Page 53 of Hexes and Exes

“Take a deep breath, man. Your aura’s about to explode,” Stellan offers up unhelpfully.

“What?” Bram turns to glare at my brother.

I flap my hand around. “Nope, let’s focus.”

Bram slowly inhales, and some of the shadows recede. “My mother was a Crowley. I don’t know why that matters, though.”

There are six founding families in Mystic Hollows, which is a bit of a misnomer. When Mystic Hollows was first settled hundreds of years ago, it was a magical haven. Many witches came to this small town in the upper peninsula to find a home free from fear of being outed as a witch. The six families were just those who had the right combination of wealth and power.They deemed themselves the backbone of this community. That doesn’t mean that there weren’t other magical families living in Mystic Hollows. When the Briar Witch cursed our little town, she cursed all the firstborn witches of any family who was there the night they killed her fated love. The Crowley family is an example of one such family. They used to have a lot of power, but over the years, the name has died out.

Bram’s mother died of her curse. What if Bram dies young too? My heart thumps with an extra hard pulse, and I grip my blanket tighter. No, nope. I’m not going to think about Bram dropping dead from his fucking curse. It’s not like it gives him a weak heart or anything. It’s just slowly snuffing out his humanity. No biggie.

“Wherever you’ve gotten your information from about our curses, you’re wrong. My mother was just as doomed as the rest of us.” Bram’s gaze drifts to Josephine and his brother. “Except the two of you, I guess.”

I give up holding on to my blanket and reach out to touch Bram’s arm with my free hand. Stellan makes a low hum under his breath, and when I look at him, he responds with a raised eyebrow. I roll my eyes, but I’m not blind. Bram’s aura immediately evens out. A warm, fuzzy feeling bubbles up inside me, but I squash it like a bug. “Maybe we need to do a little digging. We still have the grimoires. Last time, we were rushing for answers. We should look through them more carefully. Maybe we can find some answers. There’s something in there the council doesn’t want us to see.”

“What kind of answers? My mother died with her curse. I have one. End of the fucking story.” Bram’s chest expands like he’s growing with his breath. I squeeze his arm.

“It can’t hurt to investigate a little.”

“Digging up secrets is always a bad idea.” His body has shifted and now we’re facing each other. His head is bent, his nose practically touching mine.

“Secrets, secrets are no fun,” I challenge with an arched brow.

Ambrose claps his hands together. “Secrets, secrets hurt someone.”

Bram backs off, his mouth pressed into a thin line. “The grimoires don’t have the answers anyway. We’ve read them cover to cover.”

“How are we going to find out more about our curses? The grimoires didn’t say anything about the curse only sometimes getting passed along to children,” Roman asks.

“I have an idea,” Piper says softly, her pale skin flaming bright red when everyone turns their attention to her.

“What are you thinking?” I step in front of Bram when he looks like he’s going to go off again. Piper’s tougher than she seems, but she doesn’t need to be on the receiving end of Bram’s unnecessary ire.

“Remember the Ashenvale witch who wrote that diary?” Piper asks.

“The one with all the spells for his dick. Yeah.” I nod. A few months back, Morty gave Josephine an old journal that used to belong to one of the original families of Mystic Hollows. Only, his line no longer exists in our town. There are no more Ashenvales that I’ve ever heard of, at least.

“Yes, him. I think we should figure out his first name,” Piper hesitates. “And find his grave.”

“Why? You want to piss on it?” Ambrose chuckles.

That man is one of the reasons we’re all cursed, even centuries later. I wouldn’t mind spitting on the asshole’s grave.

Piper darts a look at Ambrose before focusing on her fingers, which are twisting in her lap. “Actually, I want to raise him from the dead and have a chat with him.”

Ambrose whistles. “It’s always the quiet ones.”

24

BRAM

Never did I think I would spend the day sitting around talking about how to speak with the dead. Ambrose’s fucking huge house has a massive library, unsurprisingly. There are more books just on magic than I’ve probably read in my entire life. Which is either sad or impressive depending on how you look at it. We’ve researched communicating with ghosts, but immediately ruled that out. Seances are fun for Halloween, but it’s rare you actually connect with any ghosts, no less a specific one. Piper remembers reading about a potion used to revive the dead temporarily, but she can’t recall where she saw it.

She’s buried beneath a pile of books on the library couch, her forehead scrunched in concentration. Jo and Roman left about an hour ago to go pick up her little sister from a friend's house where she stayed the night. Stellan and Odie are combing the shelves, looking for any books that reference the dead, necromancy, even the curses. Although they’ve yet to find anything specific to Mystic Hollows. Most of these books are about the theory and history of magic and not our town.Ambrose is asleep on his back in front of yet another fireplace. I’ve never counted, but this place must have half a dozen.

I’ve been sitting for too long and need to stretch my legs. I exit the library, extending my arms overhead as I walk into the living room. Did I leave the room because Ava disappeared a few minutes earlier. No. Of course not. And yet, I find myself searching for her. She’s nowhere to be seen, so I stroll to the hallway. Family portraits dating back to the founding of Mystic Hollows hang on the walls and I find Ava standing in front of one of the oldest. She’s rolling her shoulders and then bends in half to touch her toes, groaning when there’s a popping sound. All I can do is stare at her ass, which is perfectly outlined in the sweatpants she’s wearing.

I shake my head. When did I lose my mind? She looks exactly like she partied hard last night, slept on the floor, and is wearing someone else’s ill-fitting clothing. And I can’t fucking get enough. Without a single thought in my head, I step behind her and my hands land on her ass.

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