Page 69 of Moody as a Minotaur

Parker reached up and cupped my cheek. Someone hooted. Probably Isaac.

Before I could answer, Jake shouted and pointed at us. “Yes, like that.”

Everyone laughed. Parker looked like he wanted to press his lips to mine, but he didn’t. He stepped away from me instead. Maybe he thought he’d already pressed his luck by touching my cheek.

I almost told him it was okay. That he could touch me all he wanted.

I didn’t.

Yes, I was still apprehensive about him being a human, but I wanted to give him anything. And that was so wildly dangerous I didn’t know what to think. Knowing that the Eternal Magic had shown us together should have eased some of my concerns, but it didn’t. If we’d already lived through the moment the oracle’s muse decided to show, then it didn’t really mean much of anything, did it? Because we weren’t a couple. Not really.It was a lie. So maybe the vision had more to do with the hunters being in town than my arrangement with Parker.

Maybe I’d never know.

Right now, though, I needed to think about something else.

“Okay, let’s play pool, shall we?”

25

CAFFEINE USED TO BE THE ONLY MAGIC I KNEW

PARKER

“I still can’t believe I didn’t see Gage’s horns before now,” I said as I guided my car into the left lane to pass a slow-moving minivan on the highway on the outskirts of the city.

I glanced in my mirror to make sure that Nelson and Teague were still behind me as we entered the city limits. They were. I probably shouldn’t have worried. Nelson, who was driving, was way more experienced at this than I was. I hadn’t been sure, at first, when it was decided that those two would be our only onsite backup, but everyone assured me they could handle it. Teague would be on comms and Nelson would follow us in his shadow form.

Nana, of course, hadn’t been impressed, but she’d have had an even harder time blending in on campus than Levi and me. Davina had said she’d cuff Nana to her bed to keep her from following us. And I wished I hadn’t seen how intrigued Nana had looked by that threat.

Some part of me wished this felt more like a date. Levi and I were alone. We were heading into the city. It had all the earmarks of a date, but it wasn’t. Obviously. So, I definitely shouldn’t expect a kiss at the end of the night.

I’d been chattering away since we hopped in my car to head to this meeting, mostly because Levi was eerily silent. He was so damn moody, but I didn’t mind that about him. Especially today. Today I knew his silence was because he was scared, for himself, his friends, and probably for me too. Although as a human, I was the last person who’d be at risk if what we all suspected was true. So, I babbled, which really wasn’t like me.

So, okay… I might be a little nervous too.

“And those matching tattoos Ash and Dillon have move. They move! It’s like… Well, magic,” I continued with a little laugh.

Levi didn’t say anything, so I jumped to the next thing that crossed my mind.

“Speaking of Ash, I don’t know what I’d do without him,” I said, mostly because I couldn’t handle the tension. “When I first created my business plan, I’d planned for a coffee and bakery combo, but Willow Lake already has a successful and established bakery. So, I had to switch things up. Offering meals was the obvious choice, and it was still feeding people, which I love.” I sighed as I guided the car around a bend in the road.

Levi still didn’t speak.

“Unfortunately,” I said, “I’m not as amazing at making meals as I am at baking. I get by okay, but it isn’t enough to draw people into the Flying Rowan. Then, thank God,Ash came along. He is a wizard at pizzas, and that wizardry had put my place on the map.” I glanced at Levi. I was staring straight ahead. “Did I tell you? A year or so back, I even asked if he’d want to become a co-owner. He wasn’t interested, but I wonder if he’d give me the same answer now. There are a lot of days when it would be a relief to share all the responsibility of running the place with someone else.”

I waited. Levi shifted in his seat.

“Parker, you don’t have to do this,” Levi said, and I knew he wasn’t talking about Ash or my café because he’d said the same thing umpteen times already today.

He pushed his hand through his hair. Unfortunately he’d had it cut today, so all those little curls I loved had been chopped off. I didn’t like it. It was too severe. It felt like he was a soldier preparing to go into battle.

“We can turn around right now,” he continued. “The hunters left Willow Lake, so they aren’t our problem anymore.”

I pursed my lips. It wasn’t the first time he’d made that argument, either. But if these people were murderers, we had to stop them.

A bunch of Willow Lakers talked about leaving the investigation to the Supernatural Council, but how long would it take them to mobilize and get close? Levi and I had been invited to get closer right now.

If this really was an attempt to recruit us to their cause based on our fake interest in their activities, then we couldn’t stop now. This was too big of an opportunity. We couldn’t walk away.