“Where is it?”
There was no box beneath the scattered piles of her underwear and bras. Nothing.
She tossed handfuls of underwear behind her across the room, but that didn’t make a difference.
‘You think he walked out of here empty-handed? Please.’
With a snarl, Jessica slammed the drawer shut again, then bashed it with the side of her fist one more time for good measure. “I told you it wasn’t for you!”
The nerve of this fae. Forget the fact that he’d been in here going through her underwear while she was being sucked toward the Gateway and her own imminent demise against her will. That, she could forget. But now he’d taken it too far.
In that moment, Jessica realized she would absolutely kill whoever she needed to kill just to get the rest of her magic back where it belonged.
Chapter Seventeen
She stormed back toward her bedroom door and paused to collect herself. No, she hadn’t obliterated Leandras’ hand with that last unintended attack, but she was a lot more pissed off now. And smashing a fae to smithereens with her anger wouldn’t get her anywhere. Not until she had that tin box and the rest of her magic in her hands.
Her breath shuddered in her throat before she whisked the door open and almost walked headfirst into the fae leaning against the doorframe.
“Goddamnit!” Jessica took two steps back and scowled at him. “Where is it?”
Smirking, Leandras slowly removed both hands from behind his back and extended empty palms.
“This is not the time to fuck with me—”
Silver light flashed around one of his hands, and her tin box appeared in his grasp.
She snatched it from him with a snarl and tried to slam the bedroom door in his face again as she spun away from him.
Leandras’ shiny dress shoe snuck in at the last second, and he gently kicked the door open.
“What are you even still doing here?”
“Isn’t it obvious?”
“No. It’s— What are you doing? This is my room! I sure as hell didn’t offer an open invitation. Get out!”
He raised both hands in surrender, though the coy smile playing across his lips again didn’t exactly signal “I give up.” “This is the last piece we’ve been missing, Jessica. All along. And it was right here in your lingerie drawer—”
“Ugh. No. Don’t…don’t say stuff like that.” She backed away from him, clutching the box in both hands as the fae stalked slowly toward her. “I’m serious. This is not the time or place for you to do…whatever you’re doing.”
“I’m thinking.” He was staring right at her, but when the backs of her calves hit the gray couch and she flopped down onto the cushion, Leandras’ eyes didn’t move.
“Do it somewhere else. This isn’t your thinking spot.”
“It’s still possible.” With a quick spin toward her, Leandras leaned forward and settled his eerily intense gaze on her again. “I thought it was finished, but now I know what was missing.”
“Respect for my personal space?” She cocked her head at him. “Or maybe your will to live.”
He chuckled. “If you weren’t holding that box right now, I’d take that as a serious threat. But we both know you couldn’t harm me the way things stand now.”
No matter how badly she wanted to. Sure, she’d burned a Requiem member’s face off in Leandras’ apartment, but the troll hadn’t been anywhere near as powerful as the fae hovering over her.
“You need the rest of your magic for that,” he whispered.
‘All right. You know what, witch? I don’t think he’s all that bad after all.’
Jessica glared at the fae man who looked completely bonkers every time he had a new revelation. “Don’t tell me what I need.”
“But that is what you’re holding, isn’t it?” When he walked toward the couch, she leaned back against the corner of the armrest and tightened her grip on the box.
The surprises didn’t stop with his oh-so-convenient revelation about her magic and the sentient bank talking in her head—and occasionally out loud, apparently. Jessica expected him to stand over her and force her into opening the box. Or maybe he’d try to grab her again and manhandle her into doing what she’d already agreed she’d do—once she knew how to kill two birds with one undone-Shattering stone. One of them being Mickey Hargraves.
But Leandras stopped, exhaled slowly, and sank to his knees right there in front of her. It was the last thing she’d expected, but it happened anyway. She raised her eyebrows and stared at him, fighting the urge to scramble over the back of the couch and have the bank kick this guy’s fae ass through that door for her.
With a slow, heavy sigh, Leandras covered both of Jessica’s hands with his.
A flare of energy jolted through her hands and up her arms. Did that belong to him or her? Maybe it was both—she couldn’t be sure—but she found herself with a suddenly intense awareness that he didn’t actually want anything to do with the tin box nestled between her hands. Between both of their hands, at this point.
He’d touched her before, sure. Not like this. Not with such a startling intensity as he held her gaze and didn’t move a muscle.
“Jessica.”
“What are you doing?”
“I’m reminding you of what you need.” Leandras’ gaze briefly flickered down toward the box of her magic. “Whatever your reasons are for having done this, release them.”
‘Oh, he’s totally on to something.’
Jessica licked her lips and stared at the fae’s long, slender fingers now covering her own. They’d been cold and clammy before, a few times even alternating with intense heat. That probably had come from his attempts to stop her from whatever he thought she needed stopping from, but this time was different. The warmth in his hands now made her bite her lip.
“I can’t,” she muttered. “Not yet.”
“If you’re waiting for the opportune moment, allow me to assure you that this is it.”
“No it’s not.”
