Saffron Wilds by Kai Butler

CHAPTER SIX

In our roommate group text,Sugar said she wouldn’t be home for dinner because she was too busy with a group project for one of her classes. I got home quickly, arriving before Nick. Runt was nowhere to be found until I opened the refrigerator and began spooning raw steak into her bowl.

She slid out of one of the cabinets, winding around my ankles twice before digging in.

“What’s got you hiding in the closet?”

She ignored me, a low rumble building in her throat. I assumed it was a purr, but with her, I could never be certain. Dropping my satchel in the bedroom, I paused before shoving my hand into the bag and pulling out the silk packet.

I took out a single seed again, considering it. It was small, about the size of an apple seed. Shaking my head, I returned it to the packet, carefully placing it back in my satchel.

There would be time to find out what kind of plant it grew after I spoke with Lilacina. I heard a key in the door, and Nick came in, bearing cartons of something that smelled delicious. My stomach rumbled. The party sub from earlier was definitely not as delicious as whatever this was.

“Did you shower?” Nick called out.

“What? I just got home. I don’t need to shower.” Crossing my arms, I came into the doorway. Subtly, I lifted one of my elbows and ducked my head, trying to sniff my armpit.

“I saw what you did to that house. Between fighting the chimeras on your own and turning a house into a boat, you need a shower.”

Ignoring my protest, Nick pointed at the bathroom until I slouched inside, pointedly shutting the door behind me. I showered quickly, using some of Nick’s expensive body wash out of spite. When I came out, a billow of steam following me, my towel wrapped around my hips, Nick’s eyes widened.

He stepped forward and leaned in close, sniffing my neck. His breath tickled, and I shrugged him away.

“Don’t you need a shower?” I asked pointedly.

Nick’s hazel eyes darkened, and he tugged his tie loose, pulling it over his head and then unbuttoning his shirt. My eyes followed the movement of his fingers and traced over each inch of exposed skin.

He shrugged out of the shirt, then pulled his undershirt over his head, tossing it to the side. I stepped forward, undoing his belt buckle. I felt his cock hardening, jumping a bit as I let the backs of my fingers drag over it when I opened his zipper.

Leaning forward, I spoke against his lips. “Shower.”

Laughing, I stepped back. With a pout, he pulled his pants back up to his hips and walked into the bathroom. He started the shower and finished stripping, leaving the door open.

I couldn’t help moving to the doorway and leaning against it, enjoying the view. When he sent me an inviting look over his shoulder, I swung my finger back and forth, tsking him.

“You were the one who was all about conserving water.”

Nick huffed, and I laughed again, turning to the bedroom. I quickly pulled on basketball shorts and went out to the kitchen. Nick had already plated the food. It looked like Thai from the restaurant that had opened up down the street.

If it was Thai food, that meant white wine. I opened the refrigerator and found a bottle chilling. Taking it out, I grabbed two wine glasses from the cupboard, and when Nick got out of the shower and changed into sweatpants, I was able to offer him a glass with his plate.

“Table or couch?” Nick asked, glancing between the two.

Our table was really intended only for two people, however we could usually squeeze Sugar in with us. I considered both. We could probably find something mind numbing on TV, but we so rarely got the apartment to ourselves…

“Table,” I said.

Nick took one of the chairs, and I took the other. We dug in immediately. It was late enough that my stomach had rolled right on past hunger and settled into feed me, Seymour territory.

“I’ve been thinking about the colors,” Nick started.

I held up my fork to stop him. “I was just joking. We can do whatever colors you want.”

“No. I like the idea of silver and blue. But I was thinking about the fireworks.” Nick glanced up at me, and I raised both eyebrows.

“I called the city about that. Apparently, the permit is, like, a few thousand dollars. If we want to do it, we can, but…” I raised my hand and gestured between the two of us, trying to express I would prefer to spend those thousands of dollars on a luxury honeymoon.

“Yeah. I figured. That’s why I was thinking of just doing it with alchemy. I was talking to Zahide. It would be the sort of thing we could set up in advance.”

My eyebrows drew together. “You aren’t thinking about doing that on the actual wedding day, right? You’re going to be way too panicked about other stuff. Someone else would have to set it off.”

