Page 19 of Mage Massacres

I nodded slowly. “I can help you. But I need to know how serious he is about his threats. What does he want?”

“I won’t know what he wants until I meet with him. I don’t know how serious he is about his threats, but I do know that he had a few men beat the shit out of Murphy a couple of weeks ago. His ribs are still a little bruised. I haven’t found a potion to speed his healing or fix whatever happened. It's odd. Mages don’t heal as quickly as vampires or shifters. We do heal quicker than humans, though.”

“We’ll get Murphy taken care of,” I assured her. “And we’re going to take care of Felix, too. I dealt with Briggs’ exes for a whole fucking week, so I think I can handle one of yours.”

“I don’t know what you can do about him. We were toxic, but—”

I softened my tone, feeling the sullen expression return. “Do you have feelings for him?”

“I thought I did.” She glanced down, kicking her foot the same way Palmer did when he didn’t want to talk about certain subjects.

“Is he your mate?”

“Gods, no.”

I shrugged. “Then I’ll go with you to meet him.”

“He’ll kill us both if you show up with me.”

“He can try.” A smile stretched across my face for the first time in what felt like forever. “Though I can say with absolute confidence that he’ll find it a difficult task to accomplish.”

“Isn’t there another way? I don’t think fighting in a public place is smart.”

I sobered to answer her. “There are several ways to handle it, but we’ll play it by ear. Unless you have a reason for me to leave him alive, I’m going to kill him, Miller. He threatened my mate, your family.

“I only have a few buttons that can genuinely push me over the edge, and Palmer is one of them. I’m not really a monster, but I’m definitely no angel. I don’t mind being the bad guy to eliminate a threat that hovers over what’s mine. In this case, Palmer isn’t my property, but he is one of my mates.

“I do not take kindly to Felix bullying anyone I hold dear. I don’t like giving anyone the option to hold power over me unless it’s earned. And by that, I mean trust. It sounded like that wasn’t the first time he’s tried to intimidate you by using your family, so it’s time to take him off your board.”

She furrowed her brows. “My board?”

“Think of life like chess. You’re the queen on your board, but you’re the pawn on everyone else’s board. Lilith taught me to always start the game knowing that a pawn can be queened. With that in mind, no one runs my board except for me, though I’ll gladly take over and ruin another’s game.”

I heard footsteps heading in our direction, so I leaned closer to whisper, “You aren’t ever just a pawn, Miller. You’re the fucking queen, patiently waiting to make your move.”

Palmer and another male entered the hallway from behind Miller. His auburn hair was lighter than my mage, but their cheekbones and skin tone were the same. The Lynch siblings wouldn’t be able to hide their relation to one another.

“Why are the two of you standing in the hall?” I would assume it was safe to say that this was Murphy.

“None of your business, Murph,” Miller snapped.

“Who’s that?” he questioned, hooking his thumb in my direction.

“I’m Santa Claus. I was just asking Miller what she wanted for Christmas.”

My mage snorted. “York sent me to get you. He said yer hot chocolate is cold. Ye’ve been in that office for hours, Love.”

“I didn’t realize so much time had passed,” I confessed as we began walking through the house.

“Franklin has come and gone. Briggs is cooking. Murph helped me spell the doorways.” Palmer shook his head. “Stone found something that matches up with the handwriting in that journal he found when we were in the Underworld.”

“Oh?” I inquired, hoping he would elaborate.

Palmer shrugged. “I wasn’t in the living room, so he can tell you about it. I’m just sayin’ a lot has happened while you’ve been in that room.”

“I found some things too,” I told him. “I want to talk to you guys about them, but I’ll wait until after you eat.”

“Uhg. I can’t eat right now,” Miller murmured.