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“I will.” Absolute certainty in Dee’s voice.
He’d back her any day.
Catalina’s lashes lifted. “You’re always so sure of yourself. From the first moment I met you, you were so strong?—”
“You mean when that idiot warlock came and tried to bind you?”
A warlock like Skye. A former wizard who’d turned to the dark.
“We kicked his ass, didn’t we?” Dee murmured and Simon wished he could have seen that.
Wished he could have known Dee, before hell came calling at both of their doors.
The witch licked her lips. “We did.” A pause. “And I thought—I thought we’d be able to kick ass again. When he”—a weak flutter of her hand toward Simon—“came to me, asking me for the promised Born, I thought we could make everything all right. Thought we’d be strong enough to face what’s coming.”
“We will be,” Dee said. Her voice was sure and confident but Simon happened to glance down, and he saw that her fingers shook.
“I’m not.” Simple and as certain as Dee had sounded. “I’m leaving tonight. I don’t even know where I’m heading,” Catalina confessed, lips curving down. “I just have to get away from here. The fire?—”
Fire. The one thing that could scare a strong witch. Grim had known exactly what he was doing. Separate. Yank Dee away from the friends who could help her.
Grim could have gotten the Ignitor to attack Dee at any time. But, no, he’d waited until Dee sought shelter with Catalina.
He’d sent his other goons with fire the first time. But the second time, he hadn’t been playing. Grim had brought out the big gun. Ignitor.
Burned around her.
One down. Grim was working his twisted magic.
Dee stepped away from him and crept close to Catalina. She pushed a hand through her short hair and stared in silence for a moment. “I understand.”
No pleas to stay. No guilt trips that they could use the witch’s magic.
Dee’s arms wrapped around the other woman. “Just be safe.”
He caught a glimpse of Catalina’s face. Simon saw the tear that leaked down her cheek. Her arms clamped tight around Dee. “You, too.”
Friends.
But Catalina was still walking away.
And Dee was trying to force the demon to leave her side.
Friends.
She wanted them safe and being safe meant that she didn’t want them anywhere near Grim.
Catalina eased back and swiped her hand over her cheek. Then she walked away. The door shut behind her with the softest of clicks.
Dee’s shoulders straightened. “You want to tell me…” she began slowly, then glanced back at him, “why I had a vision of you, dying, in some freaking blizzard right before I stormed in here?”
He blinked. How had she?—
She rubbed her eyes. “Damn, Simon, that was bad. One minute, I was talking to Zane—idiot won’t listen to me. The next, all I could see was you and you were?—”
“It wasn’t me.” He could give her that much, at least. It had to be their blood link. Grim was trying to tune back to him, but Dee was slipping inside his mind, without even trying.
Her body turned fully toward him. Her gaze dipped over his chest and she crossed to him. “Uh, yeah, it was.” She walked behind him. Her fingers trailed down his back, and Simon stiffened at the light touch. “What they did to you?—”
