Page 82 of Spit

Legion didn’t answer my opinion, but I hadn’t expected him to. I had been secretive about my abilities from day one, and he probably didn’t think I had more to offer then advice about handling a hostage negotiation from a human perspective.

Legion cleared his throat. “I have your facets.” He read in that deep voice of his. “We will kill them if you, Legion, do not surrender yourself at the wall and hand the policing of the Red City over to the Human Sector. You have forty-eight hours to comply.” Legion threw the paper down, his lips twisted in disgust.

None of the other males said a word, but I caught Arlo and Sev sharing a knowing glance.

“Magicktek?” I wondered.

Legion waved a hand dismissively. “This note is meaningless. Magicktek would never want the Red City to come under human control. They would be subject to the FDA and the geneva convention for their research. No. This is someone else entirely.”

“It might be a group,” I suggested, reaching for one of the croissants on the table. “The language changed from ‘I’ to ‘we’ halfway through.”

“I noticed that too.” Legion glared down at the note as if he hoped it would catch fire.

“A threat.” Trey laughed, throwing their head back with the force of it. “How delicious.”

“The note gives us nothing,” Sev said, his voice uncharacteristically angry. His jaw clenched as he turned to face us from his place on the windowsill. “No mention of anything to indicate that Mars and Quinn are well. Not even a mention of their names.”

“Facets…” Arlo hummed in thought. “Who else but us would know to refer to the stewards in such a way.”

The demons turned pensive in unison. It was pretty unnerving.

Someone knocked on the door, pushing it open without waiting to be greeted. Katalina marched in her strawberry blonde hair in loose waves. Her dress was so tight that I could see every contour of her body—she looked like she’d never seen pasta in her life. If it was any other person, I would give her a compliment. As it stood, I had literally kissed her boyfriend the night before. Or rather, he had kissed me.

Katalina had seen us returning to the mansion in the rain, and I knew she would draw conclusions from that. If Legion hadn’t mentioned the kiss to her already.

Legion had remarked over and over that they were friends only, but only a blind person could ignore how good they looked together—plus, Legion represented Pride, and Katalina had that in spades.

Katalina sashayed over to where Legion stood, bending down and giving him a kiss on the cheek, her red hair falling in a wave that hid his face. Legion did not move, but his eyes followed the movement as she straightened and looked for a chair—her face creasing with a hint of unpleasantness when she found nowhere to sit that was close enough to Legion for her liking.

The only empty chair at the table was next to me.

There had been a dozen chairs the day before, but they all seemed to have vanished. I cursed internally but kept my eyes on the food in front of me as I stuffed my face so I wouldn’t say anything nasty.

I knew I was projecting my previous mean-girl experiences onto Katalina—something about her just turned my gut like a high school bully did.

It was all me. I knew that. I wasn’t a nice person. I didn’t do nice things. I was out for number one. I had spent my childhood trying to make people like me, thinking that if I did as well as Rosie, someone would notice, and I would be allowed to join the coven again. I would be allowed to live in the antebellum with my mother and sister instead of alone in the cottage.

“You said you wanted to see me?” Katalina folded her hands on her lap, ignoring the food, but giving me a meaningful glance as she did so.

A less hungry person wouldn’t have reached for their fifth croissant in retaliation, but I was literally carrying a gluttonous demonic shadow on my heels—if I didn’t eat, then I didn’t want to know what would happen.

Legion eyed us both in thought before addressing Katalina. “There is a note.” He stood up and grabbed the piece of paper from the table before walking around to place it in front of her before taking a seat.

I hadn’t gotten such special treatment. Maybe Legion did have a soft spot for Katalina—and for the fifth time that morning, I wondered why I even cared. Why was I fixated on a demon that wouldn’t even remember my name a month from now?

Katalina cleared her throat, the sound somehow dainty, as she reached for the paper. She read it with a frown. “Oh, dear.” She said heavily, her brow furrowed. “What are you going to do? Leave the city?”

Legion blinked, but his face gave no indication of his thoughts. “Can you sense any magical signatures on the note?”

Katalina closed her eyes and pressed her palms together around the paper. She concentrated for a moment before her eyes fluttered. “This feels like Anna-Risa. The blood witch in the human sector. It stinks of her magic. I can’t give you more than that. Someone has nulled my magic.”

Legion ignored the jab toward me. “A witch in the human sector?”

I opened my mouth to protest that the note didn’t have any magic on it before letting my teeth click together. I could admit that I didn’t know everything. Maybe there was something on the note that I had missed. After all, I was only a null witch, not a trained magical practitioner.

Katalina looked worried. “Anna-Risa is a contractor, but she does work for Magicktek.”

Legion’s eyes narrowed.

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