“If you don’t feel well, we don’t have to go out tonight.”
“Tonight?” Her head whipped toward him.
“Yes, tonight. Your father’s birthday party. Alynna asked me to remind you.”
Oh crap.
Mika wasn’t sure how her mother had gotten wind of what was going on—though knowing Alynna, it wasn’t a surprise—but she had invited Delacroix along to Alex’s birthday party at their apartment that night. All her siblings were going to be there as well, and it would be the first time they would meet Delacroix and see them together. She couldn’t miss it; no, she couldn’t do that to her father, but if the subject of Joe came around, then she didn’t know what to do. So, as a precaution, she called her mother before they headed over to their place while Delacroix was in the shower.
“You haven’t told him?” Alynna asked incredulously. “Sweetie, why not? You shouldn’t be afraid—”
“I’m not afraid,” she bit out. “It’s just …” How could she explain it to her mother, when she couldn’t understand it herself? “Please, just tell everyone? Make some excuse. Tell them it’ll upset me.”
Alynna let out a long sigh. “All right, but you have to tell him about Joe soon. Before he finds out from someone else.”
Though she’d been nervous the entire dinner, no one in her family breathed a word about Joe. It probably wasn’t difficult though, because he wasn’t a subject they spoke about often. Truth was, since he died, everyone seemed to walk on eggshells around her, afraid to upset her. She also realized that she’d missed them all and that she’d been pushing her parents, sister, and brothers away for the last two years. This was the first time she could recall they’d been together that they all seemed at ease.
“Were you worried about your family not approving of me?” Delacroix asked as they walked back to his apartment when the dinner party ended.
“Huh? Not at all. They adored you.” Of course they did; Delacroix could charm the pants off anyone. Her father seemed to accept him, while her mother was delighted by his flattery. Nathan and Knox developed a natural camaraderie with him as they chatted about sports and beer, while the normally shy and reserved Amanda chatted amiably with him.
“Then what were you all jittery about the whole evenin’?”
“I—” It was on the tip of her tongue. To tell him. Do it now. “Nothing.” She really was a coward.
He looked like he wanted to press the matter, but hesitated. “So,” he looped her arm through his as they continued walking, “when do I get to see the baby photos your mother promised?”
She threw her head back and laughed. “How about … never?”
He continued to tease her, making her feel at ease and forgetting about her worries. Still, in the back of her mind, it hung there—that big secret she was keeping from him. Tomorrow, she told herself as she held on tighter to him. I’ll tell him tomorrow.
Mika really was trying hard to tell him, but there never seemed to be the right time. The truth weighed on her mind, and it was like waiting for the shoe to drop, but every time she worked up the courage, she just found one excuse after the other to delay it.
Plus of course, she still had a job to do, and this week seemed to be when shit hit the fan. The mages had attacked two of their allies, one in Ohio, and the other in Mexico City. While there were no casualties, it only spooked the other clans they were in talks with. Julianna had reported that three of them had already canceled meetings.
“I’ll do my best to get them back on track,” Julianna said via videoconference. Aside from the envoys, Daric had joined them as well, and he sat next to Mika in her office.
“Dublin’s mighty scared, but I’ll work on O’Leary,” Duncan added.
“Thank you, Duncan.” Mika said. “I’m sorry this has made your job harder.”
“Don’t worry about us,” Julianna said. “But, do you have any more intelligence about these attacks? I mean, specifics. What did the mages want? Did they take anything or anyone?”
Mika had been asking herself the same thing, ever since the mages came back into the picture. But there was no pattern they could discern or specific demands from the mages. “No, I’m afraid we don’t know anything new.”
“Isn’t it strange?” Duncan’s brows knitted together. “All these attacks over the past year … and we still don’t know what they want exactly.”
“They want the artifacts, and they want to destroy us, that we know for sure.” Mika said.
“Yes, but all they need is the former to do the latter,” Duncan added. “What do you think, Daric?”
The warlock’s turquoise eyes grew dark. “You’re right. The mages only came to us because we had the dagger and Adrianna and Lucas. Then we started our campaign against them, and so we thought they were only retaliating for what we did. But now … their targets seem random but the mages are so organized that they must have some plan. They can’t possibly be doing this just to prevent us from gaining more alliances.”
“And then there was that attack against you, Mika,” Julianna pointed out. “It was specific, almost personal, don’t you think?”
Her jaw dropped. She hadn’t thought of that, but somehow, it made sense that it would be a personal attack. But who would want her dead?
“There was something off about the whole thing,” Daric said. “I’ve been too busy to investigate myself, but it seems like an anomaly. Has there been any other progress on the investigation? Do we know the identity of the assassin or who hired them?”
“I’m afraid not,” she said with a shake of her head. “A total dead end.” But now that they pointed out how unusual the attack was, she couldn’t help but think about it. “There’s not much more to talk about,”
