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“What?” I asked.
“When I met you, you watched the door as often as everything else. When you let me in your room after Past visited, you kept an eye on the hall. Last night, you said you had enemies in this world. Tell me what you are afraid of.”
I picked at my fingernails, unable to look up. “It’s not a ‘what’. It’s a ‘who.’”
Reaching over, he tucked a finger under my chin, forcing my eyes to his. “I would never let something happen to you on this job. You know that, right?”
“Yesterday, you locked me in a bubble and tried to freeze yourself to death. I don’t think your decisions can be relied upon from one moment to the next.” I kept a light, playful tone, but he was having none of it.
“Marley. I mean it. You can question everything else about me, but that is one thing I will not falter on. You are safe, but you have to tell me who we’re looking for.”
“His name is Levin Riverden. He’s a swamp witch.”
“Tell me why you fear him.”
“He’s almost killed me twice. He nearly drowned me last year.”
“He was one of your marks?”
I nodded, turning to look out the window. “He didn’t make the right choice. He’d killed someone when he was younger, and the goddess thought he was still redeemable. He spent so much of his life pushing people away, afraid of what his magic could do. And when I approached him, I really thought he could be saved, too.”
“He couldn’t?”
“Sometimes, your heart makes the choice for you, and it doesn’t matter what you say to Future. Levin’s damned. He has no one. And he’s convinced himself that if he kills me, the curse over him will be broken.”
Atlas sat back, gathering the reins in his hands once more. “Sometimes, our brains and our hearts are at war with one another, and no matter how much we wish things could be different, the cards didn’t play in our favor, Marley. If he comes near you, I’ll kill him. But I understand why he failed to change.”
True Sight told me Atlas had become far more nervous as the sleigh powered forward. Maybe he thought he could talk his way out of Future’s damnation. His mind seemed to race beside me as he became more vigilant. Watching for movement as much as I was.
“What do you know of his spells?” he finally asked.
“He can control water. He has incredible strength and—”
In a flash, Atlas went rigid, his eyes glossing over as they glowed from within.
A receiving.
10
The timing could not have been worse. One moment, he was promising he would protect me, and the next, he was trapped in the realm where witches traveled to acquire new spells. We’d have to sit here, completely helpless, until his soul returned to his body. But he would have new magic, and maybe that was something he needed. Strength in power meant strength of the man. Someday, I hoped he’d learn to stop fearing it.
As I sat, waiting for him to return, I wondered if the horses were cold. I considered hopping out to feed them a snack, since we hadn’t let them rest much today, but the second I contemplated leaving the protection of the dome, if I even could, I shied away and sat back down, my fear debilitating.
When the goddess had met me in the receiving realm to introduce me to her Spirits and bless me with the gift of calling them, damning and rescuing witches for the rest of my life, I’d cried inside. I’d wanted something to protect myself so badly, and, instead, I got them. Three Spirits with poor attitudes, questionable humor, and a penchant for judgment.
Minutes seemed to turn into an hour as Atlas remained within the magical realm, and I worried as the storm clouds ahead moved over us, and the snow fell.
“I fucking hate that,” he said at last. “Leaving myself to be murdered by any random passerby because I have no way to defend myself while I get dropped in the middle of a giant puzzle until I can figure it out.”
I forced a smile, unwilling to show my instant relief. “The marking is beautiful, though.”
He looked down to his arm to see three diagonal lines with a half moon over the top of them and two tiny diamonds below. Without a word, Atlas pulled his sleeve down and took the reins.
“It looks like today’s storm will be that blizzard,” I said, to change the conversation.
“Yeah. We’d better feed the horses.”
“And ourselves,” I added when his stomach growled.
