Total pages in book: 142
Estimated words: 134501 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 673(@200wpm)___ 538(@250wpm)___ 448(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 134501 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 673(@200wpm)___ 538(@250wpm)___ 448(@300wpm)
A smile warmed his chest. ‘So ruthless and unforgiving.’
‘You say that as if it pleases you.’
‘It does. I like that you take no one’s shit. Fact is you shouldn’t have to.’ He wouldn’t want her to be any different.
A knock came at the front door.
She pulled a face, clearly annoyed by the interruption.
‘I’ll get it.’ He left the room and walked to the front door. Opening it, he found Kerr standing on the porch wearing a We gotta talk look. Ripper sighed, his hand clenching the edge of the door. ‘We need to make it a law in the clan that no shit is permitted to happen on a Sunday. It isn’t unreasonable to want at least one day per week where there’s pure peace.’
‘I hear you,’ Kerr muttered.
‘Whatever this is can’t wait until tomorrow?’
‘Depends. I’m not sure how much worse it will get in the hours between now and then, so I thought it best to check. Also, it could be that CeCe’s wrong anyway.’
Feeling his jaw harden, Ripper stepped aside and waved his friend into the manor. ‘Wrong about what?’
‘She came to me with a . . . complaint. She would have gone straight to you, but she knows you’re pissed at her.’
‘What kind of complaint?’ Ripper released the door, and it closed by itself.
Kerr grimaced. ‘She believes that Emberlyn has used magick on her somehow.’
‘What? Why?’
Humor glimmered in Kerr’s eyes. ‘Because her hair has turned lime green, and there are tiny bits of mold in it.’
Ripper went still. ‘You’re joking.’
‘Nope,’ said Kerr, the word coming out on a barely suppressed chuckle. ‘I mean, it could be that another witch is responsible . . .’
But it was unlikely. Very unlikely.
When Emberlyn hadn’t explicitly stated that she wouldn’t retaliate over CeCe territorially marking his tire, he’d expected something. But then days of nothing had gone by, so he’d assumed that she’d chosen to let it be, to just be content with the fact that he had dealt with it. And it now seemed more than probable that he’d assumed wrong.
Ripper returned to the consultation room with Kerr close behind him.
Emberlyn didn’t look their way, seeming absorbed in what she was reading as she skimmed her finger along a page of the open book. Her nose wrinkled at whatever she’d read.
‘Em?’
‘Hm?’ An absent response.
‘Em?’ Ripper pressed.
‘Yeah?’ she asked distractedly, still not looking at him.
‘Remember when CeCe marked my tire?’
‘Um-hm.’
‘Did you retaliate?’
‘You said you’d handled it,’ she said, her tone flat and inattentive, her gaze still locked on the book in front of her.
‘I did, but she’s recently developed a strange little problem.’
His witch blindly reached out and grabbed a small bottle from the collection she’d plonked on the altar. ‘Misfortunes often befall those who cause issues for others.’
‘Misfortunes. Right.’ Ripper folded his arms. ‘Her hair is green and moldy.’
Emberlyn pulled the topper off the small bottle. ‘Oh. Yeah. That was me.’
Kerr barked a chuckle, his shoulders shaking.
Figuring he should have expected that she’d do something like this, Ripper rubbed at his nape. ‘You haven’t been anywhere near her. How could you have done it?’
‘Proximity doesn’t make a difference with all spells,’ she replied, sprinkling some sort of white powder into the cauldron.
‘Her hair is her crowning glory,’ Kerr cut in, grinning. ‘But of course you knew that.’
‘Of course.’ Her eyes cut to Ripper. ‘At least I didn’t make her smell of urine the way she did your tire.’
He felt his head twitch to the side. ‘You considered that?’
‘Among other things, yes. I like to plot. You know that.’
Yeah, he did. ‘Can you undo the spell you cast?’
‘I could,’ she said, jamming the cork back on the bottle.
‘Are you going to?’
No response.
Ripper inwardly sighed. ‘Baby.’
‘Yeah?’
‘Much as I appreciate the creativity behind your revenge – and admittedly find it amusing – I need you to undo the spell.’
‘Why?’ Adding more magick dust into the brew, she stirred it with her athame again. ‘To placate her itty-bitty feelings?’
‘No, because I don’t want the rest of my clan to fear you. They should fear you, I know that, but I’d rather they didn’t.’ He wanted them to be perfectly comfortable around her. ‘Help me out here.’
She let out a long-suffering sigh and then looked at Kerr. ‘Tell her that her hair will go back to its normal color if she says the following words out loud: “Ripper belongs to Emberlyn, not me.” She’ll also have to write lines.’
‘Lines?’ Kerr echoed, his lips twitching.
Emberlyn nodded. ‘If she wants rid of the mold, she needs to write “I must not piss on people’s tires” twenty times.’
Kerr laughed, spinning to face Ripper. ‘This is extra. I love it. CeCe, however, is gonna hate it.’
Anyone would hate having to concede a difficult truth aloud. But for them to then have to write lines like a child – a silent message that a person saw them as childish – would add insult to injury. So yeah, it was ‘extra’.