Chapter 4
CHAPTER FOUR
RYDER
Earlier, I could have brushed off what happened, but there was no way this time.
My body fell apart. I looked around and we were in Eastland Park, miles away from the coffee shop.
I wasn’t even sure if she lived near this park, but she said she walked to the coffee shop.
Everything she had said was a lie so far.
“What’s happening, Daphne?” I asked.
Daphne wasn’t talking. I turned to her, and she had fallen over.
I bent over her and touched her cheek. “Daphne?” There was no response.
I touched her cheek and palpated her throat to make sure she was still alive.
Her heart raced, and I pondered if I needed to give her mouth to mouth.
Her eyes snapped open, and she sucked in a deep breath of air.
Daphne’s green eyes glittered for a second.
“I’m fine.” She stood up and walked away as if nothing had happened. “You screwed up. Mr. Carville is not a simple businessman. He’s like the mafia of this city!”
“No, he’s not in the mafia,” I said.
She turned around and huffed. “You don’t understand. You saw something bad, and he’s trying to eliminate you before he has to contact the authorities.”
“What do you mean?” I asked as my brow furrowed.
“You saw magic, numbskull!” Daphne screamed at me. She'd be really cute if she wasn't always so angry at me.
“What?” My memory went back to the video I had seen. It wasn’t a movie. What she was implying was that it was magic I saw in the video. “Magic?”
“Yeah. And you chose the worst person. Many people would let you walk away, but he has too much going on. He doesn’t want the authorities to find out what you saw.”
“What if I say I saw nothing?”
“It doesn’t matter to him! You’re expendable!”
“What are you talking about?”
Daphne paused and sighed. “You are human. He’s one of those paras that don’t like humankind and want to wipe them off the planet. Which is stupid. It doesn’t change the fact that you are human.”
“So you’re saying magic exists? That was magic on the tape?”
“Yes, magic.”
I sat up and pressed his fingers on my temples. “So, what now?”
She sighed as her eyes teared up. “I don’t know. There’s only a few circumstances a mortal should know about magic. You got any weird relatives that we can find out happen to have magic? A weird, furry uncle?”
I laughed at the idea of Daphne asking if I had a ‘furry uncle.’ “I don’t know. I think my whole family is normal. Other options?”
“You have to be dating or married or something to someone with magic of some sort. It’s easy with fated mates shit. You got a girlfriend that acts feline or territorial?”
I rolled my eyes. “I don’t have a girlfriend. And none of them acted feline. Whatever that means.”
“Too bad. We could have used that. Get up. We have to figure out how we’ll get you somewhere safe.”
“What’s your plan?”
“I don’t know. This isn’t my wheelhouse. I’m not a bounty hunter or whatever the cool witches are.”
“You’re a witch?” I asked.
“Yeah! How do you think I saved your damn life twice? I’m a hero,” she said with an eye roll.
“What do we do?”
Daphne paced around me and sighed dramatically. “I’m not adventurous or anything. Why me?”
“I don’t know. I can leave you alone.”
“And how will you defeat them? Seriously, you have no magic.”
“I don’t know. I don’t want to bother you. I've hurt you too much.” As I reached out, my fingertips brushed against her soft, warm skin. A bruise was already forming from where they must have hurt her.
Daphne swallowed as her eyes watched me touch her arm. “He’s sending magical assassins after you. How will you survive?”
“Maybe I should give myself up.”
“That sounds foolish.” She stormed towards the playground and slammed herself onto a swing.
“What are you doing?” I asked as I followed her.
“I can’t think. This helps me think. Or it will,” she muttered as she pumped herself into the air.
“Is it helping?”
“God! You’re annoying! I’ve barely started!”
“Well, I am in danger.”
She stopped and stared at me with a dead look on her face. “You realize that I’m in danger now, right? He’s probably willing to say that I told you about magic and I’ll be killed.”
“What do you mean?”
“How do you not know about magic? Strict laws. They imprison or kill the ones that expose magic.”
“That’s harsh.”
She stepped out of the swing. “I should have never gone to get coffee.”