Page 21 of My Blind Date is a Warlock

CHAPTER 19

Jacob was pissed. Oh, he didn’t rage or snap at me or anything like that. Instead, he drove me to the mayor’s house, surrounding himself in a wall of icy silence after I shut him down. I could tell from the way he clenched his jaw and the white-knuckled grip he had on the steering wheel and the turns he took too sharply for my liking.

I could have reached out, apologized for the harsh words I spat at him. Those had been my own insecurities speaking up, part of the reason why I still questioned whether he was being genuine in his feelings for me or just killing time with a small-town girl before getting back to his real life. A man like Jacob, blessed with good looks, wealth, the heir to a prestigious family, and a powerful warlock with a thriving career—it would be remiss of me not to believe that he didn’t have a gaggle of women beating down his door.

Over the ten-minute drive, I tried to summon up the courage to apologize, but by the time my tongue loosened up enough to shape the words, we’d pulled up in front of the grand estate belonging to the mayor. The guard at the gate saw my face and automatically swung the high iron gates open and waved us down the winding driveway. The little courage that I drummed up vanished into thin air.

There were already a few cars parked in the circular driveway of the Victorian mansion and I prayed that I wasn’t late. I was under the impression that the dinner would be later in the evening, but this appeared to be more of an early evening garden party than a formal event. I spotted Catherine Hawthorne’s sedan parked ahead of those of other members of the city’s unofficially official council. We called it that because, strictly speaking, this council was not under the direct command of the mayor’s office, but more of a governing body made up of members from each of the races that thrived in Mystic Cove—human, mage, vampire, and shifter. Those on the council helped the town navigate the sometimes-tricky paths of all of us living in the same town together without letting one of the three other powerful races gain too much authority over the others or run roughshod over the humans who were defenseless against all of us.

“I’ll just be a few minutes,” I told him, unbuckling my seatbelt. The collection of gift bags was in the trunk of the car, about fifteen of them. I’d be done in two trips and then he could drop me off. He probably needed some time away from me to cool off.

Without saying a word, he got out of the car and helped me gather up the bags. Each one of them contained two different scented candles, a set of floral-scented hand and face creams, bath oils, and a couple of bath bombs. Jacob’s trunk smelled like a spa—a mixture of aromatic scents like sage, lavender, aloe vera, honey, and a plethora of others.

“Remind me to get a couple of these before I leave.” Jacob brought one of the bags up to his nose and took a sniff. His voice was subdued, eyes still cold and distant. I flinched at the reminder that he could be leaving any day now, even tomorrow morning if his grandmother gave him the all-clear.

It could be as early as tomorrow, or as late as a few weeks, but one thing I was sure of—come the end of summer, Jacob’s presence in Mystic Cove would be a fading memory. He had his students to get back to.

“Hey, Pam.” I greeted the woman who opened the door, the mayor’s personal assistant. She gave me a strained smile, the soft strains of jazz music floating out from behind her.

“I was just about to call you. Nearly gave myself a heart attack when I realized that no one informed you to bring the bags by earlier. Hank went and changed plans for the dinner party into something else entirely. I swear that man is trying to drive me to an early grave,” she complained, stepping aside to let us in. Her nose crinkled and her eyebrows went all the way up to the severe widow’s peak of her hairline when she saw the giant of a man hulking behind me. She cleared her throat, hand over mouth to hide her smirk, but she couldn’t do anything playful glint in her eyes.

“Don’t start,” I warned her. “Where do you want these?” I held up the bags.

Lips twitching, she led us through to the dining room and then outside through a set of French doors into the rose garden. A small tent had been set out across the lawn. Fairy lights and lanterns were strewn above a table set for sixteen placed in the center of the tent. The guests were yet to be seated and mingled around the gardens, drinks in hand. I pegged the faces I didn’t know as the out-of-town investors—around eight or nine of them—and even though I couldn’t be sure, I suspected they were all witches and warlocks too. They were here about building a sister school to Redwood after all.

“You can just place them over there. I’ll hand them out when the night winds to a close.” Pam pointed to a smaller table off to the side of the French doors.

Jacob and I were arranging them in neat rows when my body started glitching again, the muscles in my hands spasming and making me knock a few bags over. “Dang it,” I swore under my breath when I felt my calf muscles started to do the same thing and my knees lock painfully.

