I pushed further out of bed, finally rising to a seated position. “The Lonely King what?”
“He’s going to be hard to take down. We need to concentrate on Fagan for now.” He leveled his gaze at me once more. “You sure you don’t remember any more details?” Usually, when Max questioned me, he did so with the point of a verbal sword against my throat. Now? He was gentle, kind. And god did I like the gentle, kind Max.
It drew me a little further out of bed as I pushed the covers down. “I don’t think so. Not at the moment. I’m not holding anything back,” I said quickly, voice stuttering.
Max looked right at me then nodded. “I know. But if anything jogs your memory—”
It was my turn to nod firmly. “I’ll let you know. God knows I’d like to live through this,” I said in a strangled tone.
Still looking right at me, Max put a hand into his pocket and smiled.
Bam. There you go again – that perfect smile. The kind of smile that would set any girl’s insides pulsing and charging with nervous tingles. The kind of nervous tingles that were more than powerful enough to finally see me push up out of bed. I stood there, bare feet on the floor as I looked past Max to the window then back to Max. “So what are we waiting for? Isn’t it time to go see the witches?”
Max nodded, smiled, then shrugged towards the door. “Though you might want to put some pants on first,” he commented as he shifted towards the door, gaze ticking toward my butt for half a second.
A blush charged up my cheeks as I smacked a hand on my bum. I realized that underneath the open back flaps of the medical gown, I was in my underwear.
Oh god.
I’d never live this down.
… If I was given the time, that was.
Chapter 6
I dressed, and we checked out of the hospital. Though at first, the nurse wanted to keep me in for more observations, Max somehow managed to convince her to let me go.
It wasn’t just his looks – it was his tone. As he spoke to the nurse, I could hear little crackles and charges of magic reverberating through his voice. It seemed to lull the nurse until she let me out.
I didn’t mention it until we were out of the hospital and back in one of Max’s many cars. I turned to him as I got into the passenger seat. “What was that? You… compelled that nurse, didn’t you? You used magic on her.”
He didn’t face me until he turned on the ignition, shoved the gearbox into reverse, and started backing out of a parking spot. His gaze ticked towards me in the rear vision mirror. “Starting to learn how to identify magic, ha?”
I didn’t want to – but I blushed. I did not, however, drop it. “You compelled her, right? How did you do that? Isn’t that… I dunno, kind of wrong?” Speaking as someone who was pretty comfortable bridging the gap between right and wrong, it took a pretty heinous moral breach to pique my sensibilities.
This time Max turned to me in full. “I wasn’t using that ability for bad. Just to get you out of the hospital. And you’re fine. So no, it wasn’t wrong. It was required.”
I didn’t push the matter further, just shrugged back into the seat and finally did up my seatbelt.
Now I was out of the hospital, I could appreciate why I’d been there. My head felt like hell. I brought up a hand, squeezed it behind the headrest, and plucked at the back of my skull.
Max’s eyes locked on me instantly. Without asking, and without warning, he reached out a hand, pushed it behind the back of the headrest, and placed his broad, flat, warm palm against my skull.
I tensed. Instantly, a thrill of darting, charging nerves raced down my back and sank into my heart.
“Ah, what are you doing?” I asked in a falsely light tone.
“You’re still in pain. So sit back, relax, and close—” he began, obviously about to say I should close my eyes. He stopped. Abruptly. He tipped his gaze towards me, and I could tell it had a searching quality. “Keep your eyes open,” he suddenly suggested. “Fully open. Don’t concentrate on the magic, either. Concentrate on the road.”
… Was Max scared that if I closed my eyes, I’d be transported back to that green pastureland and sunny sky?
I gave a languid blink, and as soon as I did, Max forcefully cleared his throat. He even shifted his fingers around until they dug into my skull. “Keep your eyes open,” he warned in a shaking tone.
