by Sarina Dorie
He raised an eyebrow.
“Josie and I didn’t tell him we were using the Internet. We told him we were eating fish and chips.” But Khaba had known. If only he was still our dean.
“I will leave you for half an hour. Promise me you will stay inside and wait until I return for you,” he said.
“Yep. Totally promise.” Heh. I hated lying.
Imani and I went to the Internet café. I paid for her Internet and made her promise not to leave with anyone under any circumstance.
She grinned. “Are you sneaking off for alone time with Mr. Thatch?”
“You, shush! You know I’m not.”
She snickered. I then went back upstairs, wondering if this was a bad idea. I made it as far as the door to go outside, before my conscience got ahold of me. If anything happened to Imani, I would feel horrible. It was my responsibility to protect her. What was I doing? Leaving her because I decided sex with my boyfriend was more important?
Thatch leaned against the wall near a table, a smirk on his face. “You are so predictable.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Professor Killjoy
My first thought was that he was going to chew me out and threaten to never take me into town again.
“I’m sorry,” I said.
He laughed. “You needn’t apologize. I knew what you were up to and why you wanted to go to the Internet café.”
“You did?” Had he been listening in on my conversations?
His grin grew broader. “You wanted to take a walk with me.”
I tried to contain my laugh, but it came out a snort. “No. I needed to go shopping.”
“Without a chaperone? Come now. You are the entire reason I need to be here. You aren’t going anywhere without me.”
I worked my brain, attempting to come up with any logical excuse. And then I had the solution. It was a cheap trick, but it always worked for getting out of scrapes, as much as I hated to employ it.
“I need feminine hygiene products.” I blurted it out, the words all slurring together. It was embarrassing enough saying the words, more so that it was a lie.
“Oh,” he said. “Don’t we carry those sorts of . . . things at the school?”
“Yeah, but everything is from the Middle Ages. I want something a little more . . . modern.”
“Right. I don’t know where people—women—people purchase those. Um. . . .”
I started down the lane. “How about I go to Ye Green Grocery while you wait outside?”
“Brilliant. Yes. I’ll wait outside.”
We passed a cauldron shop that had closed for the evening. “You aren’t worried about leaving Imani?” I asked.
“Why would I? Unlike some people, she actually listens.”
“Heh.” True.
“I trust you told her not to leave.”
“Yeah,” I said.
Apparently “feminine hygiene” were the magic words because Thatch didn’t follow me inside Clarence Greenpine’s shop. The psychedelic colors of the grocery store were a shock to the system after all the drab earth tones and gray stone of the town.
Clarence sat at the counter in his tie-dye shirt, his Lennon glasses almost hiding his wrinkled eyes. He waved to me. After a brief survey of the store, which mostly sold food and magical candy, I approached the counter. This was going to be epically awkward. As if the subject wasn’t hard enough to talk about with any salesclerk, I was asking Elric’s grandson.
I wondered which wife had been his grandmother. Carolyn? Anne? Clara? Allison? Elaine? Meredith? Belinda? I couldn’t remember the names of Elric’s other wives.
I whispered, “I need to purchase a pack of condoms. Do you sell any?”
His eyebrows raised in surprise. “Come again?”
I glanced around. The only other person in the store was a woman with elf ears and a baby in the granola aisle. Thatch remained outside. I repeated my request again.
He glanced at the door. I looked over my shoulder. Thatch stood within sight out the window. “Are these items going to be used by that fellow over there?” he asked.
“No. He’s just my coworker,” I said quickly. “I don’t want him to know what I’m buying. He and your grandad don’t get along.”
Clarence snorted. “That’s putting it lightly.”
Their feud was no secret apparently.
Clarence leaned over the counter. “If your intended purchase is for you and a . . . Fae lover, you can’t use latex. Pureblooded Fae can’t tolerate it. Even some Witchkin have an intolerance to it. I would suggest lamb intestine. I have just the thing.”
I stared at him in disgust. Was he being real? From his satisfied expression, I took it he was.
He winked at me. “I’ll get some from the storage room. I lock them up so teenagers don’t steal them during the school year.”
A moment later he came back empty-handed. “Looks like I sold my last ones earlier today. I’ll have to put in another order. We’ll get some more within two weeks.”
Two weeks! That was a long time to wait.
“Is there anywhere else that carries them?” I asked.
“You can try the village healer or the midwife.”
I left, trying to decide if I had time. I didn’t know if I could convince Thatch I needed to go someplace else or he’d see through my plan.
“Did you find what you needed?” Thatch eyed my empty hands.
“No. They were out.” I studied his solemn expression. “Would it be too much to ask you to walk with me to the midwife?”
I waited for him to argue and tell me how trying I was.
Instead, a small smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. “It’s no trouble. Do you know where the midwife’s hut is located?”
I shook my head.
“That’s fine. I know the way.”
I thought back to my previous conversation with Imani. I had long known Thatch had been willing to risk his own safety for my life, but I hadn’t noticed when his prickly exterior had softened into this compliant human being who would have done anything for me.
