Page 13 of Bombshell

I wanted to look sexy and confident for him, not meek and needy.

“You started speaking right around Cash and how virile his juices are,” Dallan answered, and even though the situationreally didn’t call for it I found myself laughing as I buried my nose in his chest and held on for dear life.

“You know Alexander’s the only one who can help Daphne if she needs it, right?” I asked, the pit in my stomach growing ever deeper. My own magic wasn’t anywhere near what a seasoned witch my age should have been able to do.

I could enchant things—my specialty—but any of the elemental magic outside of plants or even some of the most basic spells were way outside of my wheelhouse.

It had made me a resounding disappointment when I was younger and the other witches and wizards my age were bypassing me with ease. Alexander Finch was the head of his coven, so his childshouldhave been a magical being capable of wielding complex magic with ease, but instead all he got was a weird leafy daughter that couldn’t even teleport herself anywhere.

Most parents would be proud to teach their child how to drive a car, instead my lessons had come with a lecture about how none of the other teens in our coven needed four wheels to get around.

“We can find another magic user somewhere else, Eff,” Dallan reassured me, his arms tightening around me like he was scared to let me go. “I can ask my contacts in the underground, I’m sure there’s a witch somewhere that specializes in human-hybrid childbirth.”

“And how do we incentivize them to come?” We made pretty good money here, but any witch or wizard worththeir salt wouldn’t dare work in another coven’s territory without being compensated handsomely. “No Alexander is the best—”

I stopped as I felt the alarm system that I’d enchanted be triggered. It normally functioned like any old electronic alarm for human intruders, but whenever a supernatural or magical creature that wasn’t supposed to be here stepped over the shop’s threshold it was like the threads of my magic were being tugged upon and if they also had magic then I also could tell who or what was coming in.

The scent of balsam filled my nose and suddenly I knew exactly who was downstairs.

“The man is like fucking Beetlejuice. Say his name three times out loud and he appears in a poof of damn smoke,” I muttered to myself as I gently pulled away from Dallan, my insides screaming at me to ignore the intruder and continue pressing my face into his chest.

Skirting around the Cthulhu I hurried into the living room which Dallan must have spent the evening cleaning up while I was passed out in the bedroom because aside from a few glass bits that were missing it looked exactly as it had this afternoon right before Daphne had shared her news with me.

“Effie,” Dallan called after me as I yanked the front door open and flew down the stairs just in time to hear him ring the bell.

“What are you doing here?” I asked, my words coming out sharp and fast as I skidded into the lobby.

“I’m just coming to check on my daughter. It’s not often you feel a magical pulse that sends all of the plants in the mansionchasing after its residents,” Alexander Finch said, turning to offer me his usual polite, if incredibly absent, smile.

My father was over three hundred years old and yet he didn’t look a day over thirty-five thanks to the strength of the North Coast coven keeping him young. Aside from the streaks of gray in his dark hair and the hint of lines around his dark blue eyes, most humans wouldn’t believe that we were related let alone father and daughter.

But unfortunately for me I’d spent enough time with him growing up to know that we were far more alike than either of us cared to admit.

Every person who described my mother Elowyn always talked about how soft, kind, and sweet she was.

However Alexander was stubborn, prideful, impatient, and had a healthy dose of vanity that showed up in the perfectly tailored suits he wore.

I was too much like him, and growing up, I could never tell if he liked or hated that fact. Maybe if I was more like my mother then he would have loved me the way a father should have.

“We don’tdoworrying about each other,” I told him dryly, crossing my arms over my chest. “Or checking up on each other. So, why are you really here?”

The stairs creaked behind me and I watched Alexander’s eyes shift from me to Dallan who’d come to stand behind me.

“Cthulhu,” he said by way of greeting—the same one he always gave when faced with the proprietor of Monstrous Ink.

“Wizard,” Dallan responded in kind, his voice a few octaves deeper than it normally was.

I had to force myself not to roll my eyes at the ridiculous display of masculinity currently being volleyed back and forth between the two men.

Reaching back, I elbowed Dallan in the ribs before turning my attention to the wizard still standing at the counter. “What do you actually want, Alexander? I’d talk fast before I kick you out of here.”

Alexander’s dark brows lifted with surprise. “Oh? Are you finally capable of banishing magic?”

I winced, wishing more than anything that I was so that I could banish his ass from the shop forever. But even if Iwascapable, it probably wouldn’t have worked anyway. Magic users couldn’t cast spells on stronger magic users—it was one of the laws of the universe that kept us all in a lovely little hierarchy.

Alexander was the strongest wizard on this side of the world. It was why he’d been in power in Port Haven for so long and why he was the mayor Arsenio’s right hand man.

“No, but I do have an enchanted potion that will make you wish I could banish you instead. You ever had blue skin before? I’m sure it would match your eyes.” I was about to tell Dallan to go back upstairs to get the potion in question off of the shelf when Alexander held up both hands in surrender.

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