Page 61 of Charming Her Monsters

“Sit down.” Calder points to his wooden desk chair. He perches on the side of his bed and stares at me.

I feel pressure at my temples. “What are you doing?”

“You felt that?” He nods and tilts his head. With his movement, I can see the bird part of him clearly.

“Like fingers pressing on the sides of my head,” I tell him.

“I’m not a proficient mind reader like Maxum, but I’ve been known to get into some weaker minds.”

“What did you see?” I ask. Because I hope he didn’t see how I admire how he looks in his tight black t-shirt and gray sweatpants.

“Nothing,” he says, like it’s obvious. “Your mind isn’t weak.”

“Oh, I thought since Rob could hypnotize me and spirits can invade my mind that I would be considered weak.”

Calder leans forward, his elbows propped on his lap. “From what we understand, Rob put a spell on you, likely when you were asleep. That’s different from being hypnotized. Essentially, he assaulted you when you trusted him, and he took your choices away. As far as the spirits go, mediumship is a power, not a weakness. You can call on souls and even channel their magic.”

“You make it sound like I’m in control of the spirits, but Osen controlled me.”

“Only because your magic was weakened by the pendant. Osen is particularly gifted at manipulating things in any dimension—in the shadowscape’s astral realm or physically.”

“You don’t believe I am lying anymore?” I ask.

“I don’t know what to think. But yeah, the more I see of you, the more I suspect you don’t have a fucking clue.”

“Thanks?” I lean back in the chair and frown. “You’re right. I don’t have a clue. It’s like this isn’t even my life anymore. Everything I thought I knew about the world and myself was wrong. I believed Rob and I had a typical bad relationship. He was a bit of a narcissistic douche and then straight abusive when I broke up with him.”

Calder perks up. “You broke up with him?”

“Yeah. I was tired of him being a jerk. Nothing about the relationship was good. Nothing. So I ended it. All of a sudden, he seemed to care about me. Or rather, that he didn’t have free access to me. He even broke into my house a couple of times.”

“More than a couple,” Trouble adds. “Sometimes, you didn’t wake up.”

“Shit.” I rub my face, and I feel the burn behind my eyes. But I don’t want to cry over Rob—and definitely not in front of Calder.

“What did he do when he broke in?” Calder growls.

I’m surprised by how protective he sounds. “The times I woke up, he demanded I take him back. He would try to… kiss me. I had never been sexually attracted to him and definitely didn’t want him touching me after we broke up. When he realized forcing himself on me wasn’t going to work, he… hit me. I stumbled into the kitchen and pulled a knife on him, and I was able to call the cops. Then I bought a gun. That stopped him from coming back… or so I thought.”

Both Calder and I look at Trouble.

He shakes his head. “Rob came over a few times after that and incanted his spell while you were sleeping, and he asked spirits to talk through you.”

I curse and feel hot tears rolling down my cheeks.

Calder’s voice is soft as he asks Trouble, “Then what happened?”

“Rob would ask questions about names and places and then he would leave,” Trouble says.

“Just using me. That’s all I ever was to him—a tool.”

Suddenly, Calder is on his knees in front of me and pulls me into a hug.

Startled, I don’t know what to make of this new version of the phoenix who is willing to comfort me. For a moment, I’m stiff, but then I give in to the affection and rest my head on his shoulder and wrap my arms around his torso.

“You are not just a tool. Don’t allow Rob to make you feel small,” he whispers over my hair.

I don’t know what to say to that. Calder has hated me since before I was probably born.

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