So she remained locked in her one-sided fight not to flinch at each uniform that walked by. She was already sweating from the oppressive heat, and every cop who glanced in her direction sent another trickle of salt down her spine.
“I don’t have the rune right now, but we could go back to Sunspot and get an invisibility spell,” she said. She’d imagined Silas had a plan when he suggested they come here, but considering they’d been sitting in silence for the last fifteen minutes, it seemed his brain was about as empty as she should’ve guessed it’d be. “We could do it, rush in, and then—”
“No,” Silas interrupted.
Katherine bristled. “Well, do you have a better idea?”
“Yep.” Silas stood. “We’re going to walk in.”
Silas started to strut toward the door. Katherine rushed after him.
“That’s your plan? Go to the front desk and ask nicely?”
“That’s what I was thinking.”
Katherine grabbed his arm, stopping him. “You can’t be serious. You’re pretty, but you’re not give-away-evidence-for-free pretty.”
Silas’ face split into a wide smile. “You think I’m pretty?”
Despite all efforts to the contrary, Katherine’s cheeks flushed. “I think you think you’re pretty.”
Silas winked at her. “You’re right on that front.” He pulled away, walking toward the door again. “I also happen to be, as you have clearly refrained from pointing out on several occasions, a spoiled rich boy. Why don’t we see if we can get in the old-fashioned way?”
“We’re not going to—” Katherine started, but Silas was already through the door. She cursed his hefty trust fund under her breath as she followed him in.
Silas was leaning against the front desk when she entered, and the sixtysomething receptionist was in the midst of being hit with the signature Silas Khatri charm.
“—Fancy jewelry doesn’t do it for her. She couldn’t care less about a Michelin-starred restaurant. She is so damn down-to-earth. Which is why I like her, obviously. But it does make her quite hard to impress.”
“Ugh, that is so hard,” the receptionist said, genuinely meaning it. It was Silas’ innocent face that did it—it was impossible for him to look like a dick. Even when he was very much being a dick.
“Oh look, here she is.” Silas gestured to Katherine, who tried (and failed) to keep her face from scowling as she stalked toward the desk. As soon as she was within reach, Silas wrapped his arm around her waist, pulling her tight to his side. His body was warm and solid against her. She tried (and failed) not to admit that it felt good.
“Hi,” Katherine said. She meant to sound friendly, but it came out more as a grunt.
Silas cleared his throat, covering a laugh. “Isn’t she a peach?”
The receptionist—Joan, according to the nameplate on her desk—gave Katherine a once-over, the confusion about howthatended up withthisvery evident. “Uh, delightful,” she said. “So, how can I help you?”
“Well, Kat here”—Katherine stomped on Silas’ foot at the nickname,but he didn’t react—“is a true-crime fanatic. She was telling me how cool it would be to tour a real-life police station, and I thought, maybe I can make that dream come true for her. Since she’s such a dream come true for me.”
Gag.
Joan, though, practically swooned. “Oh, you are so sweet! But it’s such a busy day today, with everything going on. I’m not sure I’d be able to—”
Silas reached his hand out across the desk, and Joan slipped her hand into his. She looked like she was going to faint. “Please,” Silas interrupted. “It would mean so much to me.”
Joan paused for a moment, then smiled. “Why don’t you two lovebirds sit down for a minute and I’ll poke about to see if anyone has any free time to walk you around?”
Silas gave her hand a light squeeze. “Thank you so much, Joan.”
He let go as Joan Road Runner shot out of her seat to find someone for their tour.
“You are—” Katherine started, but the words dried up in her throat when Silas turned to her. There was a small swirl in the center of his pupils, and when she looked down, she saw him wiping the blood onto his black pants.
Compulsion. A very light version of it—just enough to make an ordinary do something that they were almost willing to do anyway—but it didn’t matter. That was a massively powerful Class 5 spell, and he’d carried it out without so much as a flinch.
He was a spoiled rich boy, but he was also an exceptionally talented witch. Katherine’s one attempt at compulsion had been a spectacular failure, her efforts to get an ordinary to order a ham sandwich instead of turkey winding up with the ordinary storming out, ranting against the very concept of sandwiches in general. After that, she’d been reluctant to try again—resources were limited, especially for high-powered spells, and she didn’t want to waste a cast when she had no chance of succeeding.
