He’d never had the easy affection these two had, the potential to grow into something more.
He repeated the familiar narrative that he didn’t want to be tied down anyway, but it was hard to hear it over the roaring scream that he wasn’t good enough.
At least his parents had stopped pressuring him about it.
The only thing they wanted more than seeing him happily married and pumping out babies to continue the Khatri line was seeing him in charge of Aestas.
He bristled with the weight of their expectations, which had been slammed down on him again and again the night before as he’d projected to their office in New York, telling them that he’d found nothing magical about the Hollywood and Highland attack.
Just a coincidence. Aestas mourned for their city, but that was all.
They had not liked that answer. They had treated the deaths of a couple dozen people as an opportunity.
Silas had always noticed the sharp edges to his parents, but lately, those edges had cut.
He’d been born to kings, but over his lifetime, those kings had fought and clawed their way into an empire.
Vikrant and Nina had taken the Khatri name to another level, relentlessly expanding their influence in both the magical and ordinary world, always moving the goalposts of how strong was strong enough.
And at some point along their unrelenting climb, Silas fell behind, and they didn’t think to turn around and look for him.
He had good memories with his parents. Sitting on his father’s shoulders at six years old so he could get a better view of the Diwali fireworks.
Holding his mother’s hand at twelve years old as they explored the High Line.
Both of their arms around him at twenty-two years old, posing for a photo at his college graduation.
He loved them, truly and deeply, but he couldn’t say that he liked them anymore.
The conversation about the attack had left him with an upset stomach all night.
His mother had looked almost happy when they got on the call.
Nina’s edges were more jagged than Vikrant’s, chipped again and again by the small violences the world visited upon powerful women.
Silas knew this, loved her in spite of and because of it, but he had seen for himself the bloody aftermath of the attack.
He couldn’t handle the knowledge that, to her, the opportunity to nail Sylvia to the wall was worth any price.
Vikrant was more measured in his response, focusing less on how they could pin the deaths on Sylvia and more on the potential procedural violations that might have been made in the lead-up to and investigation of the attack.
Silas dodged all of their questions, pushing back until eventually they had no choice but to drop it.
If there was one thing Silas could do well, it was waste someone’s time. He’d had a lifetime of practice.
He was going to figure out how Sylvia’s caster had wound up there himself. Once he found the reasonable explanation for all of this, he could find a way to make his takeover an easy transition. There was an increasing list of Aestas members who he’d really like to not hate him.
He knew he could start making steps toward that now—Sylvia was probably in her office, just a few feet away.
But he had no idea how to broach the conversation, whether he should go in with accusations or apologies.
There was a very real chance that Sylvia was guilty, and he had no clue how he would even begin to handle that.
His parents had given him something else that would get them off his back, for a while at least. Only that thing was worse.
“Are you ready to get into the exciting world of laundry spells?” Fiona asked, blessedly giving him an out to avoid thinking of his future for a little longer.
“Bring it.”
Except when Fiona went to flip the page, a door opened and out walked Katherine, looking like she’d just been caught in the act.
Fuck, she’d just been caught in the act.
Katherine’s body went hot, like everyone could spot the spell she’d just taken. She knew that wasn’t physically possible, but that was hard to remember when Silas was sitting here going through the spell library records. Records that would show that she had taken the altum tracking spell.
A thing she was allowed to do, she reminded herself. On paper, she had done nothing wrong. The only issue she had to contend with was her conscience.
She had hesitated, in the spell room, pacing as she decided if she could actually betray Sylvia like this, and before she knew it, an hour had passed.
By the time she finally got the courage to press her bleeding palm to the page, her knees and back were on fire, and all she wanted to do was slink back home and collapse on her couch.
Except her attempts to sneak out unseen had failed, and now Silas Khatri was staring at her.
Fiona and Tess were too. Fiona swept her eyes over Katherine. “You look … well,” she said.
“Your lies are noted but appreciated.” Katherine tried to act casual as she walked over and poured herself a glass of water. “Spell library investigation going well?”
“Swimmingly,” Fiona said. “Where have you been? You didn’t answer any of my texts yesterday.”
“Sorry,” Katherine said, really meaning it. Fiona was a better friend than she deserved, always checking in, never allowing Katherine to disappear, no matter how much she wanted to. “I just … had a busy day.”
