Chapter 7 Shea

Life had become quite calm the last week or so—nine days, to be exact—since I'd walked out on Julian and Caesar. Outside of the day Tobias had tricked me into meeting him in Chicago, I'd spent every day cooped up in my house, with Gram watching me like a guard dog.

It actually wasn't so bad. It was a lot like every other school break I'd had before Arya came along. Lazy days full of binge-watching Netflix and playing video games.

Except that, thanks to the moody dragon shifter, I had a new project to fill my spare time—scouring the grimoire for a way to break his love curse. It was a nice distraction from wondering when, if ever, I was going to hear from either of my guys. Which I totally wasn't doing. And they weren't mine.

I'd decided I was going to take a break from looking for a resurrection spell. Not forever, but I just needed a sort of cleanse from anything to do with Julian and Caesar. Helping Tobias was the perfect way to do that, and I found I spent most of my lonely days in my room doing just that.

This afternoon, however, Gram had bingo at Saint Anne's Church, and seeing as she refused to leave me alone for even a moment, she'd dragged me along with her. I wasn't allowed to partake in the activity itself, but she did afford me the luxury of sitting outside on the church patio, right outside the closest window to where she was sitting.

If I had thought the excitement of bingo would take Gram's eyes off me for even a moment, I was sorely mistaken. The one time I got up from my bench to go inside to the restroom, she was right on my tail, waiting in the hall until I'd come out. I only sighed and returned to my bench like the model granddaughter.

Presently, I looked down at the phone in my lap, tapping the screen to check the time. Ugh, there were still twenty minutes left until bingo ended, and that was only if no one got to the jackpot round, which would add another twenty minutes at least.

"Mind if I sit with you?"

I knew the voice before I looked up, which I did with disdain. "Let me guess. Come to confess your sins?"

Adam chuckled. "Nah. Just visiting a relative. You?"

"Oh, you know, enjoying the delightful weather," I replied sarcastically—it was frigid and damp out here, the bench I was sitting on freezing cold even through my layers.

He laughed at my comment and sat beside me, even though I answered whether he could or not. Oh well, a little company wouldn't be so bad.

"So, do you have my clothes?" I asked with no shortage of sass. "Or do you prefer wearing them yourself?"

"Whoa, someone's extra feisty today," he said with a smirk. "They're back at my apartment. Since you didn't give me your number, I had no way of reaching out to you to deliver them."

"Well, since you're so good at running into me, you should just carry them with you everywhere," I said, ignoring his bait. "I'm sure we'll run into each other again."

"I hope so. Though I'd prefer to run into you on purpose some time." He gave me a flirtatious look, and if I weren't in my current love triangle prolapse, it probably would've worked.

I sighed. "Look, you seem like a nice guy, but I'm just not interested in anything romantic at the moment."

"Are you sure about that?" he asked, his eyes sparking with a dark heat. "I'm sure I can make it worth your while."

He lifted his hand to push my hair over my shoulder and leaned toward my neck, and with my painfully slow reflexes, I shoved at his chest before his lips brushed my skin.

"What the hell are you doing?" I snapped, scooting away from him on the bench and keeping my hands held up defensively between us.

He smiled like I was playing hard to get. "Just a little nibble. I thought you, of all people, would appreciate a little love bite."

Panic flared in my chest, the memory of the vampire attacking me flashing in my mind like a nuclear explosion.

"Arr ma'at," I blurted, a faint green light pulsing out from my palms and disappearing into Adam's chest as the truth spell went into effect.

"What was that?" he asked, shaking his head and blinking several times.

"I'll ask the questions," I declared, narrowing my eyes at him. "Who are you really?"

"An Initiate," Adam replied, then paled, his eyes widening.

Initiate. I'd heard that word before... Julian's roommate. He said she was an Initiate.

"As in a vampire Initiate?" I hissed.

"Yes," he answered automatically, then winced. "Shit. What did you do to me?"

"Why do you keep following me?" I demanded, ignoring his question.

"I've been sent by Hadrian to spy on Julian." He snarled in frustration, jumping off the bench and clenching his fists at his sides. "Seriously, what the hell did you do to me?"

Fear gripped my heart anew. If Hadrian was having someone spy on Julian, that meant he suspected Julian. What would he do if he found out about Julian's double agent status?

"So why bother with me?" I asked.

"You're working with him on something," he said, the words forcing themselves out through clenched teeth. "I wanted to find out what that was. And you're hot. Two birds and all that." He shrugged, which looked really awkward with all his muscles tight with restraint.

I glared at him. "You're disgusting."

His face scrunched in concentration. "You're a witch, aren't you? There was a green light right now when you said that foreign word thingy."

Fuck, fuck, fuck. How did I keep getting myself into these situations? I had to protect Julian.

"How do I get you to leave Julian and me alone?"

Adam shrugged again, his muscles relaxing as he seemed to accept that the cat was out of the bag. "I don't think you can. I've got orders direct from Hadrian to report everything I find, which I fully intend to do. He'll reward me, and when I become a vampire, you can be my little toy instead."

"I'm no one's toy," I seethed, even as my pulse was pounding from this information.

