Marked by Death (Necromancer #1) - Kaje Harper Page 0,45

from whirling away. “No, listen to me. Yes, you broke the wards. But he lured you. He did something subtle that pulled you out to him. Didn’t he?”

Darien hesitated, his expression becoming more distant. “I saw the crows, dive-bombing something. I thought there was an injured dog or fawn or even a child—” He choked and broke off short. “Because yeah, there’d be a fawn in the middle of winter, or a child wandering alone in your maze. Jesus! I’m so gullible.” He looked down at their feet.

Silas closed his fingers, shaking Darien lightly. “It was not your fault. You need to believe that. Crosby’s demon was strong and old and subtle. My wards keep out attacks, but an appeal for help? A call to your better self? It’s my fault for not anticipating how those could be used against you.”

“Still, I should’ve remembered what you said.”

“If there had been an injured child, would you have wished you’d stayed safe in the house?”

“I—” Darien looked back up at him, eyes wide and dark.

Silas fought the need to pull him close and hold him, and settled for a pat on the shoulder. “You had no idea what you were up against. It was my fault for not keeping better watch.”

Darien nodded slowly. “You’re right. It was all your fault.”

Silas’s jaw dropped, before he caught the returning sparkle in Darien’s eyes, and the quirk of his lips. “Brat. Maybe we can agree it wasn’t our finest moment.”

Darien’s smile slid off his face. “Can’t call me a brat when I look like this.” He flicked a finger at the silver lock of hair.

“I can call you a brat when you’re old and gray and have hair growing out of your ears.”

“Oh, ick.” But Darien looked a bit better.

Silas remembered the main thing he’d wanted to say. “I’m sorry I told Ferngold you’d be staying here with me, before I even asked you. I wanted to head him off at the pass, before he decided to apprentice you himself.”

“Can he do that?”

“An apprentice does have to sign the papers, and as a legal adult, no one can make you agree if you don’t want to.” He wasn’t going to go into the ways a dark sorcerer might bend someone’s will to achieve that end. I’m going to teach him protection wards of steel. No one’s coercing him on my watch.

“So what options do I have?” Darien tilted his head as if just curious, but his pupils remained blown wide.

“Legally, morally, you can just leave.” Silas kept his tone dry to hide how much he hated that option.

“Would they let me go? That council?”

“Maybe?” He added, “You should definitely stay long enough for one of us to teach you to shield, though. Right now, if you step outside my wards, you’re a walking ghost target again.”

“How long would learning that take?”

“How fast of a learner are you?” He had a flash of young Darien, fearless, taking his skateboard down a stair rail at the library while Silas rued the day he’d offered to teach the kid. “A week for you, maybe less.”

“And then what? I go back to school? Try to pick up my classes, looking like this? I can’t—” Darien pressed his lips tightly shut, which didn’t hide the quiver of his chin.

Silas couldn’t help reaching for him, and Darien came stiffly into his hug. The first shudder shook them both, but then Darien slumped and hid his face against Silas’s shoulder. “Hey,” Silas murmured through Darien’s hair against his lips. “We’ll figure it out, right? We figured out a demon on the fly under lightning strikes. This should be a piece of cake.”

Darien tipped his head back, lashes wet. “I don’t actually want to go.”

Silas kissed him. It was the wrong thing to do, so wrong, in this moment when Darien was shaken and confused and alone. But nothing had felt as right as their lips meeting, and the way Darien grabbed his head and kissed him back harder and harder, taking control. Silas let him. He didn’t need to make demands. He could part his lips and pull Darien in tight and let him kiss and grab and rut and gasp and invade with tongue and hands. There could be nothing wrong about that when it was Darien.

Darien broke free with a gasp. “Um. Wow.” He rubbed his chin with the back of his hand. “So, there’s also that.”

“Come have some bacon,” Silas said helplessly, because he was a breath away from