Page 1 of Shadow Witch

CHAPTER 1

Paige slid the already-soaked tissue across her cheek, attempting to dab away the slick tears still staining her skin. She’d just finished sobbing when another round threatened to send her into the fetal position again as tears stung her eyes.

A quiet knock sounded at the door to the small storage room she’d locked herself in over an hour ago. “Paige?” a little voice called out. Devoid of its normal snarky-ness, she barely recognized Dewey’s call.

“Go away,” she huffed out, her voice strained from the tears.

“Come on, Paige, you can’t stay in that closet for the rest of your life.”

She gave up on the tissue, tossing it into a trash can and using her sleeve to dab at her cheeks. “It’s a storage room, not a closet.”

“You say tomato, I say…well, you get it.”

“Just go away,” she said as fresh tears flowed.

“You can’t still be crying.”

Her features contorted as hot tears rolled down her cheeks and dripped from her jawline. “I am.” She hiccupped after forcing out those two words.

“How? I mean…honest question because I feel like it should be physically impossible. An average human’s tear reserves are only–“

“Shut up, Dewey!” she shouted, clamping her mouth closed as the anger burning inside her put a stop to the flowing tears for a moment.

“Sorry, Paige. But I’m not leaving. We’re partners. We get through stuff together.”

“Not this.”

“Just open the door. Even if you just want to sit there and cry, at least I’ll be with you. You’ll know you’re not alone.”

She frowned and sniffled. She didn’t want any company. She wanted to be left alone to wallow in her own grief. He didn’t understand. He couldn’t.

Another voice murmured on the other side of the door before Dewey’s voice answered. “No, she still won’t open it…I don’t know, I guess so.”

Another rap at the door echoed in the small room. “Paige?” Devon’s voice called before the doorknob twisted back and forth. “Come on, open up, Paige. We need to talk.”

Her frown intensified and she balled her fingers into fists. “Go away, Devon.”

The last person she wanted to talk to right now was the hot vampire who’d gone from nearly killing her to proposing in a mere few weeks. The world she currently lived in was too insane for words. But the latest blow had been…debilitating.

Another murmur of voices before a strong knock at the door again. “Paige, this is Drucinda, open this door at once.”

The woman’s sharp voice almost made her do it. “Make me,” she shouted back.

“Fine.”

The woman’s clipped answer carried all the authority of a commanding general in an army strike. Paige wrinkled her nose and mimicked her. “Fine.”

“Yeah, right,” she murmured to herself. “How is she going to–“

Her words cut off as her hand raised in the air not of her own volition. She grabbed it with the other and tugged it down.

Before she could stop herself, she rose from her seated position on the floor. She fought the movement of her legs with every fiber of her being, but they crossed to the door. Her hand shot out and swiveled the lock before she tugged the door open.

Drucinda stood on the opposite side, arms crossed, hip cocked, and one perfectly formed eyebrow arched high. “There. It’s open. I’ve made her do it, as requested.”

“I was being sarcastic.”

Drucinda poked a finger at her. “You were also being an idiot.”

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