Heartache (The Twenty-Sided Sorceress Book 5) (2 page)

“Does he know about…” I looked at the chain disappearing under his collar.

“If I am to meet who I think, yes. He knows I am not a Justice anymore.”

Alek’s words hung between us, almost tangible, like fog in the air. So. There it was. Finally said.

“What happened, Alek?” I whispered. I had an idea. This, like so much else, was probably my fault. I tried to tell myself that was ego talking, but one couldn’t deny the timing or the mounds of circumstantial evidence piling up around us.

“The world changes,” he said. His eyes shifted down to my face and he bent, kissing me softly on the forehead. “This is not your fault.”

He took a deep breath, his chest swelling big enough that his coat brushed my cheek. I wanted to lay my head against him and tell him everything would work out, but we were beyond lying to each other like that. I hoped.

“Anyway,” he said after he let out the breath. “I am not going.”

“What? Is this important? Will they try to hurt you?” I added the “try” because there was no way anybody was going to hurt him. Not on my watch.

“It is and no, I do not think they will. Carlos used our safe code. I do not think he would betray me, not like this. But it doesn’t matter. I am not leaving you.”

“So I’ll come with you.”

“You cannot travel where I would go.”

“They have some kind of magical barrier around New Orleans now that keeps out sorceresses?” I tried to smile as I said it, ignoring the painful beating of my heart.

“It is Justice business. I am not sure even I can do what I must, but…” He sighed again. “I am not going.”

Because of me. The tension in his body wasn’t just over worry about the situation. He wanted to go. Something had happened to him. One day he woke up and wasn’t the same. The changes were tiny, things only I had noticed, I thought. The necklace being hidden. His over-attentiveness that went beyond worry about Samir. Every time he held me, he had a grip that made me feel like this would be the last time. He was here, almost stifling me, but somehow Alek seemed already gone.

If going, if sorting out this Justice business, would give a piece of him back, I couldn’t let him stay. I wanted my Alek back, the man who was always sure of things, who saw the shadows in life and faced them down. Not this Alek who clung to me like the world was ending and I just couldn’t see the explosion yet.

“You are going,” I said.

“Jade,” he started, but I shook my head.

“No. I’m serious. You haven’t been you. I don’t know what happened, because your stubborn ass won’t tell me. But if going to see Carlos and whoever this other mysterious whatever is helps you come to terms with whatever the hell happened? I’m for it.”

“I don’t know how long I’ll be gone,” he said, shaking his head slowly, his hair brushing against his cheeks and his expression torn between worry and desire. “What if Samir comes?”

“I’ve been asking myself that question for twenty-six years,” I said as I forced my mouth to form a smile. It kind of hurt, but he needed me to be confident. “He hasn’t shown up yet. We’re about to get a pile of snow dumped on us. If you are going to leave, you should go. Take care of whatever you need to take care of. Then come home to me.”

“I will always come home to you,” he said and I swear to the Universe his eyes looked like he might cry.

The fuck was going on? I shivered again, despite the warm shop, despite his warm arms wrapping around me and pulling me close. Swords. Deck chairs. We were totally screwed—I just didn’t know exactly how yet.

“Go,” I said to him after he had kissed me hard enough that I wanted him to stay.

Alek pressed his cheek to mine and nodded slowly. When he left, I didn’t say goodbye. I refused to, because this felt like goodbye enough.

All I knew was that if the Council of Nine did anything to my lover, I was going to have to go make a whole new cadre of enemies. And if Alek didn’t return to me soon, Carlos would be first on my damned list.

Sleeping alone that night, I dreamed of fire and ice. Snow and ash drifting down around me, burning my skin where it touched. Just after five in the morning, I gave on sleep and started a new play-through of
Skyrim
. The mindless task of leveling skills and crafting a few thousand iron daggers helped distract me, but I was still a bit of a zombie by the time I opened the shop.

“Jade?” Harper said. “Are you listening to me?”

I realized I’d been staring at the monitor not actually clicking the order button. A glance at the tiny clock in the bottom corner of the screen said it was noon. I wondered how long I’d been standing here, staring. My stomach clenched with hunger but my mouth tasted fuzzy and sour.

“Yeah?” I said, turning to her.

“You okay?” She peered at me with suspicious green eyes, looking very inquisitive in a fox-like way that made me smile.

“Sure,” I lied. “Just thinking about if I should order more custom minis. The last batch was pretty popular.”

“Uh huh.” Harper gave me a look that told me exactly what she was willing to pay for the bullshit I was trying to sell her. “I said the snow is starting to fall. I’m going to head up to the college to practice some seriously bad manner builds. If you don’t need me,” she added, worry creasing her forehead.

Fucking babysitters. I shook my head. “Nah, I’m good. What if it snows as hard as they say though?”

“Maybe I’ll just hook up with a hot student and sleep over.” She grinned.

I couldn’t remember Harper ever dating anyone in the last five years, not anybody she’d introduced any of us to. I rolled my eyes at her. “Knock yourself out. But really?”

“Ezee gave me a key to his office. I can crash in the lounge on that floor. It’s cool. They have popcorn and everything. Any other questions, mom?”

“Drive safe,” I said, making a shooing motion.

She slung her bag over her shoulder but stopped short. “Are you sure you are okay here alone? I can’t believe Alek left like that.”

“Stop.” I folded my arms across my chest. “First him, now you. Just quit, damnit. Nothing has happened in weeks. I almost wish it fucking would so we could stop walking around on eggshells waiting for sword shoes to fall on us. But Samir hasn’t come at us directly, not once. I highly doubt he’s going to start. Whatever happens, we’ll have stupid amounts of warning. He’s all about building terror and shit.”

