It's bedtime, she thought. That was a similar thing to the Mage headquarters. Lights off always happened at 10 PM, no matter what.Nothing’s changed, she thought, as her mind finally slowed down, and she fell asleep.
She woke up some time later, her bladder complaining. To Gentry's horror, she wasn't sure where the bathroom was. Seeing as they were in one giant wooden room with absolutely no privacy, she stood up, her entire body protesting from the hours spent motionless on the cot. No candles were lit, but she dug into her jeans pockets and took out Kit’s phone for its flashlight. The bunker was far creepier with its harsh, unforgiving light rather than that of the candles; it made the shadows stretch further, and the limited lens only gave her about five feet with each step. She must have not been too subtle because she saw a curly-haired shadow at the far corner.
"How do you go to the bathroom in here?" Gentry asked quietly, trying not to wake Kit.
Visha stepped out of the shadows, her voluptuous figure dampened by loose pajamas. She looked far more relaxed than she’d been earlier. "No easy answer for that one," she answered with a laugh. "There's a bedpan in the corner. I'll clean it with my magic for you once you're done."
Gentry wanted to ask if there was a way to stop the bunker’s motion so she could go outside, but changed her mind when Visha eyed her with cool indifference. She didn’t want to push it, even if relieving herself on a bedpan with a hot male witch mere yards away wasn’t what she wanted to do.
Thankfully, the other woman seemed to understand her reluctance. "I can also cast a muffling spell over him so he doesn't hear. Keep the lights dim." Visha shrugged.
"Thank you." The taller woman didn't respond and retreated back to her cot, and Gentry figured this was about as friendly as she'd be able to get with Kit’s ex.
The bedpan was exactly where Visha advertised it to be, in the far corner where some of the bunks had been pushed further away. To her horror, her peeing was fairly loud against the metal of the bowl. She would just have to hope that Visha had kepther side of the deal. Gentry stood up, thankful to see that Visha delivered on her other promise and cleaned her mess up. It was a small mercy. She then shuffled over to the bunk she'd been using before, the one closest to the kitchenette.
Visha’s grumpy voice sounded out again and made her jump. "Gentry, would you like some sleeping draught? I just brewed some up before you and Kit were banging on the door." For the first time since she'd met the other woman, Visha sounded sincere. "Kit just told me that you lost your father. I lost mine, too. And Lord knows I couldn't sleep for a week, let alone a night.”
“My father wasn't the best man," Gentry said, thrown off by the offer. It was true. She'd had nightmares of her father on that last day they'd saw each other, not yesterday, but the one five years ago. And then in that dream, she had seen how blank his eyes had been, how sweaty and unusual. But she couldn't tell if it was her brain conjuring things up to show her that she'd been wrong about her father all along, or if it had truly been memories.
"Me and my father fought a lot, too," Visha said, not unkindly. "That doesn't mean I don't miss him."
Gentry softened at the thread of weakness in the other woman's voice. "I'd love some sleeping draught," she said, a little curious about what a potion like that might taste like. All the sleeping pills they'd shoved down her throat at Mage headquarters hadn't worked. Anything made with magic was bound to work like a charm with none of the side effects. That was the beauty of magic.
More footsteps as Visha walked over to her cot, where all of the strewn clothes lay. She picked up a bag that clinked together, and Gentry assumed that must have been her potion bag. She didn't know why, but she could guess that the curly-haired witch was good both in the kitchen and at a cauldron. A momentpassed before she walked over to Gentry and placed a tiny blue vial in her hand. "Sleeping draught, extra strength."
Gentry uncorked the vial with uncertain hands, spilling a little bit of it on her fingers in the process. She lifted it up to her lips. Visha watched her with those beautiful dark eyes. A nugget of paranoia wiggled into her mind. Then she heard Mykel’s voice in her head,Stop being paranoid, you little shit, and drink the potion. Make a friend.
Gentry listened to that voice and downed the potion in one go, surprised to find that it actually tasted good, like peppermint. Instantly, she felt the strength sap from her limbs, and she fell onto her bed.
Visha leaned too close to her, watching her. "You really shouldn't have thanked me," she said sadly. "Kit was going to kill you because of me, after all. Now it’s my turn to protect him from those marks you gave him. He’s mine. Goodbye,magic-less whore.”
Gentry lost consciousness before she could scream.
twenty-three
Kit
Kit sighed as a familiar body pressed against his. Visha. She threw her arm over him, snuggling into his chest, and he sighed from the extra warmth. But then he remembered where they were, what they were to each other now. He jolted fully awake and untangled her from him.
“What’re you doing?” he whispered, his vocal cords heavy from sleep.
“You came back to me,” Visha said, her voice not nearly as low as Kit thought appropriate. Gentry was trying to sleep. It was also the sentence that caught him off guard.
“I barely came back,” Kit said, dead serious as he peered through the darkness at Visha’s face. It was unreadable. “I don’t think you get that.”
The silence that followed was heady and ripe with tension. Visha settled back into him, nuzzling his throat. The movement hurt, the unclaimed Favor mark at the base of his throat stretching. It stung. He pushed her away again.
“I need you to listen to me,” Kit said.
His ex gave a loud, rattled laugh, the sound once again too loud for their guest. “What’s the big deal? You came back. I never would’ve sent you on something you wouldn’t have been able to pull off.”
“I didn’t pull it off,” Kit said. “Theyasked me to do something horrible, andshestopped me. And now we’re stuck in a bunker with half the city after us.”
“You did all you needed to do, Kit,” she replied, seemingly unfrozen by his confession. “You brought her to me. I’m sorry, baby. You’re right about one thing. I should stop making you do my dirty work. Now, let’s go back to bed.”
Once again, Visha was on him. Kit sat up, alarmed by what she wasn’t saying. He’d heard her up earlier that night, she was talking loud, and the way she’d been looking at Gentry… True, Visha had never been good with other girls, but the way she’d looked at her.
"Visha, what did you do?" He was out of bed before he could change his mind, his witch light summoned at his side. His heart nearly stopped when he saw Gentry's small form under her blankets. Her hand was over the side of the bed and drooping. Her eyes were open, looking at him, her chest rising and falling far too fast.
