“Yay, another plan,” Stevie says, heading to her room to get dressed. “Any more plans and I’m going to have to start writing them down.”
The moment she’s out of earshot, Baz is already at the door, ready to bolt.
I grab his arm, digging in hard. “Whatever you’re thinking, brother, don’t.”
“I can’t let it lie, Kirin.” He turns to face me. “If Janelle hurts Stevie—”
“Listen. I can’t believe I’m about to save your ass on this one, but seriously. Listen to me, Baz. If you go behind Stevie’s back on this,you’llbe the one hurting her. And trust me—that’s not a path you want to start on. Not after everything we promised her.”
His eyes blaze with anger, but my words get through to him.
“No more secrets,” he finally says, the last of his anger fading. “Fuck.”
“No more secrets.”
“You’re right.”
“I know.”
“But Kirin?” He hooks a hand around the back of my neck and leans in close, his voice low and menacing. “Hurt her again, pull that broody disappearing act shit one more time, and no amount of promises will keep me from beatingyourass.”
“Noted.”
He releases me and grabs his phone to call Cass, but before he hits the contact button, he offers a genuine smile. “Hey. Thanks for that.”
“For letting you threaten me?” I roll my eyes. “Sure, anytime, always a pleasure.”
“For stopping me from screwing up. You really did save my ass.”
“Don’t mention it.”
“You always were the brains of the operation.”
“Don’t pout, brother. You got the abs.” I smack him in the gut and then turn away, listening to the sounds of Stevie singing in her bedroom as she gets dressed, wondering if there will ever be a time when I stop thinking with my head and just follow my fucking heart.
Twenty-Four
STEVIE
With precious little time to lose to bullshit spy games, Kirin and I leave Baz to deal with my suite and head to the library, ready to hit the books—now with the added fun of our new head librarian, a woman who’s not only trying to spy on me, but possibly looking for the Arcana treasures, too.
And let’s not forget her territorial issues with Baz.
Or the fact that I’m probably her daughter’sleastfavorite witch on campus.
I let out a sigh as we exit the Iron and Bone dorm, wishing Icould’vestayed in the shower with Baz today. That we could’ve forgotten about everything outside this door trying to kill us—even just for one more day.
But the Arcanapocalypse waits for no one.
“Kirin,” I say, as a new thought strikes, “what if Janelle is working with Phaines? What if that’s why she tried to set up that rune?”
“We can’t rule it out. But we can’t jump to that conclusion, either. Her rune work really was quite amateur—way beneath Phaines’s league, especially now that he’s operating with the Dark Arcana. He wouldn’t risk his position by employing someone as careless as Janelle. Besides, he already got what he wanted from the library itself—the books.”
“But unless he’s figured out a way around the spells, he still needs my magick to read them. What if he sent her here to get to me?”
“We’re not going to let that happen.”
“Kirin, no offense, but you’re being a little naive. I know you guys don’t want to let it happen, but she already got to my room.Thatshouldn’t have happened either, but it did.”
