The shadow magic society web is even more dark and tangled than any of us could’ve imagined, and Archmage Forsythe’s got his sticky hands on every fucking strand.
* * *
“There’sour girl,” Auggie says, a smile splitting his face as West finally enters the library. Her hair is wrapped up in a wet bun, her cheeks pink and freshly scrubbed, but her eyes are haunted.
We both rise from the library table to greet her, but she comes to me first, throwing her arms around me and pressing her ear to my chest.
She’s trembling when she says, “Your heart’s beating, thank the goddess.”
I laugh, running a hand over her head. “It tends to do that.”
“Not in my nightmare.” Another shudder ripples through her, and then she finally pulls back to look at me. Her eyes rove my face, scrutinizing. “You sure you’re okay?”
“I’m fine. It’s you I’m worried about. You’re not usually this jittery pre-caffeine.”
She finally smiles, then blows out a sigh of relief. “All good. Just needed to feel you for myself.”
“What about me, witchling?” Auggie laughs. “Don’t you want to feelmefor yourself, too?”
“Always.” She tries to hug him too, but he doesn’t give her a chance. Just picks her up and wraps those massive wings around her, planting a big, wet kiss on her mouth.
She squeals in his hold, but it quickly turns into a moan of pleasure that has my dick standing tall, wondering where the fire is and how he can get in on it.
But before I can let my mind wander too far off the leash withthatlittle fantasy, Auggie’s setting her back on her feet again, his voice turning serious. “Are you still…”
“Not like I was, no.” She blushes, then says, “I’m sorry I got so… intense. I don’t know what came over me.”
“I still think it was the shock of everything. Everyone processes things differently.” He leans in for another kiss, but this time it’s just a quick peck on the forehead. “Anyway, first order of business—almond joy latte.”
A new smile brightens her face. “That would beepic.”
“Did you eat?”
“Nope.”
“I’ve got some muffins and croissants here, but I can make you a full spread in the main house if—”
“No, pastries sound perfect right about now. I could use the sugar.”
* * *
Auggie returns a few minutes later with fresh lattes for all of us and a plate of pastries for West. He gives her a few minutes to get settled in, get a bit of sugar and caffeine in her veins, share an apple-blueberry muffin with her raven besties—the pair are more than happy to stash some crumbs under the table for later.
And then, it’s time to debrief her on the intel they tortured out of the mages before she showed up at the facility last night. Namely, the fact that her stepmother was the puppet master behind the brutal train station attack that nearly killed her.
Hearing him talk about it again now has my jaw clenching, my claws itching to shred through flesh and bone. One glance at his hazel eyes—wild with the telling—and I know he’s feeling the same way.
“So Eloise hired Jacob, Alonzo, and Full Metal Jacket to terrorize me?” she asks.
“That’s what they said, yes,” Auggie replies. “Our best guess based on everything the mages said and everything else we’ve been trying to put together…” He blows out a breath, shaking his head. “It seems she wanted you to live in a constant state of fear. Always looking over your shoulder, never feeling confident, never being able to trust anyone.”
“Powerless,” West says. “She wanted me to feel powerless, because being a witch born without magic isn’t powerless enough.”
“Apparently not for her,” I say. “She was afraid of you, West. I’m sure of it. Maybe you don’t have magic, but there has to be something else she was after… Something she either wanted to destroy or claim for herself.”
“And she thought sending the teenage mutant ninja mages to rough me up was the way to go?” she asks.
“Not just them,” Auggie says. “Chances are she was behind a lot of the other bullying you experienced, too. She couldn’t afford to have you making friends or trusting you had backup. For whatever reason, she wanted you docile and ashamed. Primed—that was the word that fuckstain Pomeroy used.”
