His eyes light up with interest before he hides it behind a small, teasing smile. “I’d be surprised if there weren’t, what with the way you’re always breaking shit. Seriously, what’d that bag of sugar ever do to you? Jerk.”
Narrowing my eyes at him, I hike my backpack up my shoulder into a more comfortable position, but it’s seemingly impossible to be mad at Ian. “I’m serious.”
His humor fades. “Well if you’re looking for a place to hide, there aren’t many better places to do it than here.”
No ‘did you steal something?’ or ‘you probably deserve it for being fucking annoying and a burden’. Just blind acceptance, and I’m not sure how I feel about that.
“Aren’t you going to ask me why?”
He kicks off of the brick wall and comes closer, rubbing his palms over his arms since we both ran out here without stopping to put on our coats. “Eventually. But I wouldn’t expect you to divulge anything incriminating to someone you just met; that’d be dumb. And you seem smart enough to avoid prison or anyone having information that could be used to track you down.”
Blinking in surprise, I jump when his hands fall on my shoulders. My magic crackles, licking along his palms, but not sending him reeling.
He meets my eyes earnestly, all teasing lilt to his voice gone now. “Stay. At least for a few days while you’re coming up with a plan, rather than blindly running out into the wilds with barely any supplies. Get some decent sleep and food, so that whatever you decide to do moving forward, it’s made based off of logic instead of desperation. Less likely to get caught that way.”
Tongue tied, I choke on my words, completely thrown off kilter from how I expected this to unfurl. My stomach a mess of nerves, I slowly nod, and he visibly sags in relief.
I have to clear my throat before I can force the words out, my mouth suddenly dry. “Is it alright to crash at your place a few more days then? I’ll switch over to the couch so I’m not stealing your bed or putting you out too much. And after I get my first paycheck, I’ll-“ He cuts me off, forcing me to spin and urging me back towards the door.
“We’ll worry about the semantics later, but my nips are hard enough to cut glass already. Let’s head back inside before all of the torrid rumors start worse than I’m sure they already have, and we’ll figure shit out after work, okay?”
The blast of heat is glorious as we step back into the bakery and a shiver snakes down my spine. “Why are you being so nice to me?”
He pulls to a stop and I’m forced to pivot to face him, drawn to the dejection in his voice. “Because basic decency shouldn’t be so rare that we have to question someone’s motives when we’re shown a sliver of kindness. Can’t change the world, but I can try to put more into it than I take.”
“You two done making out yet? This stuff isn’t going to bake itself,” someone growls right behind me and I jump, a startled pulse of energy bubbling out around me and knocking him back on his ass.
My hands fly up to cover my mouth in horror. “Oh my gods, I didn’t mean to! I just don’t do well getting caught off guard.” I apologize profusely, extending a hand to help the man up and counting my blessings that he wasn’t carrying anything at the time.
He takes my hand, nearly pulling me to the ground as he hauls himself up. “Noted.” He doesn’t sound particularly happy about it, but not outright hostile, just annoyed. “Not fair that you’re immune to the voodoo,” he tosses at Ian and I turn with confusion. Because yep, he’s still standing in the same spot as before, not even knocked back a step.
“The heck?” My surprise is mirrored on Ian’s face and I make a mental note to discuss theories later, but for now, I’ve already held everything up long enough. “Sorry again, where do you want me?”
* * *
“Fuck, I’m exhausted.”
Half asleep already, I follow Ian to his car and climb in.
“Sorry, it takes forever to warm up,” he apologizes, rubbing his hands together over the vents and I snort.
“You worry too much. Trust me, just being out of the wind is a huge step up.”
We wait a few more minutes for the car to warm up and he turns to face me in his seat. “Can I ask how long you’ve been running, at least?”
I rest my head against the chilled glass and face the windshield so that I can delude myself into believing there’s no pity in his eyes when he looks at me. “From recent issues, only a little over a week, depending on how long I was out of it.”
A sharp pang of loss weighs heavily on my shoulders as I think about my brief time with Rheyas. Who knows how long I was unconscious before I woke up that first time; hours or days? But like Ian, it seems he was bent on keeping his karma leaning towards the good side, though he was much more obvious in looking at me like the burden that I am.
“But I’ve been drifting for years.” As exhausted as I already am, my reservations drop a bit, a bone-deep weariness settling in from every angle. “I had a decent office job for a while, but when reports started to pass through me that didn’t add up, I made the idiotic mistake of bringing it to the boss’ attention. He didn’t even bother denying anything, just got pissed and threatened me to keep my mouth shut.
“Few days later, he started requesting me to sign off on reports for approval, and I adamantly refused. Not about to tie my name to missing funds in any way, shape, or form, and I quit.” Closing my eyes, I thump my head against the glass. “Of course he claimed to fire me for stealing and countless other bullshit stories, ensuring no one wanted to hire me. Though I moved a few towns over, employers look you up before hiring, even if you leave your job history blank on your applications.”
He scoffs in annoyance, sharing in my frustration. “And we all know they keep close tabs on mages to keep us in check. I wouldn’t be surprised to find out they had a database they referred to before hiring any of us.”
I grimace. “And an easy way to blacklist one. Their threats aren’t empty when they hold it over our heads that we need to be grateful they allow us to work and can destroy our lives if they choose.”
“There are a few businesses run by people like us; shifters as well, the closer you get to the wilds. Why didn’t you try to get a job somewhere like that?”
