Page 28 of Magic and Muffins

“See who?”

She restarted the video and pointed to Hugh and Shepard standing off to the side with several other people. Shepard looked exhausted.

I sent him a message to come home soon. His reply was almost immediate.

Shepard: I will. Tell Cross he gets the night shift tonight and I get you.

“No fair,” Vena said, reading over my shoulder. “If I can’t have any, you can’t either.”

“Too late,” I said.

Her eyes went wide, and she looked from me to Cross, who flashed his lazy, sexy smile at her.

“Seriously?” she asked, her gaze still shifting between us. “I’m so jealous I’m not even sure what to do with myself. No, not true. I know what I want to do.” She pivoted and made it a step toward the stairs before I grabbed her arm.

“Hold on,” I said. “I’m sure Anchor doesn’t want to be assaulted in broad daylight.”

“It’s okay,” Anchor yelled from downstairs. “I’m used to it.”

“Thanks for having my back, babe!” Vena shouted at the open door before looking at me. “I’ve been waiting for you, Ev. Now that you’ve finally committed, I’m ready to do the same. Please don’t tell me to wait.”

Her imploring expression had me pretending to pout at her.

“Does this mean I won’t see you for the next ten days while you break the curse?”

“Hell no. I don’t have time for that. I’m dying for some penetration. We’re talking twenty-four hours tops.”

“Vena.”

“And commitment,” she added quickly. “I want the commitment.”

I snorted, knowing better.

“So what are you going to do then?”

She fished the fae’s business card out of her pocket. “Anchor and I are going to get help from the same people who cursed him.”

“Asherah said it couldn’t be undone,” I reminded her. “She should know since she was the one who cursed Anchor.”

“Yeah, well, she was at the market this morning, and when I showed her the card, she looked at Anchor, shrugged, and said it would help end the curse faster.”

“How?”

“Don’t know. She was pretty closed-mouth about it and her connection with Adriel and Vivian when I asked if she knew where Vivian was. I got the feeling she didn’t know and wasn’t happy about what they did to her, though.”

I thought back to the video of Adriel, Vivian, and Asherah and shuddered lightly.

“Yeah, what they were doing to Asherah didn’t look consensual.”

She tapped the card. “I’m going to call.”

I’d prefer she didn’t, but with her out-of-control hormones, I didn’t think she could wait much longer, either.

“Put it on speaker,” I said.

Vena dialed the number. It barely rang before a woman answered. “What do you desire?”

“To break a curse. Someone at Enticed gave me your card, and they said you could help.”

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