Page 343 of Castings & Curses

The box, its lid still askew, oozed an energy that made her want to alternatively sink inside of it and burn it to a cinder. There was a power that played on people’s worst and best intentions, and she knew it firsthand.

The only question was, why bring it here?

If it had been nestled under his house, what made him think he could contain the force inside of it?

Had he been dealing with a local witch?

Goddess, she hoped not.

“Who was he supposed to meet? He brought it here for a purpose.”

“I don’t know.”

“Was he acting strange? Secretive?” Devi prodded.

Cappelli looked her square in the eye. "I know James must have had his reasons for coming here but he didn’t tell me about it. As to being secretive? Well, let’s just say we both led different lives and leave it at that.”

Oh. Snap.

“Well, that’s less than helpful.”

“What do you want? A fucking roadmap? Someone killed my partner. Probably a witch. You’re from around here, so you know better than anyone just how low they’ll go to get the upper hand.”

Her animal growled low, but she coughed and shook it off. Throat punching the bitch wasn’t going to help the situation, and right now she answered to James before anybody else.

Frowning, she looked closer at the box.

Why had James moved it?

It just didn’t make sense. To Cappelli’s point, the witches in Bixby had always been a little power hungry. That was one of the things that drove her to leave.

The other had been buried in that fucking box.

“Ya’ll might want to move back a few steps.”

Devi reached for a shaker of table salt. Uncapping it, she made a circle around the box, then snagged a fork and edged the lid the rest of the way off.

The box was pulsing with rancid power. Ice sluiced down the back of her spine as she felt the residual energy emanating from the glow. Demon still there or not, it was creepy as fuck.

She’d hated the thing from the first moment James showed it to her. He’d been so excited, but when he uncovered it in the trunk of his car, she’d taken one look at it and backed away.

“What the hell did you buy that for?” she’d said.

God, the sweet idiot had the indecency to look hurt.

“I needed something for my remotes.”

“You’re a cop. How could you not sense that thing is evil?”

His eyes, now snapping with anger, met hers. “Well, I guess we can’t all be as in tune with the freaky shit as you are.”

Then, he slammed the trunk shut and didn’t say another thing about it. But two weeks later, he’d shown up at her apartment and begged her to help him get rid of it.

And here they were.

Dark laughter echoed through the room and Devi suddenly wished she’d made the circle just a little bit bigger.

Oh fuck.

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