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After I got rid of the chicken and we’d decided what we wanted, I made the call. While we waited, I poured us each a glass of wine, which would have been fantastic with the chicken I’d wanted to make. It was fantastic without the chicken, too, though. Rory was so easygoing. I’d wanted to impress her, but she was happy just spending time together, and that was everything.
We talked about small things while we waited for the food. She told me about her day at the clinic. I explained what some of my businesses were. When the food arrived, we carried the packets to the living room and sat on the couches with the food spread out on the coffee table. We hadn’t gotten plates—Rory had mentioned it would just make dishes that needed to be cleaned. I wanted to point out that I had a whole cleaning crew that came in every morning, but there was something about eating straight out of the packets that had been laid out on the coffee table that felt almost like camping.
“Have you found your answers yet?” I asked, speaking around sweet and sour pork that I’d popped into my mouth.
“No,” Rory said grimly. “In fact, I have more questions now than I did before.”
“Yeah?”
She glanced at me as if she was deciding how much to say.
“I picked up on Turk’s scent today.”
I kept quiet, letting her speak.
“His magic was very clear—it was definitely him—although his movement was bizarre. He weaved his way through the neighborhood. I followed it for quite a while, but somewhere, I became aware that it wasn’t just his magic anymore. There was dark magic, too.”
I stopped chewing. “What?”
“Yeah. At first, I didn’t realize that was what it was, but then it became so strong, there was no denying it. I don’t know what he’s caught up in, but it’s not good. If we can just find him—”
“He’s not missing, Rory,” I said.
“What?” She frowned at me, chewing a mouthful of fried rice.
“He’s not missing. I know that’s what you came here for, but he’s never been missing. I saw him the other night at his father’s house.”
Rory narrowed her eyes. “That makes no sense.”
“It’s making less and less sense the further we go,” I agreed. My stomach twisted. “If there’s dark magic involved…” Just the idea that there could be dark magic in my city was worrying. “It’s not supposed to be that way. I made sure to rid this place of dark magic ages ago.”
“Well, it’s back,” Rory said. “It’s a force to be reckoned with, too.”
I shook my head. “Turk is one of the most important shifters in the community, thanks to Dario. I don’t understand who would mess with him.”
“Could it have something to do with money?” Rory asked.
“Unlikely. Magic and money don’t really go hand in hand. I would say this is more about power.”
Rory nodded slowly, finding her next bite as she scraped her food around with her chopsticks.
I had to get back to Dario and find out what was going on. If there was dark magic in the picture, that changed everything.
“You’re close with that family,” Rory said. It wasn’t a question.
“Yeah,” I said. “It’s a case of keeping your friends close and your enemies closer.”
“Dario is your enemy?”
“No, but he’s cunning, and if I keep a close eye on him, he won’t have the chance to become my enemy.”
Rory hummed.
I looked at my sweet and sour pork, my appetite suddenly gone.
I hated the fact that dark magic was back in my city. I’d done everything I could to take care of it. I needed that spell Dario had promised me, and I needed itnow. I had to keep my people safe. I had to make sure that something like what had happened before would never happen again. The other end of that deal, though, was that Turk wanted Rory as his mate, and that wasn’t going to happen.
We would just have to negotiate other terms. I would set up a meeting with Dario for tomorrow, if he was available. If Rory hadn’t been here, I would’ve set it up for tonight. It was an emergency.
