It only took her a second to grab her phone and her book, then she was at my side, her arm wrapped around my ribs.
“No luck with the scroll?” she asked as she locked the door. I leaned against the wall as she ran her hands around the edge, triggering the enchantment that would protect the shop from thieves while we were away.
“Not yet. I’ll tell you about it up at my place.”
The walk up the three flights of stairs felt like climbing the monks’ island mountain again. By the time I got to the top, my lungs burned and my thighs ached.
“What the heck is wrong with you?” Nix asked as she dumped me on the sofa. “You’ve never been this weak. Did you get hit by something?”
“No spells. Unless you count my own.”
“What do you mean?” Her eyes widened.
“I used my magic.”
“What?” she gasped. “You’re joking. Did Aidan see you?”
“Yeah.” I buried my head in my hand. “I was an idiot.”
Nix paced my small living rom. “No. You weren’t. You haven’t used your magic in ten years. You’re careful. You must have had a good reason.”
Her support warmed me. “I thought Aidan was going to die.”
“That’s a pretty good reason. Was he?”
“Yeah, maybe a sixty, seventy percent chance. Though it felt like more at the time. I freaked out.” The memory of the rock hurtling toward him still gave me the shakes.
“You like him.”
There was no question in her voice. To protect my deirfiúr’s secret, I would let someone I didn’t care for die—I’d kill to protect their secret. It was my secret too, but like with most things that involve a threat to oneself, it didn’t feel quite as real. But the threat to them felt very real.
Apparently I cared enough for Aidan to try to save his life, even though it meant possibly revealing what we hid.
“I’m sorry,” I said. My throat tightened with tears. I never cried. Not much was worse than waking up in a field as a kid with no memories and no parents. After that, tears seemed a bit silly.
“Don’t be. We can take care of ourselves. And I have a good feeling about Aidan.”
“Really? Because I don’t.”
“Yeah, you do.” Nix looked at me like I was an idiot. “You saved him. You obviously have a good feeling about him.”
“I did. But he knows something’s up with me. He’s suspicious of why I don’t use my powers. And when I finally did use them, I overdid it. He knows I’m powerful. I’m afraid he’s going to keep digging until he figures things out.”
“He might, yeah. Just keep your guard up.”
Easy for her to say; she wasn’t faced with hanging out with him all the time. She didn’t have to watch him fight or resist his kisses. I did, and it was hard to remember why I shouldn’t like him.
Especially since I didn’t want to live a life of secrets and lies. For once, I’d like to be honest with someone besides my deirfiúr. I loved them, but it wasn’t the same.
“So you didn’t find the scroll?”
Nix’s words jerked me to attention. “No. And it’s worse than that. Demons took it. The same kind of demon who called me a FireSoul the other day.”
Nix abruptly stopped pacing. “What? Did they say anything else?”
“No. I tackled one and demanded that he tell me what he knew, but he just looked at me.”
“There might not be a link. Just because they’re the same species doesn’t mean they all know about us. That other demon might have known because he was ancient and could sense it.”
“Yeah, maybe,” I said. “But we haven’t stayed alive this long by assuming things are coincidences.”
“True.”
“There was also a man there. A Magica. But he didn’t give a crap about me. Grabbed the scroll and left.”
“Well that’s good.”
“Yeah. But we have our concealment charms, so maybe that’s why.”
“At least they’re still working.”
“They’d better be,” I said. “They cost a freaking fortune. But we need to call Del. Warn her to keep her guard up. Just in case.”
“I’ll do it. You need to rest.”
“Yeah. I think I might go talk to Dr. Garriso. He could know more about that kind of demon.” There were hundreds of kinds. I didn’t know them all—or even most of them. Half the time I made up names for them based on what they looked like. I called these ones shadow demons because they were gray. Not very clever.
“I can do it. You really do look like you’re about to pass out.”
“No, I want to. I can describe them best. I’ll do it after I take a nap.”
“Fine. And tomorrow you’ll find the scroll and destroy it. We’ll deal with your nightmare man when the time comes. We’ve always known we were on the run. Eventually, we’ll get caught.”
“Then we fight.”
“If we have to, yes.”
“But how do we do that without magic?”