Page 59 of Novice Girlfriend

No. No, I’d been right.

My head whipped around to look at Eunice and that was the moment he caught what was going on, freezing in his conversation. He went pale as he glanced between Bevin and me… And then to his familiar.

“That’s why you haven’t been around. You didn’t want her to hear your familiar,” I whispered.

He jumped away from the group of people, and to my absolute horror, he pulled his gun. People kept it together, remembering their training and telling him to calm down and asking what was going on.

I pushed Bevin behind me, but she tried to fight me.

“Eunice, don’t do this,” she begged him. “We can fix this, I promise.”

“Fix what?” I asked, but mostly him. “But she’s right. We can—put it down, man. No matter what’s going on, you can’t hurt her.”

“Not me,” she whimpered.

What? Who then? I didn’t have time to ask before Eunice responded, his gun not pointed at anyone but just out and the safety off.

He was focused on me, but really Bevin. “I didn’t talk. I didn’t. I didn’t say anything.”

“I know,” Bevin choked out. “We can fix this.”

“We can’t,” Eunice whispered. “Jason Berns is too powerful and the council won’t protect my family. They won’t do anything but try to take more power for themselves.” He looked past us, probably at the councilmen arriving after being informed. “Fuck all of you. You did this. I believed in you. I did. I believed you were the way and would protect us. You are just as bad.”

“Eunice, I know things aren’t what we thought, but we can still fix things and—” I argued, holding out my hand to him.

He met my gaze. “Not this time, Link. Jason was clear that if I got caught and was a witness, my family’s dead besides my sisters who will be their whores.” He gestured past me. “They won’t do anything. They can’t. They let it all get like this and…” He focused on Bevin. “I hope you win. I’m sorry. I never told him anything.”

“No!” I roared as he raised the gun to his own head and pulled the trigger in one motion, none of us being able to stop it with our magic in time. We couldn’t in that area of the council estate.

And none of us were close enough to stop it physically.

I caught him before his head hit the ground, but that didn’t matter at that point, blood everywhere and just a mess. Another of our closest friends right there with me yelling for a healer knowing it wouldn’t do anything.

Because Eunice’s lifeless eyes were staring up at us.

Distantly, I heard other orders being given, but I couldn’t process them. I couldn’t process anything. I couldn’t wrap my mind around what had just happened.

Someone touched me and I shoved them away, people around us yelling more. I yelled for them to go away and not to touch him.

“Link, it’s me, kiddo,” Uncle Mark said gently. “He’s gone. He’s gone, Link.”

I shook him off but also set Eunice down, closing his eyes after I did. I met the gaze of my other close friend, Dean, and he just plopped back on his heels and stared at the blood on his hands.

I pushed to my feet and shoved my uncle aside, focused on Bevin. Winter slid in between us faster than I would have thought and moved his hand to my chest. Had I even known he was there?

Does it fucking matter?

“Let’s just—I know you’re all over, man, but it’s not on her.”

I frowned, my brain not processing his words like I normally would. Then I curled my lip. “You really have a shit opinion of me and we’re going to handle that later because it’s undeserved and I’m tired of it.” I glanced around him so I could see Bevin, but I kept my body in place so he didn’t react. “What did you hear?”

“Okay, fair, but not here,” Winter muttered. “Others shouldn’t know that answer.”

“Then get her off to the side because I need to know that. Now,” I said under my breath, meeting his gaze and making it clear that he better listen to me because I had no problem going through him.

He gave a sharp nod and led Bevin off to the side, Dean joining us and waving back others, but a few of our supervisors joined. We couldn’t shut them out, and I was pretty sure they knew she could hear the familiars or she was special at least. Most around the estate knew she was the owner of Familiar Treasures but not the rest.

Bevin seemed to decide that was better than risking more people, focused on me. “That I needed to leave. That if Eunice interacted with me, he’d have to report it to Jason Berns and he was running out of excuses and Jason was getting impatient for information. He didn’t tell anything.”