He blinks, frowning down at himself before running his hand through his hair and puts his arm around her shoulders. “I remember all of that. And I remember what happened after.Thank fuck for that.” He presses a kiss to the top of her head, and Reva relaxes against him, passing her arm around his waist.
“Let’s get you back,” Reva says, urging him forward with a little smile over her shoulder at the two of us. “You need to get warmed up.”
Kit staggers forward a couple of steps before coming to a jerky halt. His movements are stilted enough to look like someone’s still holding his strings. But then he peers over his shoulder at the space where he was kneeling.
“I should check the perimeter,” he mutters.
“I think you’ve done enough ‘checking the perimeter’ to last a lifetime,” Reva replies as Aster says something in another language.
“Aster says that he’ll do it,” Reva says. “So you don’t need to.”
“I’ll go with him,” I say. “We can check the perimeter together.”
It’s not like I can detect any wards, and I’m not certain that Aster can do that much either. But I have a feeling that it’s either us or Kit, and he won’t rest until one of us has made the trek around the island.
It earns the two of us a grateful smile as Reva leads Kit off into the darkness, back toward the house. Aster then steps forward to peer at the sand, using his toe to kick at an invisible line.
“You think he remembers?” he asks me. The words are heavily accented and stilted, but I understand immediately what he’s asking.
“You think that he didn’t? That he’s just saying he did?”
Aster shrugs, and I let out a heavy sigh. Yeah, I’m not sure any of us want to know the answer to that. Especially not Reva.
There are already too many secrets going around, but I don’t think that one would hurt any less by staying that way.
The two of us work our way along an invisible line that Aster seems able to see while I bumble along beside him.
“Can you actually see something there? Or tell where the wards end?” I ask.
He shakes his head. “Can’t see anything. Can feel it, though.”
“That’s lucky,” I reply. “Because I’d just be wandering around blindly for a couple of hours, just to appease the two of them.”
He chuckles and gestures back in the direction Kit and Reva headed, giving a little head wobble, likeyou don’t have to stay with me if you don’t want to. You could head back too.
I have no idea how he can express so much without actually saying any words. I should make some notes, considering I’d rather not talk to most people as a rule. There do seem to be a few exceptions, though. Like Reva. And Aster practically turns me into a chatterbox.
I pull my hands from my pockets and dangle the empty sleeves in front of his face. “You really think you can help me with this?” I ask.
It might be dark out, but the moon is out and is bright enough that he can see what I’m talking about. He holds his hand up, making a fist and narrowing his eyes at me until I do the same. Holding up one then two fingers, he twists his wrist to make a thumbs up, inspecting my invisible hand closely. Then he mimes waving it enthusiastically and—
That’s the moment I realise he’s fucking with me.
“Yeah, yeah, very funny,” I growl as he shoots me an amused grin. “Can you help, do you think?”
He gives me a brisk nod. “I’m going to do everything I can.”
Chapter 17
Reva
“And you’re sure Jack wasn’t just messing with you? I haven’t spent much time with him, but he’s got that kind of look about him.” Frannie dips her hand into the ocean shallows, watching as the water drips off her fingertips with the kind of lazy focus that only a whole lot of rum can produce.
“What kind of look?” I ask, taking a deep swig from my mug of rum as I eye the changing sky as dusk falls. All the colours of the day are fading as gold and pink accents streak across the sky.
“Cheeky. Couldn’t care less. Not someone you’d trust to have your back in a fight.”
I know exactly what she means. He wields his careless attitude like a weapon, flipping from expression to expression like they’re masks he slips on just to confuse and disorientate you. But I’m pretty certain he’s sincere about trying to help me with the whole sex magic thing, and that he isn’t just fucking with me.
