Page 25 of The Secret Life of a Witch

He shakes his head, but taps his knuckles against mine. Then his eyes wander to my right. “So, are you going to introduce me to your brooding friend or what?”

At first, I’m utterly perplexed about who he could possibly mean, but when I realize he means Hunter, I become even more lost.Hunter brooding?That’s a new one.

Sure enough, when I look over, Hunter is in complete brooding form: arms crossed, eyes narrowed, and lips set in a thin, annoyed line.

“Evan, this is my friend Hunter,” I say while shooting Hunter a what’s-up-with-all-the-glaring look. “And Hunter, this is my old friend Evan.”

“It’s nice to meet you,” Hunter says, sounding quite the opposite.

“Likewise,” Evan replies tightly then directs his focus back on me. “So, did you just stop by to say hi, or is there an ulterior motive for this blast from the past?”

“Well, I have been meaning to catch up with you,” I answer truthfully. “But I do need your expert advice with a little problem I ran into.”

His brows pucker. “And what exactly is this problem?”

“I recently lost something very important to me, and I need to get it back. The problem is, I have no idea who took it. It did leave a clue behind, and I’m wondering if you can help me figure out what kind of creature it belongs to.” I stick out my hand, indicating for Hunter to give me the container with the sample in it.

Hunter grunts something incoherent and I mouth, “What the hell, dude?”

Huffing, he shoves his hand into his jacket pocket, retrieves the container, and slaps it into my hand.

I shoot him a warning look before turning back to Evan, who looks extremely curious about what I have. “We found this on the table that the … item went missing from.”

He takes the container from me and lifts it to eye level. Then his lips part in shock. “Holy shit.”

I perk up a notch. “Does thatholy shitmean you know what it’s from?”

His gaze flicks to mine. “Yeah, it’s from a demon. A very powerful, very rare faerie hybrid demon.”

“Faerie hybrid demon?” Hunter and I say simultaneously.

“I thought hybrids didn’t exist,” I add, jumping at the sound of booming thunder.

My gaze travels to the gloomy sky, splattered with hues of yellow, red, green, blue, and purple. Great. Not only is a storm brewing, but a rainbow storm. While that might sound pretty in theory, trust me when I say that being blinded by a thousandrainbows covering the sky for at least several hours is very exhausting. Plus, it brings out the dancing leprechauns.

Hunter tips his head back and frowns at the sky, probably experiencing the same thoughts as me.

Then my attention is swiftly yanked back to Evan as he gives the container a soft shake.

“Hybrids do exist,” he says. “But they mostly live in underground tunnels, so not a whole bunch of people know about them.”

“Underground tunnels?” I cast a quick glance at Hunter, who looks as befuddled as I feel. “Where are those, exactly?”

“I’m not sure.” Evan takes one final look at the container before his gaze settles on me. “If you really want to know, I might know someone you can ask.”

I nod eagerly. “If you could do that, that would be fantastic.”

“Come on in, then.” Evan backs away and signals for us to come inside.

I hesitate. “This person is inside?”

He nods, wariness flooding his expression. “He is.”

Putting my guard up, I step inside the warehouse. Before I get very far, Evan’s fingers fold around my wrist.

“I don’t want to come off weird,” he says quietly, “but did you, by chance, bring a large sum of cash with you?”

My fingers drift to my pocket as I remember the overwhelming feeling of needing to bring cash with me. “Actually, I did.”

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