Page 43 of Moody as a Minotaur

How could he ever respect me now? Was his laughter hiding fear? That’s what humans did sometimes, right? Instead of screaming or fainting, they laughed.

I didn’t think I could handle that. And I also didn’t want to stick around to find out if I was right.

I tucked the bucket and the mop into the janitorial closet and debated my options. I sighed. As much as I didn’t want to face Parker, I wouldn’t be able to rest until Iknew for sure what he was thinking. I washed my hands and dried them as slowly as I could. Now what? I couldn’t think of a damn thing to delay going out there any longer.

I opened the bathroom door and jolted in surprise. Parker was standing right outside. I glanced around but didn’t see Van.

“You were in there a while.” Parker studied me. “I thought I should check on you.”

I shuffled around him and made for my office again. “I should be the one checking on you after everything that happened today.”

“Yeah, well, I wasn’t the one hiding in the bathroom.”

“Where is Van?”

“He left,” Parker said, following right behind me.

I entered my office, but it didn’t feel as comfortable as it had before. It was too exposed now. Too open. I was going to have to get someone in to fix that too, wasn’t I? Wasn’t it bad enough I already had lock people and camera people coming?

If I rearranged the furniture in the reception area, would it help? A nice little maze. I didn’t have the space to make it too big, but a few extra obstacles wouldn’t hurt.

Jasmine was watching me, cataloging everything Parker and I did. The whole town probably already knew Parker could see under the Eternal Magic’s glamour now.

I rubbed my forehead. I hadn’t had enough sleep to deal with this shit.

“So…” Parker said, glancing over his shoulder at Jasmine before looking back at me. “Van mentioned something about you wanting to get close to Fin so you could find out more information.”

I frowned. “Why would he go and tell you something like that?”

Parker frowned and crossed his arms over his chest. “Don’t you trust me?”

Now it was my turn to frown. “It isn’t that.”

“What is it?”

I gritted my teeth. How was I supposed to keep him safe if he became more involved? I couldn’t. And I couldn’t live with myself if something happened to him. I’d already survived something like that. I couldn’t do it again. Nope. “You need to stay out of it.”

“I can get closer to them than you can. It makes sense that we work together.”

I heaved out a sigh. “Parker, you don’t understand…”

Parker’s face changed from the frown to something softer. He uncrossed his arms and stepped closer. “I care about Willow Lake and everyone who lives here. I care about you. I know I’m new to all of this, but my feelings aren’t new. I really don’t believe we’ll discover anything bad happening. Fin isn’t a killer. And my grandmother, well… She’s unpredictable, but she doesn’t let prejudice guide her. She’s the most straightforward, no-nonsense person I’ve ever known. She’d never condone killing someone because of something they couldn’t control, like the color of their skin or their sexual orientation. Now, if it’s something they choose to do, like be a fucking bullying asshole, well, all bets are off then.”

“But…” I sputtered.

“But…” Parker nodded as he placed his hand on my arm. “I know. We don’t know anything about Tammy or Kyle. It is a risk, but I can’t ignore this. I can’t step aside and pretend I don’t know there might be a problem.”

My eyes were burning, so I closed them. I couldn’t look at his earnest face.

“Levi,” he whispered as he squeezed my arm. “Look at me. Please. Good. Now, listen to me.”

I held his gaze and nodded.

“Have you ever wondered what you would have done if you’d been there during those horrible moments in history? How you might have acted? If you would have been too scared to do anything? Or if you would have tried to do something…anything…?” He cleared his throat. “I know this isn’t quite the same thing, but I can’t pretend the people I care about might be at risk because I inadvertently brought a bunch of potential assholes to town. I need to do something to make this right. Let me help.”

“This isn’t your fault. Hunters…” My voice cracked. “They hunt. It is what they do. With the magic changing here so much lately, they probably would have come eventually anyway. And this isn’t your fight.”

“I can decide for myself if something is my fight or not,” Parker said. “Just because I’m not a supe doesn’t mean I want horrible things to happen to supes.”