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Alek laughed, before dropping the blade so that it landed at his feet. “No worries, I wouldn’t want to dirty my palate.”
Castian scoffed, “I’m sure I’d be the cleanest thing you’ve eaten in a long time.”
“Enough, you two.” Malcolm grumbled. “If we are working with witches, I don’t think it’s a good idea showing them just how bad we get along.”
“Exactly,” Tiller said as he turned his attention to Raijin. “Despite your personal connections with them, I don’t want to give them the advantage. They aren’t to be trusted, especially not Madam Lanias. So, while this is a mission to find Asher we can’t ignore that those witches have an interesting tie to the entire ordeal. And the more we can learn from them the better. Since I doubt they’ll share anything worth knowing with us free of charge.”
Castian willed his dropped knife to fly up, catching it midair he put it away. “Fine, I’m not responsible for her sanity. That’s something she’ll have to take care of.”
He spotted Raijin’s smile and narrowed his eyes on him. “What?”
Raijin chuckled. “I don’t think I’ll worry too much. In fact, I find myself more worried about your sanity. I mean, about the little you have left. From what Sabina has told me about Oye she isn’t exactly the easiest to work with.”
BAD TIMES
LANIAS
Oye didn’t want to go.
She didn’t want to work with that damn Warlock. She wanted to go kill some human traffickers, brawl with some dwarfs. Hell, she’d even strip for a Vampire but no, she was going to some big, ritzy event with a fuck-boy warlock who had a split personality disorder.
Someone call the higher being and tell them this shit isn’t funny.
“Oye—”
The minute she finished said mission she was going to give Lanias a piece of her mind. Not that she didn’t tell the annoying witch her thoughts most of the time. But she was seriously considering, strapping her cousin to a chair and shaving her bald.
“Oye.”
She jumped, her hand curling tighter around the knife she turned only to dull the edge of it the minute she pressed it against Zach’s throat. “Ah,” she said in surprise, her eyes widening, and she quickly lowered the knife. “You surprised me.”
He pressed a hand to his throat in shock.
“I, surprised you,” he exclaimed incredulously as he rubbed the spot she’d pressed the blade to. “I called you like seventeen times.”
Placing the knife down on the cutting board, she frowned. “Why?”
He pointed at her cutting board, “Mama D said thin sliced cabbage, not eviscerated cabbage.” She turned to face the board and grimaced, she’d definitely been cutting without thinking. The thin slices of cabbage were akin to slips of paper.
Zach reached around and grabbed up a few, and it sprinkled out of his hand like confetti. “How in god’s name did you manage this without magic.”
She shrugged, scooping up some and pouring it into the bowl. “I just have a lot on my mind.”
“Is it a guy?” he asked suggestively. “Did the iron hearted witch of Nolan’s Street finally meet her prince charming.”
She scoffed, finished moving the thinly sliced cabbage into the bowl. “Yeah right, more like I have a business trip I have to go on with someone I don’t particularly like or trust.”
“Bartenders go on business trips?” Zach asked, wearing an expression of confusion coming to his face. “Like, where do you go? Another bar?”
She didn’t hit him, but she did elbow him out of her way, “Move, and we go to conferences and learn the best technique in making drinks and the history behind certain liquors. Anyway,” she said as she carried her bowl of confetti cabbage over to the stove where a large saucepan waited. The oil and spices had already been sautéed along with the onions and peppers. “It’s something I’ll have to go to, and I wasn’t planning on it, especially not this early in the year.”
She turned, placing the cabbage into the pan. She hated lying to Zach and by default Mama D. But she couldn’t exactly tell them the truth. The truth being she was going to infiltrate the ritzy circles of the warlock families. That would just cause a great number of misunderstandings and for her, the orphanage was an oasis away from the world she’d become accustomed to.
This was where she belonged, she enjoyed the sounds of the children and helping Mama D with them. It was the one place she felt fully at home, even if the world she belonged to hid behind the shadows.
She had found this place in her darkest moments.
“Don’t you want to live?”
