I took his hand and gave it a firm shake. “Hi.”
“Quite the grip you’ve got there, Wilder,” he said as he made his way to the sofa. “Mind if I sit?”
“No, go ahead,” I replied in a bit of a daze. This guy was not who I was expecting. Then again, I’d never met a Memory Wraith before so it wasn’t like I could compare him to anyone. Was there more than one Memory Wraith?
“So, Wilder. You want your memories back?”
“Er, yeah. How did you—”
“Seriously, dude. Were you about to ask me how I knew you wanted your memories back?” he asked with a mischievous grin.
“No,” I replied quickly.
The Wraith’s brow quirked into an arch as he stared back at me. “Sure you weren’t. Look, I don’t mean to be rude, but can we make this quick? I’ve left my girl a little tied up, and she’s going to be pissed at me if I leave her hanging. The name’s Terence by the way.”
I blinked at him. The words were tumbling out of his mouth, and it took my brain a minute to digest everything he’d just said.
Byron’s arm tightened around my waist. “Be careful.”
Terence’s smile turned a little unfriendly. “Wise words, killer. Now, Wilder. Yes, you can have your memories back but first, I should warn you, they were taken for a good reason and having them back is going to be traumatic for you and second, the price for them ishigh. Like so high that you’re probably going to hate me for it. So, with all that in mind, do you want to go ahead?”
I swallowed, my nerves making my throat feel like sandpaper. “What’s the price?”
Terence snapped his fingers and shot me with a finger gun. “I know what you are and I want a favour.”
Okay, that didn’t sound too bad.
The Wraith’s eyes narrowed and the corner of his mouth tugged upwards with mischief. “Now, before you go thinking ‘hey, that’s not too bad’, I’m going to make you commit to this favour without knowing what it is.”
Byron let go of my waist and came to stand in front of me, his face full of hard lines. “This might be dangerous, Wilder. I’m not going to tell you not to do it, because it’s not my decision. But what I will say is, make sure you can live with the consequence if you choose to agree.”
“They are some wise words, brother,” Terence said brightly as he got to his feet. “You’re not just a pretty face.”
Byron threw a scowl at the Wraith over his shoulder, but Terence just huffed a laugh.
I pulled Byron’s face back towards me and gave him what I hoped was a reassuring smile. “I know what I want to do. To be honest, I think I knew what I was going to do the minute Astrid gave me his card.”
“Okay,” Byron said firmly as he took my hand in his and stood back by my side.
Terence looked at us with an overly dreamy glaze in his eyes. “You guys are just too cute.”
Byron pulled his gun out if his holster and aimed it at Terence. “Stop being an asshole.”
“That’s not going to kill me,” Terence chuckled.
“I know, but it’ll make me feel better,” Byron growled through gritted teeth.
I was too wound up to find his actions adorable, but I didn’t want to piss off the one guy who was capable of finding my missing memories. “Byron, just put the gun down, and Terence?”
“Yes,” he said with an asinine grin.
I gulped. “I agree to your terms.”
He clapped his hands gleefully and stepped closer. “Perfect. Now we just need to log it in the Codex and then I can give you what you need.”
He pulled out a large leather-bound volume from the folds of his robe and a gold fountain pen with a purple orb shimmering at the end of it. “Your hand please.”
I extended my hand to him, and he jabbed the end of the fountain pen into the tip of my forefinger.