“Or someone else would have to do it altogether,” Nick said. “Someone like my brother or my mom.”

He said the last as a mumble, and I paused, putting my fork back on my plate and exaggeratedly putting a hand behind my ear.

“I’m sorry, did you say your mother?” Nick nodded, and I leaned back. “You called her.” I kept my voice neutral, and Nick looked away from me, breathing in and out through his nose.

“I can’t forgive her right now. Not yet. But the idea of not having her at our wedding…” He leaned forward, lacing his fingers together and resting his forehead on them. “I talked to my brother Andrew about her magic, and he didn’t know what I was talking about. She hid it even from him.”

“She knew what marrying into the King family would mean. What do you think your father would do if he knew she was practicing whatever that was?” I couldn’t see Nick’s face, but I saw a twitch in his cheek. I reached forward and placed my hand on top of his forearm. It was tense.

“I just don’t understand why she would keep something like that a secret from me and Andrew. We’re her kids. I mean, she even kept her family’s relationship with the fae a secret from us.”

I tightened my hand on his arm. I wasn’t able to explain it either, but I could at least shed some light on that.

“None of the kids in your family had been taken for a long time. The debt was paid, but something like that leaves a scar on a family. I’m not surprised she was taught to hate the fae.”

When Nick pulled away from his hands, glaring up at me, I put both hands up.

“Her reaction to you was bigotry. It had nothing to do with you and everything to do with her biases,” Nick said.

“I’m not arguing, but I am trying to explain she has more reason to hate the fae than most people.” I lowered my hands, putting them both on Nick’s wrists and tugging his hands down to the table. “So you’ve been talking to your mother?”

“Yeah,” Nick said shortly. He reached for his fork, and I let the subject drop. If he didn’t want to tell me what was going on, I wasn’t going to push him.

I returned to my food, and for a few minutes, we ate in silence. I felt Runt settle under my chair, her purr vibrating against my leg.

“So do I get to find out anything about the case that pulled you away from the house I turned into a boat?”

Nick looked at me, his head tilted, his mouth an unamused line. “Zahide is going to figure you out. She doesn’t know a lot about witchcraft, but she doesn’t have to have a lot of knowledge to figure out that what you’re doing isn’t witchcraft.”

“I’ll be more subtle. Little things. Plus, I was desperate. A giant bear-anaconda was using me as a stress ball.” I mimed squeezing my hand tightly. “I was pretty sure my head was about to pop off like some Looney Tunes cartoon.”

“Well, we’ve already talked about how I feel with you headless.” Nick finished his plate and leaned back, reaching for his glass of wine. He swirled it, considering. “Just be careful. You’re getting careless. When I first met you, I had to pry your fae magic secret out of you.”

“As I remember it, you figured that out in about five minutes.” I reached for my wine, taking a sip. It was dry, a hint of sweetness in the aftertaste. “Your case?”

“I can’t talk a lot about it, but it’s worrying Tate. I have a feeling it’s going to get bigger.” He looked at his wine, placing it on the table carefully. “There’s been some dead bodies, and right now, we have more questions than answers.”

It was more than he usually gave me about his cases, and I wondered if he was asking me if I had heard anything.

“They don’t think it’s fae related?” I clarified.

“There’s no evidence it is. Not yet.” Nick didn’t say anything else, still looking at his wine.

“But that means there isn’t any evidence it isn’t.” I frowned as I realized I had twisted up my words. Trying to untangle myself, I said, “There isn’t any evidence the fae didn’t do it either?”

Nick shrugged. “Right now, the captain hasn’t authorized you to know anything about it. We’re trying to keep this as quiet as possible.”

“I’ll keep my ear out,” I said. “In case I hear anything. Sometimes people tell me more things than they would tell somebody with a badge.”

Nick let out a long breath, a smile tugging the edges of his lips. “You haven’t found the familiar yet? He wasn’t at the house?”

I groaned, rubbing at my eyes with the tips of my fingers. “At this point, it’s embarrassing. If anyone knew it was taking me this long to find a cat, my Yelp reviews would all be one star.”

“I’m sorry. That was a lot of magic you spent this afternoon to not even find what you were looking for.” Nick picked up his fork, placing it on the plate with a soft clink. Then he stood, collecting my plate and fork and putting them in the sink. Something had him spooked. His case?

