Calling it quits for the day, I locked up the workshop at Roca Metal Works and strode the sloping gravel driveway toward the house. Dad had built our log cabin-style home at the eastern end of Mills Avenue and built the shop up the hill, closer to the banks of Bels Creek, which twisted and turned along the bottom of Mt. Sousa. He claimed being close to the creek’s icy water was more efficient for our work, but manipulating metal was our gift. We rarely used fire or had a need for the cold water to set our designs.

I’d always believed the real reason was to have a better viewpoint to look down at the town—rather than them looking down at us—but as I made the walk by myself in recent months, I began to think that maybe he simply enjoyed the beautiful view. Right now, the trees were all filled out and various shades of green. In barely more than a month, the aspens would be bright gold surrounded by the reds and oranges of maples and oaks. Not long after, I’d be looking down on a winter wonderland. Maybe my dad did have a soft spot in that icy heart of his.

I’d just reached the back deck with a cold shower, a colder beer, and a call to Michaela on my mind, when my phone buzzed with a text.

AB: We need to talk.

Me: Did he go?

AB: Yeah. He’s done. Something’s not right tho

Me: Give me 15

I rushed through my shower, my mind flipping through a dozen things that could have gone wrong at Tase’s check-in with the Court today. After throwing on a T-shirt, jeans, and boots, I hurried out to my truck. If it weren’t for human eyes, I could have been downtown in five seconds by foot. Instead, the drive took five minutes because of the 15 mile-per-hour speed limit of the residential streets. I found Addie Beaumont pacing impatiently outside the back of City Hall, and she jumped into my passenger seat when I pulled into the parking lot.

“Didn’t go well?” I asked, shifting into park before turning to face her.

She pushed her glasses up, the light of the afternoon sun glinting on the stone in her nose, frustration painted on her face. “What did he do?”

“Hmm . . . you’ll have to be more specific. Which time?”

“I don’t know, Xan. Any time!” She threw her hands into the air. “It’s a good thing they had me renew the protection spell, because I swear he was resisting it.”

I arched a brow. “Tase is resisting your magic? The magic that’s keeping him from going off his rocker?”

“Not completely resisting, but definitely trying. And not him, not on purpose. It’s the curse, I think. It’s growing stronger. Something’s changed in the last eight weeks, since his first check-up.” Worry filled her eyes. “I tried to cover it up, but there’s a chance my grandmother sensed it. If she did . . . if she thinks she needs to start doing the spells herself, she’ll notice. And then if she says anything to the rest of the Court . . . if they think he’s getting worse . . . they’ll start taking further action. You have to tell me if he’s done . . . something.”

I shrugged. “He’s a grown man. I can’t babysit him twenty-four seven.”

“Please. Anything you can think of. The more I know, the better the spell I can create to protect him.” Pausing, she angled toward me more and tilted her head. “Did something happen in Montrose maybe?” she fished.

I played innocent. “Montrose? Why would you think that?”

“Stop being a pain in my ass!” Addie lifted her hand from her lap, holding it in a fist. Not in a threatening way. At least, not in a traditional threat. “I have all sorts of ways I can force an answer out of you,” she said through clenched teeth. “Don’t make me use them.”

“You would use magic on me? You’re that serious?”

“I’m. That. Serious.”

I stared at her for a moment. “Why?”

The question seemed to catch her off guard. Her fist dropped a few inches. “What do you mean?”

“Why are you so dead set on helping him? After what he did to your best friend and her family? After everything he’s done to you?”

She looked away, gazing out the windshield for a moment before looking me in the eye. “You know why. I’m a masochistic schmuck. Now, are you going to help me save your brother from an imminent execution, or what?”

“I’m not sure there’s anything I can do.”

“Tell me everything that happened in Montrose. He told the Court about the girl and being set up, but I don’t think we got the full story.”

“Really?” I was surprised he’d told them anything.

“By the way, you will have to babysit him now, because he’s not allowed to leave town without a chaperone. Specifically, you. Not if someone’s trying to set him up to kill.”

Fucking awesome. As if I had nothing else to do. Of course, I’d been going with him on every trip out of town since then anyway, but being ordered by the Court made me want to do the opposite. Blame the Roca blood.

“So you know he drank some human blood?” I said.

“No! How much?”

Oops. “I don’t know. She’d already bled out some, but she was unconscious by the time I pulled him off.”

“Damn it. Damn him! He said he restrained.”

I snorted. “Hardly. But do you really think he’d tell the Court otherwise?”

“He could have at least told me.” She sighed, then nodded. “Okay, that explains a little more. I guess the curse could have gained some strength from a certain amount of blood.”

