“Are you looking for something in particular, Witchling?” he asked, his voice coming from the alcove where I knew his desk was. I moved toward it slowly, a flush creeping up the back of my neck as I tried to will the need in my body to just die already. The depth of his voice did something to me, sending a pang of want through me, which I felt with every step.
“Something sharp and pointy, preferably,” I said as I strode toward the alcove. I touched my hand to the wall as I curved around it, feeling the moment his gaze settled on me.
He dropped his pen to the desk, leaning back in his chair as he stared at me. “Are you sure about that? Helping yourself to my shirt, I would be inclined to say you’re looking for something to gag on.”
My mouth dropped open, an incredulous laugh tearing free from my throat. Of all the things he could have said…
That was the last thing I expected.
He grinned as he stood from his chair, stepping around the edge of the desk to approach me. He stopped in front of me, making no move to touch me.
“How are you feeling?” he asked, his forehead pinching as if he were genuinely concerned.
I swallowed, my discomfort growing beneath the weight of that gaze. Only the bargain, I reminded myself. He needed me to stay alive and to do his job to keep me safe, or there would be consequences for him.
It was nothing more than the bargain.
“Better,” I whispered, my voice raw.
He reached behind him, plucking a tumbler off his desk and handing it to me. I took a delicate sip of the amber liquid, trying to let it bolster me.
“Water would have been more appropriate if you’re nursing me back to health.”
Gray shrugged, taking the tumbler and turning it in his grip. He made sure to take a sip from the exact same place I had, the intimacy of the intention behind that making me squirm.
“You look healthy enough to me,” he said, smirking as he set it on top of the desk.
I shifted on my feet, feeling uncomfortable. “Thank you. For coming for me. For keeping her from…” I trailed off, unable to finish the thought. It was horrific to think of what she might have done if Gray hadn’t come when he had.
“I’ll always come for you, Witchling,” he said, holding my stare for a moment.
Those blue eyes glimmered with something that felt like more, stealing the breath from my lungs for a suspended moment in time. The gold seemed to flash; the twisted connection between us pulling taut.
Then he ruined it, turning his stare away and touching the underside of my chin. “Can’t have you being the one to give me orders, now, can I?”
I grimaced, the reminder serving its purpose. Grounding me in the reality.
Love wasn’t in the cards for me. Not with a witch, and definitely not with a Vessel. We could and would work together, but this was nothing more than a business arrangement between two people who hated each other.
Even if we wanted to rip one another’s clothes off.
I moved around him, approaching his desk and putting him behind me. Drawing in a few deep breaths to steady myself without that piercing stare on mine, I fiddled with the paperweight on his desk. The black gem was somehow translucent, and the face of a woman stared back at me as I lifted it.
Her face was blurred, and I couldn’t see the details as Gray reached around me and set it back on the desk. I whirled, spinning on him and shaking off the dread the sight of that woman filled me with. The makeshift crown upon her head was a twisted, gnarled thing, with birch branches sweeping across her head like antlers.
“Susannah isn’t going to let me bring us back to the old ways without a fight. We’ll need to avoid her notice for a while,” I admitted, wondering how far Gray’s protection would actually go.
“That sounds familiar,” he said, crossing his arms over his chest. He stared down at me with a raised brow, reminding me of the warning he’d issued at the gravesite.
“You were right, okay? I should have listened to you. You know her better than I do,” I mumbled, twisting my lips.
“That looked absolutely painful,” he muttered, rolling his eyes to the side. “But I’m glad if nothing else, this has put us on the same page. Do what you must to work toward your end goal, but don’t endanger yourself in the process.”
“We should discuss strategy. I’m sure you have thoughts about the best way to go about this,” I said, watching as he strode around his desk and left me there. He bent over a piece of paper, picking up his pen and scribbling a note for himself as if I were a bother.
“Love, I don’t give the first shit about the politics of the Coven. I don’t care how they choose to practice. If they want to waste the gift they were given, then they deserve to lose it,” he said, a slow smile spreading across his face as my stomach dropped. Nausea churned in it as I tipped my head to the side, my eyes drifting closed in my confusion.
“But our bargain—” I broke off, a shuddering gasp leaving me as his steely stare met mine when I opened my eyes. “You never cared about the magic, did you?”
The white of his teeth glinted as he ran his tongue over his fang. “I got what I wanted out of our bargain,” he said, evading the question entirely. His eyes dropped down my body, that feeling of nausea in my gut so at odds with the pressure between my legs. Even now, with the unrelenting rage building in me, I couldn’t push it away.
“You fucking asshole!” I screamed, grabbing the black paperweight off his desk. I threw it, aiming for his stupid, handsome face. My body moved more quickly than I expected, the paperweight flying through the air too quickly for me to track.
I had only a moment of shock as it sped toward his face, and he twisted out of its path only just in time for it to skim over his shoulder. Crashing into the portrait of Lucifer behind him, it shattered into shards of glass on the credenza below the portrait, cutting a seam through the center of the canvas.
For a moment, everything was still. Gray’s attention snagged on that paperweight on the floor, remaining there as I fumbled for what to do. For what to say. I wouldn’t apologize when he’d manipulated me so thoroughly.
But could I blame him? I’d been so convinced I had the upper hand that I hadn’t thought it through. I hadn’t considered that he may not have the same goals as I did. The fault was mine entirely, but I still hated him for it.
He turned to face me, his body moving so painfully slowly that I counted my breaths before his stare landed on me once again. His face was so carefully controlled, and somehow, I thought that might be worse than his rage.
I blinked.
He was gone.
My breath rattled in my lungs, and I pursed my lips together as I turned my head slowly. Looking over my shoulder. I didn’t dare move, didn’t dare to give him any reason to think I’d run. The hair on the back of my neck rose, and in this moment, I knew he was the predator and I was the prey.
His hand wrapped around my nape, shoving me forward as he appeared at my side. His other hand swept everything off his desk with a growl, sending it clattering to the floor with a crash I suspected everyone in Hollow’s Grove heard.