Page 46 of Magic Claimed
“This sucks,” I told him bluntly, gripping his hand as if I could somehow tether him to life through physical effort alone. “We didn’t get much time, did we? Sometimes it seems like the entire universe is coming together to tell us we’d be better off apart. Sometimes it’s hard to be sure that I’m remembering everything correctly. That you actually chose me and want to be with me.”
Tears fell, trailing down my cheeks and across Callum’s hand. I hoped he couldn’t feel them. Hoped he wouldn’t have to bear the weight of my pain in addition to his own.
“But you did,” I went on. “You did choose me, even if I don’t always know why. You chose me, and I won’t ever let that go. I can’t. You’re so much more than I ever dared hope for, and I… well, you know what I am. An aberration. Someone who fits nowhere. A weed that refuses to die. And I’vealways thought that was a bad thing. But maybe… Maybe the best thing I can do right now is keep being that weed. Keep refusing to die or give up or go away.”
I felt something then—a stirring from somewhere inside the shadowed corners of his heart. A flicker of light, heat, emotion. It was gone almost as soon as I sensed it, but it stirred my stubbornness to life and gave it hope. He was still in there. He heard me. And there were things he needed to know.
“I won’t give up on you, Callum. I promise. And I won’t give up onus. No matter who stands between us, no matter what anyone says. Not until you tell me with your own lips that it’s over. So no matter what happens, no matter how long it takes, no matter what things look like when you wake up… I’m still here, do you hear me? I’mstill here.”
Some subconscious sense must have alerted me to a third presence, because I turned my head slightly and saw Tairen-li-Corva standing in the doorway. Watching me with an unreadable expression on her stern face.
I had no idea how much she’d heard and suddenly realized that I didn’t care. I hoped she would come to like me. But if she didn’t? That had nothing to do with me.
I’d said what I needed to say, and she deserved time alone with her son, so I lowered his hand to the blanket and squeezed it once before letting go and standing up.
“I’ll leave you two alone.” I started towards the door, assuming she would step aside to allow me to slip out. But she stood firm, blocking my exit.
“Where are you going?”
I couldn’t read her tone. “I have to get my family moved, and I have a missing boy to find.”
“Then youaregoing to leave him.”
I wanted to snarl at her, but somehow I didn’t. “The fight for his life isn’t just happening in here. It’s out there.” I pointed to the door. “I can’t find his poisoner by sitting at his bedside and crying. I can’t find an antidote by waiting here for him to die.”
I thought she flinched at that, but I wasn’t finished.
“And life doesn’t just stop for moments like these. I have a family to protect. There is a missing boy out there named Jeremiah who has no one but his mother to care that he’s disappeared. So I have to keep going, because those people need me. And because that’s what Callum would want me to do.”
She stared for a few more seconds before nodding slowly. “Then you do understand his heart.”
I was too surprised to answer.
“Go,” she said. “Do what you have to do. We will call you if there is any change.”
It was not quite approval. But it seemed possible that we understood each other, and that was a good place to start.
“Thank you.” I glanced around the living room. Ryker was talking quietly to Kira and Skye, while Angelica hovered nearby, glowering. “Kira, Ryker, and Faris have my number. I’ll be in and out today with getting my family moved, but tell me if…” I couldn’t finish that sentence.
“Oh, no you don’t,” Kira announced grimly. “I’m coming with you. There are plenty of people to look after Callum, and you…” She shot me a look of pure stubbornness. “You shouldn’t be alone today.”
I didn’t ask how she knew, but I could guess. She, too, had been separated from her mate while he lay injured and unconscious. She’d had to keep going, forge alliances and plan an attack when she had no idea whether she would ever hear his voice again.
“Thank you,” I murmured. “I won’t say no.”
TWELVE
In the end,I was extra grateful for Kira, because without her I would have had to walk all the way home. Instead, she dropped me at the door of our building, then drove off to find parking.
I made my way upstairs, fighting to organize my thoughts, only to encounter a different kind of fight the moment I stepped out of the stairwell onto the fourth floor.
My neighbor from across the hall—the one who’d threatened to have us evicted—was in the hallway, yelling, along with two human cops, and… Kes.
Kes’s back was to our apartment door, and I recognized her stance. It was fearful, but protective. Our neighbor had legitimately become a threat, and Kes would allow access to our home over her dead body.
“We had nothing to do with that,” she was saying, as calmly as her clearly shaken nerves would permit. “You have no reason to suspect us, and there are sleeping children inside.”
“Ma’am, please…” One of the cops was trying to reason with the neighbor, but just as she had the night of the fire, she seemed utterly determined to blame us forsomething.
