Page 41 of Dragon's Desire

She looked at him, her face a mix of skepticism and concern.

"Trust me," he repeated.

Then she smashed her lips against his, kissing him quickly but deeply before pushing herself to her feet.

"If you die, I'll find a way to bring you back just so I can kill you myself," she said as she ran.

It was just in time. Legermain floated around the corner and then landed a few yards from Peter, who raised the witch bottle in front of him.

"You like to operate alone. I think even unable to communicate, you'd still try to come after me. So, no. I won't be using the Totem of Babel on you. As much as I am loath to do so, you must be eliminated," Legermain drew a wicked-looking dagger from his belt.

Peter dropped the witch bottle and pulled his own dagger from the sheath at his side.

"I fear your footwork is going to be rubbish like this. You'd have very little chance of winning a knife fight pinned to the floor."

"You know, what? You're right," Peter said and hurled the dagger at Legermain, but the warlock could see how wide the throw was and didn't even need to step out of the way.

"So sorry, Agent Winthrop. Time to die. You made a good show of it. Is it the pain that made you miss your mark?" Legermain taunted as he closed the distance between them. Standing above him, Legermain raised the dagger up with a grin.

"What makes you think I missed?"

Legermain's brow furrowed just before Kiercy stuck the blessed blade in his back.

27

KIERCY

Kiercy looked down at Peter and was ready to argue with him until he said, "Trust me."

She had absolutely no reason to. He'd been an arrogant ass who had a list of flaws longer than her arm. But his voice was uncharacteristically sincere. She couldn't understand it, but she trusted he had some plan.

Then she kissed him. She could barely understand why.

She got up and ran. He seemed so confident in himself like he knew exactly what he was doing. Then she realized he may have just been saying that. He may have been lying to her and wanted her to get away and be safe.

Was the lecherous man that self-sacrificing? Peter Winthrop frustrated her in so many ways. Each time she thought she had him figured out, he threw her another curveball.

She turned around and circled back quietly. She wanted to help him, but she also didn't want to end up in just as hopeless a situation as he was. There'd be no saving him if she died.

She heard Legermain taunting Peter. She stepped out, unsure what she was going to do, and then Peter threw the dagger. His aim was wide. She'd seen Peter work. Seen him fight. Even pinned as he was, he could have hit Legermain. Or tried to. Granted, the warlock could have spent more of his magic to deflect it. Then she saw Peter looking right at her, and he winked.

The bastard actually winked at her. Then she realized what he was doing. She kept her steps as light as possible she ran up and retrieved the dagger. Even just the handle sizzled against her palm.

This was a witch hunter weapon. It didn't distinguish between witches good, bad, or indifferent. She bit back yelling out. As Legermain gloated over Peter, she ran up and stabbed him in the back. She wasn't looking to kill him. They had too many questions for him. All she wanted to do was slow him down.

He cried out in pain and fell to the floor. She cuffed his hands. The cuffs would prevent a mundane escape, and the dagger made a magical one impossible. Beyond just the searing pain, blessed weapons made spell casting impossible.

With Legermain bound in the physical and metaphysical sense, she could cast her own spells uninterrupted. First, she moved the shelf off of Peter. Then she healed his broken arm.

After she helped pull him to his feet, he said, "See. I had a plan."

"We're going to talk about that after we're done with him."

They turned around and took a step towards Legermain.

"You have a choice here, Legermain. You can answer some questions, and we put you in the nicer part of the deep dark hole we stuff criminals like you in. Or you can get the not-so-nice part. It's up to you."

"I—" Legermain started to say something and then stopped.

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