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The glass doors swung open. “Dee?” A woman with long, pale blond hair stood just inside. Her eyes glittered, and her hands, bare and small, fluttered in the air. “I was wondering when you’d come to me.”
The woman—the witch—lifted her eyes and met his stare. “And when I’d be seeing you again, Chase.”
He had such shitty luck.
“Don’t even want to know right now,” Dee muttered and shoved past Catalina. “Cat, I’m calling in my favor. I need a roof, a bed, and protection for the day.”
Catalina smiled at Simon and motioned for him to enter the bar. “I see you found your key, and you thought I was just bullshitting you.”
She’ll be all that you need.
But there’s a price for her. One you may not want to pay.
He’d agreed to pay everything. To trade everything, for the chance to have full control of his soul once more.
And for revenge. Sweet, sweet revenge.
Catalina closed the door behind them. She flipped the lock, then whispered a fast spell. “One day only,” she said, turning back to face them. “I don’t want to get in the middle of your war.”
A broken laugh slipped past Dee’s lips. “A war? Is that what I’m in?”
“Honey, you’ve been in a war for years.” Sad. “You just didn’t know it.”
“And you did?” Snapped fast. “Thanks a hell of a lot for telling me, Cat.”
The witch’s lips tightened. “Some things you weren’t ready to know.” She swallowed, then pointed to the back of her empty bar, to the door with the gold EMPLOYEES ONLY sign. “Take the second room at the top of the stairs. Chase can have?—”
“He’ll stay with me.” Flat.
Simon’s brows shot up.
“Ah, like that, hmm? Fair enough.” Catalina tossed him a smile. It was brittle around the edges. “Told you what would happen, didn’t I?”
“But you didn’t tell me.” Dee’s voice wasn’t flat now. It was furious. Dee’s hands slapped down on the bar. “I trusted you, Catalina. Watched your back for years. I never came in your bar. I respected your surface rules. Never tried to push your spell?—”
The spell that made all the humans walk right past Delaney’s. The spell that only let supernaturals gain entrance to the bar.
“—but you and me—I thought we were friends.”
“We are,” Catalina replied softly.
Simon knew better than to get between two fighting women.
“Friends don’t keep secrets!”
“You didn’t want to know this.” Catalina’s long hair floated behind her as she walked around the bar, poured a whiskey, and drank it in two gulps. “When I scried and found out—you didn’t want to know.”
“My choice.” Dee threw this over her shoulder as she marched toward the marked door. “You took it away.”
Catalina’s fingers clenched around the glass.
Dee shoved open the door. Simon followed, slower.
Glass shattered behind him. “I didn’t take it away.” He caught the whisper of the witch’s voice. “I gave him to you, and I gave you a fighting chance.”
Dee didn’t glance back. Maybe she heard the witch. Maybe she didn’t.
Right then, he guessed it didn’t matter.
