My stomach roiled. As much as I wanted him, I needed to sort my shit out. I was feeling crazy alone, though. I need to be around other people and not alone with Ryder, that was for sure.
I took the stairs from the lower level to the upper level two at a time. I inhaled deeply, bringing oxygen in as my heart thrummed and forced energy into my body. We had shit to do.
I had to be on top of it.
I’d fake it if I had to.
And I had to.
Magnus met me at the top of the stairs. “Laney, we need to talk.”
I stopped in my tracks, loathing making me recoil. “No, we don’t need to talk. Talking to you is the last thing I need to do right now. In fact, I still can’t even figure out exactly what you’re doing here.”
“I made a mistake,” Magnus apologized.
“You had my best friend killed. That’s not a mistake, it’s completely fucked up,” I snarled at him.
“It wasn’t my intention,” he insisted.
I held my hand up toward him. “Magnus, you are here because your brother allows it. You have nothing to do with me. I want nothing to do with you. Please don’t speak to me. Please don’t look at me. Don’t even think about me. I think that’s probably the best thing. Pretend I’m the one who died.” I spun on my heel and walked off.
I heard a sharp intake of breath from him, and I glanced over to where Ryder and Ratchet were standing over the rift map. Ryder was staring at me, his brow furrowed, his eyes dark.
“I think Laney is right,” Ryder said. “You need to leave here.”
“I didn’t say he had to leave here,” I insisted.
“I see it would make it easier for you. If he wasn’t here,” Ryder shrugged.
“I don’t need you doing me any favors,” I said, a little tersely, as I made my way toward the kitchen area to where the witches were. The last thing I needed was Ryder getting rid of his brother to make me happy.
“I’m not doing anything,” Ryder said, his mouth down-turned, his eyes sharp.
I close my eyes briefly, wanting to just slam my head into a wall. Just because I was having some sort of bonding with him over Caroline’s death didn’t mean he was having that; he was probably just looking for some sort of emotional outlet and I was taking it all personally. Now I was thinking he was sending his brother away, and it was on my behalf. I was such an idiot. The reality was his brother stole from him and had his wife killed. He probably didn’t want his brother around anymore than I did. It was like having a rattlesnake in your bed.
“Ratchet, make a portal to my mother’s house,” Ryder said, not taking his eyes off his brother. “Magnus, I think it’s time you went home and visited Mom for a little. The DGC will come and question you later when they’re ready.”
Magnus’s eyes were full of sadness and exhaustion. I almost wanted to reach out and tell him I was sorry, but what the fuck? I hadn’t done anything, and he was the one who screwed everything up and going home to Mom hardly sounded like much of a punishment to me, so it wasn’t like he should be looking so morose.
“I’ve been doing some research on the firefly powers.” Katrina got my attention and called me over.
“Really?” I asked, faintly surprised, but grateful they were taking an interest in helping me master my powers. Maybe they were hoping one day I would be useful around here rather than just a problem or a witch with weak powers.
“Yeah, fire-flies are rare and there isn’t much knowledge about their skills, but I’m happy to go through with you what we found out and let me know.” Katrina smiled warmly at me.
“I’d love to find out,” I said. “I was coming up here to talk to you about that.”
“Did you know the fire flies use their light for mating rituals?” Lady Albright asked.
My cheeks heated up. “I don’t think that has any relevance to me. I was thinking about how I burst into bright light in front of the resurrected monster, and I just couldn’t imagine that was relevant to me, trying to entice a sexual partner.
“The time my light was the brightest,” I said, “was when I was in deep fear and thought I was about to die.”
“It could be a warning or defense mechanism,” Katrina suggested. “Essentially, the light is a form of communication and because you’re a fire fly with light inside of you, you’re actually the most able to talk to the shadow creatures.”
“Shadow creatures?” I asked.
“Yeah, those are creatures like monsters and demons who tend to live in the dark shadows.” I glanced over at Ryder, but quickly shifted my gaze to Ratchet when I realized he was looking at me, also.
