My heart leapt into my throat. Seriously? It was actually happening?
Zayn:Definitely still interested.
Sylas Morgrave:Charles Petrone will be contacting you later today. You met him five years ago.
Zayn:I remember. He’s a nice guy.
Sylas Morgrave:And an enthusiastic and patient teacher.
Zayn:You’re handing me off to him?
Sylas Morgrave:Temporarily as I get Winter started with his next-level Necromancy training. I don’t want you waiting in the wings any longer due to that, so this is the solution in the meantime. All operations go through me before execution, so I’ll be present at the tail end anyway.
I smiled to myself. He knew I liked his way of mentoring, that I’d taken well to it that night. And, yeah, he obviously also knew about my abandonment issues, so being handed off to somebody else didn’t exactly go down well with me.
But he’d said he’d still be around at some point and everything, so I’d be okay with that.
Also, Charles had a positive and easygoing energy about him and we’d gotten along well before. And that had been back when I’d been way more wild, reckless, and chaotic—the height of my tumultuous teen years, basically. He’d been one of the few people who hadn’t been fazed by it or put off.
Zayn:Sounds good. I’m in.
Sylas Morgrave:I’ll sort it, then. Enjoy your night. Give my love to Win.
Zayn:Will do.
Zayn:And thanks, Sylas. For all of this.
Sylas Morgrave:No thanks needed. After our Clan Krevorn takedown, it became clear you’ll thrive at this sort of thing. Well done.
I beamed down at his message.
Wow.We’d certainly come a long way from him thinking I’d been using his son“like a fleshlight”and was only bad for Win, a chaotic menace of epic proportions, basically.I grimaced even recalling those words of his—and that regrettable night.
It was in the past now, long gone. Things were so different now. All around, actually. Definitely within me as well. And this conversation with him highlighted yet another facet of that, just like my performance earlier in class had.
Hold up.Asking me to give his love to Win… why would he… were the two of them not talking? Exchanging heartfelt messages like that was kind of their thing, it always had been between Win and his parents.
A knock at the kitchen back door sounded, jolting me from my thoughts.
I pocketed my phone, then walked over and opened it.
There Win was smiling brightly at me.
With a sly glint in his eye.
It took me barely a second to register why.
He was wearing that tight-as-sin cobalt-blue tee that… did things to me. And this time he had a pair of sleek black jeans on, not the usual gray. They made the tee pop even more.
His gaze raked over my outfit. “Mmm. Loving that. Those pants are new.”
“Yeah. Conjured them last night.”
“Specially for this cooking date?”
“No. Just because I felt like mixing it up.” Which was kinda my thing when it came to my outfit choices. “Seems really clear you wore this specially for tonight, though.”
“Vax said something about teasing yourbiceps fetishthat he’s noticed becoming more of a thing lately.”