Her eyes met Silas’ as she said it, then flicked away. Fiona, of course, caught the motion. She looked at Katherine.
“Can I talk to you for a moment?” she asked. “In private.”
“I’ll give you two a second,” Silas said. “Bathroom?”
Tess pointed Silas to one of the doors along the wall, then grabbed a box of newly cleaned dishes and took them into the kitchen. Fiona waited until they had the dining room to themselves, then leaned over to Katherine.
“Did something happen with you and Silas? You know you’re legally obligated to tell me.”
Katherine rolled her eyes. “No, nothing happened. We just ran into each other while I was checking up on the Hollywood and Highland attack for Sylvia.”
Fiona flinched. “Of course. I caught some of it on the news. It was awful. I’m sorry you had to see that.”
She had no idea. But Katherine didn’t want to get into this with Fiona—she didn’t trust herself not to crack and spill everything, and she couldn’t do that yet. Not until she had some sort of answer.
“I’ve seen worse” was all she said. Fiona gave her a sympathetic look, which Katherine purposely avoided, turning her eyes to the floor. Fiona’s gaze went to the piece of gauze wrapped around the fresh cut on Katherine’s hand.
“Were you grabbing spells? I thought you just loaded up the other day.”
“Just needed a couple more,” Katherine said, stress making her tone come out far snappier than she intended.
Fiona’s jaw clenched, and Katherine sighed, frustrated with herself for taking out her anxiety on her friend.
Fiona just wanted to make sure she was all right, but Katherine couldn’t get into it.
Fiona might hate it when Katherine kept her at arm’s length, but Katherine would rather Fiona be mad at her than have to wade through the same sea of shit that Katherine was dealing with.
“I’m sorry,” Katherine said. “I’m just a bit on edge this morning.”
Fiona nodded, thankfully changing the subject. “So how was investigative duty with McDreamy?” she asked. “Is he as wonderful as he seems?”
“He’s incredibly annoying and deeply egotistical.”
“The hot ones always are.”
Katherine chuckled. “What about you? How’s McSteamy?”
“Tess is so not McSteamy. She’s … Jamie Fraser.”
Fiona paused, staring into the middle distance.
“You’re picturing Tess in a kilt, aren’t you?”
“And she looks magnificent.”
Katherine laughed. “So it’s going good, I take it?”
Fiona blushed. “Well, you know, a stressful situation like that can make you want to do something life-affirming…”
“I’m sure.”
“We life-affirmed all night.”
Katherine grinned. Fiona’s happiness was contagious.
“We should get drinks sometime,” Fiona continued. “The three of us. Ooh, the four of us! You can bring Silas. Like a double date.”
Despite herself, Katherine blushed. She turned away quickly, but it wasn’t quick enough.
“Oh. My. God,” Fiona squealed. “You want to date Silas.”
“I do not want to date Silas.”
“Oh. My. God. You want to fuck Silas.”
Katherine’s blush turned into a full-on forest fire. “My body is attracted to his body. That doesn’t mean he isn’t a raging asshole.”
“Why don’t you ignore the raging asshole part and focus on the body part?”
Katherine distracted herself with pouring another glass of water. “Why don’t you stop telling me to hook up with a guy who’s practically my sworn enemy?”
“You are literally the most dramatic human being on the face of the planet.”
Katherine scooped in a hefty amount of ice to help cool down her burning cheeks. “That honor, Fi, has got to go to you.”
“Uh-huh. Don’t deflect. This is about you, and Silas, and a trip to—”
There was a throat-clear behind them, and Katherine turned to see Silas, back from the bathroom, his dimples on full display as he grinned at them. No amount of ice could keep her from turning scarlet.
“A trip to where?”
“Uh, to Libertad, to meet with their coven head, Niles Cabrera,” Katherine lied. “Per your conversation with Sylvia. Whenever you need to meet with them, I can help facilitate.”
Silas’ eyes twinkled, clearly catching her lie, but then his face shut down. “Right,” he said. “My parents were actually hoping I could check on Libertad today. Do you have time to go over there now?”
Well, there went her afternoon on the couch.
“Sure,” Katherine said. “Come on. I’ll drive.”