“Okay, okay,” I managed. And then? Then I let myself fall into his touch. It went beyond reassuring. It wasn’t like some warm blanket I could furl around my shoulders. Oh, heck no – it was a hell of a lot nicer than that. A hell of a lot more engaging, too. Whenever Max had his hands on me, it was like my universe expanded. No more old Chinese takeaway from the back of the fridge, no more fortune-telling, no more questions about what I should do with my life.
Just doors opening up everywhere. Just the future full and bright with that glorious sunshine.
“I said concentrate on the road,” Max snapped.
His sudden intrusion shook me, and I swallowed hard. Realizing I had to distract myself, lest Max remove his hand, I cleared my throat. “Where do the witches hang out, anyway?”
“We’re headed there now,” he answered.
I frowned and made absolutely no attempt to hide it. “Why don’t you actually answer my question? Because do I need to remind you that the last time—”
He rolled his eyes. “Fine. They hang out at 24 William Street, okay?”
I frowned. “I don’t know where that is,” I commented.
He nodded pointedly. “I know. I wasn’t withholding the truth from you because I don’t trust you,” he began.
I ticked my gaze up.
“It’s because you’re an idiot,” he continued.
I didn’t let my gaze drop.
While Max had made a song and dance over asking me whether I trusted him, didn’t it beg an equally important question?
Did Max trust me?
He must have picked up on what I was thinking, because I didn’t drop my gaze as I practically let it burn the side of his neck.
“You should be concentrating on the magic,” he pointed out.
“You told me not to concentrate on the magic,” I commented.
What I should have said was that boy was I concentrating on his magic – while one-quarter of my mind was set on the task of arguing with Max – oh, the rest sank into his glorious touch.
He gritted his teeth. “Yes, keep your eyes open. You shouldn’t concentrate on arguing with me. Just let the healing magic do its work.”
“And let you drive in peace, ha?” I commented.
He shot me a deadly look.
I pressed my lips closed.
It was a mistake, because when I wasn’t concentrating on arguing with him, I had no distraction.
And I really needed a distraction right now. For, without one, I might let out an entirely inappropriate shuddering moan.
Which wouldn’t go down well.
While it was hopefully not so obvious that I had a crush on Max, it was pretty darn obvious that he didn’t have one on me. Max thought I was his irritating charge, and nothing more.
A few minutes later, Max obviously thought I’d had enough, as he yanked his hand back.
Without realizing it, I’d completely zoned out. No, I hadn’t closed my eyes – I knew that if I even blinked, Max would smack me on the back of the head.
And yet, that hadn’t quite mattered. Because I’d felt that sunshine. I’d been transported back to that pastureland, heard those voices. They hadn’t been as strong as whenever I closed my eyes around Max’s magic – but they had unmistakably been there.
Now, more than ever, I wanted to follow that magic, wanted to find out who Max had been.
“Almost here,” he commented abruptly.
I looked up as he parked along a crowded street.
It was true that I’d just moved to this city, and I still didn’t know it very well. Yet as I tilted my head back and looked at the horizon line –
trying to spy a familiar tall building or tower – I realized we were right across the other side of town.
My logical mind told me we couldn’t be less than 10 minutes from the hospital – still in the central quarter of the city.
So how the hell did we cross town?
“What the heck?” I managed as I undid my seatbelt before Max had turned off the engine.
He growled at me. “We’re not parked yet. Stay seated.”
“Okay, okay.” I jerked my hands off my seatbelt and held them out as if I was scared he was going to shoot me.
Finally, Max turned off the ignition.
As soon as he did, I unbuckled my seatbelt so quickly I could have given myself whiplash. I jumped out of the car.
“Slow down,” he snapped as he got out, closed the door, locked the car, and joined me on the pavement. He was frowning. Of course he was frowning – when did Max smile? Oh, when he wanted to melt my heart. But that was criminally infrequent.
I kept pushing up onto my tippy-toes, trying to spy more of the buildings around me. I pointed to them. “Where the heck are we?”
“Across town.”
