“You obviously know what you’re talking about,” Morgan probed. “Why are you working for someone like him?”
“I just told you my last name,” Renata said. “I get to make the decisions at this firm, which is more than I can say for most of the white boys’ clubs. I’ll never make partner, true, but title’s less important than money and autonomy. Which are you more interested in, ego or power?”
“But why do you need him at all, then?” she asked.
“Why do I need the ultimate in long-term stability? Ravenfell is, very quietly, the most successful venture capital firm in the world, partially because they can literally waitforever for an investment to pay off. My wife and I have kids, and private school isn’t cheap.” Renata snorted. “You’re right at the beginning of your career. Let me know when your job disappears in two years because you’ve gotten laid off or acquired.”
“So now what?” Luke asked.
“You’ll get a call from our lawyers tomorrow,” Renata said. “And your boss will, as well. Your mortal boss. We have paperwork for both your bosses to sign.”
Brad stuck his head back in the room. “Vesper and I are going for drinks. Would you care to join us?” He caught Luke’s eye. “You, too.”
Morgan had most definitively not been invited. She was pretty sure everyone in the room knew why. She tried not to feel humiliated and failed.
Luke glanced at Morgan helplessly. Brad raised his eyebrows. Luke turned to Renata, his motion oddly mechanical. “Pleasure doing business with you.”
Renata smiled, her teeth mortal but no less sharp. “Pleasure will be all mine.”
20
Luke returned late that night, bleary-eyed, and fell into Morgan’s arms.
“That bad?”
He nodded, unable to speak.
“You couldn’t mind-whammy them into sending you home?” she joked.
“Brad was cunning enough to ban me interfering with him right from the get-go,” Luke said, rubbing his face. He was trembling a little. “The other two are immune somehow. Felt like a counterspell.”
If you were an immortal business firm deeply aware of magical possibilities, it made sense to hire a mage to protect your employees from magical manipulation.
“Did they hurt you?” A worse thought occurred to her. “If they hurt you, would you even be able to tell me?”
“Not if they told me not to,” he said into her shoulder. When she tensed, he looked up. “They caused me no physical harm.”
That wasn’t an answer, but she couldn’t think of how to press without hurting him more. She soothed him instead with her hands, trying to erase a hundred small indignities. Eventually, they slept.
The next few days felt like a reprieve, or at least a temporary lull. She tried to savor each moment as they built a comforting little routine in the margins. They wove around each other, preparing for each workday, smiling over Gisele’s bleary-eyed incoherence as their roommate took longer to stumble into wakefulness. They rarely got seats on the subway, but that only meant that she had the excuse to lean into him every time the train went around a bend, Rix crouched illegally between them. They were careful to separate before they got off, taking turns at who arrived at the office first. She’d spend the day occasionally contriving to brush her hand against his, still in disbelief that anyone so gorgeous and magical want to touch her, the illicitness of the contact only adding to the thrill. She wasn’t stupid enough to do more. If forced to choose, Brad would keep Luke over her without even thinking about it.
But she got a blissful lazy weekend with him, strolling hand-in-hand along the High Line and dodging fake monks scamming tourists. Picnicking in the shadow of the Cloisters’ medieval castle while Gisele taught Rix how to fetch a Zabloom-branded frisbee. Letting him draw lazy patterns on her sweat-slicked skin as he marveled at the tiny hairs along the nape of her neck.
If only it weren’t temporary.
If Lucareoth had been human, or at least native to her plane, she wouldn’t have been thinking about the long term yet. But the knowledge that he (and Rix) could be discovered at any moment kept her awake at night even after Luke had drifted off. She wasn’t ready to declare she wanted forever yet, but she wanted to be the one to make that decision. Or rather, she or Luke. Not the Shadow Council. Not House Berith. Certainly not her mother.
Occasionally, when she had the flash of wanting him to stay, he’d glance at her, stricken, but look away as soon as she opened her mouth. Talking about it made it too real. He flinched even more from Brad’s messages, and she wondered again what had happened that night with Ravenfell. He’d find a way to tell her when he was ready. It was too soon to press.
Sleeping, he looked so peaceful in the early morning light, glittering scales against her mattress. Although, as she watched, his brow furrowed. He twitched, lost in a dream. An unpleasant dream. The muscles in his shoulders bunched and under the covers, his tail slipped away from her thigh to press itself between his legs. He whimpered.
“Lucareoth?” She touched his cheek gently. “It’s just a dream. Wake up.”
He came away with a gasp, scrambling away only to fall out of the bed.
“Are you OK?” She lunged over to find him lying on his back, a little stunned.
“Yeah,” he said after a pause. He took a deep breath. “Yeah.”
