Page 21 of Hexes and Exes

“You definitely have a knot there. But it’s popping out, so that’s good, right? No blood.” Ava’s back to squirming on top of me, and I shift my hands to her waist to hold her still. If she moves down a few more inches, there's no way she won’t feel how hard I’m getting. I open my eyes and find her amber ones staring back at me. Worry and fear are clear as she gnaws on her lip.

All I need to do is lift my head and I could be tasting that lip. I frown at the thought. I don’t want to kiss Avalon Vandenberg. She’s a pain in the ass and generally looks like she rolled out of bed after a long, exhausting night. But right now, with the setting sun glowing gold behind her, highlighting thecopper color of her eyes and the blush on her cheeks, she looks beautiful.

“Get a room.”

Ava jerks back at some idiot kid’s shout, putting her spread thighs in direct contact with my hard dick. Her eyes grow wide, and she falls off of me like I bucked her off. Even though I’ve been laying still this whole time. Ava scrambles to her feet and holds out her hand. She’s missing a glove, and I find it on the ice beside me. I scoop it up and pretend to let her pull me to my feet.

“Time for a substitute,” I call out to the ref, challenging her to talk back.

“Two.” Ava holds on to my arm like I’m a frail old lady who needs help crossing the road. If anything, she’s holding on to me to keep from falling every two seconds until we get off the ice.

“Stay here, I’m going to go get you…” Ava frowns in confusion. “Ice or a potion or something. Josephine!” she gasps. “She can heal you.”

She’s barely left my side before Mortimer Woodroot sidles up beside me. The owner of Woodroot’s Apothecary is the only other witch in town besides Agatha Fitzsimon’s who has never been affiliated with a specific coven. His shop literally sits on a tiny island in the Briar Hollows River, between the two sides of town that were formerly at odds with each other. His store was a neutral space where both Lumen and Tenebris witches could shop.

He’s wearing the fuzziest coat I’ve ever seen. It’s bright blue with a hood that looks like a lion's mane and practically covers his entire clean-shaven face. His boots lace up to his knee and are, in contrast, a bright orange with fur at the top. His pants look like snakeskin, and for all I know, they could be. Morty’s fashion sense is in a realm of its own.

He pulls off a satin glove, one finger at a time. That can’t be keeping his hands warm. It reminds me of something a ladywould wear in a period drama. Once his hand is free, he reaches into his neon coat and extracts a tiny bottle.

“For your head, my darling. Although it’s so thick, I don’t know if this will make much of a difference.”

“Hilarious,” I deadpan and snatch the bottle from his fingers. I toss it back without hesitation. Maybe that’s foolish. I suppose Morty could poison me. But I’ve been trusting this man for years to help numb my curse. I can’t imagine he’d suddenly be struck with the impulse to off me.

His gaze drifts over to Ava. She’s back with my brother and the rest of her friends. Ambrose and Odie showed up at some point too. Ava turns to each of them, as if she’s asking for something, then she looks back in my direction.

“You know that girl is already broken.”

I slowly turn to look at Morty, but his eyes are still locked on Ava.

“Aren’t we all a little broken?”

Morty hums thoughtfully. “That woman is a people pleaser. She wants to make people feel better. The kind of person who tells a joke to cut the tension in the room.”

His assessment, like he knows her better than anyone else, pisses me off. “I know who Ava Vandenberg is.”

Morty’s head snaps in my direction, his eyes bright. “Do you?”

I understand what he’s hinting at. “I didn’t mean it like that.”

The infernal man hums again. “What do you mean, then?”

“Her best friend is dating my brother. She’s from one of the founding families. Fundamentally, I understand who she is. What I don’t know is why you’re telling me this.”

Morty sucks in a deep breath. “Ava comes into my shop once a week. I don’t think she’s missed a week since she turned sixteen.”

He’s implying something, but I don’t know what. It’s no news to me that sixteen is when our curses tend to take hold. What does that have to do with her seeing Morty once a week?

“Sometimes, she buys a book. Sometimes, she doesn’t buy anything, and she brings in cookies for me. When she was younger, she used to collect herbs for me to use in potions. She has a soft heart and a fragile shell around it.”

“Why does she come in to see you once a week?” For now, I overlook the implication that Ava is too softhearted for someone like me. Hell, I'm not trying to date the girl. I don’t even know where Morty is getting that idea. She’s just my brother's girlfriend’s friend who has become part of our social circle through circumstances. So what if we’ve been thrown together, time after time, in the last few months. There’s nothing out of the ordinary going on between us.

“I see you haven’t talked about your curses yet.”

Does he know what Ava’s curse is? We don’t freely offer the details of our curses to people in this town outside of family. Morty knows what my curse is because I’ve had to go to him for the elixir for so many years. I suspect he also knows a lot about the people in this town, because he’s a nosy son of a bitch. Still, there’s a tingling of jealousy scratching the back of my skull that he knows what Ava’s curse is and I don’t.

“Here she comes. You might not want to tell her that I gave you the potion. She does love to take care of people.” He zips his lips and slips back into the crowd. He’s suggesting that Ava won’t fuss over me if she knows Morty has given me a healing potion. It would be dishonest not to tell her.

“Piper had some ibuprofen.” Ava holds out her hand, showing me four pills. Her other hand extends with a bottle of water. “I have no idea where Josephine went. Did you ask Morty if he had a healing potion? Something that could help.” Shepoints through the crowd where Morty has disappeared. “Never mind, I guess this will have to do for now.”

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