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I really, really should have kept my big mouth shut. “Because either she’s afraid and wants to make sure I’m good enough to keep her safe, or…” I trailed off. I didn’t want to admit the other option.
“Or?”
I wasn’t going to be able to come up with a convincing comforting lie fast enough.Fuck. “Or she’s in on it, and this is a way of toying with me.”
Taavi turned slightly grey.
I pulled him closer, pressing my cheek to the top of his head. “She seemed genuinely concerned about the pendant, so I don’t think it’s that last one.” I was trying to reassure him, yes, but I was also telling him the truth. Speculation might come naturally to me, but even though it waspossiblethat Izar was toying with me, I honestly didn’t think that was the most likely possibility. “Also,” I went on, “she’d have to be really dumb to then tell me—” I cut myself off. Taavi was already freaked out enough without me adding the whole pendant-sucks-out-your-soul shit to it.
“Tell you what?”
“Don’t worry about it.” God, I’m so lame. I knew he wasn’t going to let it slide, so I tried to buy myself time to think of something.
“Tell youwhat, Val?”
Nope. Still couldn’t think of a reasonable lie. It probably wasn’t a great sign that I kept trying to come up with lies to tell my boyfriend, but I also wasn’t able to come up with said lies, so I hadn’t actually lied to him. I really needed to stop being such an asshole, at least around Taavi.
I gave up trying to find an alternative answer. “It can be used to steal a spirit’s energy and give it to the user,” I mumbled, as though by failing to enunciate, I would somehow make what I was saying more palatable, which, of course, I couldn’t.
Taavi turned to look at me, his expression horrified. “It doeswhat?”
“And this is why I fucking hate magic,” I muttered.
I felt Taavi shudder a little against me. “Dios.”
I knew what that one meant, and I drew him a little closer, taking the folder from him and putting it on the coffee table. I wanted to tell him it would be okay, that we would catch the Culhua, that we would make them pay for what they’d done. That he would be safe.
But I couldn’t actually bring myself to lie to him, and I didn’t know if it would be okay. I didn’t know if I could keep him safe, even if I was willing to do absolutely anything to make sure he came to no harm.
Instead, I drew him tighter against me, wrapping my arms around him and pulling him onto my lap.
“Val?”
“Yeah?”
“Be careful,” he breathed, and I felt my heart stutter. Here I was worried abouthim, and the first thing he says to me after I tell him about a crazy fucking pendant that sucks out souls is thatIshould be careful.
I squeezed him, and he put his hand over mine on his stomach. “I’ll try,” I promised.
“No riots, okay?”
I snorted softly. “Definitely going to do my best to avoid them,” I replied. “Should be easy enough, since now I don’t have to go to them for work.”
Taavi snuggled back against me. “Good.”
I kissed the top of his head. “So it’s definitely Aztec, right?”
He huffed. “Yes, Val. It’s definitely Aztec.”
“Just making sure.”
He sighed. “There’s no guarantee that this is tied to the Culhua,” he said softly. “It could be a coincidence…” His tone of voice belied the fact that he didn’t think that was actually true.
“That’s an awful big coincidence,” I pointed out. “Probably too big.”
Taavi sighed, running his fingers over my arm. “I know.”
I didn’t know what to say. Didn’t know how to reassure either him or myself. Didn’t know how to even move past the horror that we were dealing with—that the Culhua most likely had stolen a pendant of a flayed god that could strip out a soul and turn it into power for someone else to use.
