Page 69 of Magic Forsaken

“Do you always blame your employers when someone tries to kill them?”

I definitely wasn’t in my right mind. I’d breathed in too much smoke and almost died. That was the only rational explanation for why I was still arguing.

“Only the insufferable know-it-all dragons. And now that I think about it, I wouldn’t say that Icompletelyfailed at my job.”

“You wouldn’t?” One eyebrow shot up—sarcasm mingled with amusement.

“You’re still alive, aren’t you?”

I was rewarded by a brief chuckle, followed by a sideways glance laden with curiosity.

“So why didn’t you try using water?”

Why hadn’t I… I scrambled frantically for a reason that would make sense. I couldn’t exactly tell him that I hadn’t even thought of it. That I was utterly unaccustomed to thinking of myself as an elemental.

“Gasoline,” I blurted out. “If the fuel line was broken, water would have just made it worse, wouldn’t it?”

“Yes,” he allowed. “But there are other ways to use it in that situation.”

I shrugged as nonchalantly as my nerves would permit. “I guess I was too startled to think clearly. And like I told Seamus, I don’t have a lot of experience with using my power. Not sure what I could have done.”

“Broken the windows?” he suggested.

Hah. “Those windows are made to stop bullets,” I retorted. “What was ice going to do?”

I realized my mistake a moment later when I caught a sidelong glance from those keen dragon eyes. He said nothing, but I could practically hear his questions mounting.

The average person would have no reason to know about bulletproof glass, or any of the other safety modifications to his SUV. The more he learned about me, the less was going to add up, and the more questions he was going to have.

I’d been stupid to agree to work for him. A fool to think I could hide the truth from Faris, let alone from a powerful, professionally paranoid dragon. But I’d felt trapped, first by our need to… oh, I don’t know,eat, and then by the lure of actuallydoingsomething to help others like me. Now I was facing the consequences, and I could only hope that I could manage to contain them.

Prevent them from hurting anyone but me.

But the longer I knew Callum…

The more I began to doubt that this was possible.

FIFTEEN

I somehow managedto hide the state of my clothes from Logan and Ari, brush off Kes’s concern, and return to the vehicle in a nearly identical outfit only ten minutes after I’d left it.

Callum said nothing more about my secrets. In fact, he remained silent for the rest of the drive, while I contemplated my mistakes and wondered whether there were prizes for screw-ups of my caliber.

And the award for Biggest Mistake in the History of Ever goes to…

Callum knew about my people. Knew where I lived. Knew what I’d done.

He just didn’t know what I was, and that was the only thing keeping all of us alive.

“You’re brooding very loudly,” he finally pointed out, as he parked along the curb in a distinctly wealthy-looking urban neighborhood, where elaborate signs proclaimed we were now in Heritage Hills. The homes were all older, but large and well kept, surrounded by mature trees and perfect lawns. Decorative street lamps punctuated neat sidewalks that were currently adorned with fallen leaves in shades of gold, orange, and red—beautiful, if a bit surreal in its picturesque perfection.

“It’s called thinking,” I retorted. “Something I probably ought to do more often. Particularly before dealing with dragons.”

He shut off the engine. “You’re doing fine. Today was not your fault.”

“The Symposium starts tomorrow,” I argued, “and we still don’t know who is trying to sabotage it. There were three attacks today, and I was basically useless. What am I even doing here, Callum?”

“You’re not useless.” His tone had descended into that deep growl that brought a shiver to my spine and tremors to my hands. But neither of them felt like fear. “You’ve averted disaster twice now. Saved me from being hit in the back with fae magic. And the attack on our car was likely intended to deal with you, rather than me.”

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