I stopped, horrified at what I'd just revealed.
"Book?" His voice was carefully neutral. "What book?"
There was no taking it back now. Wringing my hands together, I confessed, "Marcus's book. The spell book he's been looking for. It came to me three nights ago. Literally just fell into my lap. Some kind of family protection magic had kept it hidden until someone down the line needed it most." I laughed bitterly. "Except I can't read it. Not properly. The text swims and shifts, and I only catch fragments. There's nothing useful. Nothing complete."
"Have you told your coven?"
I shook my head. "No."
"Why not?"
"Because I'm a coward, and I know Judy will take it away, lock it up, and let Alex die rather than risk using djinn magic to save him." My voice broke. "And because part of me is terrified that if I can fully read it, it means I'm more djinn than witch. That I'm exactly what everyone fears."
Dae's thumb traced circles against the pulse point on my wrist, the sensation oddly intimate.
"Hey," he said softly. "You're not something to be afraid of. You're Alice Moss. The woman who wears rainbow colors and brings cookies to coven meetings. What's scary about that?"
I laughed weakly, the sound catching on the lump in my throat. "How did you know about the cookies?"
He smiled. "Lucky guess."
We stood like that, with him holding my hands and rubbing my pulse points, for a long time. "I don't know what to do," I admitted, but I wasn't sure if I was talking about the book, or about him.
"You don't have to make that decision tonight." His dark eyes searched mine, and I felt exposed, transparent beneath his gaze.
He lifted my wrist and pressed his lips against my racing pulse. The touch was feather-light, but it sparked something deep inside me, something that made my breath catch.
"Sleep well, yeobo," he murmured, releasing my hand reluctantly.
I stepped back through the wards, the magic parting around me like a curtain. By the time I looked back, Dae was out of sight, leaving only the memory of his touch against my skin as I walked home alone.
I didn't look back, but I could swear I felt Dae's gaze following me until I turned the corner.
But maybe it was just wishful thinking.
My apartment welcomed me with familiar silence. I locked the door, kicked off my dress, and climbed back into bed.
But sleep still wouldn't come.
Instead, I stared at the ceiling fan and counted rotations. Fifteen. Thirty-four. Fifty-three.
And somewhere between sixty and seventy, I pressed my fingers to my lips and wondered what it would have felt like to kiss him for real.
I wondered if I was strong enough to find out.
Chapter 18
Elias
I woke at sunset, my body instantly alert the way it always had been since turning. The death-like sleep of day shifting in a heartbeat to full consciousness. Reaching across the bed, I found empty sheets, still warm from Talin's body. I listened in the quiet apartment and heard the soft scratch of pencil against paper coming from the living room.
I pulled on my jeans, used the bathroom and brushed my teeth, and then padded barefoot across the old floors. Talin sat cross-legged on the couch, hunched over the coffee table. Her long black hair fell in a curtain around her face as she sketched furiously, completely absorbed in her work. She hadn't bothered dressing and was still wearing only the oversized t-shirt I'd given her last night after her threadwalking nearly killed her.
Pencils, markers, and crumpled paper surrounded her in a messy pile that would normally set my teeth on edge. But seeing her there, alive and focused after what she'd been through, I couldn't bring myself to care that much about it.
"How long have you been up?" I asked, my voice still rough with sleep.
She startled, glancing up with those striking green eyes that never stopped catching me off balance. "Um. About an hour."
