Page 7 of Warrior Witch

Best friends are meant to call you on your shit, I reminded myself as I forced another deep breath and ordered my muscles to relax. I even tried for a smile, but if his raised eyebrow was any indication, I might have just looked constipated.

“It was the usual. Go here or you’ll die. No biggie. You’re right. If I’d grown up in a coven, I’d probably know all about the correct response to visions.”

Lindsay’s face softened. “We’re our own coven, you, me, even Addie. Chosen family, babe. Now, where do we have to go to keep you whole?”

“Nowhere.”

“Harlow.”

I surged to my feet, restless energy flooding me despite my attempt at keeping zen. Let’s face it, it was always a losing fight. I couldn’t drag Lindsay into this shit. I didn’t even want to be in it.

“No. I don’t care what the moon says. We’re not going.”

“Yes, we are. I’ll go to the end of the world to save your cute butt. Now give me a direction.”

“No way, bitch. You don’t run upstairs when the killer is in the house, and you don’t road trip to a creepy ass town in the middle of nowhere because a creepy ass psychic voice tells you to. You’ll. End. Up. Dead!”

“You’ll be dead, anyway!”

Lindsay’s shout interrupted my rant and shocked me into taking a proper look at my best friend. Beneath his makeup, his skin had paled, and his eyes shone a little too much in the dim light as his chest heaved with suppressed emotion.

“I can’t lose you. Ride or die, baby. Now, please, tell me where we’re going.”

“Spells Hollow.”

Lindsay and I both jumped, turning guiltily to find our boss leaning in the doorway.

“I’ll make this easy on you,” he continued, moving into the space and standing close to Lindsay. Like iron to a magnet, my bestie leaned toward Kedron, drawing comfort from his mere presence.

“You’re fired.”

“You can’t do that.” The words were out of my mouth before I’d even processed what he said.

He very much could do that, and would be right to, with the trouble that I’d brought to his door in the last couple of nights. The problem was, without the club, I didn’t know what I would do. Work, fight, sleep, repeat had been my life for the last few years. I was happy with that.

Kedron shook his head as though he could follow my thoughts. Hell, maybe he could. There was a lot about my boss that was still a mystery to me, and he sure knew a hell of a lot more than he should about—

“How do you know about Spells Hollow?”

“It’s what I do. I sell booze, and I know things.”

I flipped him off for the reference but couldn’t suppress the hurt that lanced through me at being let go.

“This is for your own good, kid. It needs to happen. And you.” He cupped Lindsay’s jaw and pulled him in until their foreheads pressed together.

“Keep her safe and then come back to me. I know you need to do this, but I need you.”

Lindsay closed his eyes and nodded, lifting his lips for a sweet kiss before Kedron broke away from him, leaving us to the silence of the storeroom, broken only by the bass from the dance floor beyond.

“That was intense. I thought you two were just casual,” I said, hoping Lindsay would accept the change of subject so I could live in denial about my future for a moment more.

“Yeah. Me, too.” His eyes stayed glued to the doorway as though hoping Kedron would reappear with more answers.

The seconds ticked by, and as the tempo of the bass shifted, signaling a new song, Lindsay shook himself. “Well, I guess we’re off the clock now.”

I snorted. “I don’t know if you are. So far as I can tell, I’m the only one who got fired.”

The pout he turned on me was ridiculous, and just the thing I needed to lift the funk that was settling on me.

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