Exhausted, she rested her head against Caine’s shoulder. “Imagine if my parents had never done this to us. We’d been living happily in Maremount still.”
“You would have been living happily. I would not.”
“Why not?”
“That’s a long story. Some time I will tell you all about Maremount.”
“Now that I’m apparently on the side of the demons—” Her voice broke. “I should probably learn about my homeland.”
Caine took a deep breath, and she sensed something was roiling through his mind. “If you’re on the side of the demons, do you still think we’re evil?”
She gazed into his pale eyes. Did he actually care what she thought? “I guess the idea of good and evil isn't as clear cut as I once thought it was. I’m sorry I called you an abomination. That’s what Mason used to call me, and it just popped into my head. I don’t know why. He’s a complete asshole, and you’re not an abomination.”
He let out a sigh, his breath warm against her skin. “I wouldn’t go that far,” he said, his voice barely audible.
Whatever he meant by that, now wasn’t the time to get into it. “Also I’m sorry about the stabbing thing.”
“If it gets your legs wrapped around me again, I might risk another stake to the heart.”
She almost smiled, but something else whispered through the back of her mind. Miranda. Both Josiah and Caine seemed to know who she was, and Caine actually seemed to care about her.
Unable stop herself, she touched his chest, feeling his body’s heat through his shirt. “Caine. Who is Miranda, and why did Josiah say he wanted to watch her burn?”
His muscles tensed. “It’s complicated. I don’t want to get into that now.”
His constant evasions irked her. “Will you at least tell me what Ambrose wants with me?”
“Yes. We’re pulling up to my house.”
“Hardy Street!” Marisa said. She pulled over by the empty green field.
After thanking Marisa, Rosalind stepped out of the car, her thoughts whirling. Whoever Miranda was, both Caine and Josiah seemed to find her important, and they weren’t letting Rosalind in on their secret.
Chapter 22
Still barefoot, Rosalind paced the warped wooden floor inside Caine’s house.
It only took a few seconds for Tammi to find his whiskey decanter. She poured herself a glass. “I was an art history student. Less than three semesters till graduation.”
“I know,” Rosalind said. “Everything is a disaster.”
Tammi took a sip, then wiped the back of her hand across her mouth. “Maybe we need to move to France or Vietnam or something.”
Aurora leaned on a granite counter in the open-plan kitchen. “You both are starting to spin out. Do you need a snack or something?”
Rosalind was starving. But it wasn’t just her hunger—her mind was a raging storm, and she could hardly concentrate on one thought at a time. “What I need is for the Brotherhood to drop my case and to leave Tammi alone.”
Tammi knocked back her drink. “I don’t blame you. I blame that stupid cult. Your ex-boyfriend is an asshole.”
Aurora rifled around in the cabinets. “The two humans are losing it. I’m making them a snack of food.”
Rosalind’s fingernails pierced her palms. “We need a plan. Caine, what exactly is Ambrose’s grand plan?”
He leaned back, stretching out his arms on the sofa’s back. “Ambrose’s plan is for us to take on the Brotherhood. With the combined auras of two powerful mages, we can find a way to get past their security systems.”
Dread whispered through Rosalind. He wanted her to take on the Brotherhood?
Aurora sliced through the top of a tin can with a knife, spilling juice all over the counter. “Have some faith in Caine. He’s a brilliant military strategist. Ambrose made him a Duke.”
Tammi ran her fingers fretfully through her hair. “Is there another plan? Like, one that doesn’t involve provoking the wrath of an ancient society of lunatics?”
Rosalind stared at Caine in disbelief. “Just the two of us are supposed to topple their security systems.”
Aurora dumped a pile of mandarin slices onto a plate. “You’re more powerful than you know.”
Caine ran a finger over his lower lip, studying her. “We break into the building, and then we free the captives, so the sadists you once worked for don’t burn them to death. Aurora can tell you all about their torture techniques.”
Seven hells, the torture. She couldn’t let this happen to more people, not after what she’d done with Josiah. Maybe this was her chance to atone. She knew what it felt like to burn now, and couldn’t subject others to the same fate—not if there was something she could do about it. “I’ll do it. I’ll help you free them.”
Caine let out a long breath. “Good. And now I have to teach you magic. We haven’t got much time.”
Rosalind stopped pacing, folding her arms. “Before what? Is there a specific deadline?”
“I have a good friend in there,” Caine said. “Two, actually. And I don’t want them to die.”