Because I can’t help myself, I let my eyes slide around the four walls of his apartment. “On this place? I never would have guessed.”
Another sigh, but I could almost delude myself into thinking there’s a little humor in it.
“No, not on this place. Other debts. Debts I’d be very glad not to have hanging around my neck.”
I think of my own debts.
My debt to the coven—implied, rather than explicit, but a dead weight around my neck all the same.
My debt to my sister—unspoken and complicated, something that will probably take us years, decades, a lifetime to suss out.
My debt to myself—to taking responsibility for figuring out a life that doesn’t include the high, imposing walls of the coven hall.
If I could throw a fae queen’s fortune at any of those debts to erase them, I sure as hell wouldn’t hesitate.
“Okay,” I say, and Callum’s eyes snap to mine.
“Okay?”
“Yeah. I can accept that. Better than the bullshit answer you gave me before.”
He looks a little uncertain, but nods slowly. “I’ll try to do better in the future.”
Will he?
Seems unlikely, and Goddess knows how long we’ll actually be partnered up for him to make good on that promise, but it’s something.
What? I don’t know. But something.
“Alright,” I say, finally making my choice. “I’m in. We’ll partner in the hunt. Split the bounty.”
His smile finally reaches his eyes. “Alright,” he echoes. “Glad to have you as a partner, Seren.”
He rises from his seat. And rises. And rises.
I didn’t really notice it last night, but he’s damn near tall enough to reach the ceiling with the curling arch of his black horns and the sweep of his wings.
He crosses the room toward me, extends his hand.
I take it.
Not in the human way, but in a move straight out of the Middle Ages as he grasps my forearm, big fingers circling it completely. I do the same, and my grip barely reaches half-way around the thick muscles beneath my fingers.
Ridiculous, actually. The scale of him. The sheer size of him.
I haven’t been letting myself get close enough to really realize it.
Maybe he knows.
Maybe he hears the slight hitch in my breath or the way my heartbeat stumbles as soon as I’m touching him.
Goddess, I shouldn’t let myself touch him.
Every time I do, I feel it again—that burst of magick, that sparkling tether.
The one I’d rather ignore.
I drop my hand and pace a few steps away.
