The Frozen Witch Book One (20 page)

“What?” Megan’s voice cracked with
emotion.

“You’re too close,” Vali repeated, slower.
“You need to sit this one out. As I said, rest assured that Hank
will be brought to justice.”

“But you need me, sir,” Megan said, her
words strangely garbled.

“I will manage without you. This case is
too important and your wounds are too fresh.” His voice dipped low
into a gentle whisper once more.

“No. I want to be there,” Megan clenched
her teeth, “I want to personally make that bastard pay for what he
did to my sister. She would still be here if it weren’t for
him.”

“This is not about revenge,” Vali, the god
of revenge, noted. It would have been a rich, hypocritical
statement coming from him, were it not for his soft, gentle,
careful tone.

I suddenly got the distinct impression
that I shouldn’t be listening to this conversation. It was private.
Sure, I hated both of the people involved – but they still deserved
their dignity.

I began to back away towards the door.

“Lily-white, stop,” Vali said.

I stopped.

“This involves you,” he said
simply.

“What?” Megan hissed.

“Lily-white will be accompanying me this
evening. Ensure she understands what is required of her,” Vali said
calmly, shifting forward and resting his hands on the edge of his
desk.

“What?” Megan spat wildly.

I felt sick. “I don’t…” I trailed off, not
knowing what I should say.

“Lily-white will be accompanying me.
Megan, I know this is hard for you, but I still require your
assistance. Once more, I can only assure you that Hank Chaplain
will be brought to justice.”

“But she’s new. A rookie. There’s no way
she can accompany you on a job like this,” Megan spat.

“There is every way. Now, please, just do
as I say.”

Without another word, Megan walked out. I
couldn’t look at her.

But as soon as the door slammed closed
behind her, I realized one pertinent fact: I was alone with Vali.
Again.

It took me a long time to gather the courage
to shift my head back and look at him.

“You’ve had an eventful day,” he said
evenly. I wanted to say his voice was sarcastic. Problem was, his
tone was completely neutral.

“What? You’re not going to take the
opportunity to scold me for promising Larry you’d cut him a deal?”
I asked, even though it was stupid. The longer I stood here, the
woozier I became. And the woozier I became, the more I remembered
how much I hated Vali.

He didn’t react. With his hands still
pressed against the desk and a neutral expression on his face, he
nodded towards the chair that sat opposite his desk.

I stared at it warily. “Can we just get
this over with? How much trouble am I in?”

“You are in no trouble. But as I have
already told you, I expect you to be presentable for the function
this evening. Right now,” he brought a hand up and flicked it
towards my completely blood-soaked top, “you are not
presentable.”

Sure. I wasn’t presentable. I was also in a
heck of a lot of pain, and that was a trifle more important.

Though the last thing I wanted to do was
take a seat, I didn’t have the brainpower to fight him.

I fumbled over, swearing as I felt another
trickle escape down my hand and splash onto the carpet.

“Leave it,” he instructed in a clear tone.
Then he pushed up and stood.

Immediately my heart began to race. For more
reasons than one. As he stood, his appreciable form became outlined
by the sun streaming in the windows beyond. Somewhere along the
line, between me becoming a magically indentured slave, I’d
forgotten how damn attractive Vali was. Or was it Vali? Because as
he took a step towards me, he softened measurably. Ostensibly it
was the same man, the same suit, the same expression. But
underneath that? Beyond it? I felt something shift.

I stared at him warily as he stopped half
a meter in front of me. Then, without preamble, he held out his
hand.

The move seemed pregnant with some import.
But it wasn’t like we were meeting for the first time. So why offer
me his hand?

I frowned, staring at it. “Ah, what do you
want me to do with that?” I asked after an uncomfortable
pause.

“Take it,” he said, voice soft. I was now
more certain than ever that Vali had made the switch to Franklin
Saunders.

Vali I could deal with. If I was defensive
enough, I tended to get through my awkward conversations with him.
As I tilted my head further back and stared up at Franklin
Saunders, my heart began to thump in my chest. “Why?”

“Because, Lily-white, you’re injured. Your
injuries were not your own fault. They were incurred while helping
another. You don’t deserve them,” he said with some measure of
authority.

I wasn’t an idiot. I could recognize that
this interaction was important somehow. Problem was, I had
absolutely no idea what was going on. I stared at him. And when I
didn’t reach forward and accept his outstretched hand, his
shoulders crumpled. “I’ll take your injuries,” he explained. Well,
he tried to explain. If you asked me, that statement was no
explanation whatsoever.

I just frowned all the harder. “What?
You’ll take my injuries?”

“As I said, you don’t deserve them.” His
voice dropped with kindness once more, and I saw his searching gaze
dart over my face.

I really had no idea how bad I looked. I
could bet I looked like hell, though.

When I didn’t lean forward and grab his
hand, his shoulders deflated even further. “It’s okay, Lilly,” he
said, for the first time not saying my name like it was a color.
“Take the hand. It won’t hurt you. Though you don’t remember it, we
did the same thing last night.”

Though I should have stopped and asked the
million questions echoing through my brain, instead I reached
forward. No, my body reached forward. That dancing cold in my chest
– it seemed to know what to do. And it accepted Franklin Saunders’
outstretched hand.

His fingers were… inviting. So very
inviting. I’d never felt anything like it. Accepting his hand was
like accepting an invitation to heaven. All my pain just drifted
away. All the frustration. The anger. The confusion. None of it
mattered anymore.

I let out a sigh as I fell back in the
chair. The sigh, it didn’t last. It didn’t last, because I felt my
injuries heal themselves. I watched a bruise spread over Franklin’s
face. Blood began to trickle down his nose as if it had just been
broken.

I jolted back, trying to break his grip, but
he was stronger than me.

“Don’t interrupt the process,” he
warned.

