Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 87185 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 436(@200wpm)___ 349(@250wpm)___ 291(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87185 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 436(@200wpm)___ 349(@250wpm)___ 291(@300wpm)
He died. Like literally was dead and came back. Add in everything we found out about Vivian and Marco…I understand why he needed an escape.
Going downstairs, I find Xavier in the office. He shows me the Instagram page Victoria has been working on and I’m impressed. It looks real, and the next phase in our plan is for me to like a few things Mabel posts from this account. It should organically lead people to it, letting the public feel like they figured something out.
As much as I don’t like Victoria, I have to admit she’s good at her job.
Feeling unnerved, I go outside to try and connect with nature or something. I end up staring into the koi pond for a while and then startle when my phone buzzes.
Delphi: Are you free to grab dinner? I was supposed to have a date with Andrew tonight but asked him if we could move it up an hour so I could go check on a sick patient at the hospital and he just canceled altogether. One of the girls he started following just posted a “get ready for a date with me” reel and I know he’s taking her instead.
Me: I’m a much better date anyway. What time?
Delphi: Like now lol
Me: Sounds good. Want to go downtown? I need to go to the Crystal Key after.
Delphi: THANK YOU and of course.
I go back inside and find Xavier still in his office. “Delphi got kinda stood up by her date so I’m going to go out with her instead. Plus, I need to restock my spell supplies,” I tell Xavier. “I want to be prepared for anything and everything.”
His jaw tenses, not liking the idea of me going out during the day without him. “Would you like Hector to drive you?”
“Nah, it’s okay. I feel bad making him just wait around.”
“That’s quite literally his job.”
“Okay, fine.”
Xavier nods and kisses me goodbye. I’m wearing my usual workout clothes, with my hair in a high ponytail because it’s hot and humid as fuck out today. I have Hector drop me off in front of the new age store, where I wait for Delphi to meet me. We walk across the street and down two blocks, finding a place to eat without a long wait.
After dinner, I walk back to the Crystal Key. I go in, grab a basket, and mean to start sifting through the herbs and crystals but get a little distracted looking at all the pre-made spell kits. Some seem legit…if you had the power to invoke everything.
“You shouldn’t be here,” the shop owner says, coming to a sudden halt when she sees me. “Go, now!” For a second, I take it personally and feel my stomach bottom out. But then I see a man in the back of the store who was pretending to shop turn, dropping his basket. He has an Order of the Mystic Realm tattoo on his forearm, and he comes right at me. Or…maybe for me.
Chapter
Thirty-Seven
My basket slips from my fingers, and I turn, ready to run. This is the last thing I need right now. Another hunter gets to the door before I can, slamming it shut and locking it. He has a gun on his hip and reaches for it. I freeze for half a second, then throw out my arm, trying to hit him with a blast of magic.It barely fazes him. That’s when I notice the hagstone hanging from his neck.
“Shit,” I mutter under my breath.
“She was right,” another hunter says, stepping out from the back of the store. Great. Three against one. I’ve had worse odds. Granted, I had my magic then.
The shopkeeper lunges for the panic button behind the register, but the hunter closest to her gets there first, shoving her hard to the ground. Her head cracks against the floor, and the sound echoes through the store.
Two customers in the back who had been flipping through a book about attracting fairies to your garden yelp and crouch down behind a display.
“You’re here for me,” I say, keeping my voice steady. “No one else needs to get hurt. Let’s take this outside.”
“You’d love that, wouldn’t you, witch?” one of them snarls.
I recognize him now as one of the Order elders who made it very clear I didn’t belong once they found out what I was. He doesn’t know the full truth. He just knows he hates me. And that’s enough.
“You don’t want to do this,” I say, shaking my head.
“What are you gonna do?” another one taunts. “Call your vampire husband?”
He gestures toward the window like I need the reminder that it’s broad daylight.
“Let him take all my fun?” I shoot back.
I might not be able to use magic directly on them, but that doesn’t mean I’m powerless. I flick my wrist, sending a bookshelf crashing down onto one of them. He goes down with a grunt, and I pivot just as the one closest to me lunges. The customers scream. I duck, barely missing the shot as a gun goes off.