“Yep, I screwed this one. Sorry for that. I can’t imagine what that would have been like to have to be there and see me go down like that, knowing…”
Elliot shook his head, interrupting her. “You’re not apologizing for getting attacked and hurt, right? I assure you whatever their discomfort was it didn’t touch yours.”
Ava nodded. “True. Dinner is ready. And I think I’ve figured out the lay of the land here so let’s all eat. Thanks for this, Elliot. It’s good to see my bestie again. I’ve been worried sick.”
After that, the conversation was easy. She’d never had a partner to sit with at one of these dinners before. Elliot was clearly practiced at this kind of interaction. He talked easily with one person and then another, the whole time keeping his hand on her knee. Did he know that she sometimes got nervous in crowds even though these were her friends? Or that she loved going out but still preferred quite a bit to stay home and that problem was why meeting people was so hard?
Maybe he just wanted her again so he kept his hand on her knee. Whatever the reason, it helped.
“You have a huge amount of power.” Stefan spoke to Elliot but informed the room. “Part of what I can do is almost… taste the power of those around me. I think you’re more powerful than me. That’s unusual.”
Elliot shrugged. “Power only matters in regards to what you do with it. A person could have a ton and do little with it.”
That was true, except that he composed in his sleep, and his magic let him do it. He was apparently running a constant cleaning spell and who knew what else he was doing behind the scenes.
Stefan shook his head. “No. You’re not a small user. I can feel that, too.”
Kim touched the back of his neck. “Now, honey, we talked about how it’s not polite to talk about people’s power usage.”
Stefan sighed. “Sorry. I sometimes forget my manners.”
“It’s all right.” Elliot sighed. “You’re right, of course. I use a ton of power. I’ve always had a lot of it and used it as I saw fit.”
“It’s amazing that they didn’t tap you to be an Enforcer.” Kim looked between everyone. “That kind of power range is usually a shoo-in to the Enforcer program. They come at us hard.”
Elliot shrugged. “I’m cursed. From the moment I was born everyone knew that would be the case. I wasn’t exactly Enforcer material, I don’t think.” He waved his hand. “I’ve kept busy. I don’t think I could do what you guys do. Even with everything happening, I’m pretty much an optimist. It would kill me to have seen nothing but the dregs of the witching world in my grown up years while I was able to see.”
Stefan lifted his drink. “You’re right about that.”
Things eased after that. Lots of laughter, and the food was fantastic. Ava had always been a great cook but after her powers opened up and she could literally hear the Earth talking to her, she’d gotten even better at it.
“Elliot.” Lawson sighed. “You have to tell me the truth, brother. It isn’t the house with the security spell, is it? It’s you. You’ve somehow spelled the house, and you’re keeping it constantly on.”
Melanie’s mouth fell open. Between that and the cleaning, a healthy witch would be constantly wrecked. How was Elliot doing this and dealing with the curse, too?”
He set down his drink. “Guilty.”
“Can you teach me how? I have hidden my home away pretty well, but I don’t have this.”
Elliot winced. “Maybe a year ago.” He pulled off his glasses. “I’m afraid I’m pretty far into this nastiness now. I don’t know that I can really teach anyone magic anymore.”
Lawson stared at Elliot for a long moment. “That sucks.”
“Yes.” His smile was wry. “It does.”
“You could be so bitter,” Kim’s voice was low. “Yet you’re not. You’re cheerful. You’re helping Melanie.”
Stefan nodded. “He was the king of all sports back in school. We used to watch him in awe.”
“That was then. I’m not exactly the same now. Even when I could see. But I had a choice in life. My old man leveled with me early on. I could be angry or I could say that I’d enjoy every day I was here and leave it at that. So I chose the latter. It’s been easier.” He squeezed her knee. “Mostly.”
Ava sat forward. “It’s like the Bomber play. Funny how those always resonate with me. Sometimes we have to listen to our parents even when it’s hard. They have good advice, even if they’re not always good people.”
