“But you weren’t responsible for her abduction or her death, Theo. Tell me you know that.”

He looked down at the floor. “I do know that. Ultimately, she was caught up in the situation because of me, but it was the Duskoff who were responsible. Reece. I’ve been making them pay for it every chance I get, too.” He gritted his teeth. “I made Reece pay long ago. Slowly. Then I threw his ass in Gribben. He’s there right now, suffering every single day.”

“And now here I am, a fire witch and involved with you. Does that slate me for death?”

He smiled at her, but he knew it had a bitter edge. “Can you see why I resisted? I’m bad luck.”

She laughed. “Yeah, but I’m not superstitious, Theo. I believe we make our own luck.”

Gods, he needed to change the subject. “So, I told you all about my exes, sad stories all. Tell me about Alex.”

She snorted. “I don’t even miss him.”

He caught her chin and tilted her face to his. “Good. That’s what I like to hear.”

Someone pounded on the door. Theo answered it, using the peephole first.

Thomas stood on the other side along with Micah. “The front desk told me what room you were in.” Thomas had two sword sheaths in hand, which he handed to Theo. “I brought these for you and Sarafina.”

Theo backed away, allowing the two men to enter. They said their hellos to Sarafina and then settled onto the couch.

“So did you find anything interesting in the building?” asked Sarafina, settling back into one of the armchairs and crossing her legs.

Thomas and Micah exchanged The Look. Theo knew what the The Look meant and it wasn’t anything good. He set the sword sheaths down next to a chair and crossed his arms over his chest.

“We found evidence of daaeman magick,” said Thomas. “No big surprise there since we could all smell it once we entered the building.”

Micah spotted the room service cart and got up to peruse it for leftovers. “Either Stefan is brewing a really big pot of herbal tea, or he’s planning a very strong spell against all of witchdom. I’m going with the second thing.” He turned and wagged a French fry at them. “You guys going to eat this? I’m starving.”

“Go ahead,” answered Sarafina. “How do you know it’s targeted at all of witchdom?”

Micah picked up the plate of lukewarm fries and replied with his mouth full. “I strongly suspect. The combination of herbs that were found there suggest it. Not all of the herbs were from Earth, by the way.”

“Any idea what kind of spell?” Sarafina asked.