Page 68 of An Oath at Midnight

“Are you going to let me go on patrol with you?”

“Maybe,” she muttered.

“I met the mother in Oldwood Forest on my own. You think I managed that without spilling some demon blood?” I said, feeling frustrated all over again.

“Well, that was a fucking foolish thing to do, feisty,” she said, her tawny eyes slicing my way.

“I didn’t exactly have much choice. Bram was gone and…” A wave of pain rolled through me.

“I assumed he’d been with you. You didn’t think to call me?”

I glanced at her. “I didn’t want anyone knowing. You and Iris are besties. I couldn’t trust you’d keep it to yourself. My family would’ve freaked out if I told them. You know how protective my sisters are, and if they knew, they would’ve tried to get around the rules to help me. I couldn’t let that happen. And even if they didn’t, what was the point of them sitting around all night worried out of their minds?”

She scowled. “You couldn’t trust me? Are you fucking serious?”

Asher was pissed, for real, and I kind of felt like an asshole. “Would you have told Iris?”

Her jaw tightened. “Maybe.”

“Exactly. Can we just drop it now?”

“Fine, but if you need to do something else like that, something on your own, at least let me know where you are.”

I glanced her way again. “You are literally here with me now. And are you seriously telling me you let Draven know where you are at all times?”

“If I’m doing something that could get me killed, you fucking bet I do.” Her eyes narrowed. “And FYI, you do anything else that dumb, I’ll kick your ass.”

I bumped her with my elbow, trying to lighten the mood. “You could try.”

Asher scoffed. “You took me down once. I was having a bad day.”

I’d taken her down more than once, but keeping her down was another story. I wasn’t even close to her level. I wasn’t sure it was possible. “Nice rewriting of history you did there.”

She bumped me back. “Shut up.”

We stopped in front of Nathan Trotman’s office.

“So what’s this guy like? Does he have a stick up his ass, or what?” Ash asked.

I knocked. “Nah, he’s actually a good male.”

“Come in,” Trotman called.

I opened the door, and we strode in. Trotman was about Mom’s age. He had dark brown skin and kind eyes, and always wore nice suits. He took us in, and sat back. “Magnolia.” He looked around. “I’m not sure you should be here.”

“Why? Am I a suspect as well?”

He straightened his glasses. “Of course not, but if people see you here with me, it’ll make it harder to help your sister.”

“And you want to help her?”

He held my gaze. “I’m a friend of your family.” He pointed to the door, to the offices beyond it. “And they know it. I’m already being left out of important discussions where this case is concerned.”

Shit. “Look, I just want to know who else the council’s looking at. Who are your other suspects?”

He looked pained. “There are no other suspects, Magnolia, and things aren’t looking good for Willow. She had a public altercation with Calvin Adler, and now he’s been found brutally murdered, and that’s on top of all the other evidence we found at The Caldron when we found Katana’s body.” He glanced at the door behind us, then back again. “There’s also the way the victims’ mouths were all sewn shut…they’re saying it’s her calling card.”

Fuck.