Page 2 of If The Shoe Fits

BecauseIam very much aware ofhim.

Like way more aware than a widowed Witch should be.

But it’s not my fault because Wulfredo Tremayne, principal of the Royal Academy for Magical Advancement, is unignorable.

Is that even a word?

I don’t know. But the point is I’ve tried. Really. But the man just seems to take up every available inch of space when he’s in a room.

Like the kids said nowadays, he was living rent free in my head.

Sigh.

Anyway, the Academy is this huge, old mansion refurbished as a magical high school, located on the outskirts of Castor’s Corner, New Jersey.

It’s the only town I know of that is completely cloaked by magic so normals,er, non-magic folk, avoid it like the plague.

In Castor’s Corner, supernaturals roam the streets without fear of being found out by the human world. Shifters wear their fur. Witches fly on brooms. That kind of thing.

It makes sense, I suppose, that the higher ups built a magic school here because of all the built-in magical security.

That was over four hundred years ago.

It was a neat place to grow up without fear of being found out and burned at the stake—this totally happened to way too many of my ancestors.

But I never planned on living here forever, let alone working in the same school I attended, in the same town where I grew up.

Especially not after my hubby of only three years was accidentally mowed down by an out-of-control Warlock trying to achieve flight on an actual enchanted broomstick on All Hallow’s Eve ten years ago.

Yeah, it was pretty awful.

Charles and I had barely begun our married life together before his own life was snuffed out. Senseless tragedies still hurt, even when magic was involved.

It’s all in the past now, but I still felt bad for Charles. No one deserved such an end.

But I was lonely.

And horny.

The way I lusted after my boss had me feeling all kinds of guilty.

Poor Charles.

But the truth is, our marriage was one of convenience, not everlasting love.

Most of the folks in Castor’s Corner can be pretty flighty. However, the one thing they seem to have in spades is a long memory and a history of high expectations.

Some were really high.

Like how everyone expected me to be in mourning for the rest of my life. Just like they expected me to stay in town.

Alone.

Forever.

As long as there’s been an Academy, there’s been someone from the magical Troy bloodline on staff.

Yeah, I kept my surname even after I got married.

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