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This was why I worked alone.

“Don’t slit my throat just yet. I’m not going to kill him,” Dante said without turning, even though I had been gripping my knife.

“Forgive me if I don’t take you at your word,” I replied through set teeth, palming my knife.

He reached into his jacket, pulling out what looked like a small coin. He muttered something in Latin under his breath, too quiet for me to hear, then he dropped it on Colton’s chest. It began to sizzle, smoke, then disappeared entirely.

For once, Dante had completely and utterly surprised me. And scared the shit out of me to boot.

Magic.

The smell of it, the wrongness in the air that prickled my nerve endings… It was magic Dante had just wielded.

“What the fuck was that?” I demanded, unable to hide my fear from my tone. Dante was a wild card without any sentimental feelings toward Colton. Who knew what he was capable of. Magic could wreak havoc on minds, on the body, could make the victim wish they were dead but never grant them the mercy. I swallowed bile at the thought of Colton being corrupted in that way.

Dante eyed me coldly. “Nothing too damaging, just should erase his memory of tonight. Replace it with something a little more boring.” He shrugged, as if this weren’t a big deal.

That stopped me in my tracks. For a variety of reasons. “You carry around memory erasing spells?” I gaped at him, unbelieving. “A witch would never just⁠—”

“Never say never, Hadley. I’m known to make people eat words like that.” He winked at me. “I’m full of surprises and handy to have around.”

I pinched the bridge of my nose instead of replying to him. I refused to think of the consequences that came from Dante having an unknown number of fucking spells on his person.

And I refused to think that Dante did actually help in this instance. I had been completely at a loss as to what to do with Colton. Killing him was out of the question. As was telling him the truth.

My knees clicked as I bent down, staring at Colton’s unconscious face. All of his features were lax; gone was the pinch between his brows, the angry curl of his mouth. But he didn’t look relaxed, didn’t look peaceful in his unconsciousness. He looked trapped, paralyzed, unnatural.

Guilt barreled through me, covering me like oil. A sensation I was unfamiliar with and yet another reason I needed to ramp up my hunt to get out of here.

Not letting myself linger on Colton’s shadowed face, I sheathed my knife, crouching down to hook my hands under his armpits.

Unsurprisingly, he was heavy, even if I was stronger than my frame suggested. My shoulders shrieked in protest, sweat already beading on my upper lip.

“You gonna help me?” I grunted as I dragged Colton’s prone body through the cemetery.

Dante eyed the scene, his expression laced with quiet amusement. “Watching you struggle is kind of fun.”

“Dante,” I hissed, looking around. We didn’t know if Colton called for backup, though it was unlikely. He probably took the call because he hadn’t wanted to wake his deputies and was cocky enough to think it was nothing to worry about. I wondered what his maybe demon-blessed fiancée thought about his workaholic status, and the fact that he didn’t seem to sleep. I wondered if his apparent exuberance to take middle-of-the-night calls was because of his fiancée.

There had to be trouble in paradise if he was walking around kissing old flames. Colton wasn’t a cheater. Or maybe he was. He was a man after all.

“You still in love with him?” Dante threw out casually as we dragged the body of my childhood sweetheart through a graveyard.

“Of course I’m not,” I quickly answered. Probably too hastily, sounding defensive.

The cemetery hummed with energy that had nothing to do with the dead.

“Are you fucking him?” There was an edge to his tone this time.

“Who I fuck is none of your business,” I informed him with a bite. There were a lot of reasons to be annoyed with Dante right then, and his jealousy was almost at the top of the list. Especially because of the complicated feelings it elicited within me. I hated it on principle, of course. I’d spent over a decade answering to no one, having no bonds to anyone, and with no one caring who I did or didn’t fuck. It had been freeing. And lonely. Having Dante’s sudden, intense attention was suffocating and … something else all at once.

“He’s engaged,” he continued.

I did not ask how he knew that. He was fucking Dante. He’d probably known before he even came into town. That irked me, him doing his research. And it made me mad at myself, for coming in guns blazing, without doing any research, making no preparations, thinking I’d be able to handle anything Dreadwood Falls had to throw at me.

I narrowed my eyes at Dante. “Where do you think the bruises on my knuckles came from?”

He looked from Colton’s prone form to me. “You’re jealous enough to fight a WASP for him?” Dante’s tone was sharp again.