The warmth… it was amazing. My fear had been like a cold, violent blizzard. His touch? It was like sinking into a warm bath at the end of a hard day. All my troubles… they felt like they were… drifting away.
“We need that dirt,” someone said, interrupting the moment. It was Sarah Anne.
“Just give her a second,” Max said, voice still tense.
“We don’t have time,” Sarah insisted. “We’ve only got two hours—”
“I know,” Max said, voice dropping low, shaking through me.
Though all I wanted to do was remain there in that warmth, I knew I couldn’t.
Because as every second ticked by, it was a second Fagan came closer.
Finally, I opened my eyes. Though I could cast my gaze to Bridgette or Sarah or any of the other witches, I looked right into Max’s eyes. Everyone else fell away as I stared at him.
Why did his magic – his mere presence – have such an effect on me?
And, more to the point, could I trust that effect? Should I listen to my heart? Or should I listen to Fagan. Because, like it or not, my vision had been real, and soon, Max would betray me.
Maybe that question blazed through my eyes, because he let his hand drop to my shoulder. “Just hold on. Just trust me,” he added in such a quiet tone it could not carry.
Again, I was faced with that question. Trust or turn away?
And again, I listened to my heart.
“We just need a sample of the dirt,” he said as he reached forward, plucked a tissue from somewhere, and scraped it along my hands.
I felt charges of magic release with the move. They’d been trapped under the clods of earth. And the magic? It was dark, dense, felt like a shadow playing across my skin.
Though I wanted to jerk back, I gritted my teeth and held on until Max had apparently gathered all the dirt he needed.
He raised to his feet, hesitated, and handed the tissue back to Sarah. “We need to figure out where Dimitri is, now,” his voice dropped.
“No, we should be focusing on Fagan,” Sarah demanded.
“Didn’t you listen to what she said? Dimitri’s digging up a dead body. I’ll guarantee you it’s one of your witches,” Max’s voice dropped.
I could see Sarah out of the corner of my eye, and I watched as she seemed to freeze. Her hands shuddered by her sides as her eyes pressed wide open.
Bridgette pushed to her feet. “It’s okay, Sarah – we can catch that bastard. But Max is right. If Dimitri is digging up one of our sisters,” her tone became so twisted it sounded as if she wouldn’t be able to continue, but she took a sharp breath and opened her mouth again, “then we have to stop him. He’ll be doing it for some spell. You know that. He’ll be trying to locate us.”
Sarah closed her eyes, squeezing them tightly shut as tears trickled down her cheeks.
Again, my heart went out to her.
It took a long time, but she finally opened her eyes. She nodded. She accepted the tissue from Max. She clutched her fingers around it tightly, not letting a single speck of the dirt escape as she whirled on her foot and strode towards the center of the circle. “Witches, gather,” she commanded.
Bridgette lingered by my side for a moment, casting her gaze down to me. “You’ll be alright. We’ve got this. You can trust us.” With that, she turned and strode towards the séance.
“Do you need me?” I stuttered.
She turned over her shoulder and shot me a subdued grin. “No, we’ve got this. Just sit this one out.”
I pushed to my feet, not really hearing her, intending to walk towards the circle anyway. Max reached out a hand and locked me in place. “You’ve done enough, Chi,” he said.
There wasn’t a hint of derision in his voice, no disappointment, either. Just pride – pride mixed in with fear.
Slowly, I turned to him. Facing him made everything feel real, closer, more dangerous.
I knew he wanted to ask if I remembered any more details from Dimitri, but he didn’t. He pressed his lips together and just stared at me as if he were trying to take a mental image.
That made my stomach kick, made a new wave of fear rush down my back, prickling and spiking against the skin.
Once more, I turned my head down and faced my hands.
Max wouldn’t let my gaze linger. “Chi, you have to push it out of your mind. You need to concentrate on…” he trailed off as if he couldn’t think of something I should concentrate on right now. The fact I was two hours away from dying, maybe? The fact it wouldn’t be the curse that got me in the end, but one of Max’s friends?
I jerked my gaze up. There was a question I should have asked way sooner. “Who is Dimitri, anyway?” I’m surprised I could control my tone.
Max didn’t answer. Instead, he swallowed the move tight, pushing his Adam’s apple hard against his T-shirt.
“Max?”
He shook his head sharply. “An acquaintance.”
“Acquaintance?”
“A fairy I’ve known for some time.”
“How long is some time?”
He dwindled into silence.
“Max, please, just tell me everything you know. I just need to…” I trailed off.
“He’s a fairy, about 500 years old if my calculations are right. I’ve known him for,” Max pressed his lips together, “sometime.”
Was Max trying to hide his age from me? Was he worried it would pique my already considerable curiosity about his past?
