Page 61 of Death Trap

“All right, I’ll do it.Ifyou promise me you’ll never refer to intimacy as…thosethings again.”

“What? Fuck and chuck?” I laughed.

“Yes!” she squealed. “That!”

“Aw, man, I really liked that one.”

Marla crossed her arms. With her short stature and trophy-wife appearance, it was easy to forget she was actually a powerful witch. She might look meek and harmless, but it probably wasn’t the wisest thing to get her really, really mad.

Better to have Marla as a friend than an enemy.

“Never again,” she said. “Promise.”

“Do you want to pinky swear, too, while we’re at it?” I teased, but the glare that followed from her was deadly. “Fine. Never again.”

At least not to her face.

Some of those sayings were too good to toss away forever.

“Good.” She spun on her heel and headed for the transportation portal to head to my apartment. “Now, I’ll handle the mystery man, and you go visit Arianna. With a sour mouth like yours, you may need a nice rinse out with soap while you’re at it.”

On the other side of the veil, in the living world, I strolled along the downtown streets, enjoying the warmth of the sunshine on my face. Another beautiful late summer day in Fairport. Getting to Divine Magic was going to be a bit of a walk, but I didn’t mind. It had been so long since I had visited Marla’s shop—the last time being the night with Cole when we found her dead and were then attacked by a swarm of the shadow Halfling creatures—but at the same time, it felt like yesterday. That’s how most things were feeling nowadays.

Because the twenty-one-year-old niece now ran the storefront and the backdoor dealings Marla had when alive, I wondered if she had changed anything. Or maybe she was similar to her aunt. The “fly like a butterfly, sting like a bee” type.

I mean, the woman did raise her. It wouldn’t be too surprising.

As Divine Magic came into view, the differences to the store’s façade were obvious to anyone who’d visited it before. The most shocking changes were that the large display window was in full view, the curtains drawn back, with tables of books, handmade jewelry, and potion bottles revealed to all potential customers. And the door was left wide open, welcoming everyone inside. The complete opposite of Marla’s secret, appointment-only business. This looked more like a normal retail store.

My next thought? Marla was going to be pissed when I told her how her niece was running the place.

Before I could take another step, movement ahead caught my eye. And it wasn’t from a passerby. The shadows in the corner of the store shifted then darkened. Stretched. Elongated.

One slender limb slid out into the light, and my breath caught.

Not here. Not now.

Why were these things popping up everywhere? Someonehadto be sending them. I was convinced now.

I didn’t even have my gun anymore. That meant my hands and my power were my only weapons.

When the Halfling fully emerged out of the darkness, I gasped. Its head was upside down. Chin to sky, top of its head to the sidewalk, upside down; its neck twisted around like a corkscrew.

Yikes. They only got uglier and uglier. It was still hard for me to believe Cole, the model-college-boy-beauty, could ever turn into something so hideous. With its glowing red eyes and pointy teeth, it took everything in me to remember this creature had once been a living, breathing person with a soul.

There was no hint of a soul left in it now. That was for sure.

Only the empty street separated us now.

The Halfling crept onto the blacktop, like a predatory cat stalking its prey, its gaze trained on me. Definitely a change from their normal bull-in-a-china-shop mentality.

I took the time to call to my light power and wake it up, just in case things came to that. As the creature stalked forward slowly, my irritation grew.

Okay, the charging style they usually fought with I was used to. I didn’t want to stand here all day and wait for it to get to me.

Let’s get this over with already.

So, what did I do? I ran toward it.

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