“I mean, I could have done with finding the cat, but I’m happy we saved all those familiars and prevented Vaughn from making any more chimeras.” I watched as Nick began washing the plates, his movements smooth, his eyes only on the dishes, not looking up at me at all. “So they’re going to the chimera sanctuary Zahide knows about?”

“She seems to think it would be a good fit. They’re sending someone out to check on the chimeras. Animal Control wants it dealt with as soon as possible.” He opened the dishwasher, placing the plates in first with a soft scraping sound. “They don’t love having a bear in their facility.”

“Winnie is an absolute sweetheart. If I thought we could fit her in the apartment, I would take her for myself.”

Nick sighed, shaking his head. There was something distant in his words. They were right, but the tone was just slightly off. “She’s a thousand-pound grizzly combined with an anaconda. You were just complaining you thought she was about to squeeze your head off.”

“Yeah. That was before I got to know her,” I said. Leaning over, I scratched at Runt’s chin under the chair. “Don’t worry. No one else is replacing you. We only need one little murder pet in the house.”

Nick dried his hands and came back to the table. He picked up his wineglass and swallowed most of it in one gulp. His hand was trembling, and I narrowed my eyes.

“Can I show you something?” Nick’s words tripped over each other.

“What do you want to show me?” I kept my voice and posture relaxed, not going tense at the anxiety I felt.

“Come here.” Nick took a few steps into the living room, then knelt on the ground, drawing something out from under the couch. When he spread it open, I saw it was a fresh white bedsheet.

There was already writing on it, and it took me a moment before I realized what it was.

For a long beat, I didn’t say anything. Then I knelt down, squatting next to where Nick was on his knees, hands pressed into his thighs. He said nothing, and we both considered what was in front of us.

Nick’s mother wrote her spells like clockwork. Rather than the concentric circles of alchemy, her magic ran adjacent, the circles pushing each other into motion, the magic feeding between them like a series of watering holes connected by waterfalls.

Nick was attempting the same thing.

“Have you tried it?” I asked. “With real magic, not just a dry run?”

Nick shook his head. He opened his mouth but struggled, voicing a couple of half thoughts before closing his lips.

“Is this the same language she writes in?”

Nick raised his shoulders in a shrug. “No. Hers is different. This is just…an experiment.”

I nodded slowly. My knees began to ache, the heat of pain making me shift my position until I was sitting crisscross.

“You’re experimenting on your own. You’re trying to figure out how your mother’s magic works without actually talking to her about it.” I watched Nick, checking to see if it was true. He looked down, tracing a circle with his forefinger.

“Because if you ask her about her magic, it gives her the power in the situation. Right now you have the power because she only gets to talk to you when you let her. Okay.”

“I’m still angry at her.” Nick licked his bottom lip and opened his mouth a couple more times, trying to find the right words. “She lied to me. She tried to kill you. But my whole life I’ve been taught there’s only one way to do magic. Sure, witches are fine people. All ways of practicing magic are acceptable. But there’s only one right way.”

He looked up at me, his eyes wide and bright. Two deep grooves were carved between his eyebrows, and he fisted the hand that was tracing the circle.

“The fact that your mother practices another form of magic was a betrayal.” I put my hand on top of his. “Or it was just a sacrifice she made to be with your father.”

Nick’s breath hitched, and he shook his head.

“Okay.” I leaned away from him. “Let’s see if it works.”

“What?” Nick asked.

I clapped my hands, the sound loud. “Come on. You’re the magical prodigy. Let’s see if it works.”

Nick looked down. I was sure he wasn’t going to go for it. He was too cautious for that, the precision of alchemy much too ingrained. Then he sent a green ribbon of magic into the spellwork. It flowed through the circles, lighting one and sending it into motion, which lit another until the clockwork came to life.

It was beautiful. Estelle’s magic had been beautiful but frightening. I was so familiar with the pulse of Nick’s magic that I could admire it just for the aesthetics.

Under the table, Runt hissed and fled into our bedroom. A trail of smoke rose from one of the circles.

“Nick, is it supposed to—”

The spell exploded.