I shuddered. “Horrible news.”

  “Truer words.” He sighed. “Why are you here?”

  The intercom on the wall buzzed and mercifully spared me from having to answer while Jamie got the pizza. The delightful scent of toasted olives and melted cheese drifted ahead of him, and my stomach rumbled.

  Jamie set the box on the counter and opened the lid to reveal a pizza topped with black and green olives, mushrooms, and pepperoni. “Hungry yet?”

  “You ordered my favorite. Why?” My eyes went from the pizza to him. “You always liked double pepperoni.”

  He set two slices on a plate. “Six years ago.”

  “Oh.” Everything between us kept circling back to six years ago. But I didn’t want to go back.

  I grabbed a plate and three slices. The pizza was cool enough to eat, and I could avoid conversation.

  Jamie finished his pizza and got a second round. “We were interrupted. Why did you come over?”

  I took an extra-large bite of pizza.

  He leaned back in his chair, a hint of a smile on his face as he ate.

  After my third slice, I eyed the box, but I wasn’t hungry enough for more.

  “Well?” He nudged his empty plate away. “Why are you here?”

  This time I couldn’t avoid it.

  “Olivia called me an hour ago. If I don’t give her information about a case, she’ll hurt Dad.”

  Jamie swore.

  “Exactly.”

  “You can’t tell her.”

  “I know.”

  “But your Dad.”

  “I know.” Oh, how I knew. The only thing I didn’t know what how to get Olivia off my back without risking Dad or my job.

  Jamie got the Witch’s Brew from the cabinet and topped off his glass. “That explains why Aiden came to chat.”

  “Oh?” I snagged the Witch’s Brew. I could always get a cab home.

  “He had lot of questions about you and your work.” Jamie shrugged. “I can’t tell him what I don’t know.”

  “I’ll count that as a blessing.” I tugged another piece of pizza out of the box. “But it doesn’t help me keep my family safe.”

  “Can you tell me which case she’s interested in?”

  It wasn’t like the event itself was a secret. Every news station had been there by the end. “The fire at Bee’s Gifts.”

  “That would get her attention.” He swirled his drink. “Put in an information request for her. As a minister, she has reason to need the information report and could be able to aid the investigation. We’re the only clan around, so if she hasn’t been interviewed, she should be. And, if she’s already been questioned and is worried the clan is under investigation, she’ll get another visit from the police. That alone could scare her into backing off.”

  “Help her.” The words tasted bad. “It’s brilliant, but I never would’ve thought to actually help her.”

  “It may not work.”

  I shrugged. “Not like I’ve got other options.”

  Jamie studied me. “What if I get the file and give it to her?”

  “What? No. You can’t. Then you’d lose your job. That’s if you could even get your hands on it.” Last I’d heard, they were limiting access. Black-market magic shops didn’t last long without paying off the right people, and we didn’t have a single useful lead.

  “They’ll be court documents related to the fire. I can get the file. If I give it to Olivia, she doesn’t have a reason to hurt your family.”

  My remaining witch’s brew went down in a gulp. “Maybe, or maybe not. She could hurt them for fun. She could go after your family instead. I’m not risking you, or your family, to keep my family safe. I’ll put in the request for her. That’ll have to do.”

  “And if it isn’t enough?” Jamie leaned forward, his eyes locked on mine. “What if she decides you’ve betrayed her and still goes after your dad?”

  The fight drained out of me. “Then I give up my job. I’d do anything to keep them safe, and damn the consequences.”

  “Kelsey.” He reached for me but stopped short.

  “If it goes that way, she’ll finally get what she’s wanted for six years. Me back with the clan, following orders like a good witch.” Or trying my best. I doubted I’d last a week under her thumb.

  “We both know you’ll never be a good enough clan member for her.”

  “You’re right. This will end with Dad and me sharing Monique’s—” I clamped my mouth shut before I could finish. He’d want to know why I thought Olivia wanted all of us dead, and I couldn’t tell him the truth.

