I don’t know why I offer the explanation. I don’t owe it to him. I don’t owe him anything, in fact, even if he’s so insistent.
“Star,” Callum breathes. “Of course it does.”
How am I supposed to respond to something like that?
Surely not with another warm pull of magick, and an instinctual lean into the deep, satisfied rumble of his voice.
I huff a breath and start walking toward the Veil again.
“You can always change your mind, you know.” He falls into step beside me. With how much taller he is, he barely has to lengthen his stride to keep up. The tip of his wing brushes my shoulder, and I pretend not to notice.
“About working with you? Fat chance. I doubt we’ll even cross paths again after today.”
“You could change your mind about that, too.”
Something in the low murmur of his voice makes me slow my step, makes me look up at him.
So otherworldly, that face. Rough-hewn angles and rubies in his eyes. Those huge, curling horns that make my fingers itch with wondering what they’d feel like to touch.
“What do you mean?”
He lays a hand on his chest. “If you wanted to cross paths with me, I think you could.”
I want to pretend I don’t know what he means.
I want to pretend I don’t feel it, too.
If I closed my eyes, if I really focused, I could find it there. The tether. The magick I don’t want to admit I feel.
The magick I could use to lead me right to him.
So easy, with the way my powers already orient themselves around seeking, around finding. Easy as breathing.
Forcing a scoff and rolling my eyes, I keep it moving. “For all I know, you just want to use my magick to get closer to the prize so you can claim it yourself.”
“With a bounty this rich? It’s a reasonable suspicion.”
I cut him a glance and try not to notice the sparkle in his eyes, the excitement. Try not to recognize the same spark in my chest.
“Maybe I’m not even going to bother with it,” I say flippantly, almost at the Veil now. “It’s probably just some kind of sick game to her. Some kind of trap.”
“Maybe,” Callum allows. “But you’re going to go after it, anyway.”
“What makes you think that?”
He doesn’t know me. Not at all. We’ve spoken for all of ten minutes, and he thinks he’s got me all figured out?
“Because I see that gleam in your eyes, Seren, and I know what it means. I know the lure of the fae queen’s bounty and know it’s not one you’ll be able to pass up.”
10
Callum
My witch crosses her arms over her chest and juts her stubborn chin upward.
“You don’t know anything about me.”
I want to.
