Miles shook his head, his hand wrapping around the back of his neck. “No, everyone’s good. Now.”
“Okay, so what’s the problem?”
Red rode under Miles’s face, and he avoided Grayson’s gaze as he dropped his hand. “Jenna and I kind of need the security deposit for the new place ’cause money’s tight, you know. We did our best to get the condo back into shape, but when it wasn’t looking good, Jenna suggested we use this spell she got from one of her friends. They told her it would put everything back the way it was, but I think it expired or something, because right now, my bed is on my ceiling, I’ve got chairs pinned to my walls, some of our baking pans are, like, melded to our cabinets, and I don’t know what to do.”
Maybe don’t cheap out on a rune? Grayson looked at the floor and swore he heard Cass choke back a giggle. Not that he blamed her.
“Can you help?” Miles was begging at this point.
It would take a better man than Grayson to refuse such a request, but that didn’t mean he had to like it. He blew out a breath and looked at Cass, who stood at the sink, fighting a smile. He didn’t even have to say a word.
“Go,” she told him. “I’m good.”
“You sure?”
She glanced at Miles, sympathy and amusement on her face, then back at Grayson. “Yep, go see what you can do.”
He straightened. “Give me five, and I’ll meet you at your condo,” he told Miles.
Miles rushed forward and hugged him. “Thank you so much, Gray. I so owe you.” He let him go and turned to Cass. “I’m really sorry to interrupt things, but thank you too.”
“Good luck,” she said as Miles headed toward the door, his relief obvious.
When it clicked shut, Grayson muttered, “I shouldn’t have answered the door.”
Cass laughed and came out of the kitchen to stand in front of him. Her hands went to his chest as she looked up at him. “You’re a good man, Grayson Beck.”
He shook his head. “I’m a sucker, more like.” He pressed his lips to her forehead then went to put on some shoes and grab his work bag before heading over to redecorate Miles’s condo.
Over an hour later, Grayson let himself back into his condo, set his bag on one of the barstools, and walked into his living room.
Tucked into the corner of his couch, Cass looked up from her phone, those fascinating eyes of hers warming. “How did it go?”
He dropped down next to her in a sprawl. “I swear to all that’s holy, they need to create warning labels for second-rate spells.”
She set her phone down on the arm of the couch then changed position so she could face him. “I’m not sure that would help, considering why people go for them in the first place.”
Grayson laced his hands behind his head and crossed his feet at the ankles, feeling the stretch through his spine. “Maybe, but cheaping out on spell work generally leads to spending way more in cleanup.” He listened to her soft chuckle. “I don’t know what the hell the original caster was thinking, but I’m pretty sure they were high as a kite when they created it.”
“That bad?”
He gave her a pained grimace. “Undoing it was like walking backward and blindfolded through an acid-trip minefield. I’m surprised it held together as much as it did without opening a portal to another dimension.” He was only half joking. There had been a couple of bowel-loosening moments during the unraveling process.
“But you got it done.”
“Yeah, I got it done.” He dropped his hands to his stomach and shifted a little deeper into the couch. “Just not quite how Miles hoped, though.”
“How so?” Cass scooted closer until she was pressed against his side and rested her head on his shoulder.
He tucked away a thought about how he liked her doing that. “How much do you know about how Keys work?”
“Just the basic premise. You guys are magical code breakers, right?”
“That’s one way to think about it.”
She tilted her head back, revealing a small frown. “Is there another way to think about it?”
“Yeah, considering a Key is defined by their specialty.” Or specialties, in his case. When she continued to study him, he realized she was waiting for more. “Right, so you know how Keys can run the gamut from unraveling a simple cyber-code hex all the way up to undoing a complex hex threat, like a plague dealer?”
