Page 14 of Livewire Witch

Not on my watch.

“The curse is seriously gone?” Roscoe’s inspecting Fabian’s face, like he’s expecting it to peek out at him and reveal itself.

“All cured,” Fabian says.

“We’re all good,” Seb says. “This place is a hellhole and boring as shit, but we’re fine.” He holds his arms out, like, see? All body parts intact.

“And you, Fab? Seriously, no more curse? We can go back to regular life?”

“Uh, well, not quite,” I blurt out.

Four sets of eyes swing my way, and I regret opening my mouth.

“The curse is gone, but, well—”

“We know all the shit Felix tried to pull. Your friend, Ember, filled us in,” Roscoe says, his hazel eyes sparkling in the dim light.

I sink into the wall, relief winning the war for the moment. At least I don’t have to explain that whole shitshow.

Fabian turns toward me and frowns, and my stomach twists until I could actually puke. I don’t know how, but the blank, slightly confused expression on his face hurts ten times worse than it has before now.

I’m just so tired.

“What’s going on here?” Roscoe waves a finger between us and gives a little shimmy. “You two have a falling out?”

“Lover’s tiff?” Zeph snorts.

I bite my tongue. There’s no way I want to wade into this mess right now.

“I kinda did something,” Seb says.

He then word-vomits all the details of one of the worst nights of my life. Once he’s done, Fabian is frowning in confusion. He can’t quite connect the dots, which is something that’s happened repeatedly over the past few days as Seb’s tried to guide Fabian back to remembering me.

It has not worked. He just winds up even more confused and frustrated and it’s just another kick to my gut.

Once Seb’s finished explaining, Roscoe doesn’t hesitate to pull me into a hug, wrapping his arm so tightly around me I can feel his hammering heartbeat. I know I must stink since I haven’t washed in days, and I’m two seconds away from anemotional meltdown. Both things combined mean I don’t let myself relax into the hug for more than a couple of seconds before pulling away with a watery sniffle.

“Glad to see you, honeybun.”

I chuckle, my face turned toward the ground. Roscoe tips my chin up with one tattooed finger and stares into my eyes.

“You got rid of Fabian’s curse,” he says softly. “I knew you could do it. You’re amazing. Thank you.”

“I’m only alive because Silver has ninja-fast reflexes and is crazy powerful,” Seb says with a cheek-splitting grin. I don’t know how he can muster any enthusiasm after being stuck in this shithole, where he’s been steadily growing weaker and more exhausted.

“Yeah?” Roscoe squeezes me again. “You’re a fucking superstar, Silver.” He then leans closer so that his breath tickles my ear. “But, sweetheart, you’ve got some explaining to do. When I’m done with you, I want every one of your secrets laid out for me to keep safe.”

My eyes widen before meeting his hazel ones, my breath catching in my chest.

“We should get out of here,” Z interrupts. I’m kind of glad for him breaking the tension. He’s not wrong, either. No one would want to spend a moment longer than necessary down here.

“You guys ready to head back up top?” Roscoe says, all the intensity of a second ago wiped away.

“What about Felix? Unless he hit his head and forgot everything, he’s gonna remember that we know he tried to kill me, right? And Silver released that wicked thunder burst thing at him and knocked him clean out. It was cool as shit, but I bet he’s not happy with her right now.”

As much as I’m happy that Seb’s doing well and is full of beans now the others are here, I’d kinda like him to keep his big mouth shut about my special set of skills.

“It’ll all be fine, you’ll see,” Roscoe says, squeezing my hip gently with his long, tattooed fingers. “He needs us too much to try anything again. And just to be on the safe side, we’re going to keep the two of you out of sight, away from The Spire. He’s got plenty of other shit to focus on right now, and we’ll just keep him distracted until he moves on.” He cocks his head to one side thoughtfully. “Or he decides you’re more useful on his side than not. We’ll keep you safe either way, don’t worry.”

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