Page 65 of A Cursed Heart
“Are you sure? What about your magic?”
“I have pulled back some of my protections. There should be enough.”
‘Should’ didn’t feel good enough.
Pickup took only minutes instead of nearly half an hour. Freya returned from school excited with a love of vanishing with Mal. Her hyper behavior was cute for all of five minutes. I was too stressed to appreciate how happy she was. I tried not to snap at her. Probably why I let her convince me, and also Mal in turn, to vanish around the apartment. Convincing her to let Mal rest was a battle none of us won. We compromised, and she got to experience it a couple of times before bedtime.
Only when we got her off to sleep did I realize how my anxiety was affecting all of us. “Sorry,” I murmured into Mal’s hair, holding him close to me while he did the dishes. “I’ve been in a pissy mood all afternoon.”
He turned a little to face me, with a smile playing about his lips. “I understand. Anxiety is a new emotion for me. We have so much to lose. It scares me. Salvatore is such an unknown.”
I sighed. “Yeah. It’s getting to me. Look, why don’t we try to put it out of our heads? We can go to bed and watch something mindless for a bit.”
Mal nodded. “Yes. I would like that.”
After a day of stress, the vibe was off between us. I wanted to reconnect, just not through sex. It wasn’t all our relationship was about.
We cleaned up in the bathroom and found a stupid action movie to watch on my tablet. Halfway through, I felt my eyelids grow heavy. Mal was already asleep, his head on my shoulder, his hair neatly French braided to keep it out of his face. His ears were pointed, like some of his demon form had slipped through his hold. I wondered if his eyes were green again.
It was my last conscious thought.
A sound woke me. When I turned, it was to Mal standing fully dressed at the side of the bed. “He’s trying to get through my magic!”
“What?”
“Scythe is here, outside the apartment. Get dressed!”
I launched myself from the bed. Throwing on the nearest clothes I could find, I asked, “How close?”
“Minutes.” He looked torn. “Ryan—”
“Get Freya out of here now!” I demanded. “I’ll—should I call the police?”
“What about your friend?”
My phone was on the nightstand. Conrad answered after a few rings. “Hello?”
“Con, it’s Ryan. Salvatore is outside my apartment trying to get in.”
“Fuck! Gimme a sec to find out what happened. You were supposed to have a unit on you. Word got out it was you this afternoon. Did no one call?”
“What? No! I need you to get someone here.” I hung up to give him the chance to call for help. “You heard that, right?”
Mal nodded. “I fear that Salvatore paid off the local police.”
“Yeah. Con will get help, but I need you to get Freya out of here now.”
“Ry—”
“Now, Mal, please… She can’t see this.”
He hugged me, pressing a desperate kiss to my lips. “Stay hidden.” He rushed from the room, leaving me to decide where to hide.
I was in the kitchen, frantically searching for something to protect myself with when Conrad called. “Ry, there’s a team on route. Could be twenty minutes. Are you armed?”
“Not really. I’ve got a knife.” It gleamed under the low lights in the kitchen. We had security lights for Freya all over. It never got fully dark, which was a massive problem when you wanted to hide from someone coming to hurt you.
“Right. Hide out as best you can until help comes. Is Mal there with you?”
