Page 121 of Sigils & Spells

Nothing ever happened in this town of seventy-three inhabitants, seven of whom were witches, and Pippa was tired of all that nothing.

The only male in the entire town who was within two decades of Pippa’s own age of thirty-three was Rowan and he was a fellow witch and coven member.

Pippa had a very firm policy about witches. She didn’t do them. Ever. And most definitely not witches from her own coven.

Never kiss where you plan to sleep and all that.

Which meant she hadn’t had sex in about seven months now and that was a terrible record to have achieved, let alone lived through. Especially for a witch.

Sexual frustration played havoc with a witch’s control, and for witches like Pippa, whose control was shaky at best, that was never a good thing.

And since she was in a coven with six other witches who were in the same boat as her, they were now a coven of extremely cranky witches with dwindling control of their magics.

Even Rowan, who had taken to driving three towns over for a little action, was starting to get grumpy.

After all, who wanted to drive two hours to have some fun, then have to drive two hours back?

“We need men.” Amaryllis broke the silence at breakfast to say what they were all thinking.

Well, perhaps not Rowan or Jo.

“Uh, excuse me,” Jo said. “I’d like to put in an order for eligible women please.”

“Hear, hear,” Rowan said.

Predictable.

Boring and predictable.

It was sad really. Seven of them and not one of them bi.

Pippa let out a huge sigh.

She really wished she was bi.

Then maybe she could reconsider her stance on no witches. After all, women were so much more reasonable than men.

“I say we cast a spell,” Natalie said.

Natalie was their unacknowledged leader. She refused to accept the title of High Witch and just glared when anyone suggested she was in charge of—well, anything—but whether she acknowledged it or not, she was in fact, their leader de facto.

After all, it was Natalie who discovered Zero, a town perfect for their needs.

It was also Natalie who had paid for their rather large complex to be built. Pippa had never asked where the money came from as she figured she was better off not knowing.

Ignorance is bliss and all that, not to mention plausible deniability if the cops ever asked.

Finally, it was Natalie who’d come up with the name of their Coven, a name that never failed to make Pippa giggle.

So, yes, despite all of Natalie’s objections, she was most definitely the High Witch of the Zero Cum Laude coven.

Of course, this wasn’t exactly a good thing, since Natalie’s magic was of the sort that kept her on the brink of madness, which made her at best unpredictable, and at worst, utterly dangerous.

“You want us to deliberately cast a spell?” Tempest exclaimed.

“Well, we are witches, aren’t we?” Natalie demanded. “What are we good for if not casting spells?”

“I’m not sure this is a good idea,” Morana fretted. “What if all the eligible men I call are dead?”

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