“It’s not a sex club,” he said plainly. “It’s a club where light witches go to play magic games.We’rehere because, at the end of the day, they wipe the memory of everyone who works here, and Dark Witches, like Jaxan, can’t get in.”
He flagged a server to take our order.
We ate in silence, and after they cleared our plates, Leland cracked open a text. He was completely absorbed, one arm draped over the back of the bench, his long fingers comingdangerously close to stroking my shoulder again. For a full minute, I stared at him. But he just looked at his text, keeping it on the table with his other arm curled around it so I couldn’t even tell what he was reading.
“Why do they need to wipe their memories?” I asked over a yawn.
His eyes lifted to look at me at the same time as the hand over the back of the bench flexed to grasp a thin, fleece blanket he’d just Summoned.
“Your eyes are black,” he said. “You need to sleep.”
“I don’t sleep.”
“You do here.”
“It’s not location specific.”
“This time, it is.” He shoved the blanket in my lap and Summoned a pillow. “Aila already doesn’t want to be doing this, and you looking like I waterboard you in my spare time isn’t going to help.”
“Fine,” I said, taking the pillow and curling up facing the ebony paneling. “I’ll stare at the wall.”
I meant that, but almost immediately, warmth lapped against my skin. I would’ve questioned it, but after the night I’d had, I wanted to give in. I let my eyes flutter closed for a second. Two. Three. By the fourth second, they were too heavy. I knew I wouldn’t be able to reopen them.
“I’m going to need a bucket to throw up in,” I mumbled, no longer able to fight my sleepiness.
“I’ll make you two of them.”
Eyes sealed, I imagined bartenders dusting wineglasses and servers sinking into empty stools and was lulled to sleep within minutes.
Some time later, I awoke with my head under the table, and I must’ve flipped in my sleep because my eyelids lifted to a view of Leland’s lap. I blinked slowly at his jeans as I waited for the firstwave of nausea, but it didn’t come. My clothes weren’t soaked with sweat; I didn’t even have a headache.How had he . . .? I poked his leg to make sure this was really happening.
Something slid across the table, and the smell of coffee wafted down.
I sat up, blinking. “We’re still here,” I croaked. “That was really your leg.”
“It was.” He lifted my flask over the coffee mug he’d pushed in front of me.
Moonale?I nodded; he poured.
I tasted the coffee, and the sip stayed down. I could never drink anything this soon after waking up. I hadn’t been able to for months.
“How did you do it?” I asked.
“Do what?” He idly flipped a page of his text. He knew what.
“Stop pretending to read your book.” I set the mug down firmly. “How did you get rid of my nightmare?”
Leland lifted his eyebrows, feigning innocence. “Does that sound like a spell a Creator would have?”
“No.”But I know you did it.It was a dead end, though, so I moved on. “Where’s Aila?”
“Enjoying making me wait. I’d tell you why” — he tipped the flask over my mug and added more moonale to my coffee without asking — “but I don’t want to make you disappear.”
The next sip of coffee got lodged in my throat, the burn too strong to swallow. “I think I’m safe from that for the time being.” I patted my chest to help it go down. “Did you date her?”
“No.” He picked up his text, and I glimpsed the title.The Half Witch Experiments. “She thinks I cheated on her friend.”
“Did you?”
