Burned » Kai Parker

13

Twirling my pen between my fingers, I stared down at the manuscript on the counter and tried to focus.

Usually, sitting down to review and revise with a plate of food was a foolproof method to fall into the work zone, immune to distractions. The sushi in the container beside me was half-eaten, and at that point, I should've been halfway through the stack of stapled pages, too. Instead, my progress was suffering enormously tonight and I'd barely made a dent in the workload that I'd taken home.

I knew who to blame for my muddled focus. That deep voice was echoing in my brain, as if he was occupying the stool beside me now.

I'll be waiting for your answer, Luna.

I furrowed my eyebrows. The answer was no, I'd told myself firmly, because I didn't need magic tips from a Gemini, of all the damn witches in the world. That was that, I'd thought at first. I would file it away into the forgotten category of my mind, because I had other things on my plate, and whenever I ran into Kai next, I would tell him sorry, but no thanks.

Turned out, it wasn't that simple. I couldn't discard it, as if a part of me was massively torn and wanted to feel out the content of his offer. Sometime in the days elapsed since Kai had driven me home from the meeting gone semi-awry, I had started weighing out a pros and cons list in my head. Unfortunately, the pros weren't as unconvincing and menial as I'd hoped they'd be, which made my mental conflict surge harder and over a much lengthier amount of time than I had initially anticipated.

It was like for every con that I forcibly tacked onto the list, there was a valid point that my subconscious stubbornly countered with. Every time.

Con: he was a Gemini.

That should've been enough to say, case closed. Verdict reached.

Except...pro: he wasn't here when that night happened. He didn't carry that responsibility.

Con: he murdered his siblings and needed to be locked away in his own prison world to prevent more sociopathic outbursts. What the hell could he know about control, when he had gone so far off the rails himself?

Pro: he was a siphon. It could've been a con, but it wasn't, really. It meant he knew, on some level, what it was like to shoulder a greater responsibility than the average witch. He'd learned to control that ability, so he definitely had some pointers.

Oh, God. I was actually considering this. He seemed genuine in the car, as much as I hated to admit it, and he was doing it to get his coven off my back, if I could truly let myself believe that. I didn't know if I could ever disabuse myself of the notion that all Geminis had ulterior motives, or were just plain finicky when it came to loyalties and honesty. But I couldn't deny the rawness of his tone in the car, when he'd explained his side.

Three knocks rapped quickly against the front door and I looked up, startled out of my thoughts. Then, I checked the time on my phone and frowned. It was nine in the evening. Sam usually hit the hay early, especially when he had work the next day, and Luis wasn't one to drop by without a heads up.

It left one option. I chose not to acknowledge the possibility and slid off the stool to pad to the door. Maybe it was a delivery guy who got understandably confused with the apartment numbers, or some door-to-door salesman, and not the witch from down the hall.

When I opened it, Kai was standing there with a closed fist raised, like he was getting ready to knock again. He blinked down at me in surprise, then slid on a charming smile and lowered his hand.