Still, though, she now itched to go back to Sunspot and give it another go. She bristled at the thought that Silas could do something shecouldn’t. Her mind ran with juvenile thoughts of retribution. She wondered if she could find whatever fancy shampoo he used and replace it with Nair.
There was a small stutter to Silas’ walk as they moved to sit down, but that was the only evidence of the monumental spell he’d carried out. He leaned his head back against the wall as one of his arms wrapped around the back of her chair—not touching her, but doing enough to keep up the appearance of them being a loving couple.
“What’s your plan now?” Katherine whispered. “You’re not going to be able to compel anyone to give us the evidence if they don’t already want to.” At least, she didn’t think so—a spell of that magnitude would require enough magic to knock Katherine out for a month, but who knew what kinds of spells Noctis was hiding. They might have figured out a way for Silas to do it with just a prick of his finger.
“I know. I was thinking we get close to the evidence room, freeze everyone, then walk in and take it.”
This man kept pulling out wildly powerful spells like they were Tic Tacs. “You have a freeze spell that strong in you right now?”
“I have a spellbook.” Silas reached into his pocket and took out a small leather-bound book. Katherine’s jaw dropped.
Noctis claimed to have eleven spellbooks—each carrying every drop of a young witch’s magic, given as a sacrifice for the greater good—and that was enough to make them by far the most well-equipped coven in the country, if not the world. The realization that they had more than that—that the Khatris had so much power flowing around that they could afford to gift one to their son—was staggering. Katherine wondered how much more strength they were hoarding. Vikrant and Nina could crush any witch in the world just with the power people knew about. The thought of what they might be hiding…
“A pocket spellbook?” Katherine said, forcing her voice to sound light. “Do you also have a million dollars in small bills in your wallet?”
“Only five hundred K.”
“Ah.”
Silas shifted uncomfortably. “I know it’s a lot. I didn’t want it, but my parents insisted.”
“God forbid their precious baby boy have to use a regular spellbook like the rest of us.”
Silas turned to her, and this time, she was the one who flinched under the weight of the hurt that flashed through his eyes before he slammed the mask back down. “God forbid,” he muttered.
An apology rushed to the tip of her tongue, but she was stopped by the return of Joan, alongside a tall, gangly young officer. Joan introduced the man as Officer Murray, but the man then introduced himself asPlease, call me LukeandMr. Khatri, I have stock in your parents’ company, it’s such an honor to meet you, do you think it’ll keep going up?
Katherine was happy to not have to talk as Silas regaled Luke with stories of the corporate world. Katherine had always thought of Khatri International as a front for Noctis, but apparently they did something having to do with synergy and investments and Excel spreadsheets and synergy, did she mention synergy?
Katherine was very grateful she’d never had to have a real job.
The talk soon moved to the tour, but Katherine tuned that out as well. Every corner they turned made her heart pound, every new person they saw another risk that she didn’t want to take. Cameras blinked at her from the ceiling, and the thought that they might have facial recognition—that they might be scanning her right now, connecting her face with the yearbook photo that had the wordsuspectstamped on it in some police database, dialing up her family to tell them that they’d finally managed to track her down—almost stopped her in her tracks.
They were paused outside an interrogation room when Silas stopped talking to Luke long enough to notice her trembling hands. His eyes swept over her, brow furrowing in concern. She tried to calm herself down, but no amount of deep breathing could change the fact that she was three shades paler than normal, that there was a thin sheen of sweat covering her forehead.
Silas looked at her a moment longer, and her heart raged against her chest.
But he didn’t say anything. Just reached out and took her hand in his, giving it a light squeeze.
It was for the ruse, she knew. They were supposed to be a couple in love, and her having a panic attack while her “boyfriend” ignored her would definitely undercut that. But the fact that it actuallyhelpedto have his hand in hers—the fact that she wanted to grip it tighter, instead of shoving it away like she knew she should—was beyond this game they were playing. And that was something she couldn’t afford to think about right now.
They walked like that, hand in hand, down the hall, Luke continuing to drone on. After a few moments, Silas leaned in, his breath hot against her neck. Katherine thought he might drop a kiss on her cheek, but instead, he whispered in her ear.
“We’re almost at Evidence. I’ll handle the brunt of the spell, but you’ll need to let me take magic from you to fuel it. Is that all right?”
Katherine was surprised he even asked—everything about his background suggested he’d be one to just take. “Yeah,” she said. “Just tell me when.”
Luke led them to a gridded metal door withEVIDENCEprinted on a large sign and gestured to the lockers behind it. “These lockers are where we keep evidence,” he said. Katherine didn’t regret ignoring so much of the tour if this was the type of sparkling commentary he’d been offering.
Silas gave her a small nod, and she tuned Luke out again as she pulled her hand away from Silas and slipped it into her pocket. She tried not to miss his solid warmth against her, but her goddamn biological imperative made it impossible not to.
She pushed that thought away and fingered her caster in her pocket. Years of doing spells in public had made this motion smooth and easy, the blade flicking open and against her palm without so much as a wrinkle in the fabric apparent to the outside observer. Silas’ hand was in his pocket as well, clearly doing the same. His other hand reached for that small spellbook again, a quick flash of gold lighting the air as he absorbed the rune for the freeze spell.
Then he reached for her again, and she joined her palm with his, and her magic started to sing.
It wasn’t like sharing magic with Sylvia or Fiona. They were bothtalented witches, but when she gave them magic, they had to pull. There was a pain associated with that tug, the feeling that something was wrong, that something was being taken, even though Katherine was freely giving it.
With Silas, there was no tug. There was an open river, her magic flowing down it like water, a current floating it safely away. It was so peaceful like this.
