“Why wouldn’t ye?”
“You’ve already mentioned killing me. It sounds like I don’t have great odds of leaving this town alive.”
Niamh looked over his plain face, the button nose the only cute thing about him. His messy hair, sticking up every which way. His expressionless eyes, not the dimmest twinkle within them. “I can’t tell if yer jokin’.”
“Neither can I. Sometimes it creates problems.”
She lifted her eyebrows and turned back to her cider.
“You don’t have to worry about me,” he said, as though picking up on her uncertainty about him.
“Is that right?”
“My life will be forfeit should my employer find out I’m here. He will assume I’m sharing information. I shouldn’t have come.”
“Then why did you?”
He shook his head, small movements, his eyes rooted to Austin Steele. “Pandora wasn’t the only one with curiosity. Now I’m worried I’m hooked. So whatever goes on here is safe with me.”
“We’ll see.”
“Fair enough.”
Jessie slowed as she neared the bar, Jasper peeling off to blend in with the side of the building and Ulric already stationed at the other end. Niamh could feel Jessie’s anger—a coil ready to spring. Austin Steele stopped helping people and stepped back, his gaze on the door.
Right now, Jessie’s anger was on a tight leash. But one wrong word from Austin Steele—one wrong word—and that leash would snap and the fireworks would ignite.
Niamh couldn’t wait for the show.
Seven
Jasper blended into the building as I approached, and I caught sight of Ulric at the other end, his blue and pink hair subdued in the shadows. Mr. Tom had stayed home with Jimmy, who had decided to play video games and escape into a reality he understood. He’d done a lot of far-off staring, paired with some adamant head shaking, but I firmly believed he’d come around. I had to.
Sasquatch stood outside of the door, his hand at his side and a cigarette trailing smoke between his fingers. He looked up as I approached, and his features pinched into a mask of distaste.
“That was my favorite knife,” he said.
“Then you shouldn’t have stuck it in me and stepped away, huh?”
“I would’ve taken it back if you hadn’t used your magic.”
“God you’re dumb.” I shook my head, anger pulsing within me. “Austin has your knife. Ask him for it. Though how a rusty knife could be your favorite, I do not know.”
“It wasn’t that rusty.”
I pushed past him and then stopped, sticking out a finger. His flinch buoyed my mood a little.
“You know what? I want you to keep playing that game with me. I’ll make sure you get your knife back. If you catch me, fine. Stab me. But if you can’t, and I catch you instead, I’ll be the one stabbing you.”
His eyebrows lowered. “You’re going to be in a world of hurt. You’re terrible at your magic.”
“I’m terrible at my magic? What, did you throw yourself at the wall earlier? Is that why you whined to Austin about me?”
His eyes narrowed. I stared him down, waiting for a rebuttal, but he just turned away, pulling a long drag off his cigarette as he left.
Ha! Point to me.
Sucking in a deep breath, I entered the crowded bar, standing room only. I recognized a few faces, but no one nodded to me as I passed. They seemed almost…nervous. Schooling my expression, trying to wipe off any residual anger or frustration, I threaded my way through the crowd. Despite the vibes I was apparently giving out, I wasn’t here to talk smack to Austin, and I definitely didn’t intend to yell at him in front of all of his customers. I would do that in the privacy of Ivy House property, thank you very much.
I was here to see about a mage.
The crowd parted as I walked through. Puzzled strangers or wary regulars shifted out of my way, giving me a view of the bar. Austin stood behind it with a wide stance, popping muscles. His hard expression indicated he was preparing for battle.
I glanced around, getting the sense that my bad mood wasn’t the only trouble brewing. A quick blast of magic helped me find the source: a table at the far back corner of the main room, against the wall that led to the pool room and bathrooms. I couldn’t see any faces through the crowd, only a glimpse of a red cotton-clad elbow, but I felt dark energy radiating from the people sitting there, like oil slicking across water.
Niamh sat in her usual spot, the support beam at her left and a little removed, preventing anyone from sitting too closely on that side. Her fingers curled around her glass, the ice cubes jockeying for position within the fizzy amber liquid.
Sebastian twisted in his seat beside her. I thought he’d look at me, but instead his eyes did loop-de-loops, tracing something through the air. His fingers wiggled in a way that suggested he was doing magic, but I couldn’t see or feel it. He was way more experienced than me. More powerful, too.