He said nothing as we walked along the lane. The sun was low on the horizon. We probably had another hour before sunset.
A sign hung on the midwife’s shop, saying she was out delivering a baby. We went to the healer on the other end of the village next. She was out, and her assistant told me they didn’t sell prophylactics. The assistant was young, and I wondered if she had once been a student of Womby’s. Surely this had to be the same healer where Khaba’s lover had worked up until the time he’d died.
Thatch waited outside. The sky had shifted from bright cerulean to a deep azure.
“We need to get back to Imani,” he said. “Did you find what you were looking for?”
“Um, no.”
His words came out quickly, back to his usual terse tone. “Put it on a list for Mrs. Keahi. She’ll be able to help you. Come along.”
I worried he might have heard me inside the hut and caught on to the real reasons I’d gone in.
He walked swiftly. “We need to get back to the café before sunset.”
I had to jog to keep up with his pace. “I’m sorry I took up so much of your time. We didn’t get to stop at any of the places you needed to go on your errands.”
“I can go another time. I suspect your need was more urgent than mine.”
A mixture of guilt and embarrassment flickered through me. My need. I was a liar. He had given up whatever he’d needed to do because I had pretended I needed feminine hygiene products. I had taken advantage of his kindness and paid that back with lies.
He halted, and I plowed into him. That’s when I saw what he had, and possibly the reason why he’d quickened his pace. Birds circled over Hal’s Internet Café like vultures ready to swoop in.
The Raven Court was here. They had found Imani.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Bird Is the Word
I had feared something might happen to Imani. Against my better judgment I had left her. I couldn’t believe how stupid I was.
Thatch drew his wand. “Stay behind me.”
A woman in a long black gown made of feathers stood in front of the café. She was tall and lean like Thatch, her face as elegantly proportioned. With her wild mane of dark locks, she looked like she could have belonged to Morty tales of the Unseelie Court. Her mocking smile looked so much like his own. The true difference between them was the emptiness in her eyes. Hunger surrounded her like a black hole drawing light in.
Her plunging neckline revealed the pink line of a scar cut across her chest between her breasts, disappearing below the black plumage of her dress.
I’d met her once before. Odette, his sister.
She stepped in front of the door. I scanned the empty street for signs of Imani. Birds circled in the air. None of the other raven shifters had descended. That was good at least.
“Out of my way,” Thatch said.
“No kiss on the cheek for your little sister?” She grinned.
“I don’t have a sister anymore.”
She clucked her tongue at him. “I thought you said you would always love me no matter what.”
“That was before you sold your soul to the devil.”
She laughed at that.
“Move out of my way, or I’ll make you move,” he said.
She remained planted in front of the door. Her gaze flickered to me, though she didn’t acknowledge my presence. I wasn’t sure if that was good or bad.
Venom laced each word he enunciated. “I will forcibly remove you if you refuse to leave.”
“If you were going to hex me, I imagine you would have done so by now.”
Thatch aimed his wand at her. Blue light shot out of the twisted length of black wood. Odette leapt aside and out of the way. The door smoldered where the light struck.
She laughed. “Always so quick to attack. Some people might see that as a . . . flaw . . . of character.” She had the same speech pattern he did, pronouncing each word with care, emphasizing certain words with how she paused.
“Our queen requests your presence, if you please,” she said.
“I don’t please.” He fixed his wand at her, sparks shooting out ominously.
She paced back and forth in front of the door as if daring him to dart past. “You know how vexed it makes her when you don’t come when she calls her pets.”
Thatch jerked the door open and shoved me inside. I thought he meant to follow, but he didn’t. Startled diners shrank back from me in trepidation. Green light flashed outside the windows.
“Son of a succubus!” someone cursed.
“Ye might want to take covers folks,” Hal said from the counter. The red-haired leprechaun hopped off his stool.
I headed toward the stairwell, hoping I might find Imani down there. I chided myself for my foolishness. I could have asked Thatch to take me to Lachlan Falls without Imani. But I’d been too prideful.
Sconces of blue light illuminated the walls. The air vibrated with electricity, making me feel more alive than ever. Using a computer was as satisfying as a massage. Not as good as one of Elric’s massages, but only now that I was here did I realize how much I missed the Internet café. Electric energy soaked into my skin like sunlight might be absorbed by a starving plant.
In the bowels of the Internet café, a single screen remained lit. Imani sat in front of it. I rushed over to her and practically screamed her name.
She jumped to her feet. “Is my time up already? The power didn’t go out, so I didn’t think I had to finish.”
I hugged her, relieved she was all right. I had learned my lesson. In the future, I most certainly was not going to put my sex life and magic lessons before my students’ safety.
“Miss Lawrence, what’s wrong?” Imani asked.
“I’m happy you’re okay.”
“Of course I’m fine.”
The stairs creaked behind me. Some of the diners had crept down the stairs after me. Hal hobbled down last.
The diminutive owner jerked a thumb toward the flight above us. “They might be a while up there.”
Imani gave me a quizzical glance.
“Mr. Thatch. He’s fighting with. . . .” I fought the urge to say his sister. He liked his privacy.
