Chapter 15
AMRI
S tars above, that kiss! Who needs sleep when I can have Malik’s lips on mine?
I’m buzzing from the after effects of what just happened.
I’ve got a goofy smile on my face, and I’m so distracted, I barely hear the shouting merchants trying to make a sale at the market.
Malik has become too comfortable being the martyr.
It’s heartbreaking, but I’m discovering that I—the aggressive, impatient, hot-tempered shifter—have a well of patience and understanding when it comes to Malik that I didn’t know I possessed.
Actually, no. It’s not exactly patience; it’s …
confidence. I’m sure some of it is the Fate’s involvement, but it’s more than that.
A hand closes around my arm, trying to tug me towards a table piled high with colored fabrics, but I jerk out of the grip and keep walking. I’m used to this chaotic market to the point it's just background noise.
I press my fingers to my still-smiling lips, recalling the feel of Malik there. His taste. The wildness just under the surface. Stars, I think I’m still a bit weak in the knees.
A woman steps in front of me, waving something in my face.
I can’t tell what it is because all I see is Malik’s body moving with sinful grace as he danced.
I wave off the woman, stepping around her.
She tries to cut me off, but I shoulder her out of the way.
She shouts something at me but quickly turns to find a new target.
I could have avoided all this and gone around the market, but I enjoy the chaos, the challenge.
I’ve walked through it more times than I can count, and most of the vendors know me, but they tend to see my pale skin first, and think, ‘tourist.’ Even when they finally do recognize me, that still doesn’t stop them from throwing themselves and their wares into my path.
Hey, a sale is a sale, and I admire their tenacity if not their aggressive techniques.
I duck as a woman swings a colorfully stripped woven basket at my head. I laugh as I pass her. “Salma, people can’t buy your baskets if you knock them out.”
She grins, shoving said basket towards my retreating back. “Then do the public a service and take this one off my hands.”
I wave over my shoulder, pushing past more eager sellers.
As I break free from the market, I walk another block before turning east. Fluttering fabric hanging on a line stretched overhead from one window to another catches my eye.
The brilliant purple color reminds me of Malik’s flowy pants he wore during the banquet.
It was the perfect hue to highlight the warm brown of his skin and contrast off the brilliance of his green eyes.
A woman leans over her balcony, beating a thick rug with rhythmic thump, thump, thumps; a beat Malik could easily roll his hips to.
I turn another corner, and the sun slants over my eyes, painting the stuccoed houses with golden light that reminds me of the glinting jewelry that Malik likes to wear.
Lifting my chin, I glance at the tip of a minaret peeking over the flat roofs of the houses on either side of me.
It’s past the time for the morning call to prayer, but I can easily hear the hauntingly beautiful melodic proclamation in my head, and I wonder if Malik has ever heard it before.
I think he’d enjoy the experience.
“Amri—”
I pause in the street, looking around at the neighborhood I’ve walked for years, and suddenly I’m seeing it with new eyes.
I recall the sense of wonder I felt the first time I visited Morocco.
The colors, the patterns, the vibrancy mixed with the soft desert colors.
The history. The people with their ready smiles. The textiles, the artwork, the food …
“—swer me.”
As I start walking again, I smile, thinking how I’d love to bring Malik here and show him around. I want to watch him see this lovely place for the first time.
“—need to talk. Amri. Amri!”
With a sigh, I tune in to Mara’s voice inside my head. I probably should let her explain what she was doing with Circe. But she may not even be contacting me about that. She’s probably just looking for the update I have yet to give her on what I heard and saw in the palace.
My beast lays down in my mind, crossing one front paw over the other. “We should give her the chance to come clean. Mara has always been good to us.”
“And we will. But right now we need to get our hands on a Queen of the Night cactus flower.”
I do the mental version of denying Mara’s call and double-check Sadie’s location, making sure she’s still at my place. I’m about to slide into Rian’s mind and make sure everyone is decent before I barge in, but then …
My right eye twitches as a magical alarm goes off in my head. A shifter is breaking a Zodiac law. I wait to see if another enforcer will respond, but as the alarm gets louder, I realize I’m going to have to go.
I groan. I don’t have time for this, but I need to do my job. As I zero in on the shifter, I mumble, “This better not take long.”
My moon and stars tattoo glows as I mentally respond to the alarm. I blink and the world goes white.
Crack!
I quickly get my bearings, fingers already weaving the necessary spells as I take in the scene. Roger, a honey badger shifter of the Sagittarius clan, has his half-shifted fist wrapped in the shirt of a wide-eyed man as he growls in his face.
I shout, “Roger!”
The moment his angry eyes snap to me, the fury on his face dies, quickly replaced by fear. His gaze darts to his hand where his claws have ripped through the man’s shirt, and fur covers him to his wrist. “Shit!”
I complete and hold the sign as I nod. “Yeah, shit. Let him go.”
Roger drops the man like he’s on fire and backs away from him. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to. I didn’t realize … I just got so angry. I?—”
“Save it, Roger. This is your third offence.”
“Nooo.” He takes off at a sprint.
My head falls back, and I groan at the ceiling of the store.
The man stammers, pointing after Roger then swings his arm towards me.
Before he either starts yelling or completely breaks down, I weave the spells to erase and rewrite the man’s memory of what just happened.
Thankfully it was just him who witnessed Roger’s slip.
I sigh as I step outside, quickly ducking into a small alcove.
The shift sweeps over me, and I scurry out of my heap of clothing.
I sniff the air, easily catching Roger’s scent, and I take off.
My long claws click-clack as I sprint after the scrambling shifter.
But after seeing me, he reverted back to his full human form, and while he’s quick on his feet, I’m faster.
At top speed, I can hit thirty miles per hour, and I easily catch up to Roger.
He yelps in surprise as I nip at his heels. He dodges down a side street but screeches to a stop as a dead end looms ahead. Roger whips around, holding up his hands. “Please. It won’t happen again.”
I shake my head. “Come on, Roger.”
He takes another step back as I shift back to human, dusting myself off before weaving a few signs. My clothes reappear and magical cuffs land in my hands. I hold them out. “Let’s go.”
His shoulders slump, but I keep my weight on the balls of my feet, ready to tackle him if necessary. This wouldn’t be the first time a shifter acted defeated only to attack me once I got close enough.
But Roger remains docile as I slide the cuffs onto his wrists. They’re actually more like bracelets, allowing him freedom of movement, but with those things on, he can’t access his magic until he appears before the Council and they decide on his punishment.
Roger hangs his head, and I can’t help but feel a little bad for him.
Like me, his beast can be volatile and hard to control.
But hey, I’ve never had a slip-up in front of a human, so there’s no excuse for Roger.
He allows his beast’s emotions to leak out when he knows he’s supposed to keep them under control. Everyone knows the laws.
As I start readying the portal that will take us to the edge of the forest barrier around the Council headquarters, he turns to me, hands raised, bracelets glinting with gold magic. “Please. I can pay you. I … I have connections. I can get things. What do you want?”
Bribery? Really?
I’m too tired to deal with this, but for half-a-second, I consider asking if he can get his hands on a Queen of the Night. I quickly toss the thought away, not ready to stoop to accepting bribes.
I shake my head. “Don’t make this worse, Roger. Let’s go.”
His shoulders slump as he steps through the portal.
I follow, catching myself as I stagger with a rush of exhaustion.
I have so much I need to do: find the ingredient Malik needs, make sure Bodi and the others are safe and settled at my place, check in with Mara, figure out what to do about Circe …
and now I have to process Roger, fill out all the necessary paperwork, get on the calendar to appear at his hearing before the Council …
I guess I’ll sleep when I’m dead.