  Jamie tugged me out of my chair and wrapped me in a tight hug. “The entire clan doesn’t feel the same way.”

  I sagged into him. Six years of heartache, and in his arms it faded.

  Once, I’d thought nothing could hurt me as long as he hugged me like this. Now I knew better, but my heart didn’t. To my heart, this was the peace and safety I’d been missing. “Maybe, but they’ve never stopped her.”

  He sighed. “Or they have, and you don’t know.”

  Narzel fart. I couldn’t argue that point, no matter how much I wanted to.

  “I can get that file.”

  Leaning back, I looked him in the eye. “And then what? Did she or Aiden mention it? How would you know she wants it?”

  “It doesn’t matter.” His jaw clinched. “As long as it keeps you safe.”

  This didn’t feel right. The Jamie I’d loved and believed in would’ve said these words and followed through. But that Jamie hadn’t been real. He’d proven that when he turned his back on me because I wouldn’t come back to the clan business. Yet, he here was, offering to help me.

  I stepped out of his arms.

  He let them fall to his sides.

  Turning on my heel, I marched into the living room. The picture of me was gone, replaced by that same sunset, taken ten minutes before I’d stepped in front of him to soak in the view. No one else would know that. To them, it would be a sunset over Appalachia. “I took this picture and handed you the camera.”

  “You said, ‘I want to live this moment, not plan how to remember it.’”

  “A few days later, you dumped me. You wouldn’t answer a single question.” I took the remote off the table and held it out to him. “Switch to the other picture.”

  He shook his head. “Kelsey, what’s the point of this?”

  “Pull up the other picture.” I shook the remote at him. Last time he’d dodged around why he had that picture, the real reasons.

  “No.” His shoulders rounded. “I won’t play this game. Ask your question or don’t.”

  “Will you answer?” Time slowed, and my heartbeat thundered.

  His gaze dropped to the floor before coming back to me. “It depends on what you ask.”

  Time returned to normal, and with it came a sharp pain in my heart. “Why would you risk everything to help me now when you left me with hardly a word before? Why would I believe you care now when you didn’t before? Why would I trust you?”

  Jamie shoved his hands in his pockets. “It isn’t that simple.”

  “Yes it is, both then and now.” I braced myself for another heartbreak, one I should’ve been immune to after last time.

  “Would you really have me go back and do things differently? Think carefully, Kelsey.” His voice lowered with the warning. “You were told to break ties with everyone but your dad if you wanted to break with the clan business. You were to become a member in name only. It would have been the end of us.”

  “It didn’t have to be! What could Olivia have done anyway?” I couldn’t say the rest. Back then, only Dad had known I was a necromancer, and he never would’ve told. Olivia couldn’t have used that against me or Jamie.

  He huffed out a breath. “She’s the minister, Kelsey. She could’ve tossed both our families out of the clan. She could’ve tied your dad to your mom’s crimes. She could’ve done anything she wanted.”

  My breath caught. “What do you know about my mom’s crimes?”

  “The same as everyone else in the clan.” He pivoted and paced to the end of the room. When he turned around, he focused on the sunset picture. “I don’t want to fight.”

  “Maybe I do. I want to understand why you broke my heart and then took a job that put us in contact again. I want to know why you aren’t working for the clan.” I clamped my mouth shut on the last of it. I wanted to know if I could really trust him or if he’d betray me again.

  “Do you want the truth?” The intensity in his eyes didn’t match the bland tone.

  Tilting my head up, I forced bravado to cover my fear. “Yes.”

  “Olivia came to me.” Jamie’s hands fisted, his knuckles going white. “She said I had to end all contact with you as long as you were outside the clan. If I didn’t...” His voice thickened. “If I didn’t, she would give Emmie a new job, as Aiden’s secretary.”

  A chill raced up my spine. “But he tormented your sister. Olivia wouldn’t…”

  “I couldn’t risk it.” He paced to the other side of the kitchen, turned, and ripped the edge off the countertop. “You were so sure of your path, of where you wanted to be. When Aiden went after you, you fought back, left him tied to a chair for an hour.”

