Tiddly Jinx by Liz Schulte Read Free Book Online

and we could trust her to be discreet. If she was willing to work with fae again, I had the perfect job for her.

SEBASTIAN’S EYEBROWS PULLED TOGETHER, and for an instant he looked as confused as I felt.
    “What? No. I mean, yes I love you, but not like that.” He shook his head at me. “You are my friend and I have feelings for you as a friend. Making friends has never been as easy for me as it is for you and Cheney. I have few people I am close with. Out of everyone you are the one who sees me most clearly. You treat me like a friend and not like an employee.” He closed his eyes. “You cannot ask me to kill you. Even if Cheney doesn’t kill me—which he will—I will not recover from it.”
    I stared at him. We all had the habit of treating Sebastian like an emotionless robot. It wasn’t fair. Asking him to kill me wasn’t fair, but then again neither was dying when my life was finally starting to come together. Based on my experience, nothing about life promised to be fair. I nodded. “Okay.” I stood up, grabbed the book, and started toward the castle. I needed another plan. The coven wouldn’t do it, Grandma might, but I would hate to lay that at her feet. If Frost hadn’t disappeared I could have asked her—
    “Wait,” he said and I turned back. “What are you going to do?”
    I felt like crying, but I pushed it back. “Find someone else.” I shifted the book to the other hand. “You’ve always been a good friend to me, Sebastian. One of my best friends. I’m truly sorry that I haven’t considered your feelings more.”
    He rubbed a hand over his short hair. “Who will you ask?”
    I gave him a half smile. “There’s a whole crowd of protesters out there just waiting to take a crack at me, right? Maybe I will recruit one of them.”
    He shook his head and glanced in the direction of the gates. “They’re all gone.” He looked back at me. “Cheney won’t do it. Evil or not, he will never give up on you.”
    I nodded. “Then again, before yesterday I would’ve said he would never let his father be killed either, but he did.”
    “Killing you and that baby…he might as well kill himself. Time will not heal that wound.”
    I sighed. “What am I supposed to do, Sebastian? I have to find the Pole. The entire Abyss depends on that. In doing so, though, I might have to die. If it comes to that, I have to find someone I can trust to carry it out.” Then it occurred to me. I knew someone who I could trust, but wouldn’t get sentimental on me. It probably wouldn’t even keep him awake at night. Why hadn’t I thought of it sooner? I smiled. “I know who to ask.”
    “Who?”
    “Holden. He’s a jinni. He isn’t the sentimental type, he’s helped us in the past, and I’d hardly be the first person he’s killed.”
    Sebastian walked toward me slowly. “The jinni is a good choice.”
    I nodded and before I knew it, Sebastian’s arms were around me. He hugged me tight. It took a surprised second, but I hugged him back just as hard.
    “I’m sorry I can’t do it,” he said softly into my hair, making my eyes fill with tears again.
    “I’m sorry if I have to leave you all. I’ll miss each and every one of you and be cheering you on from wherever I end up.” I squeezed him a little tighter.
    He broke away, his eyes glistening. “It isn’t going to come to that. You are scrappy, Selene. It’s one of your better qualities. You’ve made it through every challenge that you have faced so far. You will make it through this, too.”
    “Make it through what?” Cheney asked.
    I wiped a few tears from my eyes. Sebastian inclined his head at me, and I knew that he was silently telling me that I should explain things to Cheney. However much I didn’t want to, I knew he was right.
    “I spoke with Grandma today about dark magic. She gave me this book.” I held it out to him. “She says that for some people even using it only once is enough to corrupt their soul and turn them