AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I drew in a deep breath before shoving his hands off me. “You could havewarnedme.”
“When people tense, it’s worse.”
“It’s always about not telling me stuff with you. Haven’t you learned that isn’t a good idea?” I forced myself upright, ignoring the swirling in my stomach that said I’d nearly left my breakfast there on the threshold.
When I peered around, however, it became even clearer that I wasn’t where I had been.
I stood in a room so large that it could never have fit inside the building on the street. It reminded me of a mall, with a central space, doorways along the sides and people walking everywhere.
A few looked our way, but most kept moving as if people appearing happened all the time.
Which I guess it probably did…
I pulled the leather jacket around me, straightening it, trying to make myself look more put together, as if they hadn’t all just watched me almost throw up from one little portal.
“You good?” Grant asked.
I nodded after taking one big breath to settle my stomach. “Yeah. Let’s do this.”
“Good girl,” he whispered before gesturing forward.
“I would have thought, from what you said, that everyone would be staring at you like some celebrity.”
He chuckled, but I noticed that no matter how relaxed he appeared at first glance, his gaze held a wealth of tension. “We’re on the first level, which is open to anyone with magic, even the humans who haven’t gone through the rituals yet and their close family. Basically? This is the least restrictive area. You’ve got your weaker mages, your mortals, even a few non-magical people who are part of our world. They don’t know much down here.” He nodded at a series of doorways toward the end. “That’s the pathway to the upper levels, and as we go through them, more people will recognize us both.”
“It’s nice to see you here,” came a female’s voice that said it wasnotnice to see him.
A woman stood there, dressed in a pair of black slacks and a white button-up shirt that made her look sleek and professional. Her blonde hair was pulled back into a neat bun and her lips were painted bright red.
“Maya,” Grant said, his tone friendly on the surface, but with warning beneath that.
“I wasn’t expecting you today,” Maya said. Her gaze moved over to me. “And I certainly wasn’t expectingher.”
Grant shrugged. “You know me—I like to do the unexpected.”
“You’re here for the council meeting?”
“Is there a problem with that?”
Maya looked as if she wanted to say there was, but shut her mouth before any actual complaint escaped.
Grant didn’t seem the least bit worried about Maya.
He was on guard, with an edge to his words and a caution to his gaze others might not notice, but he wasn’tafraidof her.
Was that because he knew he was safe or because he knew he wasn’t? Funny that the two could be so different but end up at the same place.
“This way.” She held out a hand.
“I can find my own way.” Grant didn’t move, his refusal clear.
“I am sure you can,” she answered, “but if anything happened to the Magistrate under my care, it would fall on me.”
Well, that made sense—
Her words hit me, and I turned a surprised look on Grant. Maybe I was supposed to play things close to the chest, to pretend that I knew everything, that he and I were on the same page for all topics of conversation. Too bad my poker face sucked. Or at least, I assumed it did. I hadn’t ever played.
Maya let out a soft laugh. “You left that out, did you?”