  I nodded. Truth be told, that was more Aiden’s fault than mine. He couldn’t spell his way out of a wet paper bag.

  His looked up, pain etched in the lines of his face. “I didn’t agree right away. Olivia came back. She reminded me how close our mothers had been. How she’d never been sure Monique acted alone. How that investigation could come back.

  “You could take care of yourself. Emmie and Mom, they wouldn’t have a chance against those two. Even if Emmie found a way to manage Aiden, Olivia would manufacture evidence against Mom. I had to protect them.” His voice went ragged. “I had to protect them.”

  “I didn’t know.” All this time feeling betrayed, and Jamie had never been the one behind the betrayal.

  “She listened to every word.” He closed his eyes. “I wanted to give you a message. I wanted you to know it wasn’t me, that I didn’t have a choice, but I couldn’t think of anything. Not a single phrase or word that you’d understand and Olivia wouldn’t, so I broke every promise I ever made to you.”

  “Good.” I meant it. “Emmie got out. She married into the Elefant clan. Last I heard she was happy, and more importantly safe.”

  He nodded.

  “You did the right thing.” The words hurt, but not as much as the years of anger. All that wasted energy, all those nights I’d cried and burned pictures of him. If I’d trusted him, if I’d thought about his actions, I would’ve seen how it didn’t fit with the Jamie I knew.

  But I didn’t. I couldn’t. Without him, without my parents, I’d been adrift.

  Olivia had organized it to perfection. Yanked every bit of my support and watched me flounder.

  And it had worked. Not as well as she’d hoped, but she hadn’t counted on Randolf. If he hadn’t taken me in, I would’ve crawled back to the clan.

  “No. I did the only thing I knew to do. Too young to be a man and too old to be a boy who asked for help. You payed the price. Even now, having played it out over and over, I’ve never found another way that kept everyone safe.”

  Jamie covered the distance between us with a few steps, cupped my face in his warm hands, and locked eyes with me. “I would go back and do it again. I would regret it, just as I do now, but I would do it knowing I might not be able to live with what happened if I’d made different choices.”

  He caught me with his kyanite-blue eyes. Strips of dark and light blue that I’d loved gazing into years ago.

  “I was an ass when we met again. Partly because I’m an idiot.” A hint of a smile softened his face. “And partly because if you could hate me, you could love me, and I needed to hope for a second chance. For the next four years, I used any excuse to see you, to hear your voice, and to hope that one day you’d look at me and smile. From time to time, I’d wonder if I should make the first move, but each time I’d pull back at the last moment, afraid of hearing you say no.”

  “I would’ve,” I whispered. “I hated you. For what you’d done and for being Olivia’s agent.”

  He inhaled unsteadily. “Every time I laid eyes on you, my heart would beat so loudly it drowned out rational thought. But I kept trying because I can’t go a day without thinking about you, without wishing I’d been a man, not a boy, when confronted with problems a boy had no way to handle... no matter how much that boy loved you.”

  “You’ve told me why you left, but you haven’t answered the rest of my questions.”

  “Can you trust me? Yes.” He swallowed hard. “Why did I help you? Why did I break your heart and come back again? Because I never stopped loving you.” Jamie brushed his lips across mine.

  Going up on my toes, I deepened the kiss and lost myself.

  His lips were even better than I remembered, and where he’d hesitated years ago, he didn’t now. One of his hands trailed down my cheek, brushed down my arm, and settled around my waist.

  Jamie tugged me in close, his lips still teasing mine.

  Magic flared across my skin, leaving a trail of electric tingles in its wake. While he muddied my mind, I slid a hand down to his hip, finding a line of skin where his shirt had ridden up. Another line of magic raced down my arm, through my hand, and jumped to Jamie.

  He inhaled sharply.

  I broke the kiss to apologize, and that’s when I felt the magic gathering in both of us, the Witches Brew eroding my shields. My eyes flew open. “Jamie!”

  “I’m sorry.” He stumbled back.

