Still not seeing him anywhere, I turn the key in the ignition. If he hasn’t made his presence known by now, he’s long gone.
“Is there a point to this call?”
Dirt kicks up behind my car as I fly down the long driveway. I glance at the phone vibrating in my cupholder. Seeing a message from Kai, I almost smile—almost because I’m still talking to the ex from hell, but Kai’s name on the screen is a welcome relief. He went MIA on me for a few days but resurfaced last night, texting to explain he’d been buried in work and promising to make it up to me.
I had panicked when he stopped calling and didn’t come by the coffee shop, thinking he’d finally gotten sick of taking it slow. Not that I could blame him if he had bailed. I’ve made him wait for weeks even though Chaz was inside me without knowing my name. To be fair, the bathroom sex was a one-off. Fantasy fulfillment fueled by nerves, liquid courage, and a cut jaw and chin dimple I never saw coming.
“I’m just checking in,” Hex says. “On you. On Nyla.”
The way he tacks my sister’s name on so casually at the end reminds me of all the reasons I loathe him.
“Fuck you,” I bite at him. “You don’t get to say her name. Not after what you did.”
He sighs dramatically, like he does. “Oh, Nyxie. One day, you’ll forgive me for all that, you know.”
“Not in this life.”
“Well, here’s to the next one then. And hey!” His tone turns mocking for the last two syllables. “We might not even have to wait very long to find out if you can’t get your shit together.”
“That sounds like a threat,” I say, turning onto the highway.
“Did it now? Because it was meant as a warning.” Hex drops his voice low, the real reason for the call finally on the surface. “It’s time to quit screwing around, love. Get him in the open and alone. And soon. I might be a heartless bastard, but at least I’d feel a little bad about killing you. Boss man, though, is on a completely different level, and if you don’t deliver, you can bet—”
The rest of the wager is lost to the wind when I throw the burner phone out the window. I don’t need Hex to remind me what’s at stake, and I sure as hell don’t need him to tell me I’m out of time.
The nurse already did both.
Last-minute convention out of town, I text Kai. Gone a few days at least.
No worries, bro. We’ll do something stupid when you get back to celebrate our reunion.
I snort at his text. Our reunion would come a hell of a lot faster if he’d end things with Nyx already.
Of course, he hasn’t exactly been seeing her either. A deadline had him locked in his room with his laptop for the past four days. He did little but code. Avery convinced him to eat a few times, but even then, he kept typing away on his keyboard while he chewed. He stopped all outside contact too, reading texts but not responding. Which meant I could text him every day, asking him to hang out to keep up appearances without worrying about him taking me up on the offer.
He finished in the middle of the night and texted me saying he was alive. I waited until now to answer since, after sending a few more texts, he crashed for fourteen hours. So did I until Avery got up and went to her classes. With him working twenty hours a day, I’d follow her all day and then keep tabs on him most of the night. Probably not necessary, but I’ve felt an even stronger need to watch him closely since the dream. I guess the guilt of letting dream-Kai die carried over, too—and lasted a lot longer than the hard-on.
I’m in my car outside the daycare, watching him through the palm stone while Avery works. Right after he answers me, he calls someone. I use the incantation to hear, so I know what to expect from my night. Now that he’s free from his corporate chains, he’ll be itching to do something stupid before I get back from my fake trip.
“Tell me you have a race tonight,” he says. A few seconds later, he grins. “Asher, I never want kids, but if I ever get a dog, I’m naming him after you.”
So, racing it is. I’m about to hit the mystical mute again, but then he dials someone else. He tosses his phone on the bed, leaving it on speaker. And then Nyx answers. Four days of no sightings or erased moments in hallways or dreams. The last probably because of the lack of sleep, but still. Just like that, she’s back. Her voice fills my car, crawls into my ears, implants in my brain.
“We still on for tonight?” he asks, dragging off the shirt he’s worn for three days straight.
“Still on,” she says.
Great. They already made plans. She must have been his other messages last night or earlier when he woke up and immediately reached for his phone.
“I’ll pick you up around nine. The first race starts at ten.”
“And you’re sure we can’t do something sane?” Nyx sounds unimpressed with the night’s festivities. “I mean, if this is our official first date as a couple, shouldn’t we do something in which the boyfriend doesn’t chance wrecking and dying?”
Fucking what? What’s with this couple shit? Nyx is supposed to be on her way out, not digging herself further in. And how the hell did they go from not talking for days to dating in a few text messages?
I blow out a breath, resting my head on the back of the seat.
“Trust me, baby, I’m not going anywhere.” Kai drags a towel out of the laundry basket of clean clothes on his floor. “We’ll hit the track for a quick race and then come back here. You’re still staying, right?”
And now, they apparently have sleepovers.
I wait for her response, white-knuckling the steering wheel.
“Yeah,” she says, her voice higher than normal. “I can’t wait.”
I stop listening. I quit watching for a while too. I need to take advantage while I can because, in a few hours, I won’t have any choice but to watch them. Together.
And then later, I’ll feel them.
I hover behind a collapsing metal shed, ducked in a shadow with the hood of my sweatshirt pulled up. We’ve been here often enough that I know the layout and can stalk around without being seen. I won’t call it a racetrack. It’s a field with something that resembles a dirt track in the middle. Broken bleachers on one side even though most people sit on the hoods of their cars. A few dilapidated buildings are scattered around, adding to the charm.
Just like at the hotel, with Kai’s first step out of his car, an inkling of light appears dead center in my chest. Kai runs around to shut Nyx’s door and hooks his arm around her. They dodge a piece of farm equipment and then disappear behind one of the buildings.
Once they have a solid head start, I pull out the amulet. Ever since the breakthrough last week, I can’t stop messing with it. Sometimes, I get a burst of energy, sometimes not, but I have no idea what makes the difference. My own personal sword in the stone—the bullshit version anyway.
Am I worthy, Samy?
When I cast the spell, I get enough of a light boost to drop to the corner Kai and Nyx walked around. Works when I’m too lazy to walk a hundred feet—check.