Page 194 of Blue Moon Mistress

“Probably. Just remember. He’s not familiar with witchcraft and he’s got some inbuilt prejudices.”

“Don’t we all?” Victoria sweeps up the cards and puts them back in their velvet bag. “You should probably get going. Gran’s going to be back in a few minutes and we know how that would go.”

“She’s still holding out hope that you’ll take off with Chase and leave the other three for us.” Bethany shakes her head at the ceiling. “You’d think she’d maybe ask us if we had any interest, because we don’t.”

“I’ll try to ruin them in her eyes. If I can muddy their reputation enough, she’ll clutch her pearls and leave you alone.”

“She’ll just switch her attention to someone else.”

“Good luck. Call or text any time, no matter what you need, no matter how late, or how early.”

Charity walks me up and stops at the back door, holding it open for me. “You’ll have to tell us how you got them.” She glances across the small gap between the houses.

“Find out where your limits are, be a little reckless, and if luck is in your favor…” I don’t have any real advice for her because I’m still a little confused about how I wound up here.

“In case I don’t see you for a while, I hope you three have a blessed Yule.”

“We’ll see how we can balance that and Gran’s Christmas.”

“I promise it won’t be hard.”

It would be easier than the short walk I took between their home and mine.

Thomas is waiting for me in the kitchen with another cup of tea.

“Thank you,” I reach for it, but he shakes his head. “You get the tea when you drop the pants, young lady.”

The laugh that drives from my lips is a strangled sound. “This is the thanks I get for saving your life?”

“Oh no. The ‘thanks’ comes after the pants are off.” He watches me for a second, blowing on the tea and then turnsaway. “We’ll be waiting for you when you’re appropriately dressed.”

He winks at me as he disappears through the doorway.

I consider going to them as I am now, but I can play whatever game they’ve come up with, so I slip out of my pants and switch back to Johnny’s shirt. And once I’ve folded the clothing I don’t need inside this house, I go back to them… a bright and beautiful feeling burning in my chest.

- Part Three - Yule

One

The midwinter solsticesnuck up on me… But I have four very convenient excuses.

Even if they aren’t here now, as I tuck a cedar bow onto the mantle, I’m distracted.

And not just by the ghostly spirits of the wolves they used to turn into on the full moon.

Waiting for them is always more difficult than I anticipate.

It doesn’t matter that I woke up in Thomas’s bed this morning, and Chase’s the day before that…

Being away from them for long leaves me itching in my skin. That ever presentneedto keep them safe has burrowed inside me and I don’t want to push it out.

I haven’t seen any of them in ten hours and it’s making me nervous.

It hasn’t been long enough since another witch tried to kill them. Though, in truth, she would have only killed me and thereby stolen them from me.

The skittering feeling isn’t helped by the fact that this is the first Yule I’ve felt excited for in a very long time and I don’t quite know what to do with myself.

Moving the hand-carved figurine of a bear to one side of this mantle, I catch sight of the ring on my finger and smile at the warmth it suffuses through me.

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