“You know, you could have been conventional, met me at the restaurant and walked back with me. Or even waited for me in the lobby,” he said, unpacking the takeout.
“But you don’t mind when I borrow your balcony, and if I were conventional, you’d be disappointed, and if I met you at the restaurant, dinner wouldn’t be a surprise,” she said.
“All valid points.” He smiled. “I got Indian. Enough to share if you come inside.”
“Perfect. I love aloo gobi.” She followed him in.
“Is Miranda coming tomorrow?” he asked.
The challenge. “I didn’t ask. I don’t even know if she can—she’s technically a mundane now.”
Ian passed over a plate piled with garlic naan. “I’d hate to be the person who tried to keep her out. She’d call her magic back through sheer will just so she could smite them.”
“I’d almost like to see that,” Sydney said.
“Are you going to be okay?” he asked.
She shook her head, puzzled.
“About the challenge, I mean. Because he’s your brother.”
“It’s not like you and Lara, you know,” she said. “I mean, if there’s anyone I might love like you’re supposed to love family, it’s Madison. And the thing is, she likes Harper, and Harper doesn’t have a best friend anymore because my brother killed her.
“The only thing I know about Grey is that he’s a murderer who hates me.”
“So you’re going to be fine,” he said.
“As fine as any of us who survive this are.”
“Will you stay tonight?” he asked, and stroked his hand down her arm.
“No, I need to keep my head clear. But I’ll stay tomorrow. I’ll even come in through the front door.”
“It will be a wonder I greatly look forward to.”
“Excellent.” She grinned. “Now please pass the samosas.”
? ? ?
Madison was, as she had been since the cursed Turning started, leaving work late again. There was just something wrong about walking out of a building at ten thirty at night, especially when she’d be walking back in the door by eight thirty the next morning. Actually, more like seven thirty, or maybe even seven o’clock—she’d forgotten about the Goldblatt file. And of course there were no cabs, because everyone else had gone home at a reasonable time. Sushi. She deserved sushi—she’d walk to Bluefin and get takeout.
She was reaching into her tote for her phone when the spell hit her. It flung her forward, laptop and files flying from her bag, one stiletto heal cracking and breaking off.
Her heart beat so hard she felt it in her ears. But her phone was in her hand, and even in her panic and pain, she scrambled to hit the emergency button.
Hands yanked her from the ground. “I’m going to kill you.”
Grey’s voice. He muttered the words of a spell, and the phone in her hand grew white-hot. She dropped it, and he slammed his foot down on its surface.
Madison scratched at his hands, tried to shift her weight back and get her feet under her.
His hands tightened around her neck. Hands, or magic, she couldn’t tell, only that it was harder and harder to pull in a breath, that white sparks were bursting behind her eyes.
“Kill you, and take your bones, and use them to kill her tomorrow. Just think of that. You’re going to help me beat her.” His breath, hot on her neck. She reached up, yanked at her necklace, breaking the chain.
Then she hit the ground again, hard. But she could breathe and there were no more hands clutching at her. Madison scrambled to her feet and away, grabbing at her bag and belongings.
She turned back to look. Grey stood, frozen like a statue. The spell had worked.
She drew in a breath, and then another, and looked straight at him. “So, you’re not, actually, going to kill me tonight. And my bones are staying in my hands, and I am going to drink an entire fucking bottle of champagne when Sydney kills you tomorrow, and I hope a dog pisses on you like you’re a hydrant before her spell unlocks. Because she knew you were enough of a coward to try something like this, and that was her magic in the necklace, and if she can hold you like this when she’s not even here, just imagine what’s going to happen to you in person. You fucking miserable excuse for a human.”
? ? ?
Madison walked—limped, really, with that broken-heeled shoe, and she’d liked that pair, damn it—to the sushi bar she’d been heading to.
“Madison! What happened?”
“Bad day at work, Hideo.” She sank into the chair he offered her. “Can I break your cell phone rule, and also get the world’s biggest bowl of miso soup?”
“Of course. Are you sure you don’t want me to call the police?”
“I am, thanks.” She dug through her tote until she found her personal cell. The one Grey had smashed had been her work one. Sydney had put emergency spells on both—if something happened to either and Madison didn’t check in within a certain time, another version of the necklace spell would be triggered. “Sydney. You were right. He came after me.”
“Are you safe right now?”
“I’m at Bluefin. I’ll be fine. I used the necklace charm. And I told him I hoped a dog pissed on him.”
Sydney stifled a laugh. “Are you going to be okay? Do you want me to come get you?”
“No. Hideo will put me into a cab himself if I ask. I just wanted to let you know.” She paused. “He said he was going to use my bones. To kill you.”
“Madison, I’ll be right—”
“No, really. Don’t come. I am safe, and about to consume my own weight in spicy tuna and wash it down with sake, and if you show up, I will probably cry, and I don’t need to do that right now. I just—you be careful tonight. And don’t hesitate tomorrow. I know he’s your brother and Laurent’s friend and whatever, but don’t you hesitate for one second before ending him.”
“I won’t, Madison. I promise. Enjoy your spicy tuna, and call me if you need me. I’ll be there.”
“I know.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Sydney stopped by House Prospero on her way to the challenge. “Grace, do you want to be there tonight?”
“No. I appreciate you asking, but I don’t want to be in a room with him. I don’t want to see him, even under these circumstances. I don’t ever want to see him again.” She fisted her hands, then wrapped her arms around her stomach, hiding her scars.
“You won’t have to.” Sydney reached out, set her hand on Grace’s shoulder. “I’ll call the House when it’s over.”
“Sydney.” Grace put her own hand over Sydney’s, squeezed. “Thank you.”
Sydney paused on her way out the door and spoke to the mirror. “If . . . if I don’t come back, keep her safe from him. Be her House, okay?”
Yes.
Come back.
“That’s the plan.”
? ? ?
Sydney walked the rest of the way with Laurent. “I’m really sorry about all of this,” he said. “I feel like you got way more trouble than you were signing up for in this thing when you decided to work for me.”
“Please. You know me well enough by now to know that I am perfectly capable of causing my own share of trouble.”