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What the hell had she ever done to deserve the good-bye I’d given her lastnight?
Nothing. Nothing at all except being what I hadn’t thought I could everhave.
My throat tightened. “I need to take a piss,” I said. “Maybe I should top up that flask ofyours.”
George guffawed. Brad huffed and grabbed the flask from him. “Maybe I should stop sharing my booze with you,asshole.”
“That’s okay.Ican afford to buy my own.” The cheap shit, anyway, but at least enough not to mix it in awfulcombinations.
I headed down the street to the one bar in town that opened right at noon. When I pushed past the door, the bartender was just wiping down the counter. “Give me a minute,” shesaid.
I nodded. “That’s fine. I need oneanyway.”
I ducked into the bathroom and closed the door to one of the stalls. As I sat down on the closed toilet, I pulled out my phone. This wasn’t a good setting for this. This wasn’t a good setting for anything. The floor stunk like puke and spilled urine no quick cleaning could completelyerase.
Or maybe that was completely fitting for how I was feeling rightnow.
I brought up Rose’s number. Stared at it for a while with my arms braced against my knees. It shouldn’t be this hard. Justsaysomething.
This was what a tough guy I was. Couldn’t even find the courage to reach out to the girl who’d given me a tour ofheaven.
Her face, the expression on it when I’d told her to leave, flashed through my mind. My fingers tightened around the phone. Did she even care—did it even matter toher—?
I forced myself to take a long, slow breath of the bathroom air. She’d come to me. She’d pickedme. Hell, she’d even kissed me before she’d left, despite how much of a bastard I wasbeing.
I could blame a lot of people for a lot of things, but the only one I could blame if I shut Rose out was me. She couldn’t have been more clear that she was willing to take me however I decided to presentmyself.
The words still didn’t come to me, but I moved my thumbs over the keypad anyway. Pressing the symbols to form a heart. <3 I hit send and leaned back against the tank, feeling as wrung out as if I’d just scaled MountEverest.
I went back into the bar before the bartender could start wondering if I’d drowned in the toilet, and ordered a drink. I was halfway through the beer when my text alert went off. My pulse skipped a beat as I reached to check myphone.
Rose’s response was as brief as my offering had been, but it was all I needed: a matching heart, offered back tome.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Rose
Is she gone yet?” Philomena whispered, craning her neck toward thewindow.
I cocked my head. The rumble of the chauffeured car’s engine was just fading into the distance. My heart started to thump. “I think so.” I paused. “And I think I’d better do thisalone.”
The only good thing that had happened in the manor since—well, since Kyler had climbed through my window that first night—was that my stepmother had a work appointment this afternoon. Celestine would be gone for at least three hours. With Meredith fired and only the weekend staff around, there was no one left to notice if I made use of the fading but still heady flame of myspark.
With my spark not properly kindled, its heat had been diminishing from the moment I’d left Damon’s apartment. I had to do this soon, or I’d lose my chance. And I’d have to be very careful how I expended the energy I hadleft.
I padded past the common magicking room to the private one for the lady of the house’s sole use. The power inside me picked up the quiver of a spell laid across thedoor.
Celestine hadn’t wanted to take any chances of anyone breaking in. This was the only point of access to the windowless room. But she hadn’t counted on anyone trying to enter who could draw on magic anywhere close tohers.
I turned my body slowly and deliberately, sliding my hands down through the air. Picturing a wall around this end of the hall that would encourage anyone who came this way to change direction. No interruptions,please.
My spark wavered and dipped a little lower. My chest tightened. The magic wouldn’t slip through my fingers anywhere near this quickly after I was consorted. If I was consorted intime.
I put that thought out of my head. The spell on the magicking room door was a more difficult problem. I didn’t want toremoveit, because I couldn’t perfectly replicate it for when Celestine returned. So I needed to convince it to let me somehow… slipthrough.
Her magic was focused around the lock midway up the completely smooth surface. Where a knob would have been if non-witching folk had been meant to ever open this door. I held my hands over that spot and curled my fingers toward the lock, testing the pulse of the spell’s warmth against myskin.
Come with me, I thought at it.Just ease a little over to theside…
