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“Killing my parents’ murderer. What are you doing?” he yelled back.
So much mud. So much drama.
She sat away from him, blonde hair streaming down her face. “I’m stopping you. You’re not a killer. You’re a good guy.” She sounded almost vulnerable, and the way she looked at him, all soft and stupid…I recognized that look. She was crushing on Donny? Since when?
Clark put his hand on my shoulder and moved me to the side. “Enough of this. I made a deal not to kill either of you, but no one threatens my family.”
“You knew that he’s the monster who killed our family, but you’re protecting him?” Donny asked me, looking betrayed.
“I mean…”
He shook his head, looking around at all of us, stopping at Sage. “He’s your father. That explains everything that’s wrong with you.” He turned and stalked off through the rain, leaving Sage sitting there in the mud, staring after him like he’d just ripped her heart out of her chest.
She stared after him for one more beat before she lurched up out of the mud and ran to the house, slipping and sliding until she got to the front door and slammed it, leaving me standing outside in the rain with Ray still there, dark energy still wrapped around his hands.
“Stop with the negative energy!” I snapped, stalking over to him, but before I could get close, my husband pulled me against him, strong arms wrapping around me, holding me tight. His wet clothes weren’t a very strong boundary between us.
Clark growled, “The deal was only as long as it didn’t threaten you or the kids. If you get any closer to him while he’s under the influence of his dark magic, he’ll kill you.”
I frowned up at my husband and got rain up my nose. I coughed and shook my head. “I’ve been much closer when he’s been channeling dark magic. Ray of Sunshine’s not going to hurt me.”
The powerful sorcerer grabbed me and picked me up, pressing me to his chest while he glowered and lightning flickered across the sky, crashing down at Ray of Sunshine’s feet.
“I’m not!” Ray yelled then discharged the dark magic into the ground. “I’m not going to hurt the Hoar heir!”
“No, you aren’t,” my husband said, arm wrapped around me like a steel band. “You’re not going to threaten her or my children, either.”
Ray glowered at him. “Obviously. I’m not a monster.”
“Except you went to that bar to kill her because you knew what she was married to.”
Ray’s eyes got shifty. “You killed my parents!”
“And you were going to kill an innocent woman!”
I pushed against his arm. “His bad energy’s gone. You can put me down now. No threat.” I kicked and eventually, with a rumbly growl I could feel through his chest, he lowered me to the mud.
I stomped over to Ray. “How long have Sage and Donny been a thing?”
He took a step back, guilt on his face before he covered it with his usual glower. “I don’t know. Are they?”
I jabbed his chest. “You’re supposed to be chaperoning them!”
“To keep them from killing each other, not to stop them from whispering together and holding hands.”
I gasped. “They’re holding hands?”
He gave me a flat look. “She’s fifteen. He’s sixteen. It’s normal for two people with so much in common to get feelings.”
“They hated each other last week!”
“Yeah, clearly Donny already liked her, or he wouldn’t have talked to her. He’s pretty solitary.”
“Well, Sage didn’t! She’s got a lot of friends, and she wouldn’t choose to be with someone like your brother.”
His glower grew stronger. “Someone without the right connections and wealth?”
“Someone who has that much dark magic! He makes her look light and fluffy. His dark magic is stronger than yours?”
