Page 56 of The Veil of Blood and Magic

“I’m fine,” I say in a warning tone. Jagger is by far the closet thing I have to a brother, but I’m not the sharing type.

It never stops him from prying though.

“She’s gotten to you,” he says, eyes wide with shock.

“She hasn’t,” I argue. I pat Rain a few more times, then move away from him in an attempt to get away from Jagger’s knowing gaze.

“She has,” he says, following me.

I cock a brow at him as I sit near the dead fire, digging in my satchel for the dried meat I saved from last week. I tear a hunk of meat off, aggressively chewing it like it will stop Jagger from seeing right through me.

He settles across from me, his guitar in his lap. “It’s not a weakness to be fond of someone, you know,” he says after plucking some strings. At least his focus is on the instrument and not me.

“Isn’t it?” I ask. “Being fond of something only makes it hurt worse when it’s ripped away.”

Jagger stops playing, looking at me with too knowing eyes. I wave him off, silently ending that conversation.

I feel like I can finally breathe, even though I know he’s worried about me. Feeling this way…anykind of way about a bounty,isa weakness.

I can’t afford to growattachedto the succubus. Not when she’s the cost of righting a wrong that has haunted me for years.

“She’s something different,” Jagger says, strumming his guitar again in a melody of notes that feel out of place against the setting we’re in. “You feel that too. Right?”

I nod as he looks over at me.

“Any idea what she’s hiding?”

I shake my head.

Jagger continues to play, looking down at his guitar again.

“Aren’t you curious?” he asks after a while.

I swallow the bite of dried meat a little too hard and clear my throat. “No,” I answer, even though it’s a lie.

I’mmorethan curious what she’s hiding.

Ineedto know.

“It doesn’t matter,” I continue, telling myself as much as him. “She doesn’t matter.”

The melody stops. Jagger’s eyes are on me, and for the first time in the years since I’ve known him, he looks…disappointed.

“She’s a bounty,” I continue, my voice sounding like it’s been scraped raw. “Nothing more.”

Chapter 15

Livana

“You cannot be serious,” I say, stopping in my tracks as we hit a fork in the well-worn road.

Rain halts beside me.

The midday sun does little to quell the cold clinging to my skin, soaking in my bones despite the clean change of clothes I borrowed from Quest and the cloak. The chill has been relentless for the past two days on the road and winter feels closer than ever.

“What now?” Zev groans, turning around with absolutely zero patience on his face. I would have thought giving him the best sex of his life two nights ago would make him somewhat less grumpy, but he’s back to his usual self.

Maybe it wasn’t as good for him as it was for you,a traitorous voice whispers in the back of my head. I shake it off, latching onto the sexual confidence I know I have. I’m asuccubusfor fuck’s sake.

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