Page 16 of Outlaw Witch

Fabian Nightshade. The third member of their morally gray little club. It’s rumored he’s next in line to take over the Nexus Mages leadership. Although, from what I know about its current leaders, he’ll be prying it from their cold, dead hands.

“And why would I help you?”

Sounds harsh, but being involved with these guys is unlikely to go along with my low-key life plan of staying under the radar.

“Look, we have a lot of friends. A lot of contacts,” Roscoe says.

I shoot him a look. One that says, uh huh, good for you?

“I mean, we could do a lot for you. For your people. New identities, pendants to help disguise your auras if that’s what you need. Somewhere new to live, even. A client list as long as your arm. Whatever you might need.”

I square my shoulders. “And what if the thing I need is for you to leave me alone? We don’t need your kind of attention being directed our way.”

“But what about your friends? Can you say the same for them? Can you say this is where they all should be, that there’s not a better future in store for any of them?” He waves an arm around the place we’re forced to live in.

Well, fuck. They’ve got me there. If it was just cash, or a leg-up for me, I’d turn them down flat. From the little I know of them, blood curses are no joke and it’s not guaranteed I can help them at all.

But the thought of lifting up the people around me? Making it so they’re not stuckherein shitty limbo forever?

A future? A clean slate? Yeah, all that shit isn’t to be sniffed at.

“Fine.” I give a curt nod. “Send me some more information. I need a couple of days to think about it.”

I’m half expecting them to push it, or at least to refuse to leave until I agree to help. After all, they’ve gone to a lot of trouble to find me.

They’re clearly desperate.

No one would come to this part of town if they weren’t.

But after sharing another inscrutable look between them, they back off with a nod. Roscoe thrusts his phone at me and asks for my number and then pointedly dials my cell, there and then, so I have his saved in my contacts.

And then they stride off across the wasteland, toward the city. My eyesmightjust catch on their tight asses for a moment, but then I come to my senses.

It’s no lie that they’re both dangerously good-looking, but they’re also plain dangerous.

To my safety. My sanity. To the security of this little corner of life, we’ve carved out for ourselves here.

Although... looking at the cracked tarmac and the structural damage of the warehouse. Smelling the tainted air as someone brews knock-off Purple Haze nearby. That last one isn’t the strongest argument I’ve got.

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