I frowned. Boy did I frown. My lips could have cut lines across my chin. I looked at him sharply. “But we’re only 10 minutes from the hospital. And I may not be too familiar with Bane City, but I know that hospital. You may be a fairy,” I let my voice drop, “but your car isn’t.” I reached out a hand and patted the hood. “So I’m going to ask once more – how the heck did we get here so fast?”
“Weren’t paying attention during the drive, were you?” he commented, eyes narrowing.
Blushing, I decided to give in and shrugged my shoulders. “Nope, I was a little distracted by—” I stopped myself before I could say a Scottish moorland. I shrugged. “I was thinking of Fagan,” I lied.
This thawed Max off a little, and he tipped his head low. “If you had been paying attention, you would have seen that when I turned down Nation Street, I went through the tunnel.” His voice twisted on the word tunnel.
“And?”
“You really weren’t paying attention, were you?” he admonished as he went with his go-to move, crossed his arms, and leaned against the car.
Had I been so distracted by that glorious sunshine that I’d missed our car transporting from one side of the city to the other?
I let my shoulders cave. “Okay, just tell me – what did I miss?”
“Nothing,” he said, a broad smile spreading across his cheeks.
Crap – had Max been playing with me?
As a scandalized expression spread across my face, Max unhooked his arms and nodded forward. “With the right kind of car and sufficient knowledge of magic, you can use the tunnel to transport anywhere in Bane City.”
I blinked rather frantically. “You can? Isn’t that… I don’t know, kind of magically expensive?” I let my voice drop all the way down low as I said the word magically.
“It’s okay, Chi,” Max leaned in, matching my conspiratorial tone, “most of the people along this street are witches.”
I stiffened as he said that – because he said the word witches with an entirely normal pitch, his usually loud brogue reverberating down the street.
There were two older women walking with shopping baskets in their hands, and they were well within earshot. They did not, however, turn on their feet and call Max a madman.
They ignored him completely.
My eyebrows locked together. I didn’t know that much about magic, but I knew that it was mostly secret. You got into trouble if you spread news about it, too. From what I’d read in my grandmother’s journals, you got into the kind of trouble that knocked on your door at night and didn’t stop knocking until it broke your kneecaps.
The magical races of the world required their anonymity to continue to live freely. If they lost that anonymity because some stupid upstart started wagging her tongue about witches and clairvoyants – they’d get their retribution. Violently, quickly, and with a few magical crackles for good measure.
I pressed closer to Max. Was it my imagination, or did his pupils dilate just a fraction?
I cleared my throat. “You better not be playing with me, Max. Are all the people around here honestly witches?” I ticked my head from left-to-right, letting my gaze sweep across the street.
It locked on a young boy walking along with his hands in his pockets. I pointed him out with a flourish of my hand. “Ha – he can’t be a witch. He’s a boy!”
“You know nothing,” he admonished. “Yes, he’s a witch. It’s not only women who are witches.”
My nose scrunched up. “It isn’t?”
He just shook his head and looked disappointed in me, even if his expression looked half faked and mostly for fun.
He shoved his hands in his pockets and shrugged me forward. “This way. We are running out of time,” he said, his tone and mood changing completely.
A second ago he’d been playing with me, goading me, pretending I was pathetic for knowing nothing about the magical world. Now? Now he reminded me exactly why I was here.
My heart sank, my hands became sweaty as I locked them into tight fists behind me, and I hurried along after him.
I couldn’t say this street looked any different to any other street in any other city I’d ever seen. It was wide, there were parked cars along the curb, and there were buildings with shops and cafés and businesses. And the people? They looked pretty normal. Though most of them appeared to be wearing more jewelry than you usually saw, that was the only distinguishing feature. And hey, maybe there’d been a fantastic jewelry sale at a local store. Having more bling was not incriminating evidence when it came to distinguishing the magical world.
I scurried after my fairy down the street until he hooked a right into a café. Even from the outside, I could tell it was funky. Instead of the standard metal tables and chairs, there were old retro recliners, and the tables were made out of packing crates that had been tied together with rope.
