“Agreed.” She cocked her head to one side, studying him. “I just don’t know about the friend thing though.”
“Why’s that?”
“Revenge, curses, and explosions seem to come to mind. Besides, if my family?—”
He held up his hand. “I’m going to stop you right there. I have a confession to make.”
“Oh?”
“After that bad first date, you know I went to a place that’s a bit steeped in blood magic and tried to put a counter-curse on you.”
“So you said, but you’re not a witch or a mage. How could you possibly do that?”
He sighed. “It’s a place I spilled Yrsa’s blood and well…”
“Oh. Yeah, I see. I really don’t think it’s you though.”
“To be fair, I don’t know a thing about curses. It could be me.”
She sighed. “Could you show me this place? I can find out for sure if your curse worked. Blood magic is powerful.”
“Sure. We can do that.”
Mercedes nodded. “Good. And I seriously doubt it was you that caused this, but thank you all the same for telling me that you tried to curse me. I appreciate it. Usually, people who curse others aren’t so forthcoming.”
Magnus chuckled softly. “Well, Yrsa was. She told me she was going to curse me. Quite loudly.”
“Sorry about that. Do you think maybe we could talk about something else and not my enraged ancestor? I try not to think about her, but she’s come up a lot lately.”
“Sure, we can talk about something else.” Magnus was also glad to get off the topic. “Tell me about the ghosts that haunt Room with a Tomb. I’m kind of curious about themand wondering if they’d be willing to help bring that authentic haunting experience to those who want it.”
“I can ask, but they might not be receptive to being used for marketing,” Mercedes teased. “They might get mad at you.”
He shrugged. “I’m used to it. I mean, I’m here because someone got angry enough at me.”
“We’re talking about her again.”
He winced. “Sorry.”
“Seriously, you’ll have to tell me sometime what you did.”
“I thought we weren’t talking about Yrsa anymore.”
“We’re not.” A sly smile spread across her cute face. She spun her coffee cup around on the table, and he couldn’t help but stare at her hands, her soft, delicate little hands, and all he could picture was them wrapped around his cock.
Dude. Seriously. Stop.
“Okay, I’m curious. What did you do?”
“Who said I did something?”
She shot him a look of disbelief. “Come on.”
“Okay, well you might think differently of me.”
Mercedes leaned in close. “I won’t.”
“I found her trapped in the woods. Asked her if she needed help. She said my kind trapped her there and then cursed me so she could be released.”