Page 11 of Mochas and Minotaurs

But the woman was already running off.

A minute later the door opened and Marcus stepped back in. “She bought it. She even tried to use one of those apps, like you said. Thank you, Gigi. I don’t know how I can repay you.”

“First, you have to tell me what all this is about,” I reminded him.

“Right.” He looked around like he no longer trusted the walls. “Come upstairs. If I’m telling this story, I need a stiff drink.”

“Are you sure this isn’t just some ruse to get me to go home with you again?”

That had him grinning. “Maybe,” he said with a waggle of his brows. But the humor faded quickly, and he checked the camera feeds again before closing his laptop and tucking it under his arm. He started toward the stairwell. “Pardon the mess; I’m still setting up after the move. And there’s stuff everywhere.”

“I won’t judge.”

As he walked by the mirror, he frowned at the monster staring back at him. “Can I have my face back for now?”

Chapter 6

Marcus

I brought the heavyglass tumbler to my lips and took a sip. I’d insisted on breaking out the whiskey to tell my story. I needed it.

“Only one other person knows about this, so if this gets out, I know where you live.” I kept my tone casual, but I meant it. This was a secret and had to remain so. I didn’t even understand why my minotaur insisted I tell her. It was a big risk.

“All right, now you’re kinda scaring me. This feels big.”

“It is to me. But I don’t think it’s big in the grand scheme of things. No one will miss one minotaur except for my friends.”

“Your life is on the line?” she asked with furrowed brows.

“Oh no, my life will be fine. It’s my freedom that I’m worried about.”

“You’re not some kind of wanted felon, are you? Is that why you have such a clean and pristine record? Because it’s fake?”

I chuckled. “No, nothing like that.” I turned serious again. “But if she finds me, I’ll be dragged off to a place that might as well be a prison. And up until just a few minutes ago, I thought I was safe. I have no idea how she found me.”

Everything around me suddenly felt suspect. I glared at the walls like somehow they’d given me away. I checked to make sure the blinds were all closed. They were, but it didn’t stop the overwhelmingly irrational thoughts that someone could be watching me.

“Is this place warded?” she asked.

“Warded?”

“Blocked from magical intrusion,” she said, like that explained it. “You know, to stop anyone from listening or spying on you.”

“No.” Despite being a monster, I didn’t know much about magic itself. But I understood what she meant by wards now: barriers against magic. “You think that’s a possibility?”

She shrugged. “That depends on how much magic the other side has and how much they want to get their hands on you.”

“Shit. And all this time, I thought I was being a dumb, irrational conspiracy theorist when I worried about the walls having eyes and ears and giving me away. The other side definitely has access to quite a bit of magic, and I’m sure they really, really want to get their hands on me.”

She rolled her eyes. “And you never thought to guard against it?”

“I didn’t know how. I’m a minotaur, but I was raised like a human. Maman told me I had to hide what I was, or I’d be locked up forever. I thought I was the only one for the longest time. I most definitely didn’t know about magic.”

Her face softened. “Oh, then you’re forgiven.” She moved to one of the external walls, one not attached to her side of the building. “The good thing is I don’t feel any magical spells inside your home or shop right now. I’m going to cast a blanket of silence anyway, just in case your phones or devices have been hacked.”

I took out my phone and frowned at it suspiciously. I hadn’t thought of that either, and for that I had no excuse. I was raised with technology. I’d been living such a normal life, hidden away under my new alias here in Darlington, that I’d gotten too lax.

Gigi’s hands danced in the air, and she mumbled some words I couldn’t decipher. Then she grabbed the edge of something I couldn’t see and threw it into the air.

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