Page 69 of Curses and Cauldrons

Piper shifts on her feet and clears her throat. “I’m pretty good. I can check.”

“Damn right, Pipes.” Ava grins at her friend.

Piper gets within a foot of the grimoire. She stares down at the book, seemingly just looking at it. She reaches out, her hand shaking as it drifts over the top of the enclosure and down the sides like she’s feeling for an invisible barrier.

She leans down and inhales.

“Are you sniffing the glass?” Ambrose chuckles.

“Some hexes have a feel, some smell a certain way. There are even others that leave a specific taste in your mouth. Like sweet or salty,” Piper replies distractedly, saying more words than I’ve ever heard from her. Almost as if by not paying attention to the rest of us, she can speak more confidently.

“I mean, if you like things that taste salty…” Ambrose starts, but Odie pokes his side, and he squirms out of her reach.

“Gross,” she signs.

“She’s not wrong.” Bram winces in agreement.

Piper sinks down to the floor, placing her hands on the wooden planks around the pedestal. “There’s nothing here that I sense.” She confirms as she stands and dusts off her knees.

“Okay.” Josephine takes a deep breath.

“Do you want me to grab it?” I ask, but she shakes her head.

“No, I’ve got it.”

We stand in a semi-circle around the book. Every breath in the room is held in anticipation. Josephine flips a latch on the glass box to open it and reaches out and grabs the grimoire from the pedestal. She has one eye closed, as if she’s expecting an explosion.

Nothing happens.

Gently closing the book, she hands it over to Ava, who has a bag big enough to protect the book from the snow.

“Whew. I kind of thought our faces were going to melt or something,” Ambrose says as we head back to the hall.

Piper is the last to leave the room. When she crosses the threshold, she jerks to a stop and gasps. “Lemons.”

“What does that mean?” Bram asks, searching the hallway as though something is going to jump out at us.

“The hex wasn’t on the book. It was to keep the book in the room. We need to run.” Piper’s face is full of terror, her voice cracking.

“What kind of hex? Are we going to grow horns?” Stellan asks, tugging on Piper's arm to keep her moving. She’s still frozen in the doorway.

“It’s a detection spell. Whoever set it up is going to know that someone took the book from this room.”

“Then let's get out of here before someone comes to check it out,” I hiss, and we hurry down the steps, not bothering to stay quiet. We sound like a herd of elephants thundering down to the first floor. We make it outside and everyone besides me and Josephine are in the car when a woman steps through a flurry of snow.

“Selene.” Josephine sucks in a breath. That’s their coven leader.

See, our plan sucks.

36

JOSEPHINE

Selene’s eyes drift from me to Roman and then the car idling beside us. The snow and wind are blowing so hard that my eyes are watering and my exposed skin is taking a beating. Roman is at my back, his arms wrapped around me like he can protect me from the weather and maybe Selene.

“Josephine. This is quite the surprise.” Selene’s thin mouth pinches tight. She knows that we’ve stolen the grimoire. She must. That alarm we set off had to have alerted her. Although, how did she get here so fast?

“I have to say, I’m surprised to see you fraternizing with someone from the Tenebris coven.”

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