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A short, tense nod.
“They took me as a baby. I don’t have much to go on.”
“That sucks. Alys could help you. She’s a whiz at science, mostly biology, although she likes to make things goboom. Or you could come by the shop where I work, see if any of the books speak to you.”
“The pages literally speak aloud?”
“More like float toward you or follow you around. We have a strictno opening unknown bookspolicy since some will eat you or transport you, but most play nice, and we know the ones that don’t.”
“Wow.” She had imagined several things since Alys mentioned earlier tonight that Nita worked at a magical bookstore, but hearing about it? Beyond anything her mind had conjured. “I would really like that.” If her brother ever let her leave the penthouse again now that she’d snuck out. He’d left the hotel in a hurry, pulling Mina along behind him. She had started to follow when Alexei asked her to go with Nita. Now, she wanted to stay with the woman for hours if it meant she could hang out in a shop where books came alive.
Except Josh headed their way looking angrier than she’d seen him before. “Let’s go,” he said.
Joelle didn’t budge. “Where?”
He didn’t answer her, instead swearing and saying, “I should’ve known I couldn’t trust Maronov.”
Her mind hung on the name he’d said for a moment until she remembered it was Alexei’s last name. She’d only heard it a couple of times before. “I’m fine. He sent me out with Nita.”
“She can’t protect you.” Her brother reached for her arm, but the slim-built demon hybrid stepped in front of her, seeming undaunted by Josh’s muscles.
“Don’t touch her without her permission.” Nita’s voice went cold. “She said she was fine which wasn’t an invitation to haul her back to being locked away.”
“The Order’s here.” Josh towered over the woman. “You know what that means.”
“Better than you, asshat.” The twitch in Nita’s fingers stopped, and she slipped her hand toward the gun at her waist. “If you’re done playing monster hunter for the Order and getting us killed one by one, how about you run along and protect your witch?” Her quiet, calm tone came across even more menacing than a shout. “Joelle’s safe. We have a car ready to take her out of here the second she says go.”
“We?” Josh asked.
“Look past that ego of yours,” Nita said. “A half dozen armed guards watch over her. I’m not the only one out here who has sworn fealty to the Maronov crown. We would protect her with our lives, the same as our prince.”
“Why?” Her brother sounded menacing.
Stepping to the side so she could see both their faces, Joelle asked her, “Yes, why? You barely know me, and I haven’t met anyone other than you and Alys.”
“Because Alexei said so.” Nita didn’t seem inclined to offer more than that cryptic explanation. No, she just glared in silence, as though waiting for an opening to go after Josh.
Joelle couldn’t take it anymore. “Did something happen between you two?” Something awful and ugly?
Nita didn’t take her eyes off him when she answered. “He marked my cousin for death, for the Order to execute.”
Oh no. “They used the threat of hurting me more to force him to mark targets,” she admitted. “It’smyfault.”
“No.” Josh and Nita spoke the sharp denial at the same time. They both stared at her.
She struggled against the need to fidget under their fierce scrutiny. The blasting techno music faded for mic checks from the impromptu stage, and the excited chatter around them seemed hushed given how loud the bass had been.
“What’s going on here?” Alexei’s voice called out. “You,” he said to her brother. “Why aren’t you with your woman? The one you protected first, who you rushed out of the building before thinking of your sister.” Joelle wanted to explain, to make excuses for her brother. But she didn’t get the chance. “She’s your mate so it’s understandable,” he told Josh. “You defend her first as you must. It’s instinct. She’s your priority as Joelle was mine.”
Her heart hammered so fast she worried she might have to heal herself. She pulled his jacket tighter to her to hide her flush and—gods forbid—any chance that her magic might flare to flash symbols like a neon sign.What had he meant by that?Was she reading something into his concern? Did this tie into what Nita had been talking about with assuming she and Alexei had a relationship? Because he hadn’t said anything to her about being fated mates.
Screams tore through the night, louder than the ringing in her ears, the rolling surf below, and the traffic noises from nearby streets. Several onlookers looked around as if searching for the source. Others ducked and took cover, and some rushed toward the concrete barriers that surrounded the location. From the roof of the hotel they’d evacuated, flames licked upward toward the sky in a small, isolated fire.
Joelle’s adrenaline spiked in jagged bolts, making her want to flee, to fight, to unfurl wings like Alexei’s and fly away. She shuddered, processing the shrill shrieks of pain. She’d heard those before when Noxx punished witches she’d captured in her favorite method of torture for them—burning. “Noxx.” Her voice came out small, scared.
“Has to be her,” Josh said. “Come on.”
“No.” She stepped toward Alexei. “Go. She burns…them.” The crowd had gone too silent, the quiet a heavy weight around them as though waiting for the next horror, for her to say the wordwitches. “Get yours and her family out of here.”
