"Did you and Niall..."
"Oh,hellno. It would take more than a few days of conversation for him to get me back in his bed."
Maybe.
Probably, at the very least.
Even if that was arguably my favorite place to be, and he had technically been in mine again already.Ours, because I'd never replaced the mattress.
My house reminded me of Niall more now that he'd been back inside it, acting like his normal self. Five years' worth of living together came with a lot of memories.
"What happened between you two?"Jonah wondered.
"It's a complicated story."
"We've got at least a few more miles."
I sighed. "Basically, he had a choice to make between me and his brother, and he chose his brother."
"Damn. What was the choice?"
I bit my cheek for a moment, hesitating, but decided it couldn't hurt to tell him the story.
It wasn't like it needed to be a secret.
"Larson made a mistake and tied a spell to his own energy. He didn't think it would be a big deal. Niall called me in a panic and asked me to power the spell. Of course I agreed."
Jonah glanced over at me.
I didn't meet his gaze. Didn't look at him at all. "I told him he would have to kill Lars to save me if the spell was fucked up badly enough to take all of my magic. I felt the end of my power, and I looked at him, and made the motion. He didn't kill Larson. He made a judgment call, and he was right, but I thought I was gone. Icould'vebeen gone."
"Damn."
"I know it seems unfair to hold it against him when the decision was so brutal."
"I don't think so. Do you hate him for it?"
"No. I just don't trust him with my life anymore."
"Then you're not really holding it against him. You just had to move on."
The words felt... right.
"Of course, I thought I had to move on from Gwen, so what do I know?" Jonah looked sheepish, and cleared his throat. "If it had been Callum who started the spell and Niall who was powering it, what would you have done?"
A small, sad smile curved my lips, with zero humor behind it. "I would've killed Callum in a heartbeat."
"How did he make the call?"
"He says he could feel that my magic was still there."
"Well, the buzz of your magic is pretty hard to miss."
"I felt the spell reach the end of it before I passed out," I said.
"You probably feel your power differently than other people do, since it's always overwhelming for you."
That was... actually a good point. One I hadn't considered. Niall and I had never really talked about what my magic felt like to him until hedid the thingfor me after Jonah told me he was going to try things with Gwen again.