“He didn’t even come close to draining her, and that was over a month ago.”

“Yeah, I know,” she said with another heavy sigh. She watched her hands in her lap, her finger tracing over the stones in one of her many bracelets, her teeth working on her bottom lip.

“What are you thinking?”

She looked back up at me, then out the window again, then back at me. “Did he . . . did he kill anyone then? Human, specifically?”

I exhaled sharply at the blunt question.

“You’d tell me if he did, right?” she continued. “You have to be honest with me, Xandru. It’s the only way I’ll know how to formulate the best potion or spell.”

A lie danced on the tip of my tongue, but Addie was right. The more knowledge she had about what she was working with, the more accurate her magic would be. If she and the rest of the Luna Coven, all powerful mages, knew what had gone into the curse itself, they could have developed a counter to it. But they didn’t know. Putting in temporary blocks was the only remedy they had for now, but those wouldn’t work if not done properly.

“I don’t know,” I finally admitted. Her face fell, so I quickly added, “But I don’t think so. I wasn’t with him the whole time while he looked for whoever had left the girl. He said he didn’t find anyone, and I never smelled or sensed anything that made me think he was lying. Besides, they were supernatural, so it wouldn’t have affected him, even if he did. That’s the best I can tell you.”

She blew out a long breath, as though she’d been holding it since asking the question. “Okay, I guess that will have to do.” She glanced at the City Hall building. “I need to get back inside. Court’s about to reconvene. Busy night. Oh, hey, there’s Michaela.”

I followed her gaze out the windshield to see my girl round the corner to the back of City Hall. She looked sexy as hell dressed in a skirt and jacket, her dark hair pulled up in a twist, and her long legs seemingly endless in those heels. I suppressed a great urge to jump out of the truck, run to her, and sweep her into my arms, every bit of me wanting to go all Neanderthal and claim her as mine. But I knew that was the last thing she’d want. I’d been doing my best to hold back and give her as much space as I could possibly stand. If it were up to me, we’d have sworn vows by now and be spending every waking moment in bed. But I’d promised myself I wouldn’t pressure her.

Addie did what I couldn’t—jumped out of the truck and rushed over to Michaela. The two talked for a moment, then looked over at me. Michaela waved and started walking toward me. I slowly edged my way out of the truck seat and sauntered over to meet her.

“Hey,” she said.

“Hey, yourself. I was going to call you as soon as I was done with Addie. See if you wanted to grab a pizza at Napoli’s.”

She looked over to where Addie was slipping through the metal door at the back of City Hall, plain as could be except for the moon emblem embossed into it. Dad’s work. “Oh, well, I’m glad I caught you here then. I won’t be around tonight.”

“No?”

Her gray-green gaze came back to me. “No, sorry.” She motioned toward the metal door. “I’m meeting with the Court.”

Something flickered in her eyes that made my stomach drop and a lump form in my throat at the same time, but I couldn’t say what. I cleared my throat, but my voice still came out hoarse. “About what?”

She gnawed on her bottom lip. How I wanted to be the one gnawing on it. “Um . . . well . . . about my future. And Aurelia’s and Gabe’s, too. You know, what’s next for us. Where we go from here.”

It took everything I had to keep my expression neutral. But . . . what the fuck did that mean? Where was she planning to go? Away again?

“What our options are,” she added, and that just about undid me.

Options? What kind of options? My chest ached with the desire to tell her there was only one option: me. Nothing else mattered. But she’d had enough forced on her in her life. I wanted to be her choice. And if I wasn’t . . . well, I’d survived the first time she left. Not well, but I had. I could only hope I could handle it again.

“I see.” I smiled for her as I pushed a lock that had popped out of her twist behind her ear. “You have every option you want, Kales. Don’t let them choose for you.”

Her eyes darkened for a moment, but then she returned my smile with an appreciative one. “Thank you, Xandru.”

She tilted her face up and lifted on her toes at the same time—even in heels she was nearly a foot shorter than me. She pressed her lips against mine and lingered for a long moment before she turned away and hurried for the metal door that led to the meeting room of the Court of the Sun and the Moon.

My very favorite people, said no Roca ever.

Once in my truck, I considered going home for that cold beer, but decided to head to the Dirty Knuckle instead. I drove down Fourth Street almost to the entrance to the ski resort. The lifts ran on the weekends during the summer for those who wanted to go up the mountain to enjoy the view and a bite to eat at the snack shack Tase had built up there, but they were closed today. That meant the Knuckle wouldn’t be as busy as the Haven Saloon on the square, where both locals and any tourists would gather. I had enough noise in my head. I didn’t need it all around me, too.

