“Get off me.”
He only moved closer, his head dipping down beside mine as if he were going to whisper in my ear. Instead, he breathed deeply of me.
“You’ve gotten stronger. But how is that possible?” He wasn’t talking to me but thinking aloud. It was so un-Hawk-like that it meant he was truly stumped.
I wasn’t. But then again, he’d never known about the tattoo. Or that a couple of specks of ink had remained until recently. I wasn’t sure why those last few spots had bothered me. They’d appeared as nothing more than freckles, but I’d fixated on them when I was stuck in Salem, dwelling on what I’d lost, pretending I hadn’t cared. I’d obsessed enough to get one more laser treatment done so there wasn’t a single reminder of what had been stolen from me.
One hand was still on my wrist as his other threaded through my hair, working its way around to the back of my neck.
“What was here?”
He was skimming over the place that had once had my tattoo. I tried not to shiver from his touch. I’d forgotten how it infused me. Or I’d tried to forget, but it was all racing back to me now, making my heart race. The huskiness of his voice hadn’t been missed by me either. He felt it too, even now as he tried to concentrate on this other mystery.
“You were marked. Was it your mother? I can still feel the trace of its energy.”
I tried pushing away and ended up flattened against him.
“Do you have no boundaries?” I asked as he fixated on my skin and there wasn’t much I could do about it. One hand still had my wrist while the other was pressed on my neck.
“Of course it was her. Who else?”
I didn’t answer. It was none of his business. The only thing that kept me standing there was that I refused to struggle further.
His fingers continued to graze over the area, and heat built up along my skin.
“What are you doing?”
He kept going, repeating a word I didn’t understand, as my skin grew hotter by the second. His fingers kept moving over the spot until it was near burning.
I’d never thought he’d actually hurt me, but the more the heat grew, the more I doubted my beliefs. I pushed against him, harder than even before. He pressed me back to him, continuing with whatever it was he was doing.
Then, finally, the heat faded. His hands stopped and he stepped away from me. He walked across the room, as if he were the one looking for space.
My hand went to the spot that still burned and tingled with his magic.
“What the hell was that? What did you do to me?” I asked as I moved even farther away from him, in the direction of the door. If he’d put something back there, I’d kill him right now. Somehow, I’d manage.
He leaned on a desk, looking at me, and he didn’t look like the placid lake anymore. His waters had been riled as well, and I was seeing some waves about to break along the rock, if I read him right.
“There was still a little of the magic blocker left. I got rid of it for you.”
Bullshit. Why would he do that for me? Why help me in any way?
I stretched my shoulders and rolled my neck, feeling the area out for something wrong. As much as I didn’t trust him, it did feel a little looser, like I’d gotten a shoulder massage or something. My entire life, I’d always had a tightness around my neck that had eased of late, but now it was completely gone.
“Why didn’t you ask me?” I rolled my neck a bit more. Had he really gotten rid of it completely? I hadn’t felt this loose in more than a decade, probably right around the time… Yeah, he really might’ve.
“You would’ve let me? You didn’t trust me enough to tell me it was there in the first place.”
Oh, those waves were definitely crashing now. I wasn’t sure what had unraveled him, but he was right on my level now, and I liked it.
Sort of. The both of us unraveled might not be a good thing.
Either way, he was right. No way would I have let him touch a hair on my head at this point. Half of me wanted to thank him, but the other part was still annoyed he’d forced it on me. I nodded. That was as good as I had at the moment, especially since he was trying to run me out of town. Two minutes of beneficial magic wasn’t making up for that. Now it was time to get the hell out of there.
I marched out of the office and, for the first time, barely felt the freezing cold of the fifth wind.
6
The square was quieter than usual for this time of night. It had only been a few months, but there was a heaviness in the air that I hadn’t remembered. The people who were out looked every which way around them, took a few steps, and then repeated, as if there was an attack imminent. Or maybe it was me, hot off my confrontation with Hawk, expecting a fight. If I did want another one, my opportunity was up ahead.
There was a warm light coming from Raydam’s house. I could’ve spent an extra few minutes walking the other way and avoiding it, but then, I wasn’t that girl anymore, right? So I would keep going straight ahead. I was going to start this new life the way I intended on living it, and that was with a head held high, not shrinking from anyone.
He was on the porch, with another figure beside him. The warm light filtering through the window caught his companion’s red locks, making them shimmer while outlining her perfect figure.
Raydam and me were on opposite sides, but deep down, I didn’t have any overwhelming vitriol for him. That couldn’t be said for Belinda. We hadn’t been friends. We’d barely tolerated each other as coworkers, but did that excuse what she’d done? Laying that ill charm to trap me so it could get me? Those were war actions, and they wouldn’t be soon forgotten. She’d tried to get me out of the way by killing me, as if it were my fault that Hawk hadn’t wanted her.
Jilted by Hawk, Belinda had shifted sideways and a bit downhill to the next warm body she could find. It was an all-too-obvious move. Did Raydam know she’d been dumped, or did she spin that little tale in her favor? Did she think this would make Hawk come running back? Maybe he would, and what did I care?
Actually, seemed I did care a bit from the burn in my chest. I’d have to work on that.
I’d figure that out tomorrow. Right now, I had to keep an eye on Raydam, who was clocking my pace. Make that two of them, if I didn’t count the people who might be inside his house, and one of me. Screw it. I still wasn’t crossing the street. I didn’t turn my head and pretend not to see them, either. I stared right at them.
Raydam took a step in my direction, and then another, until he was walking toward me, with Belinda right behind him. I stopped, waiting for him. After all, I didn’t run anymore. I shoved my hands in my pockets to show how little they concerned me.
He stopped a few feet shy of me, and then Belinda sidled up to him, staring at me as if I were the one who’d betrayed her.
I stood in silence, my narrowed eyes saying it all.
“I’d heard the Nowhere witch was back,” Belinda said. “Apparently not even Hawk wants you now.”
“As opposed to Hawk having never wanted me?” I asked, my insult clear enough if her rising chest and quick intake of breath meant anything.
Raydam moved his eyes to her for a moment, the wheels turning. Yes, he’d thought he’d been first choice, not the only one left. Guess again. He’d never be picked first if Hawk were available, not as a friend, partner, lover, not even in a game of dodgeball. Whether I liked Hawk or hated him, I wasn’t deluded enough to see that happening. There was hate and then there was stupid. If you let hate run wild enough, it could clog up your brain with gunk that made you stop seeing the world for what it was. In this world, Hawk trumped Raydam every single time.