He scoffed. "I saw you two at the hotel the other day. What else does a vampire and human do behind closed doors?"

A strange sense of shame seeped into my gut, but I was also relieved. Better that he, and Hadrian by proxy, assumed that was all we were doing. Safer for Julian. But I couldn't allow this bastard to report that I was a witch. This had to end here.

"Sekha hedjefa," I said, channeling all my desperation into the memory spell.

Adam snapped to attention, his expression going blank.

"You will forget this conversation and every piece of damning information you have against Julian or me." I narrowed my eyes as I considered my next words. "And you will forget where you're living."

My lips curled into a smug smile as I imagined him riding all around Chicago, looking for his place but unable to find it.

Adam shook his head, his eyes beginning to refocus, so I rushed to seal the spell. "Hetem."

He blinked a few times, then looked up at me. "What happened?"

"Yes, Shea, what did happen?"

I whirled around to see Gram standing behind me, wizened face fixed in a suspicious frown and arms crossed.

I got to my feet, ignoring Adam as he continued to scratch his head. "Just dealing with a problem, Gram. Is bingo over?"

"It is," she said with a nod, her dubious tone suggesting she expected an explanation.

"Good, let's go." I stomped off toward the parking lot where her gray Subaru was parked, and she was hot on my heels.

As soon as we got into the car, the interrogation began.

"Why did you use magic on that boy?" Her expression was dour and critical.

"I had to," I said without looking at her. "He was threatening one of my friends. And me."

Her keys jingled as she set them in her lap, telling me we weren't going anywhere. "Shea, I think it's time you start telling me what's going on. You've been acting out ever since Arya started going to that school, and I know you've been keeping things from me. If you're in some kind of trouble, I can't protect you if you don't let me."

I scoffed, even though some part of me wanted to confide in her. "Oh, you think keeping me under lock and key is going to protect me? Just like keeping me from using magic?"

She sighed. "You know why I've tried to shelter you from the magical world. It took your mother from us."

"But I'm not her!" I shouted, turning to finally look at her. "I am powerful and capable of so much more than this mundane life. And without magic, I'd already be dead!"

Fear pinched her features, and I instantly regretted my words. "What do you mean? What's going on?"

I closed my eyes for a moment, resigned to spill everything. Keeping all the secrets was quite literally killing me, and I was tired of dealing with these issues alone.

"There's a supernatural war brewing, and I've unwittingly found myself right in the middle of it," I confessed. "Ever since I found out about the shifter school, I've been determined to get admitted into it."

"Is that why you've been running around with the gryphon?" she asked, her tone soft and unaccusing.

"Yes." Well, that had been the initial reason. "He's the director of the school, and he's fighting a centuries-old war against a coven of vampires that wants to rule everything. That boy I cast magic on just now, he's a spy for the vampires. I used a truth spell to make him confess and then a memory spell to make him forget about me. But if I'm on their radar, I'm not safe, Gram."

She pouted, putting a hand on my shoulder and kneading it with her thumb. "I will protect you."

I shook my head, giving her an imploring look. "That's not enough. You can't shelter me from everything. I need to know how to protect myself . I need magic."

She held my gaze for a long moment, and when she looked down, I knew I had lost this argument yet again. I wanted to weep with futile desperation.

"Very well." Her voice was so quiet I barely heard it.

"W–what?" I asked, hardly breathing.

"I will teach you magic," she said a little more loudly. "I couldn't save your mother from her own magic, but it seems I can't keep you from it either. I won't leave you unarmed with monsters on your shadow. And maybe if I coach you, you won't befall the same fate as she did."

She kept her gaze fixed on her lap as she spoke, but I could hear the sadness in the wavering of her voice. I could also hear the love she held for both me and my mother, the daughter she'd lost too young.

Tears welled in my eyes. I'd never considered how painful it must be to lose a child, no matter how old they got. And I finally really understood that her smothering came from a place of love. Aunt Janette and I were all she had left, and she was all I had I ever really known.

"Thank you," I said, blinking back my tears.

She nodded. "We will start tomorrow. I'll ask Janette to come over to help. She can at least teach you what not to do."

I laughed through my thick throat. "Does this mean I'm no longer on house arrest?"

She pursed her lips as she put the key in the ignition and started the car. "I haven't decided yet."

"At least during the day? I'll have to go back to school next Monday anyway."

That one got her. "Fine. But I want to know where you are at all times. And absolutely no staying out any later than 4 o'clock."

"Deal," I said.

"I mean it, Shea," she warned, giving me the side-eye.

"I know, I got it." Not like I had anywhere to go anyway, with Julian and Caesar still sulking.

I had only briefly wondered if I should tell Gram about my involvement with Julian, but I'd immediately thought better of it. That could be a conversation for another time, or not at all if he chose to walk away…

I turned on my phone as Gram pulled out of the parking lot, opening the text stream with Julian as we drove toward home. Though we weren't technically speaking at the moment, I couldn't keep the Adam thing from him. He needed to know that he was under suspicion.

What more had Adam discovered about Julian's doings? What things had he already reported to Hadrian?

Though I felt rejected and slightly resentful toward Julian, I didn't know what I'd do if I never saw him again.