It broke her a bit when their first date went so very wrong.
“Good, I think,” Magnus said.
She smiled. “I would like our work relationship to be pleasant. We agreed on that earlier. Do you think we can be colleagues?”
Magnus nodded. “Yes. I want that too.”
When he wasn’t ranting and raving, he was really cute. Handsome with that chiseled jaw and all those muscles. The fangs were a bit unnerving at times, as were the red eyes with the black pupils, but she didn’t focus on them.
Don’t think about him as sexy, a little voice warned her. He’s your boss.
“I’ll be okay,” she said, hoping her voice wasn’t shaking. “You don’t have to stand out here with me.”
“Well, I also want to apologize for something else,” Magnus said. “After our disastrous first date, I took a boat out to an island, pretty much where I hunted your ancestor down.”
Mercedes cocked an eyebrow. “Blood magic.”
“I obviously didn’t kill her, but I was using the power of blood that day to try to curse you back. I read the runes, well, I tried and…I’m glad it didn’t work.”
Mercedes smiled half-heartedly. “I’m glad it didn’t either. And I’m glad you didn’t kill Yrsa. I mean, I get why you hunted her down and injured her, but if you had killed her, I wouldn’t be here, though that does explain a few things.”
“Oh?” Magnus asked.
“Well, she was tied to the sea but never went back. I think she made it as far as modern-day Plymouth, before the Pilgrims and theMayflower, but she could never go back to the sea. Something always pulled her back. She ended up in Tallowfield, and well, I’m a descendent of that line.”
“It explains why a black shroud hangs over Tallowfield. Still, who did your ancestor settle down with? Sven and I were here atleast six hundred years before the Pilgrims, and I know the local indigenous people here were skittish about us, and not trusting of Yrsa either.”
“Yrsa lived an unnaturally long life and was popping out heirs well into her six hundreds. Black magic, of course. After having a few daughters to carry on her bloodline, she withered away, which was probably for the best, as she might not have made it through the Salem witch trials. Some of my family barely did.”
“Maybe her original curse that bound her here kept her landlocked. She might’ve been free to leave this general vicinity and not become a cursed ghoul like me and Sven, but she was still stuck.”
Mercedes nodded. “I like to think it’s because she cursed two innocents and not the ones who bound her there.”
“I often wonder who did,” Magnus said.
Mercedes shrugged. “It was never revealed in the family history.”
Magnus nodded. “It doesn’t matter any longer. Sven and I here and we’ll always be here.”
“And my job?”
“Well, I can’t speak for Sven, but as long as you do your work and show up on time, I think you’ll have a job at Room with a Tomb for as long as you want. And like I said, I promise I won’t be a canoe anymore.”
Mercedes cocked an eyebrow. “A…what?”
“Some kind of canoe. Margaid called Finn that one time. I can’t remember the first part.”
She chuckled. “Probably douche.”
“I don’t know what that is.”
“Well, I’m not going to explain it to you. You’ll have to look it up yourself or ask Margaid. I’m sure she’ll enjoy that. And I do appreciate that won’t act like one while we’re working.”
“You have my vow. And no more rune casting or cursing directed at you.” He held out his hand. “Deal?”
“I’m not the one cursing.”
He rolled his eyes. “I am aware of that, but we can seal this vow with a handshake.”