“Aye. He be battling with one of those harpies from the Raven Court,” Hal volunteered.
Imani gasped.
“It will be okay. He’s strong. A Merlin-class Celestor.” Or maybe he was the equivalent of that—a Merlin-class Red affinity.
But his sister probably was as well. As time stretched on, I worried about him more and more. What if the entire Raven Court swooped down and abducted him? I should have stayed with him. I couldn’t have helped him fight, but I might have helped fuel his affinity.
After about ten minutes of tense silence, one of the diners asked to use the Internet.
“I want a discount for getting stuck in your basement while my food gets cold,” squawked a man with peacock feathers sprouting out of his eyebrows.
Hal squabbled with the patrons.
“Be my guest and leave, if ye want, lad.”
“Maybe I should check on Mr. Thatch,” I said.
Hal took a swig from a flask. “Do what you like, lass.”
“But you can’t.” Imani grabbed onto my arm. “What if they get you? I’ll be all alone.”
I touched the necklace at my throat that Elric had given me. If it was an absolute emergency, I could summon him. He would hold a greater claim on my soul—but that was still better than belonging to the Raven Court.
“I’m just going to peek up there. I won’t be long.”
I walked up the stairs slowly, trying to pad lightly over the steps. They creaked anyway. The heavy tingle of magic pulsing under my flesh faded as I ascended and put more distance between myself and the computers. I found Thatch sprawled across the floor in front of the open door. He’d lost a shoe.
There was no blood, but he wasn’t moving. Outside the candlelit room it was dark. I snuck forward, fearing this might be a trap. It might be an apparition of Thatch. Or he might be dead, and they were using him to lure me out of the safety of the sanctuary of electricity.
I kneeled beside Thatch, careful to face the door to be ready for someone to enter the café. I imagined sucking electricity in through my skin, any random particle that wandered my way, fueling my extinguished affinity. If they came for me, I would shoot lightning at them.
Or at least I would try.
I touched Thatch’s cheek. His skin was cold. I leaned closer. When I touched my fingers to his throat, his pulse was irregular and slow. He twitched under my touch.
“Felix?” I whispered.
His lips parted. I thought he might speak, but he remained silent. I couldn’t see his chest rise and fall with breath. I placed my hands on his ribcage to see if I could detect movement, breathing.
The time I had resurrected Derrick, I’d kissed him. I had thought it was romantic, that he was my sleeping beauty. It was very possible I could use my Red affinity in the same way with Thatch. Probably he wasn’t going to wake up evil and try to drain me.
Probably.
I truly hoped I wasn’t going to have to sleep with him to resurrect him. For one thing, there was a minor downstairs. She might come up at any moment. For another, I had a boyfriend.
I leaned down, close enough to smell the dusty pages of old books intermingled with starlight and oil paint that clung to his clothes. His breath smelled like strawberry ice cream. Who would have thought someone so complex would have liked something so wholesome and simple as homemade strawberry ice cream?
His lips were the perfect shape for his face, full but not too full. In rest he looked peaceful. I wondered if he tasted like strawberries. I touched his cheek. My heart lurched in trepidation.
I took a deep breath and foc
used on the affinity inside me. It swelled, gathering the ambient electricity around us. There might be repercussions for this, another episode that ended in pain. I would deal with that when it came.
Kissing had never been a cure for him as it had for me. I drew back, sent electricity up out of my core and into my hand, and slapped him as hard as I could across his cheek. He sat up so quickly, I fell back onto my behind. He gasped, a hand clutched to his chest. He stared at me, wild-eyed for a brief moment before relaxing.
“What happened?” I asked.
“We resolved a dispute.”
“I’m pretty sure you lost that one.”
He touched a hand to his cheek. “You struck me?”
“Um, yeah, I thought it might help if you were low on magical fuel or whatever. Did it help?”
He nodded, slowly. “It wouldn’t hurt if you did it again, just so I can regain a little more strength.” He turned his other cheek toward me.
I laughed at that. He was such a masochist.
“But the left side this time. I want to be symmetrical.”
And fussy.
It took me a second too late to realize he was being serious. He truly wanted me to hit him again. I did so, but not as hard now that he was awake and I knew he was all right. I wasn’t a sadist and didn’t feel entirely comfortable with the idea of pain magic.
“Again,” Thatch said.
I shook my head. “No, you’ve probably had enough for today.”
“No, I haven’t. She sucked the magic right out of me. I need to regain my strength.” He grabbed me by the wrist and pulled me closer.
I was already sitting in an awkward position. Now I fell forward and toppled onto him so I was sprawled across his chest. This was über awkward and inappropriate.
“Let go,” I said.
He released my wrist. I slapped him across his face. Twice. I didn’t give him the satisfaction of symmetry. When he didn’t let of my waist, I punched him in the shoulder. That had little effect, so I punched him in the stomach.
He groaned from that, at least. I pushed myself off him.
Imani coughed from the doorway. “Are you two fighting again?”
“Thank you. That will be all, Miss Lawrence,” Thatch said.