“I really thought the point of that was that the son himself was not such a golden child.” Mitchell shrugged. “I think it works on both levels.”
Lawson took a sip of his drink. “Makes you wonder about Bomber himself, right? What has he or she been through?”
Melanie stared at Lawson. Did he know? It was always hard to tell with the Enforcer. He could very well be aware of Elliot’s secret identity. But… maybe not. “Do you think that it matters? I mean he could be a rich guy living in a mansion or a poor woman trying to put food on the table for her kids. What does it matter if it makes you feel something?”
“I’m never going to seek out the identity. Everyone deserves privacy as long as they’re not breaking the laws.”
Elliot sat back in his seat. “Everyone got enough to drink?”
“Have you seen the Bomber plays?” Eleanor asked Elliot with a sweet tone.
“Not lately.” He waved his hand and another round poured into the drinks.
“Oh.” Mitchell sat up. “I translated the notebook you sent me, Mel. It was very old spells. Seriously, Almaric descent. I don’t know if they even work. I don’t mess with the ancient spells anymore. But it’s something to do with wealth and sacrifice. Whoever tried those was a sick fuck.” He laughed. “To put it not gently.”
Elliot shook his head. “Sorry, I’ve missed something. What are we talking about?”
“The notebook I sent Mitchell. He translated it.” She put out her hand, and Mitchell floated it to her. She stared down at it. This told her very little. Someone had saved a book of weird spells about money? The Boothes had plenty, and it had nothing to do with their curse. Or did it? She chewed on her bottom lip as another thought occurred to her. “Mitchell, we have a ghost problem in this house. Can you help? Or you, Stefan?”
Stefan nodded. “Lawson messaged me about that.”
“A ghost problem?” Mitchell looked between them. “Really? Isn’t that like a human fear or something? Like they don’t have enough things to worry about so let’s make the house haunted in our imaginations?”
She pointed at him. “Think about your wife for a second…”
He held up his hand. “Got it. I’ll look into ghosts.”
Eleanor smiled. “I will, too. I’m good at the unusual. It’s more my specialty than his these days. Can we see the ghosts?”
“Maybe.” As if on cue, the noise in the attic sounded and everyone but Elliot looked up. “That’s one. But we can never find it. Faceless.”
Stefan jumped to his feet. “Like hell. If there is something to find, I find it.”
He shot upward into the air and Kim groaned. “Here we go. He’ll be in that attic the rest of the night.”
Elliot took Melanie’s hand. “Remind me, what this journal is? I’m… I don’t remember.”
“Oh, we talked about it. Sorry, maybe you were distracted. I found a journal I couldn’t read and asked if I could send it to Mitchell. You said yes.”
He rubbed his eyes. “I’m getting a headache.”
“Let’s send everyone home.” She got to her feet. “Ava, I think we need to send you guys on with dessert.”
Her friend nodded, understanding shining in her eyes. “I’m going to send over another drink tomorrow for him.”
“That would be great.” Melanie strode to the other side of the table to hug her friend. Ava had a big heart. She would worry all night. Of course, Mel was probably going to be up doing the same.
Kim sighed and pointed t
oward the ceiling, sending a talking spell upwards as she spoke. “Stefan, we’re leaving. Or I am with your unborn child. If you want to stay here and ghost hunt, that’s your own business.”
He popped right next to her. “I couldn’t find a thing. Mel, I’ll send you whatever I have on ghosts. As Mitchell said, it’s human folklore. But we’ll see what we can do.”
Mitchell walked over. “Yes, whatever Ellie and I can find, we’ll send.”
“Thanks.”
Lawson tugged his wife next to him. “And in the meantime, I’m catching Peter. This week. I can feel it in my gut.”
She turned to Elliot who was doing his best to say goodnight to everyone and not bring attention to his headache. He’d put his sunglasses back on. She doubted that did anything, but maybe it just made him feel better. Her friends exited quickly.
Elliot turned toward her. “Mel, you here?”
