Page 126 of A Witchy Spell Ride

“Party’s back on,” Bones barked again because he likes to echo himself when the echo works. “Pour the good stuff, not the rat-killer.”

The band picked up a beat. The fog machine tried to do too much, and Ash kicked it back into sense. Daisy stuck a glittercrown on my head and then remembered I don’t do crowns and put it on Briar instead, who did a curtsy, so dramatic Reaper had to look away to keep a straight face.

Selene leaned her forehead against mine. The room spun around us, but we were a fixed point. “Upstairs,” she whispered again, teeth catching my lower lip. “Now.”

“Now,” I agreed, the oath of a man who’s been late for the last time.

I caught Cross’s eye as I stepped backward with her, my hand threaded with hers so tight it felt like one thing. He nodded once. “I’ll package the case,” he said. “By dawn, Briggs belongs to a judge in a bad mood.”

“Alive,” Reaper reminded, his gaze cutting to me, to the fresh Enforcer rocker under my name.

“Alive,” I said, and Selene squeezed my hand once to anchor me to my own word.

We took the back stairs. The hallway still smelled like her perfume and the choke of chloroform ghosts. My jaw locked; she felt it and tugged me back down with a kiss to the hinge that made the muscle unclench.

Inside my room, the door clicked shut. The noise of the party muffled into a low animal hum. I turned the lock out of habit, not fear. She turned me by the lapels and pushed me to sit on the edge of the bed with that look that makes men ruin nations.

“Hands,” she said, and I obeyed because I like to live. She took alcohol wipes from the drawer, swore about how much it wouldsting, and cleaned my knuckles. I hissed anyway. She blew on them like you do for kids. It helped anyway.

“My turn,” I said. I cupped her wrists and checked the angry grooves the nylon had left. I kissed the burns. She rolled her eyes and shivered.

“Hydration,” Vex’s voice drifted faintly from the hall as if the devil heard his name. A bottle thumped against the door. Briar’s snort followed, and then her voice through the wood: “If you two break the bed, I’m not cleaning it.”

“Go away,” Selene sang, laughter like something holy.

Footsteps retreated.

I set the bottle on the nightstand and went back to work. “I should’ve been faster,” I said, because honesty is the only religion that saves me from myself.

She hooked a finger under my chin and made me look at her. “You were exactly on time,” she said. “I did the first part. You did the second. That’s how this works.”

“Partnership,” I said.

“Partnership,” she echoed, and kissed me like she was signing the document.

When she pulled back, she reached into her pocket and took out that square of leather.PROPERTY OF SELENE. She folded it once and slid it into the inner pocket of my cut, over my heart. “In case you forget,” she said.

“I won’t,” I said.

“Men like you carry a lot,” she murmured, scratching her nails lightly where my new rocker lay. “Let me carry you sometimes.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

She smiled, satisfied, and then ruined me for a while with a pace I’d follow into fire. It wasn’t the rough edge of earlier; it was something steadier, deeper, welived stitched into skin.

Later, when sweat had dried and breath had evened and the party downstairs had turned from roar to song, I lay with her head on my chest and counted the seconds between her inhales like a man doing math on a bomb.

“I’m not running anymore,” I said into her hair.

“I know,” she said, voice sleep-warm. “You live here now.”

“Yeah.” I stared at the ceiling. “I do.”

My phone buzzed once. Cross:Package delivered. Briggs screaming about love on camera. Ty rolled and gave us magnets, store receipts, the works. DA will dine on him. Good patch.

Another buzz. Reaper:Tomorrow 10 a.m. Church. You bring donuts. Enforcer buys first round and fixes what he breaks.

I huffed a laugh and set the phone facedown.