Page 34 of Heartless Enemy
For another few seconds, I just sat there, glowering at him in angry silence. Then I forced out a breath. “Fine.”
“Then say it.”
“Yes, I understand,” I ground out.
He held my gaze for a few more moments, as if to truly drive the point home. Then he brushed his palms together and let the metal sink back into the chair.
The moment the restraints were gone, I slapped my hands together and summoned a lightning bolt.
Amusement danced in Levi’s eyes as he watched the crackling white bolt flicker in my palm when I pointed it at him.
“Go ahead and shoot that lightning bolt at me, spitfire. See what happens.”
I narrowed my eyes at him.
He smirked.
With a frustrated snarl, I let the magic die out and instead reached for my wine glass. After heaving another sigh, I shook my head and then drank deeply from the rich red wine. Levi just chuckled softly.
“And you three,” I demanded as I set my glass down and instead stabbed a hand towards the other dark mages at the table. “Why didn’t you have my back just now? That plan would’ve kept Levi safe. Isn’t that what you want?”
“Of course it is,” Shinji replied, his calm dark eyes meeting mine.
“Butyouwouldn’t have been safe,” Chris finished.
I raised my eyebrows. “So?”
“I thought we made it very clear that morning after you freed us from prison,” Tyler picked up. His blue eyes were full of sincerity as he held my gaze. “You’re one of us now. And we protect our own.”
Warmth spread through my chest, and my mouth dropped open a little. I still wasn’t used to being surrounded by people who had my back. And not just theoretically, like my colleagues at the South Side Department who were supposed to be in my corner but then left me hanging the moment shit got real. These ruthless and violent dark mages truly had my back.
I smiled at them.
“And besides,” Chris added, and nodded towards Levi. “If we had,hewould’ve gutted us.”
“Actually, I would’ve skinned you alive.” Levi lifted his broad shoulders in a casual shrug and sipped from his whiskey. “But the end result would’ve been the same.”
Chris shot me a pointed look. “See?”
I rolled my eyes. “Fine.” After huffing out something between a laugh and a sigh, I added, “I just figured that it would’ve been good to make White solely my problem instead of having him be everyone else’s problem too.”
Levi sat up straight in his chair so fast that his knee hit the table, making the glasses and bottles on the black and gold surface rattle. The rest of us started in surprise and blinked at him.
“What if we make him everyone’s problem?” Levi said.
“Isn’t he already everyone’s problem?” Tyler asked, confusion blowing across his face. “Didn’t you say that he was going to kill us three and half of your Court too, not just Eve?”
“That’s not what I meant.” Bracing his palms on the table, he sat forward and swept his gaze over all four of us. His gray eyes seemed to swirl with schemes. “If we need to fight White anyway, then why not make him the parliament’s problem too?”
For a few seconds, no one said anything.
Candlelight danced over the walls and glinted in the glasses across the table.
Then, as if we all figured it out at the same time, the four of us sat up straighter and raised our eyebrows.
“We get White to threaten an attack against the whole city of Malgrave,” I said, spelling out what Levi had been insinuating.
“Exactly.” The King of Metal grinned like the villain he was as he leaned back in his chair again and picked up his glass of whiskey. “Then we offer to protect the city from the dangerous worldwalker and his army… in exchange for them ceding the south side to me.”