Page 182 of Blue Moon Mistress

“Here.” I pull the coffee table closer and set the boxes down on it. “I know you guys are tired, but I need you to eat first, or you might not wake up.”

They work their way through the pizza like they’re drunk. Listing and blinking to keep their eyes open, but they devour it all.

The wings disappear when I’m not looking, and I have no idea who ate them. There’s none of the usual mess.

And in the end, the boxes are pushed to the side and I’m pulled into the middle of their pile.

It’s so much like the first night we spent together, I can’t help but sink into that memory, to want this as often as I can get it—albeit under better circumstances.

We’re all half asleep when Johnny stirs.

“We lost our amber,” he says, holding up his naked wrist.

“That’s okay, I’ll make you new ones.” Better ones.

No one was ever going to take them away from me again.

Forty

My phone buzzesand I reach blindly for it.

Mom. Summoning me.

I kiss Thomas, distracting him in his sleep as I slip from his grasp. He reaches for me and I whisper to them all. “I’ll be back soon. Don’t worry.”

Johnny might be awake, but he doesn’t open his eyes when I kiss him too. And when I step back, he moves closer to Thomas, tightening the pile I’ve just left.

Joshua doesn’t stir when my lips brush his, but Chase watches me through half open lids. “Don’t be gone long. Wewilldrag ourselves out of this house to come after you if we need to.”

“I’m not going far.”

There’s a witch waiting for me outside, she says nothing as she drives me back to the wooded clearing where Aphrodite tried to kill eight people and only managed two.

I’m not sure if her silence is because she was ordered to keep her lips zipped, or if it’s because she’s one of the ones I don’t know… and if she witnessed last night, she might be scared of me.

Whatever the reason, it’s good the drive is short.

My four-wheeler is where I left it, and another silent witch—this one refusing to make eye contact—stands guard at it.

The others gathered around the clearing have seemingly formed search grids and are looking through the underbrush. But my mother and Renée stand on the site of Aphrodite’s spell suicide.

“Glad to see the cleanup efforts are well on their way.”

“We let you have as long as we could.” My mother’s scowl tells me she’s not the one who summoned me. “Is there anything we might be missing?” She waves her hand vaguely toward the spell site.

“I burned twenty-six warnaways yesterday afternoon. If there’s anything lingering from her, I haven’t been able to find it.”

“Neither have we.” My mother’s agreement gets her a sharp look.

“Good. The sooner her shadow’s gone, the better.”

I’m not waiting for an apology from Renée I know I won’t get it.

But I know she owes me. And she knows it too.

“I have some requirements.” I say, and, as expected, she doesn’t immediately deny them.

“What are your requests?”

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