“Soph?” Jacob was by my side immediately, his arms around me before I buckled down a graceless heap of twitching muscles. “Breathe, baby.” He touched his forehead to mine and kept repeating the same thing over and over again. I wondered why until my lungs cried out for breath and I realized that I’d stopped breathing. I sounded like a dying whale when the spasms stopped just as quickly as they started and I sucked in a lungful of air.

“Oh my God, is she okay?” Pam asked. Someone had cut off the music and I was aware of the crowd gathering around us. It took a few more breaths before I felt relatively steady on my feet, but I did not tell Jacob to let me go. Instead, I burrowed my head into his chest, both because I was embarrassed to face all those people and because he centered me in a way I could not explain. He quieted that writhing sense of otherness in me, but not enough to suddenly make me feel better. If he was using magic to do so, I couldn’t tell.

“Jacob, what’s wrong with Sophia?” I heard Catherine ask. I looked up from Jacob’s chest and over my shoulder to see her squeeze past the guests and stand next to us. She grabbed my hand. I don’t know what she did, but after a moment she gasped, a startled sort of mystified wonder morphing her beautiful features.

“Not here,” Jacob said to Hawthorne. “Do you think you could stop by her place when you’re done here? Catherine?” he prodded when she remained frozen, staring at me as if she didn't recognize me. She jumped at the rough bark of her name from Jacob and nodded thrice, rapidly like a bobblehead action figure.

“Of course, of course. I’ll…I’ll be there.” She and Jacob seemed to be having a secret conversation that I wasn’t in on.

“Then we’ll see you in a few hours. Soph, can you walk back to the car?”

I think I might have nodded, and then he was following me out after muttering an apology to everyone and hastily righting the upended bags. We were almost to his car when another one pulled down the driveway and a sylph of a woman stepped out. Braids that flowed down all the way to her waist, sun-kissed golden-brown skin that seemed to shine from within, and a face that looked like it belonged on the cover of Vogue. She bore a striking resemblance to Naomi Campbell with high cheekbones, full lips, and long legs. She was dressed in a sequined silver mini-dress that showed off her beautifully defined and never-ending legs.

Behind me, Jacob tensed up, swearing under his breath. Probably because the newcomer was staring at him as if she wanted to gut him and wear his intestines around her neck in victory. Her hate-filled glare shifted from Jacob to rest on me, her dark feline eyes going impossibly darker and narrowing to slits. The last time I felt the kiss of death peppered down my spine was when Jerome and his friends locked me up in that dark crypt.

“Hello, Gemma, you look well.” Jacob stepped up to stand between me and Gemma, his voice a strangled croak. I narrowed my eyes at his back when he reached out to stop me from moving out from behind him. Annoyed by this protective tendency of his, I pinched him on the side and moved to stand beside him. I did not know who this woman was, other than a witch, but I refused to cower behind Jacob like a helpless ninny.

Gemma crossed her arms, flicking a dismissive look at me before curling her lips in a teeth-baring snarl when she stared down her nose at Jacob.

“I look well? Is that all you have to say to me after ripping out my heart and tossing it into the garbage for all the world to see? I’d heard you were traveling the world, but it turns out you were cozying up to this…this…” She waved a hand in my direction. “Is this nobody the reason why you dumped me so callously?”

“Whoa!” I held my hands up in defense when she called me a nobody. I mean, she was right, but it was still rude. “I don’t know who you are, lady, and, frankly, I don’t care. Whatever your damage is with Jacob, leave me out of it.” Facing the man beside me, I said, “Clearly you have some unresolved issues here. I’ll wait in the car while you deal with them.”

“Sophie, it’s not what you think.” He grabbed my hand before I could leave.

“I am not thinking anything, and I am not mad at you either. Obviously you had a past before me, just as I dated others before you, and I don’t begrudge you that. All I’m saying is talk to your ex—” I barely stopped myself from calling her bitter. “—and then take me home.” To prove that I meant what I said, I gave him a peck on the cheek and aimed a saccharine sweet smile in Gemma’s direction. At this rate, I’d have a new hex to add to my growing collection by day’s end.

I sat in the car, watching as Jacob and Gemma argued before she stormed off into the house and Jacob stared at the sky in exasperation before coming to join me.

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