A Little Night Magic Page 0,73

and I know that you didn't. What I don't know is if my advice even entered your mind when you were running off to get yourself killed."

I pulled myself up to a sitting position, and it made me a little dizzy, but lying down while getting yelled at made me feel too vulnerable. "Peach got attacked. I panicked. I just wanted the magic gone, I wanted it out of me. So I sent for Davina."

He turned to face me. "Why didn't you send for me?"

"Because..."

He waited for a moment for me to elaborate, and when I didn't, he let out an exasperated sigh. "Because why?"

I shrugged, annoyance creeping through me as he made me feel more and more like a kid in the principal's office. "Because I wanted it gone, and you couldn't help me with that. Davina could."

He let out a harsh, mirthless laugh. "Yeah. The same way she helped your sister, leaving her dead in the middle of a forest? Is that what you wanted? Because ten more minutes, and you would have had it."

"I didn't know that at the time. I thought Cain killed Holly, and I thought Davina was my friend." I put my hand to my spinning head. "Tobias, I'm in rough shape. Any chance the grilling can wait for a while?"

"Sure." He sat down in the chair, leaning back and pressing the heels of his hands into his eyes. He looked like hell, which made me feel like hell, but there was nothing to do but sit there and let the tension set around us.

"I thought you were dead," he said finally, but when I looked at him, he wasn't looking at me. He was staring at the ceiling. "I saw you lying there ... you were so still. When I touched you, you were cold and all I could think was that you were dead and I had killed you."

"Tobias, that's ridiculous."

He shifted his focus to lock his eyes with mine. "I didn't want to crowd you. Had you just been a job, I would have shadowed you every minute. I wouldn't give a rat's ass if you were mad at me or if you didn't like it. I would have protected you."

At this, my ire rose. "What, just because I'm a woman, I can't take care of myself? I need a man around to protect me all the time? Sexist ass."

He gave me a dull look. "Not because you're a woman. Because someone wants to kill you, and I have more experience with that than you do."

My ire deflated. "Oh."

He let out a huff of annoyance. "Yeah."

"So ... I guess I'm the sexist ass in this scenario, then?"

"Yep."

"Just checking." I yawned, unable to help myself, then breathed deeply and immediately regretted it. "Jeez, I need a shower. I smell like stinky gym sock."

He was silent, staring off into space. I sat forward, leaning my elbows on my knees.

"Forgive me for what I'm about to say, because I know every girlfriend in the world says this and it's awful but ... what are you thinking?"

He watched me for a long moment, then said, "I'm thinking that you're not my girlfriend."

I felt the stab of that hit me hard in the gut, and I took a breath and sat back. "Ow."

"Liv - "

"No, I got it." I blinked hard, and took in a deep breath. "Message received."

"There's no way to make it work," he said, his tone flat. "One of these days, I'm going to disappear, and you'll never hear from me again."

"Stop protecting me," I said. "I'm a grown woman. I get to decide what I can handle and what I can't."

"What if I can't handle it?"

He said it so quietly that I almost wasn't sure if I'd heard him right, but when I looked at him, I knew I had. He was drained, both physically and emotionally, and he was coming off two days of panic and worry and very little sleep, if he'd gotten any at all. I put myself in his shoes for a moment, imagining how I would have felt if the roles were reversed. The very thought of finding him half-dead, of not knowing whether or not he would survive, of believing that I could have protected him but had failed ... just imagining it made me feel sick.

I was still trying to figure out what to say when the front door opened, and Cain walked in. I hugged my arms around myself, digging my fingers into my