“Don’t you see?” She reaches out and touches my arm without seeming to realize she’s doing it. The contact sends electricity through me. “That’s why I’m studying under Professor Rossi. He might not have all the answers, but he’s spent his life studying human texts from that age. He knows what people who lived back then said about what they saw when it was all happening.”
Her hand is still on my arm. I don’t dare move in case she notices and pulls away.
“If the prophecy is right, and more spirits are going to be pouring back into the world, don’t we need to be prepared?” Her voice has gone softer now, almost pleading with me to understand.
I do understand. Of course I do.
“Are you suggesting we need to find a way to send every spirit in this realm back to where they came from? A second great exile? How? Like some global version of the circle the mage and I cooked up to send my father back to the Great Hall?” My head shakes in disbelief at the thought. “It took years for us to figure that out, and that was just working out the magical coordinates to asinglerealm that I’d already visited once before.”
“I don’t know!” Phoenix’s frustration is evident, but it’s not directed at me anymore. It’s at the situation. At the unknown. “But we have to try and find out, don’t we?”
I try to focus on the “we” in her statement. And the way she’s looking at me so emphatically, like she needs me to be on her side in this. Like we’re partners.
I nod. “Yeah. We do.”
She smiles at me then, and it makes me feel radiant inside, like the sun breaking through clouds after a rainstorm. It’s a real smile, the kind that reaches her eyes.
I fight the impulse to reach out and take her hands. She’s asking for a partner. Maybe that’s all I’ll ever be to her, but I’ll take whatever I can get if it means staying by her side.
“Thank you,” she says quietly. “For understanding. I know this probably seems insane to you.”
“Phoenix, you’re one of the sanest, most intelligent people I’ve ever met.” The words come out more intense than I intended. “If you think this is important, then it is.”
Her cheeks flush slightly, and she pulls her hand back from my arm. She only seems to just now realize she was touching me. “We should go find Professor Rossi before he changes his mind about meeting with us.”
Right before I can say anything else or do something stupid like ask if she’d ever want to try this marriage thing out for real, her phone buzzes loudly in her pocket.
She frowns and pulls it out. Whatever she sees on the screen makes her face go absolutely grim. The light that was in her eyes a moment ago extinguishes completely.
“What?” I ask, immediately concerned by the change in her expression.
“It’s Vlad. He’s sending us to go investigate something.” When her eyes come up to meet mine, they’ve lost all the joy she had when she was texting her professor earlier. “There’s been a murder.”
The word hangs heavy in the air between us. Whatever moment we were having in this alcove is gone now, replaced by the grim reality of what being bound to Vlad means.
She takes a breath and squares her shoulders. “I’m sorry. I know you probably wanted to avoid getting pulled into Vlad’s business.”
“Hey.” I do reach out this time and touch her shoulder briefly. “We’re in thistogether, remember? That’s what you just said.”
She looks up at me, and something in her expression softens. “Yeah. Together.”
For just a second, I let myself hope that eventually, she might come to mean it in more ways than just as a research partner. In the meantime, I’ll take every moment with her I can get.
SEVENTEEN
LAYDEN
“Why isVlad calling you about a murder anyway?” I ask. “Doesn’t he own the police?”
But Phoenix is already sprinting back toward the car. I follow her and wonder if this is my life now, chasing after the beautiful backside of my wife as she runs away from me. The thought makes me blink hard. No, I need to shake that word out of my head. She’s not my wife, not in any meaningful way. I’ll just torture myself thinking like that.
Then again, a little torture can be fun sometimes. After enough time, there’s nothing else to do but give in and enjoy the pain. I could enjoy the torture of being near Phoenix even if it means never touching her the way I want to.
She only stops once we’re back at her car, slightly breathless from the sprint across campus. “Vlad owns the police in the city.” She’s already pulling out her keys. “Well, he owns the entire city, actually. And the only murders that are allowed here are the ones he orders. He didn’t order this one.”
“Still, why call you specifically?”
“He doesn’t usually. But this one’s different.” She pulls her phone back out and swipes through something. “He sent in some forensic photos.”
