Page 92 of The Most Wanted Witch

“And too tiring,” Lou said. “We had no time for fun anymore. You people just got needier and needier.”

Xazier nodded as the two found common ground on how irritating people were. “It was ridiculous, wasn’t it? And they wouldn’t stop breeding, either. How many do they really need to have? Take a breather.” He rolled his eyes. “We couldn’t take it anymore. We weren’t in the business of worrying about your everyday wishes and desires. You live your life, and after it’s done, we judge you for it. That’s the way we wanted it.”

Lou cleared his throat, turning to Xazier. “By the way, have you noticed how underrated judging is these days? Everyone wants to have their cake and eat it too. Are we supposed to let just anyone in?”

Xazier tilted his head back. “You don’t like that part? I find that the most entertaining. I love watching as I play back their greatest hits of sin. Best part of my day. I have specific orders that I’m to be alerted when someone really good, or bad if you want to look at it like that, is about to cross over.”

“I’m sure it’s wonderful. Can you get back on track?” I asked. Did witches have the same afterlife? Was I going to end up with one of these two ruling my ever after? Please let me have a different end, even if that was a hole buried in the ground. It might be preferable.

Xazier glanced back at me. “Oh, yes, sure. So we were getting killed by the workload, but neither of our bosses cared. After all, like most businesses, we ran most of the show and carried most of the weight. We decided to call a little meeting, where we agreed that some outsourcing needed to be done to dump some of the work, you know, all theI needandI wantandI have to have. We agreed quickly, too, which nearly never happens, that something had to be done or our quality of life would continue to tank.”

Lou kicked his heels up on the coffee table and a brandy appeared in his hand. “We didn’t want it anymore. We’d put our dues in. It was time to relax a bit.”

Xazier pointed to Lou’s glass. “Is that the twenty-four?”

“Yes. Would you care for one?” Lou swirled his glass.

“Of course,” Xazier said.

“Anyone else?” Lou asked.

“No,” Hawk said.

“No, thanks.” Bibbi would kill me if I drank that. That might rank almost as bad as drinking Gillian’s cocoa.

A glass appeared in Xazier’s hand. He took a sip before he continued. “We had one issue. If you think of Xest like a business, it required some startup cash, so to speak. You needed some resources to get it going, which both sides were supposed to investequally.” Xazier shot a look at Lou, and the apparent truce seemed on shaky ground again.

“I didn’t do more than I was supposed to. You did less thanyouwere supposed to,” Lou said.

“We set an amount agreed upon. I did the right amount,” Xazier said.

“You can say that all you want, but why did our contribution seem heavier?” Lou argued.

“If you were so mad that mine was light, why did you care when I fixed it?” Xazier said.

Lou dropped his feet to the ground so he could lean toward Xazier, pointing. I wasn’t overly concerned. He wasn’t bothering to put his drink down, so he couldn’t be that mad.

“Because I had to add more after you did. You didn’t fix it. You weighted it, which made me have to add on, and you know that’s a problem.” Lou leaned back in his chair again with a huff.

“You wanted it that way so Xest always leaned a little bit to your side,” Xazier said, but the tension had already eased a bit.

It was hard to decide whether I wanted to keep letting the information flow as it was or ask for some explanations. I was getting the gist, but being sure would help out a lot, especially in wondering how I’d ended up with the same magic that was in that hill.

“Can you get back to the story?” Hawk asked, not having the same internal debate.

“I’d love to, but he just never lets it go. Centuries and I’m still hearing about this,” Xazier said.

“Gentleman, please,” I said, wishing I hadn’t declined the drink.

Hawk, who’d been on high alert, took a seat beside me on the couch, as this story was beginning to look like it would drag out.

“We both put in startup magic to get things going,” Xazier said.

“Were your bosses aware of what you were doing?” I asked.

“Of course they were. They know everything,” Lou said.

“But like we said, they don’t want to get involved in the nitty-gritty, everyday stuff so we might’ve glossed over a detail here and there.” Xazier shrugged and then took a large sip of his drink.

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