Page 76 of Haunt Me, Maybe

If Gideon learns there is a bound spirit tied to your signature, Fenn explained slowly, as though we were children missing the obvious. He will be curious. He consumes magic. A ghost anchored by witchcraft would be…irresistible.

My gaze snapped to Wes’s wrist, to where the ribbon tied him to me, unseen but constant. I could feel it if I focused. A delicate thread straight from the core of my magic. The very center of me. It was a tangible connection, compared to whatever hiccup allowed me to touch a ghost.

This could be sensed. The idea of exposing it, even partially, made my heart shrivel behind my ribs.

Wes’s posture had gone razor-straight.

“You’re not using me like that,” he declared, voice quiet and lethal.

It was exactly how he sounded when we’d first arrived. It was the voice of the ghost who didn’t trust magic or those who wielded it. And here we fucking were, practically threatening him with it. Well, not me. But if Fenn wasn’t careful, he’d find himself at the other end of the very magic he was trying to take advantage of.

You would simply be misdirection. A rumor in the current.

“You’re talking about exposing me!” Wes snapped.

The attic reacted before I could. A cold draft knifed across the floorboards and curled around my ankles. Without thinking, I stepped closer to him. Not because he needed protecting, but because I knew it would steady him. He rolled his neck and pulled that temper back, his hand reaching for mine.

Our fingers wove together, but he didn’t take his eyes off Fenn.

“We’re not dangling my existence in front of a hunter who devours magic.” Wes’s words were low and dangerous. Final. “No.”

His anger didn’t flare the way mine did, but it affected the atmosphere all the same. Wood beams groaned overhead, and frost thickened over the surface of the desk. My breaths puffed in front of me like a cloud. Fenn watched for a long moment before eventually giving a slight nod.

If you will not play the role, then she will have to burn brighter.

“Bullshit,” Wes growled, nostrils flaring. “There have to be more options than that.”

Silence pressed down on us as Fenn thought it over. Meanwhile, I was trying to play catch-up. We weren’t using Wes as bait; I’d have refused even if he offered. But that only left one other being strong enough to attract Gideon’s attention.

Me.

My pulse pounded in my ears. I knew this moment was coming, facing Gideon, but I thought he’d be trapped somehow, and I could attack him by surprise. Not that I would be the drop of blood that lured in the shark and then fought it off with nothing but a knife.

“It has to be me,” I whispered. “He’ll come the second he feels my magic.”

Fenn nodded in agreement. If we can’t tempt him with something adjacent, then the lure must be a controlled exposure. Deliberate. Not a taste but a promise.

Wes turned sharply to me, eyes still wide with outrage. “That’s worse,” he swore. “And far too dangerous. Why not follow the earlier plan and wait for him to arrive?”

Because we can’t know when he will arrive and run the risk of being caught off guard and unprepared. This way, we set the trap, and we trigger it.

If I chose this route, it wouldn’t be an echo, and it wouldn’t be a lie. It would be me. My magic, full and unmistakable, ringing out into the aether loud enough for Gideon to hear and come looking.

The idea of exposing myself like that was terrifying. To flare openly? But better me than Wes. Better me at risk than putting him in Gideon’s crosshairs. It was my problem after all. Besides, keeping Wes a secret might very well be what saves me, if it came down to it.

Wes’s grip on my hand was tight enough to hurt, but it couldn’t distract me from the plan unfolding in my mind. Or my commitment to it.

“If I pulse,” I said slowly, thinking it through. “I do it somewhere prepared, warded, and reinforced.”

Fenn blinked one eye. Obviously.

“All of this depends on me being able to execute these skills,” I warned. And I couldn’t even master the basic ones.

Wes stepped in front of me, blocking my line of sight to Fenn and forcing me to look at him instead.

“You will,” he said, soft but certain. I searched his face anyway. For doubt or fear, but I found none. “I still think this is a reckless idea, but I won’t let him take you.”

“This isn’t just about him taking me.” I glanced down at our hands. That such a thing was possible still blew my mind. If I hadn’t come to this town, I never would have witnessed it…But I never would have brought the danger that now threatened to destroy it all, either. “If we do this wrong, he’ll scorch through Amber Grove looking for me.”