Within These Wicked Walls(77)



I wasn’t jealous, was I? There was no point, not after Magnus had already declared his love for me. But part of me couldn’t help it. I would never look perfect with him. We would never be anyone’s ideal.

Magnus’s brown jacket looked like—what was it called?—a tuxedo, shorter in the front with two long tails in the back, but the fabric was more textured. His white Nehru-collared shirt went almost to his knees. I liked that he mixed his two cultures in his decorating and his clothes.

Kelela gaped as soon as they walked in the room, her eyes shining in the firelight. “Oh my God, it’s Jember! This is such an honor.”

Jember paused in his work to look at her, squinting slightly. “Have we met?”

She looked starstruck. “I’m Kelela. I go to your church. I love when you sing the chants, can you sing something now?”

“Are you kidding?” I grumbled, raising my eyebrows at her reaction. Cleansing a hyena had made Jember a living legend, but that didn’t make him worth fawning over by any means.

Jember looked as unimpressed as I expected. “Why are you here?”

“Oh,” Kelela said, smoothing her hair. “I volunteered to make eye contact with Magnus.”

He kissed his teeth and put his focus back on the amulet. “What is with you girls risking your lives for this awkward little dope?”

“That does it,” Magnus said, helping Kelela sit on the couch across from Jember before leveling a glare at him. “I wore my corduroy jacket for such a time as this.”

Oh God. “Magnus—” I tried.

“I contacted you three years ago, Jember, and you wanted nothing to do with this house. What’s different now?”

“What’s different?” Jember said, as if Magnus should’ve known, and continued his amulet without actually answering.

“You are a coward and a fiend.”

“Let’s not hurl names,” I said, stepping between them.

“Now that you’ve slept for a year,” Jember said, without looking up, “perhaps we can finally talk about what comes next. Now, where’s your guardian, little boy?”

Magnus crinkled his nose like a snarling puppy. “I’m not a little boy, old man.”

“Why does everyone your age think thirty-eight is old?”

“I don’t,” said Kelela, batting her eyelashes.

I rolled my eyes.

“Let’s take a step back,” I said, holding my hands up between everyone. “Magnus, Jember is here to help me cleanse you. Jember, please don’t rile Magnus up, he’s stressed enough as it is.”

“Stressed?” Jember scoffed. “We’re the ones doing all the work.”

I clamped my hand over Magnus’s mouth, muting his biting remark. “We have to work quickly, don’t we? So, what’s the first step?”

“Depends. Was there a victim last night?”

“No,” I said. It was probably stupid to lie to Jember about something so important, but I just couldn’t bear to say it in front of Magnus and have him ask questions later. Besides, I had already made myself a target, so details were unnecessary at this point.

“It will need a night to recuperate, which means we only have until tomorrow. That doesn’t give us much time, so first thing we need to do is gather anything that can be used as a weapon. Long, with a sharp end, are best.”

“No, first we need to eat,” Magnus said, stretching. “I’m starving.”

Jember raised an eyebrow. “Starving is a little melodramatic, don’t you think? When’s the last time you ate, boy, yesterday?”

“Eating’s a good idea, Jember,” I cut in before Magnus’s scowl turned into mouthy defiance. “There’s plenty of daylight left to work afterward. Besides, we don’t want Saba’s food to get cold.”

I looped Kelela’s arm around Magnus’s to keep him occupied, steering them toward the door.

“I thought you said you’d be nice,” I whisper-yelled at Jember.

“There was a stipulation to that,” he said, removing his blanket now that the amulet was finished. It was so cozy my wool sweater was starting to make me itch.

I huffed and followed Magnus and Kelela to the dining room.

“I have so many questions,” Kelela said, “but my head hurts.”

“Is your arm okay?” I asked.

“It’s completely numb.” Magnus helped her sit in a chair and pushed it in for her as she asked, “Where’s Peggy? Did you leave her locked in the closet?”

I choked on my spit as I tried to swallow. Oh God. Peggy. The one thing I never wanted to have to explain. I sat across from Kelela, quickly.

Magnus gaped, then laughed, blissfully ignorant. “You locked Peggy in the closet?”

“Magnus … Peggy, she…” I couldn’t say it. That woman had raised him. And as horrid as she was—forgive me, God, for saying anything cruel about the dead—Magnus would be heartbroken if he knew.

Kelela didn’t know what had happened. Magnus couldn’t remember. Saba couldn’t tell.

So, “She left” came out of my mouth before I could think too hard about it and make it sound like a lie.

Even so, the amusement in Magnus’s face was gone. “Left?”

Lauren Blackwood's Books