  I don’t know if he’d meant to take me with him, but I ended up sprawled across him on the sofa when our magic, addled by the Witch’s Brew, exploded out of us.

  For every bit of my power that burst through my skin, an equal part of his power flowed into me, sending tingles racking up every nerve. I couldn’t stop shivering as the magic raced through me.

  Somehow, his lips found mine, and all those sensations had a focus. Our magic continued to swirl between us as a warm heat we passed back and forth, centered on the kiss and the press of my hands against his chest.

  Jamie captured one of my hands, lacing our fingers together. Heat pulsed between our palms. He broke the kiss. “Kelsey, look.”

  I sucked in a deep breath as his words filtered past the haze of his kisses. “I am looking at you.”

  “The room, Kelsey.”

  Reluctantly, I took my eyes off him. Around the couch, the air swirled with reds, greens, purples, and black. Through all of that, pinpricks of light shone steadily. “Why does it look like the Witch’s Brew?”

  I reached for my magic, but my normal shields were gone, and what magic I could find slid away when I tried to form it into a probe. My necromancy curled out of the dead place on my leg, coming willingly to my call. I shoved it back down, hoping Jamie’s magic was as out of sorts as mine and he wouldn’t notice.

  “Because that’s what it does.”

  “Huh?” Ignoring the mess of my power and the magic display around us, I focused on him.

  Jamie drew his brows together. “You’ve never had Witch’s Brew with another witch, have you?”

  I shook my head.

  “Narzel.” Jamie sucked in a breath, his chest moving under me. “If we hadn’t kissed, it wouldn’t have been any different than drinking alone, a little less control, a dulling of magical senses, and a slight buzz from the alcohol. Once we kissed, it morphed. It used a small amount of our magic to do this and to strip more of our magical control. It can have other, more sensual effects too.”

  “What kind of sensual effects?” I couldn’t stop looking into his blue eyes and the love that drew me in a little deeper with each breath.

  “I don’t know. I’ve never done this before.”

  If I’d been thinking clearly, I would’ve been alarmed. But with my head pleasantly free of magic, shields, and worry, I only wanted one thing. “What a shame.” I bushed my lips cross his.

  “Kelsey,” he warned. “Do you really want this?”

  Did I want to forget the pain he’s caused? Did I want one night without worrying about my job or clan? Did I want to sink into his kiss and for a moment be seventeen again and believe that as long as his arms were around me, the rest of the world didn’t matter? “Yes.”

  Chapter Twelve

  An alarm sounded next to me. I thumped what I hoped was the snooze button.

  “Five more minutes.” Maybe then my eyes wouldn’t feel crusted shut.

  The alarm went off again, and it hadn’t been five minutes.

  I pried open an eye.

  This wasn’t my room.

  I sat up.

  This wasn’t my room. Don’t get me wrong: the white with touches of silver was lovely and contrasted nicely with the picture of a sunrise over a misty field that dominated the wall, but it wasn’t mine.

  This wasn’t my shirt, either. I didn’t own an oversized t-shirt sporting the clan logo.

  A light knock gave me just enough time to dive under the covers before the door swung open.

  Jamie peered in. “You’re awake.” Barefoot and bare-chested, he came in with a steaming mug in his hands. “I hope tea is still your morning potion of choice.”

  “Um, yes. Thanks.” I took a sip. “Last night is fuzzy.”

  Enough of the memory was coming back that I remembered how I’d ended up borrowing one of his shirts, and a pair of pants draped across the other side of the bed. We hadn’t been saints, but he’d been clear. After the Witch’s Brew, there was only so much fun he was willing to indulge in until we both had clear heads.

  He leaned against the door frame and crossed his arms over his chest. “Hung over?

  “A little.”

  “I’ve got more tea and a headache charm in the kitchen.”

  “Thank you.” I tightened my hands around the warm cup. “Next time we should do this on a weekend I don’t have to work.”

  “Next time? You’re feeling presumptuous this morning.” The corner of his mouth tiled up. “I’m game.”