We ate the stir-fry Savannah cooked in near silence. Kerry and Finn asked questions and carried the conversation for a while, but my mind was upstairs with Ava and Rhys was too busy glowering at me to speak much.
Finally, Savannah had enough. “Rhys, will you please stop staring at Macgrath? He’s trying to eat.”
Rhys turned to her. “I’m not doing anything,” he disagreed.
Savannah huffed. “Bullcrap. You’re looking at him like you know exactly where to hide the body.”
I choked back a laugh, trying to hide my amusement behind my water glass, but Savannah’s eyes narrowed on me.
“Don’t provoke him,” she admonished me. “He needs to let this go.”
I shrugged. “I don’t blame him.”
Now, Rhys looked surprised. “You what?” he asked, speaking to me directly for the first time since this morning.
My eyes met his. “I don’t blame you. If someone took my mate from me, I doubt I could show the same amount of restraint you have. I would have killed him the first time I saw him.”
The look in Rhys’ eyes shared that he desperately wanted to do that but only Savannah’s insistence had prevented it.
“But I can help you protect her now,” I continued.
“Like you protected Ava yesterday at the coffee shop?”
His question was a direct hit. It was a knife in my gut, twisting viciously to achieve the maximum amount of damage.
Savannah smacked his shoulder. “Rhys!”
His eyes moved to her and when he saw the expression on her face, he sighed. “I’m sorry,” he grumbled. “That was uncalled for.”
“You’re darn right it was,” she said. “It’s obvious that he’s torn up about what happened and about the fact that he didn’t know Rhiannon was right next door. Even Ava didn’t know and she’s the most powerful witch I’ve ever met.”
“He’s right though,” I commented, drinking more water, hoping that the cool liquid would ease the fire in my gut. “I didn’t protect her. Rhiannon managed to nearly blow upThe Magic Beanand then steal the grimoire right out of Ava’s house.” In fact, it had been Ava who had protected herself at the coffee shop, not the other way around.
Something changed in Rhys’ face as he stared at me once again. “You covered her body with yours at the shop,” he stated, shocking the hell out of everyone at the table. “You were willing to die for her.”
“That doesn’t mean shit if I can’t keep her from getting killed in the process,” I replied, utterly sincere.
I saw it then, the change in his eyes. He was still pissed as hell, but he understood. In that moment, his attitude toward me shifted. I doubted we would ever be friends, but this was the first time he wasn’t looking at me as though I was the enemy.
He nodded, just once, a silent agreement to a ceasefire in his wordless war against me. It wasn’t an end, but it was the first step.
There were other, more important things to focus on now.
I turned to Kerry. “Rhiannon has Gaius’ grimoire,” I stated.
She flinched and I knew she understood the gravity of the situation.
“Would she be able to recreate his spell? The one he used to change Rhys?”
Her eyes widened. “Did the grimoire contain the spell?”
“I’m not sure,” I answered honestly. “But why else would she come after it?”
“Shit,” Kerry whispered. “This is bad.”
