Steal the Light (Thieves #1)(77)

Sarah was the first woman I ever spent hours shopping with for shoes and clothes. She was the first one I talked to about how I felt when Daniel died.

Sarah was my first real girlfriend, and that night she was my first real backstabbing bitch.

“Subsisto!” Sarah commanded as she looked at Dev, and I watched the way her eyes flared as she spit out the spell. Dev didn’t have a chance. His body jerked, every muscle tensing.

“Zoey.” Dev’s face was a mask of frustration. He spoke through gritted teeth. He could blink, but otherwise not a muscle moved. “I can’t move. You need to…”

“Silentium,” Sarah said, and Dev went silent.

Sarah is a strong witch. Many witches are what I call technical witches. They know the craft. They study the spells and can do a serviceable job when it’s required. It’s the difference between book knowledge and street smarts. Sarah had street smarts in spades. She was born a witch, and there was no way to teach what her body knew instinctively. Another witch might say the proper words but get only half the effect. When Sarah started a spell, the room was filled with it and the air around her crackled with magic. She once described it to me as pulling energy she needed from the space around her.

Sarah smiled briefly and shook her head. “God, Christine was right. He really is a magical battery. Someone should teach him to shield. I could pull magic off him for hours, and I doubt he would even miss it. So much wasted potential.”

The baby moved against me restlessly, and for the first time she seemed something other than perfectly happy. She understood we were in danger, and I found myself trying to soothe her. It would be all right. Any minute Neil would come in, and he would knock Sarah out until we could figure out what was going on. Something was wrong. Someone had gotten to her because this was not the Sarah I knew. This was not my friend, and I needed to figure out how to get her back.

“I’m sorry, Zoey,” Sarah said, quietly studying me and the baby. “Please understand I don’t want to do this.”

“Then don’t.” I wished Neil would show up. It occurred to me that lately I’d been really relying on either Neil or Daniel to show up and save me. I was far too used to having real muscle around me, and I was getting weak. I’d worked jobs before Danny and Neil. I’d worked some alone and managed to get myself out of some tight situations.

“I didn’t mean for things to go like this,” she continued as Dev stood there frozen in place. He seemed to still be breathing, the small motion the only way I knew he was alive.

“I know you didn’t. It’s going to be all right, Sarah,” I said in my smoothest tone. I turned the baby away from the gun. “Why don’t you ditch the gun, and we can talk about it.”

Her face turned down, but that gun didn’t waver. “I would love to do that, Zoey. You have no idea. I wish I never started this, but I can’t get out now. I have to see it through.”

“No, you don’t.” I kept looking at that open door. Where the hell was Neil?

Sarah must have seen my eyes dart toward the door. She shook her head. “He’s not coming, Z. He’s sleeping. I had to take him out, but I didn’t hurt him. I won’t hurt Daniel, either, even though I should. I need to get this done before he wakes up or I’ll have to get rid of him, and I don’t want to do that.”

I didn’t say what I was thinking. I was thinking she could try to take out Daniel, but she had no idea what she was up against. Maybe Daniel had been right to hide just how strong he was. I just wished he hadn’t hidden it from me. I stalled for time because it was what I did best. I asked the only question I could think of. “Why?”

Sarah rolled her eyes, but it wasn’t sarcastic. She seemed to be angry with someone, but I didn’t think it was me. “There are so many reasons, Zoey, and not a one of them really good. It doesn’t matter anyway.”

“Of course it matters.” It mattered to me.

She held her free hand out and the air around me ripened with magical intent.

“Tribuo mihi parvulus.” Her voice sounded older and more forceful than I’d heard it before. I hoped Sarah hadn’t been hiding her power the way Daniel had.

I winced and waited for something bad to happen. After a moment, I opened my eyes and Sarah was staring at me. “Yeah, I’m sorry. I don’t know what that means.”

Sarah took a deep breath and tried again. This time her voice was even deeper, her eyes darkening. “Tribuo mihi parvulus iam.”

I shrugged, comfortable that whatever she was trying wasn’t working. “Again, sorry, I don’t speak Latin or whatever that is.”

“Give me the child.” The beginning of desperation was plain in her voice. “That should work. Why isn’t it working?”

“I don’t know, but maybe you should heed the warning.” I tried to be as calm and reasonable as I could. Her magic wasn’t working, but she still held that gun. “Maybe the universe is trying to tell you something. This is wrong, Sarah. This child isn’t yours. She isn’t mine. She’s innocent, and she needs to go home. We can stop this right here and right now. Let Dev go, and Dev and I will take the baby where she needs to be and everything will be all right.”

As she started to cry, I remembered that day we met. It had been sunny and bright, and I’d only planned on spending a couple of minutes seeing if she was the real thing. I was going to use her for one job. I was going to give her a cut and never see her again. My crew was a three-person crew, and that was all it needed to be. Until I sat with her for hours, and when I left, I wanted to see her again. It was a feeling not unlike a little crush. It was the first time I wanted a girl to like me, and she had. She wanted to be my friend and listen to my crap about Daniel. She answered the phone at two in the morning when I couldn’t sleep and needed to vent. She left her precious clubs to come to my place when I got drunk and called her crying.