The customer, who cannot see Dark and has therefore not registered any of this, continues to explain his feelings about menu boards. Bunny turns back to him with his full attention, smiling, patient, completely unbothered. He makes an oat milk latte. He charms the man into a grudging civility by the time the transaction is over. The man leaves looking slightly better than he came in, which is peak Bunny and frankly a miracle.
Bunny glances over at the corner. “Well done,” he says, approvingly.
Dark looks at him with those fathomless amber eyes. There’s something in them I don’t think Dark would want me to see, something that has nothing to do with guard duty or tactical positioning or any of the official reasons he’s here. Something that is entirely about the person in the pink bunny ears who just pointed at an ancient shadow being and told him to stay and then thanked him for doing it.
Then, very slowly, with the dignity of someone making a considered decision, he nods.
I put down my cloth. I look at the ceiling. I think about everything and nothing and the specific quality of being someone that nobody has ever looked at like that, and the specific further quality of suspecting, in some basement level of myself I haven’t examined recently, that someone might be starting to, a bit, and not knowing what to do with that information.
Someone who is currently upstairs in a summoning circle, watching television, who backed me up in front of Hex and Adam without being asked. Who tucked a blanket around me. Who placed himself in the palm of my hand when he was sad. Who said it is worth more than you know in a voice that I have been trying not to think about ever since.
Someone who wanted to stay trapped in my circle. Possibly because they need my protection and are far too proud to admit it. Possibly because of other reasons.
I sigh heavily and pinch the bridge of my nose.
I have enough problems. So many problems. I really don’t need to be adding to them. What I need is to ignore whatever it is I’m witnessing between Dark and Bunny. And to ignore any complicated feelings about Dis.
The day passes as days at work often do. Slow. Dull. The routine of it all grinding on my soul.
We reach the post-lunch lull. Bunny is chatting away to Mrs Edwards. Dark is in his corner. Everything is fine and under control.
I’m going to go upstairs to check on Dis, which is entirely routine and not at all pointed, and I’m not at all thinking about the way Dark has been looking at Bunny, and I’m absolutely not still wondering how that kind of attention would feel if it were directed at you.
I’m simply going to check on my captive.
Chapter 23
Sparks Fly
I’mstandinginmyliving room, staring at Dis in a way that I suspect is far too similar to the way that, downstairs, right now, Dark is staring at Bunny.
Dis stood up and turned to face me when I walked in. But he didn’t turn the TV off, and now The Golden Girls are playing behind him, the shifting lights of the screen turning him into a stark silhouette.
His eyes are gleaming. Two bright sparks of cerulean light amongst the obsidian shadows of his form.
His expression is not entirely unlike the way Dark was watching Bunny. It feels like a close mirror of my own stare. As if a feedback loop is zinging between our locked gazes.
And just like that, everything I was wistfully longing for downstairs, doesn’t seem so unobtainable. It feels as if it might not be very far away after all. Perhaps close enough to feel its breath on the back of my neck.
I swallow. The gravity in here feels all wrong. Far too heavy. But I’m pretty sure it isn’t Dis doing it.
Sod the coffee shop. Bunny can handle it. I don’t want to go back downstairs. I want to be here.
“Are you hungry?” I say and it comes out hoarse.
Sapphire eyes flare. “For you, Little Witch?”
I nod shakily.
His eyes glow even brighter. “Always.”
I’m moving. Feet stumbling over the floorboards. Drawn towards him. As if he is the centre of all gravity. The flame to my moth.
My hands yank at my clothes as I go. Tearing, pulling, discarding. I like my clothes, and it’s turning out to be a slow, expensive and laborious task to restock my wardrobe after the fire. But right now my outfit is just cloth that’s in the way.
I’m naked by the time I reach the circle. I step into it without hesitation. No pause, no lingering. As if my body no longer has any doubts.
Dis swirls around me. As is his habit. The cold, mist-like touch of him enveloping me, makes me shiver and causes my nipples to pebble. I love this feeling, of him being everywhere, touching all of me all at once. It’s addictive.
