Page 50 of Magic Forsaken

“What in blazes…”

Faris strode into the kitchen, green eyes bulging as he took in the full scope of the disaster. Pots and utensils on the floor. Ranch dressing spreading in a growing puddle from the broken bottle. And me, holding a mop and a spoon, sparring with empty air.

I froze. Somehow I could tell that my glamoured enemy was no longer standing there.

“Raine?”

Behind Faris, Kira popped into view, then Seamus, then…

Auburn hair, amber eyes, and broad shoulders. Lowered brows and a questioning gaze, on the very last person I wanted to see me looking like an absolute idiot.

“I…”

…Could not possibly explain this, could I? I probably wasn’t even supposed to be here, so why would they believe me if I said I was fighting an invisible enemy?

“Someone attacked me,” I muttered, standing up straighter and slowly lowering the hand holding the spoon. Maybe I couldhide it behind my back. “He was glamoured, and he had a knife. I swear I was just trying not to die.”

Faris looked at the floor, then at Kira. She walked around the table. Bent down, then stood up again, holding up fingers covered in ranch dressing. Apparently, my attacker had left footprints.

She grinned. “This is brilliant.” Then her expression changed, becoming positively thunderous as she turned towards the door into the bar, where the shadows were once again just a bit thicker than they ought to have been.

“Look, you know I love you, but I think it’s time for you to explain this little stunt.”

No way. My attacker was…

The shadows dissolved, and Kira’s assassin fiancé appeared, a blade in his hand and a tiny smile tugging at his lips. A red, angry looking welt decorated his jaw, which granted me a surge of vicious satisfaction.

But still…

Why hadDravenattacked me? Did he suspect me of something? Was he working for someone other than Faris? And how was I not dead?

“I needed to know,” he said, shrugging as if he’d been merely indulging his curiosity.

“Needed to knowwhat?” Suddenly the kitchen seemed an awful lot smaller, as six and a half feet of pissed off dragon stormed across the room and glared at the assassin, fingers twitching as if he was contemplating pulling off his arms and asking questions later.

After yesterday, I wasn’t convinced that he couldn’t.

“I’m not going to wait forever for an explanation,” Callum growled. “Family or not, you don’t get to attack my employees just because you feel like it!”

“Settle down before I stuff both of you in the basement to cool off.” Faris now looked more annoyed than outraged. “Draven, what the…” He devolved for a moment into incoherent mumbling before growling, “What do you think you’re doing?”

“It was a test.” The former assassin looked over at me coolly, then offered a nod that seemed curiously like respect. “After that first night, it seemed obvious that Raine knew how to fight, but had learned under less than ideal circumstances. She’s not an assassin, but she clearly has unusual skills. If she’s going to be close to Kira, unsupervised, I needed to find out more about how and why she has those skills and what she’s likely to do if provoked.”

A part of me wanted to throat punch him and toss him into a river full of snakes. The super poisonous kind. Another part of me… understood.

“Why didn’t you just… I don’t know,ask?”

He met my gaze without judgment. “You couldn’t have told me what I needed to know with words.”

I swallowed. What had he learned? What exactly did he think he knew about me now?

Callum, too, seemed to be suppressing the urge to punch his future brother-in-law in the face. “And are you satisfied?”

Draven continued to hold my gaze, still curious, but now also… regretful. What was he going to tell them?

“I am,” he said, then shot a quick, unfazed look at the dragon looming beside him.

My breath caught. Waiting for him to go on. To expose or damn me.

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