“If you’d been hired to kill him, would you consider your job done?” I persisted.
That comment made both of them pause mid-bite and mid-sip. Kaillen grinned and sat back.
“No,” Fallon and Barnabas replied simultaneously.
“And why not?” I asked.
“No proof of death.” Fallon shrugged and resumed eating.
“What he said.” Barnabas jerked his thumb in the fairy’s direction.
“If we’d hired you to kill him,” I continued, “what proof of death would you have presented us with?”
“His head,” they replied in unison.
I grimaced. “Eww.”
Fallon cocked an eyebrow. “You asked.”
“It would have been presented discreetly and cleanly in a sealed non-spillable bag,” Barnabas added. “But back in my day, such a thing didn’t exist. Now, you can ziplock those heads right up, making travel with proof quite pleasant.”
“Traveling. With a severed head. Pleasant.” I made a face. “Right, whatever you say.”
Barnabas’s fangs lengthened, and he grinned devilishly. “Perhaps you’d like to join me on my next job so you can experience such a pleasant encounter firsthand?”
“Pretty sure the lady isn’t interested.” Fallon shoveled another bite of food into his mouth.
“What he said.” I pointed at Fallon, then frowned, not from the thoroughly unpleasant images I was getting of traveling with a decapitated head, but because we were all in agreement that it was too early to call Jakub deceased.
Ugh. Everything still felt so unresolved. And while I knew that Jakub could be dead, I still didn’t feel fine saying everything was over and done with.
My frown deepened. “I did attempt to place a curse on him. If it took root and I activate it now, we would know for sure if he’s alive or not.”
“But if he is alive, and you activate that curse, then he’ll have a clear link to you too,” Kaillen countered. I’d told him about the curse this morning, and it’d been pretty obvious right away that the hunter wasn’t happy about it. “That’s a risk we don’t need to take.”
I faced my mate. “Even if it confirms whether or not he’s still living?”
Kaillen scowled. “Let’s see if we can find out another way first. I don’t want him to have a direct tie to you.”
“In all likelihood, your blast killed him.” Barnabas took another sip of his drink. “Having said that, though, no, I wouldn’t rest easy if this were a job.”
“Exactly, and Jakub had a portal key. What if he used it before my blast hit him?” I added, strengthening my belief that he’d escaped. “Or he had some other type of magic that could transport him? Kaillen can transport himself from anywhere.”
“But that’s only on earth,” my mate replied, before grabbing our drinks and food off the floating tray that had come to us. He placed two plates in front of me. My order held an entire fried fae bird on one plate, and a heaping portion of crisp greens along with the same root vegetable Fallon had ordered on the other. Le sigh. I still ate like a horse.
“Speaking of that blast.” Fallon let out a low whistle. “Your power was quite remarkable.”
“You noticed that too, huh?” I dug into the white meat, similar to chicken, and savored the crispy skin and herbed flavor.
“You seem surprised by that,” Fallon replied.
“I am. I’ve never expelled it like that before,” I said between chews. “So it was new to me that I’m capable of that.”
Barnabas finished his drink, not blood from the looks of it but a tea of some kind, and leaned forward. “How do I put this delicately?” He tapped his chin. “May I ask what you are? Your scent is that of a witch, but also of a werewolf, but your power is off the charts, even more so than the most powerful witch I’ve ever met.”
I gave him a passive smile. Funny how I’d been asking that same question of Kaillen not too long ago. I took a huge bite of what was similar to mashed potatoes but a hundred times more flavorful.
Once I’d swallowed, I hesitated briefly about revealing what I truly was, but then realized that if Kaillen trusted Barnabas and Fallon—when my mate was guarded around almost everyone—then I could trust them too. Besides, I was beginning to find this newfound life in which I didn’t hide who I was to be quite freeing. “I’m a witch and now also a werewolf, and perhaps something else too, but we’re not entirely sure what.”
Barnabas’s brows slanted together. “Now a werewolf? Is that why Kaillen has a mating mark? Something men don’t normally have?”
“It’s a long story,” Kaillen cut in. He’d ordered a steak and was already halfway through it. It had to be at least fifty-six ounces, but since his bites were the size of my fist, he was powering through it. “But yes, that’s the reason I have a mark, although I’m sure it’s a story Tala doesn’t want to tell right now,” he added gruffly when Barnabas opened his mouth again.
The scent of jasmine and night wafted up from Kaillen, and when I caught how he was glaring at Barnabas and Fallon, daring them to ask anything further, my stomach dipped.
I looked down, so I wouldn’t do something stupid or mushy. But a warm feeling still gushed through me at how quickly Kaillen always acted to protect me. Few people had ever done that, because usually, it was the other way around. Me protecting Tessa. Me helping our employees. Me smoothing things over with our customers. Prisha sometimes showed feelings of protection over me, but it was different with her. She was a woman who commiserated with me more than anything. She never had a look of such violence on her face as Kaillen did now.
Using my knife, I cut more bites of the white meat, anything to distract myself from this quaking feeling of whatever it was growing in my chest. Because I was so used to being the strong one who never faltered, it had never occurred to me that with a partner like Kaillen, the responsibility could go both ways.
A tug came from the bond, as if questioning. I sent a soothing caress back to him, one of thankfulness and . . . love.
An immense burst of satisfaction flowed from him into me.
I cleared my throat and blinked rapidly. “Anyway, back to Jakub.” I gave Kaillen a shy smile.
My mate placed his hand on my lower back—just a simple touch. A simple gesture as if to say, I’m here. The bond pulled at me again, and I cleared my throat for the second time. Keep it together.
I finished the fae bird, then faced his friends clear-eyed, thank the gods. “Was it just me, or did any of you notice that the tattoos on everyone’s necks were glowing last night?”
“I saw that too,” Kaillen replied.
“Same,” Fallon chimed in.
“I also observed such an occurrence,” Barnabas added.
“But why would they glow?”
Kaillen frowned. “Magic would do that.”
“So the tattoos are spelled?” Fallon asked.
“That’s what I’m thinking too,” I replied.
“Spelled to do what?” Barnabas asked.
I shook my head. “No clue.” Frustration again bubbled up inside me. “Since we can’t know for certain why those tattoos glow, I guess the next question would be, how do we find out if Jakub died or not?”
Barnabas eyed Kaillen who’d also just finished his plate.
The hunter relaxed into his chair, his hand still on my lower back, only now he was making lazy circles, massaging and soothing my muscles and OMG . . . I was growing aroused.
I squirmed in my seat, and a smile tugged on my mate’s lips as his friends’ nostrils flared. Fallon politely kept his gaze off of me, but Barnabas gave me a knowing side-eye.