a sex date, so I let the conversation drop and followed the witch. Thankfully, Raphael was willing to let it drop as well.
We were led into the center of the auditorium. This wasn’t some high school set up. This was old school. A circular, lowered area was in the middle, where Raphael and I stood, and a table was in the center. Nakul was on it. The center area was lined with windows and seating, rising up toward the ceiling. A witch could hold a lesson, and the entire classroom could see. They could do a massive group spell, the spectators feeding their power into the witches who were channeling it.
This was where shit got done.
I went to Nakul’s side and was surprised to find I wasn’t pissed or angry. He looked a little worse for wear, his face a mass of bruising, and his nose was swollen two sizes bigger than it had been.
“I hit him pretty hard,” Raphael explained, stepping up next to me. “Why didn’t you bite and kill him, Kaliya? Why didn’t you use the one weapon you had on you? Your venom.”
“Because by the time I realized he was spelled, I also knew he had been fighting it for so long. He didn’t want to do it. Every piece of him screamed against it. He didn’t want to, and it was hurting him. He’s not Wesley. He wasn’t at the prison as an out-of-place victim. I had to show him some measure of kindness, right?” I looked up at my roommate, our hot conversation forgotten as I searched the eyes of someone I knew was good. “He didn’t want to, so why would I kill him for it?”
“I killed Dunter and one of those wolves,” he said, his voice taut. “If they were spelled, you’re calling me a murderer.”
“We didn’t know when you killed Dunter that people were being spelled to kill me,” I whispered. “I killed Levi and Erline and one of those wolves, but I don’t think they were under a compulsion spell. I really don’t. I think they were trying to win freedom.” Whoever had laid this trap had laid it well, with several possible ways to have me killed. “But not Wesley and…not…” I waved my hand at my uncle. A war raged in my head as I weighed whether I had done the worst thing or the best thing. Was there a right or wrong here?
No, there’s never a right or wrong. There are a thousand shades of grey, and I live in them. Purely black and white worlds are for the foolish, who have never experienced the real world beyond their own limited scope of imagination.
I should have killed him the moment I saw him in the condo, a dark part of me whispered.
I have to be loyal to the nagas first, just like Adhar and Mahavir, a selfish, yet confused, part of me returned fire.
I stepped back from my uncle, turning away so I could clear my head. I found a way to rationalize and avoid the entire problem. I didn’t need the conflicting feelings, and I wasn’t going to deal with them yet. They could hound me another day.
“Anyway, he has information we need. I couldn’t lose it.” I walked to seats on the side of the circular bottom floor, each step echoing in the room. When I sat down, I noticed my roommate was staring at me.
“And there you go,” he whispered. “Locking everything you feel away and talking about it in a way that’s easy to rationalize.”
“Yup, you’ve got me figured out.” I lifted my hands in defeat. “Emotions make the job hard, and my job is hard enough. Thinking about what I did doesn’t change that I did it. I put my life at risk to keep him alive. It’s over, and now I’m going to get what I want.”
He nodded as he walked over and took a seat next to me.
Are you sure you want me, Raphael Alvarez? This isn’t going to stop just because you think you like me.
“You can talk to me about anything,” he said, staring at my uncle’s still body. “If you ever need someone to talk to about it.”
“I don’t talk about it, I just live with it.” I let a murderer live as he tried to kill me because I pitied him, and he was one of mine, someone I was supposed to protect from the viciousness of the outside world. Having a rational reason and sticking