The lighting was dim, and the air cool and welcoming. I grabbed my usual stool at the bar and shot the shit with Rhys Graywalk, the fae owner, whom I didn’t usually see behind the bar. Everett Weston came in and straddled his own favorite stool two down from mine. We had a few beers and shot a couple games of pool. Everett was easy to hang out with. He didn’t feel the need to fill every moment with conversation, unlike the girls when they were here, and was a no-drama, no-bullshit kind of guy. Unlike my brothers.

When I left a few hours later, I admittedly didn’t take the most direct route home. I meandered my way through the streets with the windows down, turning down Main Street and slowing to a crawl as I neared the inn.

“Are you stalking me?” a familiar voice called out from the sidewalk.

Shit. Hadn’t meant to get caught.

I pulled over to the side of the road in front of Madame Tahini’s and the pawn shop, where Michaela stood. She opened the door and slid into the passenger seat.

“Court just got out, and I was on my way home. Give me a lift?”

I smiled as I looked through the window at the inn across the street. “Any time, my lady.”

When I pulled into the driveway and parked in front of her cottage thirty seconds later, she didn’t immediately move to get out.

“So . . . did you find out your options?” I asked, turning toward her.

She twisted in her seat and smiled. “Yeah. I did.” Her gaze drifted, and her smile faded. “I’ve been thinking a lot lately.”

Shit. Not good. I mean, not the thinking part. Just the thinking part combined with the talk about options and the future and meeting with the Court and . . . shit. Just not good.

But I’d known something had been up. She’d been even more distant than usual the last few weeks. The little bit of time we’d been able to spend together, grabbing a coffee or when we had drinks with the gang at the Knuckle, she’d get this look on her face when she thought I wasn’t watching. More than simple thoughtfulness. More like she was trying to figure out a complicated equation or solve the meaning of life. But every time we had a moment for me to ask her what had her preoccupied, we’d been interrupted.

“Good thoughts, I hope?” I asked.

Her gaze came back to me as she exhaled a breath. “We need to talk, Xandru.”

Aw, fuck. No. Not yet.

My whole body stiffened, every muscle tensing and locking, as though paralyzed. This couldn’t be happening. I needed more time. More time to get my shit together. To get Tase’s shit together. That motherfucker. I knew he’d ruin everything. I turned back toward the steering wheel and gripped it tightly until the metal began to soften and I had to let go.

“Xandru.” Michaela took my hand between hers and brought it to her lap. “Look at me.”

I inhaled deeply before turning to face her again. The only person I could say without a doubt I’d ever loved completely.

Wholeheartedly.

The only person who’d broken my heart before and could do so again.

“I owe you a date, right?” she asked.

“What?” I asked with bewilderment.

“We never went on our date. I owe you.”

“Oh. Uh . . . I’m pretty sure I owe you. A lot of them. Like a lifetime of them.” Shouldn’t have said that. Don’t pressure her, Xandru. Take it easy, dumbass! She wants to fucking talk.

“I think the last one didn’t happen because of me . . . or because of my life, anyway,” she insisted. “The Day of the Goo? I can’t believe that was like two months ago . . .”

She trailed off, blushing.

I gave her a small smile, all I could muster, because my mind raced and my heart pounded. She could surely hear it. She was all over the place tonight, talking about options and the future like she was leaving and then bringing up dates? Did she want one? With me? Damn it, I hated games. Why couldn’t we just say what was on our minds without fearing that we’d freak each other out?

I blew out a harsh breath.

“Michaela, will you go out on a date with me?” There. I did it. I sounded like a fourteen-year-old idiot, but I did it. Said what was on my mind. Sort of. It was a start. Because I didn’t want to fucking talk.

She grinned. “I would love to. But—” She paused, drawing out that but, probably trying to kill me. I wouldn’t have to worry about a broken heart. She’d kill me first. “But, we have to promise each other—both of us—that we will make this date happen. No matter what. We need to—”

I cut her off, not wanting to hear the stupid t-word again. “I promise. Saturday, you and me. Nobody else. A real date. I’ll pick you up at seven. Wear that sexy black dress again.”

She laughed. “I can’t. I wore that on our first date.” She paused again before correcting herself. “Well, our new first date.”

I chuckled. “It’s been over four months. I think this is a new-new first date. Wear it.”

Her smile fell away again. “That’s depressing, isn’t it? Well, no promises on the dress, but I do promise back to you that I will go on a date with you this Saturday. No matter what, Xandru.”

“No matter what, Kales.”