Page 133 of Last Gift: Supernatural Battle

Wild shot her a look. “It is. You noticed?”

“I always notice a poison, and I particularly like when the amounts around me are nearly untraceable.” She shivered. “There’s something exciting about it.”

Sven nuzzled her neck. “Yeah?”

“Mmm, yeah.”

“Concentrate,” Huxley snapped. “What have you figured out?”

Rooke cocked a brow. “The language wasn’t hard to decipher. I kept quiet because it served my purposes to spy on your group.”

The four magus exchanged looks. Just what did they say to each other? Clearly things they hadn’t expected Rooke to know about.

“I agree,” she said to Corey. “Those jeans do make my ass look great. Thanks for letting Sven know so he could pretend to need me for something and spend the entire time checking me out. That suited my goal.”

I grinned around the rim of my mug.

The guys were ingenious. My cousin was smarter.

“Sorry,” Corey said to her. “Positive Patrick isn’t like that.”

Huxley sent him a scathing glare. “There isn’t enough linen in the world to cover that lie. You were telling us all about the hidden attributes of your latest conquest last night.”

“Felt like I have my friend back,” Sven put in.

“A lapse,” Corey muttered, a dark red tinging his jaw.

“You don’t need to be embarrassed about walking the line between different versions of yourself,” I told him.

There had to be room for the old in the new.

I frowned at the thought. Could that be applied to the coven too? For the first time, I was able to grasp how the surrounding magus had embroiled their identity in the game. By stopping all aspects of the game I’d forced them to live in a way they weren’t prepared for, nor wanted. That wasn’t fair.

Though that train of thought led to the same place, really. The game couldn’t be resumed for other reasons.

“I’m not embarrassed, really,” Corey said to me. “The change just came with a lot to rummage through and understand. I can tell getting to know who I am is necessary, though. You know the last of my magic that you’d offered to work on? That’s naturally unwinding and finding its new place in me as I get to know myself again.”

It was. “That’s great news, Corey.”

“There are only a few remaining, so I don’t believe I’ll need your help anymore, but I’ll let you know.”

I smiled. “Of course. You know where I am if you change your mind.” I pushed away my empty mug that had contained lemongrass and vanilla tea. “And now it’s time to get shit done.” First up, I wanted to sit in on one of Sage’s sessions to get a grasp on what strategies were in the works and if the team was up to scratch. The smoke was still in the same position, and Rooke’s ravine domes were operational, but the clock was ticking, and everyone had to be working at their best.

“Could I have a word on the way?” Rooke asked.

She fell into step beside me as I tried to ignore the gaping looks at the rune tiara on my forehead on the way out.

“Private?” I glanced at her.

“Yeah.”

I put up a silence bubble around us. “What’s up?”

“Now the antidote is fine-tuned, and I have esteemed apothecaries working on a range of other weapons containing potent mixes of the antidote, I’ve been looking into the other project you set me.”

The one about using my blood as a weapon.

“And?”

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