“Hey,” I said softly, stopping behind them, my hand coming to rest on the back of Niamh’s chair. The bar chatter, which had quieted down when I first walked in, now cut off entirely, as though the room was holding its collective breath. “Did I get here at a bad time—”
“Jess.” Austin stopped in front of me, his stare beating into me like a palpable pressure. His power pulsed and slammed into me, turning my blood to gravy. His commanding presence, his air of dominance, pressed down on my chest. On my shoulders. It seemed to say, Submit, or I will make you submit.
Like a spark igniting deep within me, anger flowered up and blossomed out, covering me in shivers, shrugging off his imposing power.
“You good?” His words were clipped, tone rough.
My fingers tightened on Niamh’s chair. “Is that how you greet a friend?”
His jaw clenched. He didn’t move. He just stared me down like I was a stranger causing a ruckus.
His silence punched straight through my middle.
Anger rushed in to drown out the hurt. Red tinged my vision.
“Bros before hoes, is that it?” I asked, my anger blazing brighter and hotter, my pain lodged firmly in my throat. “Don’t you know how I’m doing? My block has nothing to do with your side of the link, so aren’t you well aware of what I’m feeling?”
His flinch was so slight that I almost thought I’d imagined it. But I ripped away the block on the link, and guilt gushed through it.
Unlike Mr. Tom and Niamh, Austin felt bad for what he’d been doing. He’d known it was wrong. He’d known he was violating my trust.
My eyes stung and my magic ballooned around me, my control wobbling—my heart aching and my rage compensating.
“Why did you never tell me?” I asked the dead-silent room. I wrapped a bubble of silence around us, letting the walls shimmer so he knew what it was. “How could you let me continue believing I was giving us both privacy when you knew it was completely one-sided? The new guys listened in to my…private time, Austin,” I said with a tightening throat, the embarrassment almost choking me. I’d tried to push that aside earlier, but the thought was mortifying. How often, how long… “Can you even fathom how embarrassing that is?”
White-hot rage sparked in his eyes.
“Oh no.” I held up a finger, power pumping out of me in heady waves, more now than I’d ever felt. “No way. You get to apologize, you get to make it up to me, but you do not get to be angry. Do you understand me, Austin Steele? If you don’t listen, I will give you the beating of your life. I’ll be the fire that melts your steel into a puddle. Try me and see if I’m lying.”
“I overheard Mr. Tom, Niamh, and Edgar discussing the way they control their link to you,” he said, his voice so rough it sounded like a growl. “I assumed they’d passed that on to Jasper and Ulric. Those guys should not have access to…” His hands fisted and the weight of his power threatened to push me to the floor. My limbs started to quiver, my reaction to him entirely primal. “I will ensure that ends immediately.”
“None of you should have access to that time, least of all you, considering how desperate you’ve been for distance from me. But you won’t do a damn thing. You don’t rule me, Austin Steele. You don’t control my life. I will ensure that ends immediately. In the meantime…”
I stared at him, grappling for a threat of some kind. I’d overshot my tirade and left myself dangling.
“Go to hell,” I finished lamely.
And then kept standing there, because I had business in the bar. This had to be one of the world’s worst standoffs. No wonder my ex had always won our arguments. I was just plain bad at them.
“Can I speak to you outside, please?” Austin said, his voice softer, more subdued. “We’re making everyone incredibly uncomfortable.” Guilt still pumped through the link. Guilt, discomfort, anger, and regret.
“You don’t really want to start a fight with me right now,” I warned him.
“I don’t ever want to start a fight with you, Jacinta. I’d never lift a finger to you outside of training, you know that. You’d pummel me.”
“Don’t be cute.” I tore down my privacy spell—the irony was not lost on me—and nearly staggered into Sebastian, knocked forward by the menace pulsing from the corner of the room.
“That’s a neat spell you devised,” Sebastian said. “I made it better. Maybe I shouldn’t have. It’s a little too strong right now.”
The spell I’d used to lock Austin and me in a soundproof bubble had also blocked my awareness of the other spell, the one I’d sent to suss out trouble.
“You just made Austin Steele look incredibly weak to those who don’t know him,” Niamh said with a little smile. “Or you.”
I’d seen that smile before, usually before Edgar got the brunt of one of her violent practical jokes.
Austin’s gaze snapped to the corner. He didn’t need a spell to feel the danger.