His eyebrows drew together. “Why? I’ve seen only bits and pieces of what you can do. That’s perfectly obvious now. And you’ve seen what needs to be done. If there is any chance of stopping what’s coming or at the very least holding it at bay, you need to do this. Trust me, I understand the hesitation.”
“Oh, yeah? You cast a Shattering on yourself too to keep everyone around you safe?”
Leandras immediately removed his hands from hers and held them inches above her lap, hovering there like he couldn’t decide if she was joking or about to detonate the bomb in her lap. “A Shattering.”
“Yeah.”
He sat back on his heels. “Well, no. The magic I brought with me into this world was intrinsically outside my person from the start.”
“That’s my point.” Jessica couldn’t look away from his silver-glowing gaze. He didn’t believe her; she saw that much written across his face. Or maybe it was because he didn’t want to believe her.
Taking a deep inhale, the fae slowly nodded. “There are ways to undo it. I can help you—”
“I know how to undo it, Leandras. But unless you can tell me how to avoid draining the life out of who knows how many random magicals it’ll take to return the rest of my magic, I’m not touching that spell.”
“You know that’s not possible.”
‘Actually, yes. It is.’
Please tell me you found a way to aim it. If the bank had been out searching for the answer to that conundrum during its four-day hiatus, maybe they still had a chance.
‘Yeah, I found it. Not gonna be easy, though.’
Jessica didn’t expect anything to be easy these days. But if she could aim the Shattering-reversal side effects, she had a real shot at this.
She leaned sideways away from Leandras before rising to her feet.
“Jessica.”
“You’re right. I can’t undo this without killing someone.” When she reached her dresser, she buried the tin box benea
th her personal affects again and slowly closed the top drawer. “But there’s a way to choose who gets the short end of the stick.”
The fae still sat back on his heels in front of her gray couch, staring at the rough weave of the upholstery. “That’s never been done.”
“Yeah, well, the reckoning hasn’t ever been kicked off either. The Gateway sure as hell hasn’t been opened before the way we’re planning to open it. Whatever that is. And I’m pretty sure this place hasn’t had a vestrohím as an owner.” She paused, gripping the top edge of the dresser with both hands. That last part had been a shot in the dark, but she was trying to make a point.
‘Hit the witch on the head, though.’ The bank sniggered. ‘Jessica Northwood, you’re definitely my first.’
Don’t say it like that. But thanks…I guess.
With a deep breath, she turned around to face Leandras and spread her arms. “So nothing’s impossible at this point.”
The fae’s eyebrows lifted and lowered over and over, like he couldn’t decide how to move his face in reaction to the news. “How? How did you discover that?”
“I have my sources.”
He whipped his head toward her and stood. “Jessica, you’ve been holed up in this building just like me for the last four days, and I can assure you there is absolutely nothing like what you claim written in any spellbook or grimoire or historical record of any kind. In either world.”
‘Ha! He thinks he has access to every single stronghold of knowledge. You think it’s time to finally shrink his overblown fae head a bit?’
Yeah, probably.
A small smile spread across her lips. “I know it’s not written down. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.”
“Then tell me where you found it.” Leandras stepped toward her, though he stopped halfway between the couch and the dresser, looking her over with wide eyes as if seeing her for the first time. Only the actual first time they’d met, he’d practically written her off as novel but most likely expendable. Now, he looked like he was trying to read something in a different language.
The bank sniggered. ‘Like your face?’
“Tell me how you found it,” Leandras added. “I would hear it from you, Jessica. Because I can’t begin to fathom the answer.”
Oh, boy. Here she was, finally admitting to someone else what she was really the new owner of and how much influence the job had actually given her over the last month. Influence a centuries-old fae from a different world apparently couldn’t even imagine.
Jessica reached out to pat the blank white wall beside her. “This place.”
“Ancient texts?” The fae cocked his head. “I suppose it’s to be expected, but—”
“No, I definitely looked through all the books. It’s simpler than that.”
“I don’t…” Narrowing his eyes, he spun around and gazed at the walls of her bedroom. “This place?”
“The bank has answers, Leandras. Or found them, I guess. Don’t ask me how, because I have no idea, and I’m pretty sure trying to listen to the whole story would drive me insane the rest of the way.”
A wry laugh escaped the fae. “I imagine you have quite a long way to go before complete insanity.”
“Well I’m not trying to test it out. The point is, I can direct the blowback. And I’m not touching the spell until I have everything set up to make sure the guy who deserves it will get what’s coming to him.”
“You’ve already chosen?”
“Yeah.” Jessica clenched her eyes shut. That admission made her sound like a heartless witch. But to do this, maybe she had to be. And maybe she had to be the most heartless she’d ever been to get the job done and stop what was coming from getting any closer or any worse.
“Who is it?”
That jerked her out of her guilt long enough to see a renewing curiosity flare behind the fae’s eyes. “Does it matter?”
“Well, I do believe I deserve to know at the very least if I’m the intended target, don’t you think?”
She barked out a laugh. “You’re way too full of yourself, you know that?”
“It’s kept me alive, as I’m sure you’re well aware through personal experience.”