Well, that was a change. He usually seemed to be able to sense her. “I am. Hey, why don’t you head up to bed? I’ll clean up here. And no, don’t you dare use your magic for this tonight. I’m going to do it.”
He sighed, his smile forming back on his face. “Going to bed isn’t going to fix this headache tonight. I doubt I will sleep. But yes, I’ll let you clean. I do feel wiped. Just not used to so many people, I guess. That sucks. I used to be social. I’ll sit here and let you spell away the mess like some kind of loser who doesn’t help.”
Elliot sat, and she ran a hand through his hair. “You are so not that.”
It took her ten minutes to spell cast the whole area clean, plus she had to send Ava all of her cooking supplies back to the safe address that Lawson had them using. By the time she got finished, Elliot had his head in his hands.
“Come on. Let’s go rest.” She nudged him, and he lifted his head, pulling his glasses off.
This was one of those few times she could actually tell he was sad. He rose, and she wrapped her arms around his waist. He spoke when they were about halfway to his bedroom. “I forgot something tonight. That notebook. I still can’t remember what you told me was in it… I’m even sort of forgetting you told me. That’s not a good sign, Mel.”
Her heart clenched. “That’s a small thing.”
“Small things first. Details go. Then bigger things. Eventually, it all goes until there is nothing but raving lunacy.”
She’d seen it up to the last part. His mother had shut down the house when his father reached the final stages. “It’s still early days.”
“No, it’s not.” He shook his head, following her into the bedroom. “Edward has specific instructions about what to do with me when this all goes askew. I don’t want you near me when I’m gone. When I’m just a shell, okay? I want your promise on that.”
It was hard to imagine him like that. “Okay.” She hated making that promise, but everyone was entitled to say how they wanted things to go at the end. “How’s your head?”
He put his hand on his forehead. “Awful.”
“I’m sorry about that.” She looked away. “I’ve gone and done something really stupid. I think you should know because I have to take steps to protect myself.”
He tilted his head to the side. “What do you mean?”
“I went and fell for you. Or maybe I… oh forget the maybe… I harbored old feelings. It doesn’t really matter. You were clear on things, and I’ve gone and screwed it up. So I am going to try to pull back a little from this before I topple head over heels and you have to throw me out of the house for being so ridiculous.”
He opened and closed his mouth. “That was brave, what you just said. You could have kept that to yourself or just distanced yourself and I’d never have known why.”
It might have been brave but now all she wanted to do was get out of the room. “Well, honesty really is the best policy. Keeps things simpler. I’ll leave you to your night. I think for my own heart I just have to…”
“Mel, wait.” He stepped toward her. “My turn to be honest.”
She swallowed. “If you’re just going to tell me you warned me, that you were clear, that all the obvious things were stated blatantly, I am already doing that in my own head. As I told Eleanor tonight, I’m a stupid girl.”
“You’re not.” He took another step toward her. “You spoke truth. So will I.” He took a long breath. “Of course I knew you had fallen for me. To not know, would be to seek denial and I’m not doing that. Just the way you have to know that my feelings for you have gone beyond friendship. I could to that thing people do and pretend otherwise. I could be a liar. But I’m not. What I am is selfish, and I’ve lost all integrity because I’m going to ask you not to do what you want to do, which is to take yourself emotionally away from me. I wouldn’t blame you if you did. Only, I’m going to ask you not to do that, Mel.”
The conversation had not gone as she’d anticipated. “Elliot, we’ve hardly known each other. How I feel about you, it’s not okay. I was a child the last time you saw me and now here we are, you suffering and blind. I came into your home. I’m here. I’m someone to…”
“No. You think just anyone could have inspired me to want to somehow live again? It’s you, Melanie. The second you walked in to help me that day I knew that I wanted you. I’m so fucked for even thinking it. I don’t get to want anything, right. I’m nearing the end stage of this curse. But I’m going to ask you to not do what you should do because I’m a selfish bastard.”