A funny warning bell went off in my head and a thought danced through my mind, as elusive as the snow starting to swirl in glittering flakes outside the store windows. I tried to grasp at it, but it melted away as Harper responded.

“Sword shoe?” Her brown eyebrows rose comically.

“Like waiting for the other shoe to drop. But also like the sword of Damocles, hanging by a freaking thread over me.”

“You’re weird,” she said.

“Thanks, Captain Obvious. Now go, before it gets too snowy. I’ll be fine.”

“But what if Samir does show up?” she said, half turning toward the door.

“I’ll challenge him to a wizard’s duel. We’ll play magical Rock-Paper-Scissors-Lizard-Spock.”

“Like, super weird.” Harper grinned. “But what if he sends another assassin?”

“I’ve taken on every bloody one he’s sent. We’re all here, they ain’t. I think I can handle it. I mean, I’ve been training my ass off. Seriously, it’s so flat I look Caucasian.”

“Hey, I resemble that remark. Okay, fine. Just try not to have too much murderous fun without calling me first, deal?” Harper gave me a quick, tight hug, and finally left.

I smiled after her but felt the grin melt from my face as the shop grew silent again. I kind of didn’t want to be alone, but everyone was gone. Levi at his shop, probably putting on his fiftieth set of snow tires and chains in the last week on some guy’s car. Junebug and Rose at the Henhouse. Alek in NOLA. Ezee and Harper up at the college. Max on the coast. Brie and Ciaran on their way to Ireland.

Yep. Not creepy at all sitting in my shop alone waiting for sword shoes. Nope.

I texted Steve. Steve had Mondays off. I needed something to distract me and there was a new expansion of
Carcassonne
to test out. Steve had no idea about any of the weird shit. He wouldn’t look at me sideways or be always looking over his shoulder, waiting for the next assassin or whatever Samir had planned now.

I called the county clerk again, trying to get another inspection. If I was going to be here alone, waiting for a random customer or for Steve to show, I figured I could make myself useful. Noon was lunch, apparently, and I got voice mail. I wanted to be able to tell Brie her bakery was open again by the time she returned. This whole mess was stupidly frustrating, and then for them to be called away in the middle? Super lame.

That formerly errant thought, which had been like snowflake and smoke before, crystallized.

Brie’s shop shut down. Ciaran recalled to Ireland. Alek sent to New Orleans. The internet in town being spotty, forcing Harper away from the store more.

All these things leaving me here. Alone.

Another deep shiver went through me as I clutched at my twenty-sided die talisman. Mind-Tess woke up, whispering a warning as Wolf, my spirit guardian, materialized, facing the door, growling.

I knew before I felt the wards hum. Before the door opened, bringing with it cold air, swirling snow, and the one man I had hoped never to see again.

I wasn’t using Tess’s magic, but time stood still anyway. My heart stopped. Blood froze in my veins. Samir walked two feet into my shop and stood, almost posed, the light glinting in his golden eyes, his long grey wool coat flaring with his sudden halt.

He was still handsome—his face all angles and evenly tanned skin, his hair black and artfully long over his forehead. Standing utterly still, feeling like a rabbit in the shadow of the hawk, I waited for my heart to reboot. I waited to see if I still felt. Still breathed. Mind-Tess fluttered nervously at the edges of my consciousness like a trapped sparrow.

Then time unfroze. Blood rushed to my head and my heart slammed into my ribcage. I pulled my magic around me, reveling as strength and warmth poured through me.

I was no rabbit. Not anymore.

“So,” I said, biting off the word with a murderous smile. “We meet again.”

“Still funny, Jess. Or I suppose it is Jade, now.” Samir smiled. Well, his lips shifted and curved upward, but nothing touched his eyes. They might as well have been molten gold in reality for all the emotion in them.

I wanted to blast him off his smug feet but held my rage in check, trembling with the effort of not unleashing hell on him. My wards were humming and I smelled the honey scent of his power. He wouldn’t have walked in here without some kind of protection. Hell, he hadn’t even looked at Wolf where she crouched growling, her long tail swishing like a cat’s. Either he couldn’t see her, or…

He wasn’t worried. The tiny part of my brain that wasn’t insane with hatred told me that should worry
me
.

I unclenched my fists and wrapped my left hand around my talisman, fighting for control of my emotions, of my power.

“It’s always been Jade,” I said. I sent a tendril of power at him, probing the air around him, ready with a shield if he reacted.

Samir kept smiling. My magic slid off an invisible barrier a few inches out from his body. He was shielding. Damn.

What had I expected? It was never going to be as easy as magically punching my way into his ribcage and ripping out his bleeding, shriveled heart.

“Twenty-six years, and you just walk into my store?” I said. I pulled my magic back, thinking furiously about how to get through his shield. Bring the building down on him? Nobody but me was here. I discarded the idea even as it formed. It would probably just piss him off.

“Things around here have gotten too interesting to resist.” He shrugged, never taking that molten gaze off me.

“You mean you finally decided to man up and come after me yourself?”

“Man…up?” Samir grinned and took a step forward, reaching a hand out as though he wanted to brush my cheek with it.

I swelled with magic, purple sparks crackling in the air around me. Maybe bringing down the building wouldn’t be the worst idea. Not compared to if he touched me. My skin wanted to crawl off and burn itself alive at the suggestion of his hands on my body again.