Page 121 of The Diamond in the Rough

“So you lashed out at Garraway—who was attacking you—and he, what? Deflected the death magic at the goon?”

I nodded. That was more or less accurate.

“Okay.” Hart made a note on the tablet he’d pulled out. “What next?”

“You don’t care that I killed him?” I asked, startled.

“I don’t care that you defended yourself,” Hart replied. “In fact, good for you for doing it. It’s not your fault Garraway knocked your little magical knife into Mulrooney.”

“It wasn’t a knife,” I said.

Hart waved a hand. “Figure of speech, kid. I know it wasn’t. Keep going.”

I told him about being weakened by Garraway’s drainingspell. About fighting back. About being hauled to the well and thrown in.

“And then you used your dream-whatever to find Raj?”

I nodded.

“Why him?”

“Everybody else was awake,” I said softly. “I tried.”

Hart let out a little huff. “Yeah, cuz we were all fucking looking for you,” he muttered, his brow furrowed. Then he suddenly barked out a laugh. “That son of a bitch.”

“Who?” Ward asked.

“Fuckin’ Tony,” Hart replied, still chuckling. “He took Cass’s Benadryl. A lot of it. Then ‘napped it off’ under his desk. No fucking wonder he knew where we had to go when he dragged his scraggly ass back into the situation room.”

Raj hadintentionallyput himself to sleep, hoping I’d be able to find him and tell him where I was. This made my stomach feel a bit funny.

He’d wanted to help me. Wanted to help me enough that he’d thought of going to sleep—of drugging himself to sleep—so that I could tell him where I was.

Not that I’d been able to give him much.

But it had been enough.

It was the following afternoon,and I was propped up by a million pillows, watching some show about country vets, when my phone rang.

Nobody ever called me, so I looked down, surprised.

It was Violette’s number.

“Hello?”

“Oh myGod, Rayn!”

“What? Are you okay?” I asked, fear rushing through me.

“AmIokay?! Rayn!! You werekidnapped!!”

Oh. “Who told you?” I asked, surprised.

“Ward,” she replied. “He said you were fine, but that he thought I’d want to know. And he was right!” she said, plowing on. “Idowant to know! You’re my brother!”

I didn’t point out the fact that we’d gone for most of both our lives without her even knowing I existed. I liked that she cared what happened to me.

“So what happened?” she demanded.