Tears leaked from her eyes, and he strode all the way to her, wiping them away. “Elliot…”
“No, go.” He stepped back. “I’m not going to emotionally blackmail you. I care about you, too. If I was allowed to think of a future, I’d put you in it. But I’m not. So you need to get away from me before we’re both just ridiculous. In fact, you should call Lawson and get him to move you someplace else. Surely there has to be a place you’d be more comfortable than watching me become a shell of myself. Go. Please.”
He turned his back on her. She didn’t move for a second, but then she made her feet cooperate. Melanie didn’t have the wherewithal to float away. She had to do it the old-fashioned way. Forcing herself to take the steps in what could only be called scurrying, she made it to the room she’d claimed as hers.
Methodically, she stripped off her clothes, put on her ugliest pajamas, walked to the bathroom to wash her face, and then went back into the room to climb into bed. She didn’t shed any tears. Instead, it was like she couldn’t turn off her mind.
He cared about her, too, and he was sending her away so she wouldn’t get more hurt. Melanie covered her eyes with her arm, but sleep didn’t come. She rolled the length of the bed and then back again before giving up on that. He cared about her. Why did it keep coming back to that?
Finally, she had enough. She wasn’t going to be Peter Evans’s wife. No one was ever going to look at her and say she didn’t know what she was doing.
On bare feet, she stomped back through the house to Elliot’s room. The sound of low playing music greeted her as she came through the door. If he was sleeping, she’d leave him alone. Instead, what she found was Elliot lying across the bed on his stomach. She didn’t know what this music was, but it seemed to be just strings, no words or other music accompanying it.
He looked up when she entered. “Mel?”
“It’s me.”
Elliot got up on his knees. “I… I’m sorry if I’ve already caused you pain.”
“You’ve rescued me. Saved me. Given me more joy than I have the right to want. In a time when I should be nothing but miserable.” Melanie walked toward him fast, taking his hands in hers. “But I want us both to do this knowing what we’re doing and not pretending otherwise. I am choosing to continue down this road, knowing it will lead me to pain. I want it anyway.”
He flared his nostrils. “No, I don’t want that for you.”
She wrapped her arms around his neck. “Then it’s a good thing you don’t get to tell me what to do.”
He ran his hand
s down her arms. “Fuck.”
“Yes, in a second.”
He groaned at her bad joke. “Melanie, come on. This ends when I’m raving and gone to madness. You’ll leave, and then you’ll be in nothing but pain. You’ll wish we hadn’t done this tonight.”
She kissed him, his soft mouth meeting hers. Elliot sighed against her lips, the fight leaving his muscles. When she spoke, it was in a whisper. “I’ll regret the things I didn’t do more than the future pain I’m consenting to have. Kiss me again.”
He did.
She shut her eyes for a second just to feel the closeness before she opened them again. This time, she pushed him backward until she could climb on top of him on the bed. He smiled up at her. Melanie’s heart swelled. There were no untruths between them now. She might someday hate her heartache but right then she was just glad to have this time.
Chapter 10
Melanie kissed him until her head swam. He made a rough sound in his throat before he peeled her shirt off of her. They hadn’t discussed it, but the way things had gone, it did seem like the kind of night to use their hands and not their spells. She did the same for him, pulling his trendy collared shirt over his head and discarding it to the floor.
He pressed his forehead onto her shoulder, and she kissed his cheek. “It’s okay to tell me your head hurts too much for this.”
“It’s fine.” He met her gaze, his white unseeing eyes and her own holding for a second, like they could really see each other. “I was just wishing I could have seen what you were wearing tonight. I should have asked. You spent a lot of time getting ready.”
She smiled and touched the side of his face, the way he did with her, stroking her thumb across the shape of his nose. There was the slightest bump there. He must have broken it and not seen a healer at some point. The slight imperfection did nothing to detract from how utterly beautiful he was.
“What were you wearing?” he asked again.
“Black and gray, basically. Coat was gray. The rest of me was black. Very simple. I have few things that aren’t work clothes.”
Tragic Magic: Wards and Wands #3 Page 11