The clientele was equally edgy, and I caught sight of the menu as I shifted past. It was a fusion of health food and taste.
I frowned. This wasn’t going to be the den of the witches, was it? Modern day witches weren’t superfood-loving hipsters in hemp and bamboo tie-dyed shirts, were they?
I quickly got my answer.
As Max powered up to the counter, I saw Bridgette.
She locked her eyes on me, and instantly a grin spread across her face.
We were separated by a long, tall counter. That didn’t appear to be a problem for Bridgette, though. She planted her hands on the polished wood and leaped over it. It was a smooth, practiced move any gymnast would be proud of. She landed, her plastic patent leather heels jangling.
Her outfit was a complete mismatch. She wore what looked like a reclaimed, beaten-up leather brown jacket, the aforementioned heels, and a pair of loose black harem pants and a matching loosely fitted top.
It shouldn’t work. It should never work. Yet somehow, it worked on Bridgette’s lithe, athletic form.
She stuck a hand out, grabbed mine, and did all the shaking. “I was hoping you’d show up. Hoping I’d get the chance to properly thank you. You rushed off in a hurry last night,” she commented as she cast her gaze towards Max.
Was it just me, or did Bridgette’s eyes narrow in suspicion?
“Max, god, I’m so relieved you came,” came a voice from the door that led to the kitchen. A second later, Sarah appeared. Unlike Bridgette, who was dressed thoroughly crazy, Sarah was the picture of the cute girl next door. She was in a sweet summer dress, cute white heels, and her red, fiery hair was clasped behind her neck with a carved wooden clip.
A pang of jealousy goaded through my heart. Which was so totally freaking crazy. I had nothing to be jealous about. And heck, if Max got a little more love in his life, maybe he’d stop being such an asshole.
Still, I couldn’t stop myself, and my heart sank.
Then my brow clinked do
wn. Hold on, Max had brought me here on the premise that the witches could help me. Yet, from how Sarah was speaking, it sounded as if this had been a prearranged appointment.
He wasn’t doing it again, was he?
I didn’t get the time to question him. Sarah waved us forward, opened a little door that was lodged in the front of the counter, and shrugged us over.
I followed, Bridgette at my side and Sarah and Max striding ahead.
I let my gaze cut into the back of his neck. Heck, cut was an understatement – it slashed.
“I wouldn’t be jealous,” Bridgette suddenly leaned in and whispered in my ear, “he’s still your fairy.”
I stiffened. My back became so straight, it would have taken an army to bend it.
“I… I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said through a gulp.
Bridgette snickered but didn’t push. It didn’t take long for Sarah to lead us to one of the back rooms. I was expecting one of the storerooms, but that’s not what I got. What I got was a kind of funky living room.
The room was large and looked like it took up most of the back of the café. There were comfortable chairs, couches, a pretty rug, and a long kind of beaten up chaise longue. Instantly, Max walked over and sat on it with a thump. His easy movement kind of suggested he’d been here before, kind of suggested he felt like he belonged. He even looped an arm up and around the back of the couch.
My stomach twisted with yet more jealousy. Which was so freaking stupid, I kept trying to tell myself. Pull it together, Chi; you’re not with Max. In fact, your life would have been a heck of a lot better if you’d never met him.
I held onto that thought as I walked over to one of the chairs that was as far from Max as I could get, and sat down delicately. Then I proceeded to watch Bridgette and Sarah warily.
They discussed something amongst themselves in low voices until Sarah walked over and sat next to Max on the couch.
There were plenty of other seats, my mind suddenly told me, and there was no need to sit so bloody close! I didn’t dare say a word of this out loud. I crossed my legs, crossed my arms, and sat back in the seat. This better not be some kind of romantic distraction for Max. If it was, I’d kill him. I brought my hand up and looked at the watch – five hours until I would be a dead woman. Suddenly, rather violently, I was reminded of what Fagan had told me – Max had abandoned me. The only reason I’d been captured, was that my magical bodyguard had abandoned me.
A Lying Witch Book Two Page 8