Page 15 of The Fate of Black Hearts

The language was Romani. It meant…

She shuddered.Evil snake.

Next, she looked up “miri thagarni” to find it meant “my queen.” Why would he nickname her that?

Finally, she looked up “vov si mulo,” which took her a while to figure out how to spell. It meant “he is dead.”Dead? How? When? Was hedead-dead as in necromancer-resurrected-dead? Ian sure seemed alive the last time she saw him.

“Are we going to talk about what happened?” Efrem asked. He slid his lithe frame into the seat across the aisle from her. It wasn’t a huge plane, but there was enough space for a few rows of seats, a small dining area, and a bedroom with a washroom in the back.

Efrem’s short, sandy blond hair had been carefully coiffed this morning into perfect place, as it was every day. His natural wave fought the restriction of the gel product he used. He got a haircut twice a month to keep it as perfect as every other aspect of his grooming.

His lips barely twitched but emoted an array of feelings. Frustration. Disappointment. Concern.

They had never been lovers, and neither questioned the other about physical preferences or moments of sexual satisfaction with others. They worked symbiotically. Sometimes they behaved like an old mated lycan couple that could finish each other’s sentences and knew when the other was avoiding a topic or lying. Other times, Efrem behaved more like a parent who had a lot of criticism to share about her life.

He wanted to discuss the mage in the alley, theone he hadn’t seen her dance with inside the club.She refused. There was nothing to talk about.

“I hate it when you fly on autopilot.” She flexed her left hand but forced it to relax.

“Your wound needs dressing. Will you let me?”

With a sigh, she pulled down the top of her dress, leaving her bra exposed. “It’s a graze.”

He spread the contents from their medical bag on the seats and cleaned dried blood away from her shoulder. The wound may have stopped bleeding, but she’d lost more blood than she should’ve. The jagged edges of skin where the bullet passed through lay open, unhealed. A lycan of her age should have mended a graze such as this within minutes.

Efficiently, he wrapped it. “Then let’s discuss the fact you’re still not healing.”

“No.” Right now, she hated that he knew her so well.

“It’s time you speak to the boys about it.” A final wrap of self-adhesive bandage around the dressing held everything in place. He removed a T-shirt from the medical bag, handing it to her. “There are preparations to be made. Affairs to settle before the end.”

“I will speak to them.”

Once the shirt was on, she rolled down the top of the dress, then pointed at the T-shirt’s lettering and gave him a double eyebrow raise.I gotta see the candy first. Then I get in the van. I’m not stupid.“Online bargain?”

Efrem shrugged, but a slight pink tinged his cheeks. In their downtime, he binged videos and often got suckered into sales. That didn’t mean he wore hisfinds. “You will talk to them at the party while they are all there.”

“I’ll tell the boys first. Not Lyra.”

“I got four texts from Ian tonight demanding to see you.”

“He’s a problem.” She closed her eyelids.Nasul sap.

“Yes.”

“How long would it take us to detour in order to visit him and close this business?” The mage’s warning flashed in her head, but she disregarded it. The mage didn’t know her well enough to counsel her on family issues.

“We have time. I’ve already set it as our destination.”

“Too bad Ian isn’t a demon. Then I could blow his head off and feel good about it.”

“You still can. I’ll load the shotgun.” He sat across from her again and crossed his legs. “Are we going to talk about you killing two demons tonight?”

Technically, one.“Don’t take away my joy. So little brings me that much happiness these days.”

“Next time, don’t go alone. With you on the decline, we can’t take risks.”

“Advice heard.”