“Hello, ex-fiancée. My name is Killian’s Mate.” The words just fell out of my mouth. Damn it! I’d never live this down. I’d have to explain to Killian immediately that I was just giving as good as I got and I was not actually his mate.
Aurora’s eyes narrowed. “I could set your hair on fire.”
“And I could shift and eat your face. I could also recite the alphabet,” I said and faked a yawn. “Gee, this is so much fun. Shall we keep discussing things that we can do? I can count to twenty without taking my shoes off, too.” I couldn’t shift very well, of course, but she didn’t know that.
Killian put his hand around my waist.
“Daphne and I have places to be. It’s been fun. Let’s not do it again, shall we?”
“Don’t you turn away from me, Killian Barnstead,” she snarled. “We were supposed to be mated. We were supposed to be the ones that ended the fights between the Iron Claw and the White Fang.”
“I am still doing that. I have honored the contract.”
Her bottom lip trembled as she looked up at Killian, the sudden switch from snarky to pitiable fast enough to give anyone whiplash. “Did you never care about me at all, Killian? Are you just going to throw what we had away just like that?”
“What did we have?” Killian pinched the bridge of his nose. “Aurora, we barely knew one another. We’ve barely had any nonofficial nonviolent contact. Our packs have been at one another’s throats for decades, and the only reason we agreed to get together was because we wanted to end this pointless conflict between our packs.”
And now she snapped back to annoyance. “And now you’re throwing it away for some random bitch.”
I smiled sweetly. “Well then, Random Bitch must have something you don’t.” I shouldn’t provoke her. This wasn’t even really my fight. I just hated bullies. As the girl who was always the new kid in town, I’d learned early that if you don’t stand up for yourself, they’ll walk all over you.
All of a sudden, there was the sound of a small explosion. Everyone on both sides of this spat turned and saw that a nearby trash can’s contents suddenly erupted in furious flames.
Aurora’s face flushed red.
“Wow, Aurora,” one of her friends said. “Accidental incineration? You haven’t done that since you were a teenager.”
“Quiet, Tina,” Aurora said, stepping away. Tina let out a low whimper and inclined her head to the side as if waiting for Aurora to bite her neck. After a long moment, Aurora snapped “release,” and Tina straightened up again, looking chastened. Aurora stalked off, her friends following her. Thankfully, embarrassment led her to slink away and leave Killian and me alone. The fire died down and vanished as she left.
“You embarrassed her,” Killian observed dryly. “Witches don’t like to lose control.”
“So she has fire magic…and Max has fire magic? Are they related?” I asked as we walked to the bookstore and he held the door open.
“They call it pyromancy. I think the two of them have distant cousins in common.”
“Welcome, Killian. Oh, and I see that you’ve brought Daphne with you. That’s wonderful.” Juniper threw her arms open wide to greet us.
“Good afternoon to you too, Fi,” Killian said. He threw an arm over my shoulder and pulled me closer.
The place smelled so nice. It wasn’t just me liking the smell of musty old books. Something about the ferns and other plants she had also just had such a wonderful fragrance.
“It’s so good to see you again! Hey, I was wondering if we could talk about magic, particularly mine,” I said to her. “You smelled magic in me. Can you tell me more?”
“It’s definitely stronger…” She closed her eyes. A long moment dragged by, and then she shook her head. “The longer you’re here, the stronger it will be. Try again in a few days, and maybe I’ll be able to tell you more. Or we could call in Melisande. She’s better at that sort of thing. It’s just that whatever your magic is, it’s…different. Like, I could sense green magic, or elemental magic, or telekinesis, but this…it’s not something I’ve encountered before.” She glanced around because customers were not so secretly checking us out. Then she shooed us over toward the coffee counter, where Fionnulla waved at us.
“Tea?” Fionnulla called out. “Also, hi!”
“Hi, Fi! And by the way, guys, thank you again for helping me when those weasels tried to kidnap me.”
She answered with a cheerful mock salute.
As soon as Killian and I sat down at a table and gave Fionnulla our orders, I turned to give him a serious look. “That mate thing I said to Aurora, it wasn’t real, obviously.”
“Obviously.” But he was smirking.
“Stop looking at me like that. I am going to return to the human realm when this is all figured out.”
“Of course you are.”