Okay, forget the allusion to her own survival. Sure, that hit way too close to home, but there was no way he had any idea what she’d been through. Jessica hadn’t known herself until five days ago when all the worst memories of it had come crashing back into her after eight years.
“Don’t worry, fae. You’re off the hook.”
His wary smile relaxed and widened. “Anyone I know, then?”
Jessica took a deep breath and steeled herself, because saying anything as dark and damning was the final step in making it real. Short of actually doing the deed, of course. “Mickey Hargraves.”
Leandras blinked dully. “The Matahg that almost tore you apart last week?”
“That’s the one.”
The feral, predatory grin he’d flashed her so many times before they’d gotten irreversibly caught up in this mess together returned to the fae’s face now. A brighter flicker of silver flashed behind his eyes. “If you can indeed pull that off, I would very much enjoy bearing witness to it.”
Christ. Now she had a sadist standing in her bedroom.
‘Oh, come on. Don’t pretend you don’t like it. You two were made for each other.’
Stop.
Jessica cleared her throat. “Well, if we even get that far, sure. You can…watch. I guess.”
Leandras chuckled. “I may even ask to be involved.”
“What?”
“I can’t say I have more claim to this specific plan of yours, but you and I share a strong distaste for that Matahg.”
She raised an eyebrow, wary of that dark, greedy-looking smile of his and drawn to it at the same time. “You know him?”
“Not nearly as well as you, apparently. And only in brief glimpses. Through the grapevine, if you will.”
Leandras knew Mickey. Or at least he’d known of Mickey before he’d come barreling into the bank a week ago to scare the shit out of the Matahg and send him packing with his barbed tail between his legs. Could this small world of everyone and everything converging in her life get any smaller?
‘The laws of physics would probably give that one a big fat no.’
The laws of physics don’t apply to magic and portals into a different world.
The bank snorted. ‘Touché.’
“What did he do to you?” Jessica asked.
Leandras raised an eyebrow and dipped his head. “Nothing. Even if he tried, I imagine he’d find it difficult to affect me in any real way whatsoever.”
“Then you don’t even—”
“But what he did to you, Jessica, is more than enough reason to relish the prospect of watching his demise. Especially under such meticulous intention.”
She wrinkled her nose. “What?”
He walked toward her and stopped two feet away, though the way the fae looked at her now made it feel like he was all back up in her personal space. Like he was looming over her again. The scent of ozone hit her, but it was weaker now. “I’m looking forward to watching you undo the Shattering and making him pay for it. Is that clear enough?”
Yep. Total sadist standing in her bedroom. If Jessica had had the full extent of her magic coursing through her right now, she’d probably say there were two and call it good.
‘Hey, you can take the magic out of the sadist, but you can’t—’
No more commentary, thanks.
She stared at the fae’s glowing silver eyes and folded her arms. “Whatever floats your boat, I guess.”
“Yes. And yours. Isn’t that right?”
Okay, this was getting way too close to home. Or maybe way too close to things she’d done before with people and magicals she’d rather not remember. Maybe she’d had the Peddler remove the wrong memories.
Then again, she hadn’t had those memories when she was sixteen. Thankfully.
&nbs
p; ‘And those are the really juicy parts. You should keep them.’
“Jessica.” Leandras took one more step toward her, the scent of ozone and sunbaked earth overwhelmed her, and she found herself rooted to the spot. “There is something I would very much like to do right now, but I fear I may be overstepping my bounds with such a request.”
Come on. The guy had blasted through doors all over the bank without asking permission, manhandled her in the lobby and the hall, broke into her things to dig the tin box out of her underwear drawer, and now hovered over her without any apparent concern for her personal space. And now he wanted to ask permission to…what? Attempt a seduction?
Part of her wanted to say to hell with all the ways she was trying to be different than her past self. Better. The rest of her knew without a doubt that if she gave into this fae breaking all the rules she didn’t even know to weasel his way into her private life and then some, she’d be diving down a rabbit hole far deeper and way harder to dig herself back out of than she could possibly imagine.
Chapter Eighteen
Jessica stared up at the gorgeous fae looking down at her, overwhelmed by that just-before-rain smell and the heat radiating off his body. Of course he wanted something from her. Leandras had wanted something after something after something from her since the first time he’d stepped inside the bank and found her behind that desk downstairs instead of Tabitha.
She didn’t even know what it was, so how the hell was she already considering giving it to him?
“Then ask.” Her voice sounded like someone else’s, and not in a way that made any sense. This was either a trick of her own mind—and admittedly her body after a year and a half of nothing with no one—or that smell growing stronger around them both was doing something to her head.
Leandras pursed his lips as he studied her. “May I use your shower?”
The bank burst out laughing in her head, and Jessica blinked furiously.
That broke the spell, or whatever the hell was going on here right now. When she frowned, the fae took the final step that would have forced her between him and her dresser. But Jessica slipped sideways around him and stepped quickly backward across her room until she stood behind the couch. “You want to take a shower.”
The Secret Coin (Accessory to Magic Book 3) Page 16