“What happened to your face? What happened
to your face? You’re bleeding,” I insisted.

“I am accepting your injuries because you
do not deserve them,” he said as if that was enough to explain what
the hell was going on here.

Though I kept trying to pull away from him,
he wouldn’t let me. A minute later, he dropped my hand, stood back,
tilted his head to the side, and appeared to check my face.

When he was satisfied, he walked around his
desk, sat down, opened a drawer, pulled out a tissue, and began to
dab at his nose.

I sat there, pressed right up against the
back of my chair, shaking.

A man had just accepted my injuries like
they were somehow a gift. And not just any man. Vali.

It didn’t take long for him to stem the flow
of blood. In fact, it was almost instantaneous. I doubted the
tissue he was using to dab at his nose had magical properties. No,
Franklin’s god side would be kicking in.

With a few quick wipes, he cleaned up the
blood, and the bruise that had blossomed up his cheeks, over his
nose, and along his forehead disappeared too.

He sat back and considered me. “Are you
still in pain?”

I didn’t answer. Still pressed against the
back of my chair, I stared at him in horror. “Why did you do that?”
I couldn’t control my tone, and it sounded accusatory.

He frowned. “I didn’t do you any
harm.”

“No, you just accepted an injury that
wasn’t yours. Why would you…” I couldn’t even finish the
sentence.

He considered me quietly for several
seconds. “Out there in the corridor, you offered to accept
punishment on behalf of Larry McGregor. Did you do so in
earnest?”

My back straightened, my stomach kicking
as I realized this could all be a trap.

“Did you do that in earnest?” he
questioned in a clearer tone when I didn’t immediately
answer.

“Yeah, I did it in earnest. If you have to
punish someone, punish me. Larry’s had a hard life, but underneath,
he’s a good guy. You may not be able to see that, but I
can.”

Vali paused then nodded. “Just as you
offered to take responsibility for Larry’s crimes, I took
responsibility for your injuries.”

I shook my head, calming down enough that
I pried myself off the back of the chair. “This isn’t similar. You
literally… absorbed my injuries. How did you even do
that?”

He stared at me evenly. “I am a
god.”

As far as answers went, it was a pretty good
one. But it didn’t answer the underlying question. The one I
couldn’t push out.

It wasn’t how he’d done it; it was why a guy
like him would even bother? Vali was a god of revenge, and why
would a god of revenge take it upon himself to absorb your
injuries? It didn’t fit.

I didn’t get the chance to question him –
he cleared his throat and gestured at the door. “Remember, tonight
at eight,” he said as he leaned over his desk and went back to
work.

It was obviously my cue to leave.

Staring at him for a lingering moment, I
shifted around and headed through the door.

Could… could I be wrong about Vali? Could
there be more to the god than met the eye?

Sure, he was a prick. But there was
something else there. A mystery I was suddenly determined to
unpick.

I walked back into the office, so confused,
my head was nothing more than a swirling mess of thoughts.

Before I could mooch over to my desk, Middle
Manager Ben appeared in front of me like an apparition.

I doubled back.

He crossed his arms tightly. “Had a big
day, then? Caught the perp and convinced him to hand himself in?
Ideas above your station?” he added with a growl.

I shrugged, latching a hand onto the back
of my neck. “He was a friend. I just… didn’t want to see him go
down. Things got a little out of hand,” I added, gesturing to my
blood soaked top. It looked a lot less impressive now my face
wasn’t mashed up.

Ben flicked his judgmental gaze down my
top, tutted, then narrowed his eyes. “You think I’m impressed?
You’ll have to do a lot more than that to impress me, and a lot
more than that to earn your freedom. Now go get cleaned up.” He
jerked a thumb towards my desk.

Shoulders deflating, I walked through the
room. Again everyone’s eyes were on me. Though I wanted to sink
through the floor, that feeling stopped when I saw Cassidy jump up
from her chair.

“Oh my god, what happened to
you?”

“What happened to you? You and Alice
disappeared into the shop, I beeped the horn, but you didn’t come
out.”

“Portal spell,” Alice growled as she
appeared from behind her cubicle. She took one look at my top then
frowned. “Where the hell did all that blood come from?”

“My nose,” I said as I tentatively brought
up a hand and patted my face once more. Seriously, it was fine. No
pain at all. In fact, I’d caught a glimpse of myself in a mirror on
the way here, and I looked better than ever. Those nasty dark
shadows under my eyes from all that lack of sleep and worry?
Gone.

Heck, even the discoloration and sunspots
that had encroached over my usually pale skin this summer – they
were gone too.

“You had a nosebleed?” Cassidy asked,
frowning with compassion.

“No, I had my nose punched in by a warlock
working for Chaplain.” I sighed glumly as I shifted past, pulled my
chair out with my foot, and sat heavily.

“He mustn’t have done a particularly good
job – your nose looks fine,” Cassidy said, confusion
obvious.

“Trust me, if you’d seen me a couple of
minutes ago, you wouldn’t agree. But I guess it is fine now.” I
continued to pat at it.

“Wait, I don’t get it.” Cassidy scooted
over on her chair, grabbing hold of my desk and peering at my face
closely. “You’re not lying, right? But us lower detectives don’t
have access to healing magic like that.”

I frowned at her. “What do you
mean?”

“No, what do you mean?” Alice turned the
question on me as she scooted over and took up position on the
opposite side of my desk. She frowned at me. “Vali healed you,
didn’t he?” Her tone suddenly dropped so low it couldn’t
carry.

Cassidy sucked in an excited breath.

If I had any hope of controlling my
expression, it was dashed when Alice shot me a questioning
look.

She quickly came to her own conclusion.
“He did heal you.”

“Oh my god.” Cassidy crammed her hand over
her mouth and spoke between her fingers.