Page 122 of One For my Enemy

“I could,” he offered. “If you wanted.”

“Bridge, there isn’t a world in existence where you’d know what to do with me.”

“Are you saying Dimitri Fedorov would?” he asked neutrally.

“I imagine I’ll have to find out, considering you’re no help at all.”

She rose to her feet, letting her gaze flick knowingly to what he kept in his desk drawer.

“Time can be frozen, too,” she informed him. “Temporarily slowed. It’s one method of preservation.”

She watched him sigh, concealed a smile to herself, and turned to the door.

“Wait,” Bryn unwillingly called after her, grumbling at her back. “You’re doing this on purpose, Antonova.”

She spun, the portrait of innocence. “Doing what, Bridge?”

“You know I can’t let a favor go unpaid.” His mouth was a grim line. “Though, I’m having difficulty finding reasons to take your side.”

“Has Dimitri given you any reason to take his?”

“Who says there are only two sides?” Bryn countered, and Marya narrowed her eyes, somewhere between concerned and annoyed. “Ask Fedorov about your sister,” Bryn advised, with a bit too much confidence, in Marya’s opinion. That could only mean trouble.

“Which sister?”

Bryn shrugged. “See what Dimitri says,” he offered. “If he says nothing, then you know he can’t be trusted.”

She bristled. “That’s hardly a helpful answer.”

“Isn’t it, though? If I tell you what I know, that’s easy. But this way, you get two answers. Whose side Dimitri Fedorov’s on,” he said, lifting a vacant palm to weigh the options, “and also, who’s onyourside.”

“I could do without the games, Bridge.” She paused. “But fine.”

“You love the games, Marya,” Bryn reminded her. “Otherwise you’d find a better place for your secrets than my office, don’t you think?”

“You don’t have my secrets. You’re just a very useful set of eyes.”

“True. Though I have other useful parts.”

She rolled her eyes, dismissive. “If Dimitri comes to see you again, tell me.”

“And if I don’t?”

She paused, shaking her head. “I worry about your masochism, Bridge. Don’t you have anything better to do than suffer my threats?”

His smile twitched. “No. You know that.”

“Well,” she determined, leaning over his desk. “How fast do you think time goes when you’re suffocating?”

“Not with any urgency, I imagine,” he drawled, inching towards her, and in response she slid a thumb over his larynx, pulling the strands of time further and further; notch by notch. She watched his eyes widen, chest stilling with lack of motion.

Then, gradually, she released him, letting him take a gasping breath.

“Why do you like witches so much?” she asked as he stumbled forward, bracing his palms on the desk. “Surely you can’t enjoy being surrounded by power you can’t possibly possess.”

“I don’t,” he confirmed with a rasp, clearing his throat. “But I learn more about you every time you use yours. Who’s gotten you so tense?” he croaked, tilting his head. “Someone close to you, I imagine, or you wouldn’t have bothered coming to me first before Dimitri.” He paused, eyeing her. “Your mother, perhaps?”

Marya felt her eyes narrow. “There’s no way you could know that.”

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