For a moment there, it had truly looked as if they would.
Her eyes were open now though. Hartt had feelings for Iolanthe, and Mackenzie refused to play second fiddle to another woman. She was better off without him.
She tipped her head back as the rain grew heavier, welcomed the cold kiss of it on her face rather than hating it for once. It cooled her overheating skin, washed away the evidence of her hurt, and dampened her senses.
Yet she still reached out with them.
Her jaw tensed as she realised what she was doing.
She had run away from Hartt, had slipped out and was now hoping he had noticed she was gone. She wanted him to come after her.
To choose her.
Mackenzie shook that weak, pathetic need off with a growl. She didn’t need him. She only needed her guild. She was more than capable of defending herself against a witch. She had proven that more than once in her life. She had taken out a whole coven of the bastards and if she had to die to take down this one witch too, she would gladly put herself through that hell.
She didn’t need Hartt.
She would handle this alone, or at least with the help of Syn. Two capable women. Not a man in sight. Men were the liability. A danger she didn’t need. Yet part of her was still focused behind her, hoping Hartt would come running after her like some terrible romance movie cliché.
The rain grew heavier, falling in a thick sheet that soaked her to the bone, stuck her black shirt to her shoulders and worsened her mood.
She reached a crossroads, and a conclusion.
He wasn’t coming after her.
He probably hadn’t even noticed she was gone, was probably too swept up in the beautiful Iolanthe to give two shits about average Mackenzie.
“Men suck,” she grumbled.
She amended that when she thought about what he had said, when it cut her to the bone all over again and made her feel as if he thought she was a bit of a joke or that she was only playing at being an assassin.
But she would never really be one because she didn’t have a dick.
“Men suck balls.”
She scanned the streets, hoping to recognise where she was so she could get to the nearest portal as quickly as possible and get her sorry ass back to Hell. She needed to talk to Syn, even though her friend would probably congratulate her for getting laid at last and then chastise her for letting her feelings get involved, and then need to be talked out of murdering Hartt.
Or maybe Mackenzie would skip talking her out of it and let her loose on the elf.
She highly doubted an elf was strong enough to defeat a demon of the Devil’s domain.
“Why did you leave?” That bass voice rolled over her, sent a shiver tripping down her spine and stopped her in her tracks.
She denied the warmth that tried to curl through her, the stupid giddiness that accompanied it as the ridiculous part of her joyfully cried that he had chosen her. Just because he had come after her, it didn’t mean he had picked her over the elf. She doubted he could pick her over Iolanthe, not after the way she had seen him look at her, or the fact he clearly still had feelings for the elf despite the fact she was with the jaguar.
Mackenzie kept her back to him, refused to give him the pleasure of seeing her outstanding and most beautiful face. Or maybe she just wanted to hide the stupid tears from him. Although, the distance between her and the nearest streetlight and the abysmal weather might do that for her.
“Mackenzie?” He moved a step closer.
She plucked up her courage and lined up the words—an accusation about him and his feelings for Iolanthe—and failed dismally.
“Females are a liability, huh?” Not quite what she had wanted to say, but something that had hurt her almost as much as his blatant love of the elf.
“What?” Confusion rang in his voice as he took another step closer. He came to an abrupt halt. “Ah… No, Mackenzie. I didn’t mean it like that. Fuery… A long time ago, before I met him, Fuery lost himself to the darkness during a battle against one of our princes. Prince Vail had been twisted by magic and turned on his own legion. Fuery was a commander in it and he admired Prince Vail, loved him like a brother and