Page 109 of Fractured Fates

My friend side-eyes me. “She got away from you.”

“Ilether get away from me.”

“You’re going soft in your old age.”

I stare at him. We both know that my age isn’t the reason I’m turning soft.

“You need to keep an eye on her, Stone. You need to make sure she doesn’t leave.”

The barman smacks a bottle of beer down in front of him, twisting off the cap and Stone takes a gulp.

“I don’t know. If she went, she’d be dead sooner or later. Maybe that’s our way out of this shit.”

I grab a fistful of his shirt. “You want her dead?” I spit into his face.

His body flags, gaze dropping with shame to the floor. “No,” he whispers.

I stare at him hard. “And I thought you were a fucking professor. Do you actually read any of those books in your fucking office? You know what would happen …”

He lifts his head and glares at me. “I’ve seen it first hand,” he growls through gritted teeth, “remember?”

Guilt floods my body and I let go of his shirt. “Shit! Phoenix, I’m sorry. I–”

“It wouldn’t be like that for us,” he says, his hands gripping the bottle so tightly I’m surprised it doesn’t shatter. “I’d make sure of it.”

I shake my head. He thinks we’re special? He thinks we’re different?

Maybe in some ways we are. Maybe in more ways than anyone else will ever know about.

But in this? We won’t be.

“I’m serious, Stone. It’s ancient magic. Existed since the beginning of time.”

“I want her gone.”

“Sure you do,” I say, my voice laced with sarcasm.

“She’s a nuisance.”

“Women always are,” I say but my joke falls flat.

He spins the bottle in his hand. Then sighs, his shoulders slumping in defeat.

“I’m not going to let anything happen to her. You know that. But I’m not going to be nice.” He scowls. “And she can fight her own fucking battles.”

That’s good enough for me.

“So what answers did you give her?”

Stone spreads out his hands. “What answers do I have?”

It’s true, despite our continued investigation, we’ve turned up nothing. “I can’t help feeling the council has information it hasn’t shared with me.” I lift my beer bottle to my lips and finish the remaining liquid.

“What makes you think that?”

“The fact they sent her to the academy, let her keep that dumb pig. I’ve never seen the council be so lenient before.”

“Every magical is precious. They wouldn’t waste an opportunity to train another for the force.”