Page 41 of Handcuffs and Hexes

“Hold on,” he said, and I realized he planned to put those wings of his to use.

But we never made it off the ground. One of the shadow creatures grabbed hold of Liam’s feet.

“What the hell!” Liam yelled. “I can’t dematerialize.”

The shade tried to reach for me, but I tucked myself into a tight ball.

Then Seth was there like some hero from a fantasy movie, shooting balls of light from his hand. They hit the shades with a flash, canceling them out and destroying them. The woman dropped to the ground when the shadow holding her was eliminated. Seth made a sweeping gesture with his hands, and several shadowy locations flashed with bright light as the shades hiding within burned with magic.

By the time it all ended, we had a small audience, mostly residents of the building.

“You’re the upstairs neighbor,” said the woman who’d picked herself up off the ground. “Thank you. Should we call the EA or something?”

“No need. They already know,” Seth said. That was clearly a lie.

Then we were inside and on our way up to the loft. Liam and Seth took turns making sure I was okay.

“None of them actually touched you, did they?” Seth asked.

“No.”

“Good. My father will not be able to track you then. I’m sorry you have to deal with this. He can’t seem to let me live my life, even after all these years.”

“Don’t apologize. It’s all on him. Do you think he’ll lose interest once I’m no longer staying here?” I didn’t want this asshole wizard to mess with my job.

Seth wrinkled his nose like he didn’t like the idea of me leaving. “Perhaps.”

Stepping into the loft, I was flooded with a sense of safety. I flopped down onto the couch with a big sigh. It must suck to have a crazy, too-rich-for-consequences asshole as a father.

I knew the moment Seth’s eyes landed on the bottle of pills on the side table. Shit. Why hadn’t I put that back into my bag?

My magic must be healing because all I’d needed today was a single pill in the morning after Seth left for the meeting with the EA, and I’d been feeling great since. I might even call Chief later and tell him I’m ready to get back to work. As much as I enjoyed lounging around doing nothing, I also missed my everyday life.

Seth grabbed the bottle and held it up. “What is this?” he asked

“According to the label, it’s ibuprofen,” I replied innocently.

“You lied to me.”

Seth stepped toward me, the look in his eyes enough to make me feel like a teenager trying to sneak in after curfew. Behind him, Liam was quietly and surreptitiously tiptoeing away.

This side of Seth was so different from the carefree rebel he usually portrayed. And it was all kinds of hot.

“This morning, I asked if you had a headache, and you told me no. I asked again before I left, and you still said no. And you, Pumpkin.” He whipped around and squared a look at Liam. “Don’t you take a single step more.” Sparkling energy radiated from his fingertips, wrapping around the demon and hauling him back. “Were you going to tell me?”

“I had no idea,” he lied. He also winked at me very obviously.

Ah, so this was some sort of game. I could play along.

“Looks like you two need a primer on who’s in charge here.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “In charge? Who put you in charge?”

“Oooh,” Liam gasped.

“Last time I checked, this is my house. My rules.”

“Fine, I can leave.”

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