Page 54 of Magic Forsaken

“And you know this how?”

“Declan said…”

“Declan said she meant no harm to you, to me, or to the Symposium,” Callum pointed out. He sounded detached.Unemotional. Like a lawyer in a courtroom. “But these two attacked us, so his statement doesn’t apply.”

Wait, what did theirbrotherhave to do with this?

“It isn’t like the door is always locked,” Kira retorted. For some reason, she seemed determined to defend me. “Who else was in the building this morning?”

“No one that we are aware of,” Callum replied heavily. “And I have detected no unexpected scents.”

Kira paled at the implicit accusation in his statement, while Faris very loudly said nothing.

From their perspective, blaming me was an entirely rational deduction. From mine, however…

“It wasn’t her.”

Draven appeared in the doorway beside Kira, arms folded across his chest. He glanced at each of us before shooting Callum a look that I could have sworn was disappointment.

“How do you know?” That was Faris.

While my dragon boss continued to watch me silently, wearing that peculiarly flat expression.

“You asked when I tested her what I thought I was doing.” Draven’s silver eyes shifted to me. “The reason for the test was to determine the source of her instincts and her motivation. When she fights, how does she fight, and why?”

He gave me an oddly serious nod before shifting his attention, not to Faris, but to Callum.

“If you decide after this that you still want her to be your bodyguard—and if you can convince her not to quit on the spot—you should know that Raine is not a killer. Her instincts are primarily wired for defense, not offense. She’ll prioritize neutralization and escape, but not death.”

He’d learned all that when I whacked him with a broom?

“My attack was meant to appear to be in deadly earnest. She didn’t know I wouldn’t hurt her. Once she entered the kitchen,there were edged weapons everywhere. Knives that could have easily gutted me, severed arteries and caused me to bleed out, but her eyes skipped right over them, and her strategy never once took them into consideration.”

Huh. He was right. And just now, I was beginning to realize it might be a weakness. When that fae had attacked, I could have done like Talia and turned the water into shards of ice that could pierce and shred with ease. But I’d made a shield instead, and knowing why didn’t make me question myself any less.

Callum nodded and turned to Faris. “Are you satisfied?”

The earth elemental’s anger did not noticeably abate, but it did shift away from me. “Then who else, Elduvar? Who else had access? Who had motive and opportunity? They not only killed shapeshifters without a sound, they clearly didn’t want us to talk to them. We had a lead, and they silenced it.”

“I don’t know.” The dark-haired man was suddenly no longer relaxed or mild. He turned to survey the basement, and as he scanned the shadows, the air around me crackled with an invisible power that raised the hair on my arms and made my scalp prickle in alarm. “But we will find out.”

I drew in a deep breath. Let it out slowly. Felt the fire of my own anger building in my chest.

Anger at myself more than anyone else. It didn’t matter that I understood why Faris suspected me. Didn’t matter that I even agreed I was the most obvious suspect.

What mattered was that Callum had not been willing to defend me. After we’d survived last night’s attack together, after he’d promised he wouldn’t let anyone hurt me, he hadn’t even believed in me enough to tell Faris I hadn’t done it.

And I’d let myself begin to trust him. Caught a glimpse of his protective nature and let my guard down, forgetting that he had the power to ruin me. To destroy everything I’d come this far to find.

This was a timely reminder—Callum-ro-Deverin was a means to an end, that was all. If he still wanted me, I would work with him, because I believed we shared the desire to protect the vulnerable.

But he would never be anything but a danger to everyone I cared about, and I could never, ever let myself forget it.

One of his statements to Kira slowly floated back to me, and my curiosity sharpened to the point of risking a question.

“Not that it matters now, but why was what Declan said about me important?”

It was Kira who answered. “My youngest brother is an empath,” she said quietly. “He doesn’t do it on purpose, but he can’t always shield himself fully. If you’d meant to hurt any of us that night, he would have known.”

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