Page 48 of The Secret Life of a Witch

It was all a lie. Every memory. Every smile. Every emotion.

All lies.

I open and flex my hands as tears burn my eyes. I breathe in and out, refusing to cry. Then I gradually sit up, clutching my throbbing head.

“How the hell did I even get here, anyway?”

“I brought you here,” Hunter says, startling the shit out of me.

I squint through the darkness, my muscles becoming as stiff as a petrifying spell when I spot him looming in the shadows near my dresser.

“Okay, first of all, it’s super creepy that you’ve been standing there the entire time.” I scoot toward the edge of my bed with my gaze trained on him. “Second, get the hell away from me.”

When he makes no move to budge, my fingers creep down to draw out my wand, but then I painfully remember that the demon snapped the thing like a twig.

Dammit! I really need to get a new one ASAP!

I nearly laugh at my urgent thought.Yeah, I’ll get right on that, after I escape my psychopath—and very powerful—friend and save my sister.

Hunter ambles out of the corner of the room, taking casual steps toward my bed.

Hatred mixed with freaking love nearly gives me whiplash. How I can still feel the latter is beyond me. I really need to find a way to get rid of it.

He stops at the foot of the bed and rests his hands on the footboard before lowering his head and taking a deep inhale. “Are you okay?” he then asks without looking at me.

Keeping my lips zipped, I eye him over with suspicion. He’s changed his clothes since the last time I saw him, now sporting a black T-shirt and a pair of loose-fitting black jeans, along with studded leather bracelets. The look is way too goth for the Hunter I know. Besides, why would he change at all? It makes no sense.

Unless he killed someone or something and got blood all over his clothes.

I shake the thought from my head.Hunter, a killer? Seriously, Eva?

Then I recall how he was going to hand me over to that demon, and the ache in my chest amplifies.

“Am I okay?” I retort, my eyes narrow into slits. “After everything that just happened, that’s all you have to say to me?”

He lifts his head to look at me and he quietly sighs. “I think it’s what’s the most important right now.”

“No. What’s most important is you explaining to me how you knew I could be a hybrid, and why the hell you were goingto hand me over to a demon.” My fingers shake as I throw the blanket off me and swing my legs over the side of the bed. “No, better yet, no explaining. I just want you to leave and to never have to see you again.” I shift forward to stand up, but then sink back down as the room twirls around me like an overly zealous ballerina. “Whoa.” I press my hand to my head, blinking. “Biggest head rush ever.”

“Take it easy. You’ve been under a sleep spell for almost twenty-four hours,” he says as he winds around the bed. “You’re going to be a little dopey for the next hour or so.”

I lift my free hand up in front of me. “Don’t you dare come any closer.”

He slows down, but doesn’t come to a complete stop. “Relax. I’m not going to hurt you.”

My sharp laugh causes him to flinch. “Not going to hurt me?” I shake my head. “Newsflash, dude, you already did.”

He fights back a smile as he halts a few steps away from me. “Since when did I become dude? I thought you only called people whose names you can’t remember dude?”

“I wish I could forget your name,” I grumble, and his grin breaks through.

Curse him and his stupid smile. His stupid, sexy smile.Grr…

“Look,dude, this isn’t funny. You’re evil, and I want you out of my room. Now.”

He busts up laughing, the noise so abrupt and unexpected that I nearly jolt out of my skin.

“I’m being serious.” Frustrated, I lean forward to test my equilibrium, but get no reward as my room’s four walls blur into one.

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