Page 131 of Blue Moon Mistress

A vein of deep red slices through the stone that definitely wasn’t there before. But the stone is still good. He’s still protected…

Letting it drop back to his chest, I say, “That’s curious. Mrs. Miller’s granddaughters might be witches themselves.”

“What?” Thomas looks like a ghost just came through the back door.

“It’s either that, or the one you spoke to was bespelled.”

“What did she try to do?”

I immediately think of Wexxon’s. “There are love potions that can be worn as perfumes…”

“But the amber will stop that?”

“It’s powerful enough to stop a novice witch’s proximity spells. Definitely don’t drink anything they give you.”

They look a little shellshocked at that.

It’s Joshua who speaks. “But if you tried to do a love spell on us…?”

“If I didn’t find it morally and ethically wrong?” I don’t lie to them. I won’t. “I could make you do literally anything I wanted.”

Thomas snorts. “You don’t need magic for that.”

Chase tips his head to the side. “How do we know you haven’t? Because Thomas is right, I don’t think any of us would deny you anything.”

“Love spells are brutish things. They take an emotion that should be gossamer soft and turn it into a sledge hammer. Real love is not blind obedience. But if I had put a love spell on you, I could ask you to do anything, and you would.”

“So… what do you think we wouldn’t do that your spell could make us do?” Thomas asks.

I watch him for a long moment, sorting through things until I set upon one that meets all the requirements—close, not technically harmful, easily accomplished, and something he doesn’t want to do…

“I want you to go knock on Mrs. Miller’s door, ask for her eldest granddaughter, and when she is in front of you… Kiss her.”

Thomas straightens, his face turning to a blank mask and he heads for the door.

The others go tense.

Taking a deep breath, I roll my eyes, but I don’t have to say anything.

His hand doesn’t touch the door knob before he turns back, laughing.

“You’re an asshole.” Joshua says, punching him in the hip.

“If we were in love with you because of a spell, why would we go ask another woman to marry us?

“It’s not love, it’s obsession. The people who need those spells can’t tell the difference between the two.”

“Meaning, we wouldn’t be able to have our day jobs, because we’d be at your home, groveling at your feet twenty-four seven?”

“Something like that.” I take the offered thimble and settle in to play the game that rarely found its way into my childhood. I’m not even certain I know the rules.

But understanding the game doesn’t really matter.

Two rolls in, they move back to a subject I had a feeling would come around again.

“So,” Johnny says, balancing the dog on its backside. “You and your mom seem to have a bit of a disagreement about kids.”

It’s a question, even if he hasn’t asked it as one. “She’d prefer to have had grandchildren already, and as you know… she hasn’t gotten them yet.”

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