Page 4 of Encore
“That’s not really how curses work,” Bevan said. “I’m not an agent like Beyla, but they trained me to cast them and break them. I’ve read every book Minerva Krauss ever wrote, and I even got to hear her speak once. You can curse an object or a person. People are much more complex, though many witches have tried to trademark dick curses.
“We know Selena was arrested. There’s a slim chance she’s still alive, but the Paranormal Investigation Bureau wouldn’t have let her out without lifting a curse that caused fatalities. So, what you’re talking about is some sort of dual curse. Selena can’t curse anyone anymore.IfSantiago were cursed to watch the leads murder each other, that would suggest there is a cursed object somewhere, which is highly unlikely.”
Nothing about this was likely. You didn’t choose to be a ballet dancer if you were sane. We were all vain little weirdos who needed the public to tell us we were pretty a lot because ballet was brutal, and you were constantly being told you weren’t perfect in class.
Marsden waspreciselylike that, even if he had retired from the stage. Dancers were ambitious and constantly striving for perfection, but we knew our limits. There were plenty of dangerous tricks. No one stuck ballerinas in pointe shoes until they were strong enough to use them without breaking their ankles. They didn’t start anyone inpas de deuxclasses until both parties were strong enough to do it without injuring each other.
Marsden knew all that. He wouldn’t have allowed any of that to go on in his school or company.
So, why was he allowing it now when we could die this time?
Chapter4
Beyla
Someone went over Kaine’s head to get me on this assignment, but he made damned sure I reported directly to him on this. I wasn’t remotely angry about it, and he hadn’t been blowing up my phone trying to micromanage my assignment. I checked in with him every night, and he hadn’t demanded to fly here and set the entire building on fire because of mean girls and Marsden not cooperating with me.
This? Kaine was going to launch a dragon blood feud against Marsden for this. He would risk his job and freedom because Marsden couldn’t manage his girlfriend. If I could have avoided this phone call, I would have. I loved Kaine. He stepped in and raised me when I thought I had lost everything.
The only reason I was even dancing without pain right now was that Kaine opted to let a young vampire go instead of arresting him when he showed up at a house a kidnapping victim was being stashed in. Kaine heard him out and realized Balthazar had figured the case out before he did, and kept him on as a consultant.
Balthazar called Kaine when he needed the Paranormal Investigation Bureau’s help. Kaine brought me with him when he had a low-key meeting to find out what was going on. I met twin witches and several warlocks there that took me under their wings and taught me about being a witch.
I also met the God of Chaos, who healed my feet as if they had never been broken. He did something to my casts so that I could easily take them on and off. The only reason I kept them on instead of immediately going back to ballet classes was that Derek’s family was stalking me, and they wouldn’t hesitate to accuse me of falsely accusing their son of breaking my feet.
Kaine had given me so much. He gave me a home and support when I lost everything. His connections meant I was dancing again without pain and had an entire network of witches and warlocks teaching me magic because they certainly weren’t at my high school for supernaturals where no one else had their magic yet.
IneededKaine right now because he was the only person who understood what I was going through. He was also my boss now. So, I flopped on my bed and hit his number on speed dial. Kaine answered on the first ring. He usually did unless he was bowling, and I tried not to call then.
“What’s wrong? You rarely call this early.”
I had been holding it in. Kaine was my boss, and it was just so unprofessional to cry on a work call, but I burst into tears. I didn’t need my boss right now. I needed my dad.
I unloaded everything that happened with Bellatrix and the gun. Kaine let me get it out, and I was totally babbling. He waited until I was totally silent and sniffling before he started talking.
“I’m sorry, Beyla. What do you need? Do you need me to burn a bitch?”
Kaine was my hero. He swooped in at the hospital and told me the truth about who I was and why I felt so strange after I woke up at the hospital. He told me things were hard, but they would get better, and he offered his house for me to live in. Kaine gave me everything.
I’d love for him to swoop in and just fix this, but I knew he couldn’t. Curses were a witch’s domain, not a dragon’s. Though, I would love to watch him light Marsden’s ass up to get him to talk.
“I don’t know, Kaine. Ineedto find Santiago Suarez. He’s the one behind all of this.”
Kaine let out a little growl. I knew that noise. He probably had smoke coming out of his nose. That was his ‘grumpy pants’ noise, but he wasn’t angry at me. He never was.
“Beyla, nothing about this assignment is standard. Since this is your first case, youshouldbe working with a partner, and if something like this happened, you would have been recalled. You wouldn’t have been allowed anywhere near another case until you had been head-shrunk seven ways to Sunday and were approved to do so. That stupid fairy went over my head and has already reported this. I just checked my email. My superiors knew before I did, and I’m being ordered to keep you there. Even if you weren’t my daughter, this is totally against protocol, and I’d fight to have any of my agents off this case.”
I wasn’t irate about that. Yeah, I was pissed Marsden went over Kaine’s head, but I’d been here long enough to be invested in this. And no, I didn’t particularly want to leave the friends I’d made here. I wanted to see where things would go with the guys. Dancing with this company had been a dream of mine once, and I didn’t hate everything about it now that I was here. There were things about it I loved and felt like home.
“I’m guessing they are breaking protocol because Marsden is promising them Unseelie secrets. I can handle it.”
“Beyla, no offense, but you don’t know if you can handle this. You’re one of the strongest people I know, and you’ve dealt with more shit than you should have at your age, but this is different. I’ve mentored plenty of new agents that I thought might be able to take my place one day that quit when this exact same scenario happened to them.”
“When have you known me to quit at anything?”
“Beyla, you know I love you, but—”
I knew where he was going with that, and he didn’t have to say it. We’d talked about it, and I swore to him I’d never do anything like that again. I meant it then, and I meant it now.
