The Demon's Covenant Read Online Free PDF Page B

Jamie?”
    â€œHe hasn’t hurt me,” Jamie told them very quickly. “He came to me after school about—a couple of weeks ago. I was scared, but he didn’t hurt me, and he said he wasn’t going to. He just wanted to talk to me. I didn’t want to, but what else was I supposed to do, go running to Mae after everything she’d done? Call you guys?”
    â€œYou could’ve called,” Alan assured him. His voice was warm enough to strike a grateful smile from both Jamie and Mae.
    â€œOh yes,” Nick said. “Call anytime. I love to chat.”
    â€œHe really did just want to talk. I didn’t want anyone else to get involved. I didn’t want to risk Mae getting hurt,” said Jamie. “It’s not that I trust him. I don’t trust him. I know he hurts people, but he was being reasonable. All he asked was for me to hear him out, and I thought that if I did there was a chance he’d just go away.”
    â€œYou should have known magicians only want one thing,” Nick said. Jamie abruptly flushed scarlet. Nick smirked and went on, “To recruit you for their magical army of darkness.”
    Jamie nodded cautiously. “I said no. I’m still saying no. It’s all under control.”
    â€œYeah, it’s all totally under control,” Mae burst out. “I saw you in that alleyway, and your new friend froze me before Icould say a word or move a muscle. Like someone getting their dog to sit or pressing pause. Like I was a
thing
.”
    Jamie looked at her with wide-eyed concern, but Mae wasn’t ready to forgive him yet. She looked away and her eyes found Nick, still standing apart from them all, still looking out the window. His thumb was casually hooked in the loop of his jeans, and as she looked at his hand resting against his thigh, she noticed something new: He was wearing a silver ring. She could see there were shapes carved in the silver but not what they were, and she was a bit surprised. Nick had never struck her as the jewelry type.
    Like it mattered. Like she’d ever really known anything about him at all.
    â€œI’m sorry, Mae,” Jamie said in a small voice. “He doesn’t really think that—that non-magical people are as important as magicians. It’s not his fault, exactly. He started doing magic when he was really young, and his family was terrible to him about it, and then the magicians came for him when he wasn’t much older than ten and he was so grateful, he felt so
rescued
, he believed everything they believed. It doesn’t mean—”
    â€œThat he’s a bad person?” Nick asked. “He kills people. Now I’m no expert, but doesn’t that make you a bad person?”
    Jamie glared at Nick. “You’ve killed a lot more people than he has. What does that make you?”
    â€œNot a person,” Nick murmured, not sounding particularly interested. “Surely you remember.”
    There was a short and extremely uncomfortable silence.
    â€œIf you’re not a magician,” said Alan, quiet and thoughtful, to all appearances entirely unconscious that anyone might be feeling the least bit awkward, “then how did you just do magic?”
    â€œI’ve been practicing,” Jamie admitted. “Just a little. Gerald’s been teaching me some things.” He paused. “I’m sorry. I won’t—I won’t do it anymore.”
    Jamie looked guilty, and it broke Mae’s heart, even if she was angry with him. He’d been born with these powers, and he’d hidden them from everyone for years. He’d even hidden them from her, and she hated that. She resented him for lying to her and making her feel stupid, and at the same time she hurt for him when he talked about doing spells as if he’d committed a crime.
    Mae wanted to tell him he didn’t have to stop, but she wasn’t about to encourage this connection with