“Watch yourself, witch.”
“Were you ever unselfish with her? Do anything kind for her?”
He’d taken Josephine to a fey ball. In order to get laid. He’d romanced her. To secure her for the Møriør. He’d healed her from a fight. That she would’ve recovered from anyway.
Things would be different. Change? Now he only wanted the chance to.
“You forget,” she added, “we’ve witnessed how you treat your ‘tarts.’ ”
“It’s not like that with Josephine,” he snapped.
“Oh, really? Because fate says so?”
“Look into my mind.” He gave them wide-open access to his thoughts.
One by one, they did. One by one, they paled.
“That’s right,” he said, sounding crazed. “I’m f.u.c.king gut-sick over her! Do you see why I’m maddened to be with her?”
Sian gave him a pitying glance. “I hope you’re as good at apologies as you are at seduction.”
In a marveling tone, Blace said, “You’re seven thousand years old, and you have no idea how to handle this.”
“Because it’s that important!” Struggling to rein in his emotions—a blazing inferno—he turned to Allixta. “How long do I give her?”
“You’re a spy. Spy on her. You’ll know when the time is right to approach her.”
Blace said, “We’ll leave you to it, then.”
Once they’d gone, Rune rolled up his sleeve to ink a concealment spell on his arm. He flinched when confronted with the contraceptive he’d painted.
Never again. Free.
He used his other arm. Hidden from sight, Rune stalked closer to the mansion, tracking her to a room downstairs.
He uncovered wards on the main house. He swiftly added his own runes to appropriate the protections, allowing him entry. He would step in if anything went sideways. The slightest hint of danger. Task complete, he peered in the window.
She stood alone in front of the fireplace, gazing at pictures on the mantel. Her eyes were stark, her outline flickering. The tear tracks were gone, but she remained shaken.
In the span of his life, he’d been with her for the blink of an eye.
He never wanted to open his eyes and not see her face.
Josephine had flung him to some place he’d never been before, and now he knew where.
Home.
He raised his hand to the gla.s.s, needing to touch her so badly he ached.
SIXTY-EIGHT
Jo turned toward the doorway of the sitting room when MizB and Thad walked in. Woman had some years on her—but she was still the same MizB, down to the boxy gla.s.ses and the lame type of pantsuit she always wore to the library.
Jo felt a hit of . . . something.
MizB adjusted her gla.s.ses. “Is it really you, Josephine?” She stepped forward as if they were going to hug.
Jo took a step back. “It’s me.” She’d checked out all the photos of Thad, resentful of the years she’d missed. She was fresh from her limited memories of her childhood in Apparitia, fresh from reliving the death of their real mother. Guilt weighed on Jo for not staying with Thaddie.
Keep him close. Protect him.
Jo hadn’t. She hadn’t been there with him.
“You’re all grown up.” MizB’s tears welled. “And so beautiful.”
“I brought her home directly,” Thad said. “Haven’t had much of a chance to talk to her.”
“Please have a seat.” MizB moved to a fancy chair with a stiff back. Thad crossed to the nearby couch, sitting as close to her as possible.
Awkward. Jo traced to the other end of the couch and sank down. She rubbed her nape and glanced at the window. She had the sense of being watched.
Would Thad’s ward keep out Nïx? The Valkyrie might come with a bill for all the sports cars and trees Jo had trashed. Recalling that lightened her mood a touch.
“Oh!” MizB’s eyes had widened. “You disappeared and reappeared. That’s not something you see every day.”
Jo frowned. “You had to have seen him do it.”
“The only thing I saw was him drinking from his arm.”
“Mom!”
Vampire masturbation. And MizB had just laid it out there. What an icebreaker.
Thad’s face grew so crimson he’d probably get thirsty from it. He was such a teenage boy. Despite everything, Jo had to conceal a laugh behind a cough.
His mortified expression faded when he saw her face. He started to grin. “You think that’s funny?”
She coughed again. “It’s not unfunny.”
“I wasn’t supposed to say that?” MizB blinked behind her gla.s.ses. “I’m just learning my way around all this.”
Thad said, “It’s fine, Mom.”
MizB turned to her. “Well, tell me everything. Where did you two meet up?”
Thad looked at Jo to field this one. The Eagle Scout would have trouble lying. “Mutual acquaintances.”
“That’s so fortunate! How did you recognize each other?”
“You think I haven’t kept up with my own brother? I can tell you his freaking baseball stats.” Thanks to text-to-speech.
“Of course,” MizB quickly said. “I should’ve expected that.”
Thad leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “You really can?”
Jo shrugged. “You can’t steal bases for s.h.i.t.”
He gave a laughing groan. “Tell me about it. Hey, I bet I don’t suck so bad since I started coming into my powers. But what about you—what do you do?”