Total pages in book: 50
Estimated words: 47894 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 239(@200wpm)___ 192(@250wpm)___ 160(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 47894 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 239(@200wpm)___ 192(@250wpm)___ 160(@300wpm)
Everyone was staring at my husband.
“You don’t get to be the chief of police if you can’t figure shit out.”
James nearly choked on his food, and Cass snorted between bites. It was true—the man was, on occasion, quite funny.
“How did you know something was wrong?” Thessaly asked me, her hand on my knee as she gazed into my eyes.
“I had some intrusive thoughts earlier that simply aren’t me, so I knew something strange was going on,” I replied, patting her hand. “With how quickly they entered my mind, I was fairly certain it was a spell, or more likely, a curse.”
“But how did you know it was me and not Brooke or Willa?”
“You were the one who asked me, when I came back from being outside, how I had managed to snag Lorne. Not how we had fallen in love, not how we’d first met, but basically how had someone as lacking as me gotten him.”
Her hand went to her chest, the pearl-clutching instant. “Oh, Xander, I would never…”
“Which I suspected you wouldn’t. That was the curse working through you.”
She shuddered. “I’ve been so tired and bitchy. I mean really, that’s how I’ve felt.”
I smiled at her. “The curse made wives insecure and afraid—that’s what she left, in blood, on all her jewels.”
“I’ve got the folder,” Ham said, returning to the room, sounding excited. “Her name was Eleanor Valois. Check out the picture of her.”
They all leaned forward to look. I got up to get some more carrots and Brussel sprouts from the kitchen. I was almost at my seat when Willa gasped.
“Oh no…” She sounded scared as she met my gaze. “Xander, I have a whole dinner service we brought in from the car and put in our room. I was concerned about the Limoges china breaking in the cold.”
“It’s all antique,” Brett clarified, and I saw how worried he appeared.
“Well, I can certainly go upstairs and check them, but the wards on this house are fairly robust. And a curse, like the one we just encountered, is quite rare.”
She took a breath, seeming relieved.
“There are wards on the house?” Stafford asked me.
“Of course,” I answered softly. “James and Cass are my family.”
“Maybe send the flame to check,” Lorne offered. “You look a bit worn out yourself.”
I shook my head. “I’m fine.”
“You had a curse on you that you were fighting with, and then you performed a banishing, touching a ghost in the process, so maybe you take my suggestion this once?”
I squinted at him. “When don’t I follow your suggestions?”
He got up, crossed the floor to where I was, relieved me of my plate, passing it to James, then took my hands in his. Instantly, warmth and calm rolled through me. “Do me a favor this time, will ya?” His dark eyes made my heart flutter.
“Okay.”
He bent and kissed me, and it was so light, merely a brush of his lips, but still, I felt the craving in me to be alone with him.
When he stepped back, I held out my hand, palm up, and it was immediately filled with flame.
“Incredible,” Stafford whispered.
I then spoke to the elemental magic that always flowed through me. “Find any threat that dwells here,” I bid the flame.
Balls of fire left my hand one after another, and when I glanced around the room, everyone was focused on me. I also noticed that Brett had his phone pointed at me. I waved for good measure, and after a moment, he scowled.
“You can’t record Xan’s magic,” Cass explained to him. “You should have asked me. I would have told you nothing shows up.”
“Why?”
She shrugged. “Because it’s magic.”
“The door is closed upstairs,” Willa said. “Will that stop the flame?”
“No,” I assured her as the fire balls returned to my hand, one by one.
“See? Nothing else amiss,” Lorne stated.
But they hadn’t all returned, and I was certain not because I counted them, but because I could feel the absence. And the one I was missing wasn’t far. It wasn’t up on the second floor; it was closer than that.
Walking out into the hall, I saw one flame hovering in front of the large hall mirror. It was a beautiful piece James used to have hanging over the fireplace in the living room but had moved not too long ago to make room for an enormous wagon wheel. The latter wasn’t my thing, but neither was I an arbiter of good taste. Everything I liked was decidedly ancient.
But now, one of my flames was hovering in front of the mirror. Moving quickly, once I looked from the flame to the reflection, I immediately saw the problem. There was none.
“Huh,” I muttered, not pleased in the least.
“What the hell, Xan?” Lorne rasped, right there at my shoulder.
“Not…sure,” I answered haltingly, walking over and not seeing myself at all. “Keep everyone in the living room. This will freak them out.”