Page 34 of A Witch-ish Guide to Protectors and Pendulums

“This is my mate, Connor Baghest.”

He waved as he locked up the shop for me.

She eyed him up and down, eyes narrowed, assessing. “You’re a protector.”

The tension between them ratcheted up at least ten notches. “I am. How did?—”

Agatha put her hand up to stop him. “Not just a shifter, but aprotector. You’re Simone’s protector. That’s why you’ve mated. Why would Simone require a protector?”

Then she pivoted to look me in the eye. “What are you, Simone?”

“We’ve talked about this before. Your guess is as good as mine. I take it most supers don’t have protectors?”

“Not in the form of shifters. Familiars more so, but shifters are saved for…” She trailed off.

“For?”

“Sorry—for important people.”

“I’mnotimportant, I can assure you.”

“Your mate tells me different. Do you have a table? My cards are in my purse.”

I walked Connor and Agatha into the back room, where I had a table set up for when we ate lunch or dinner, depending on the work schedule. She set her purse down on the table, unzipped it, and fished through it until she pulled the deck out. She dumped them out of the box into her hand.

“Please, sit,” she said and both Connor and I pulled out chairs, dropping into them across from her. “Tell me what you needed from me this morning. Why did you seek me out? I need to know everything.”

“I’ve been gaining new powers.”

“New powers? At your age?”

I nodded. “Yeah. They’ve been growing since I connected with Connor. Aside from my taser fingers, I’ve been able to manifest my desires and now, I’ve started seeing this woman in my head. The first time, she said my name, but I couldn’t get more than that.”

“Was this before or after you connected with your mate?”

My cheeks flushed. “Um… we’d connected but hadn’tconnectedyet, if you get my meaning.”

“So that was the first time. I take it there’s been a second?”

“Last night,” Connor answered for me.

I elaborated. “When she came to me—it was while I was sleeping—anyway, she seemed relieved that I’d connected with Connor.”

“Relieved?” Agatha repeated questioningly.

“Yeah. She told me to use him. That he was my key.”

“Your key? She said that specifically?”

Again, I nodded. “Yes.” When Agatha dipped her chin, I went on. “She asked if ‘the brooch’ had presented itself to me.” I pulled the brooch out of my pocket to hand it to her. She reached her hand out but pulled it back right away with a hiss when she saw it.

“How are you able to handle that?” she asked.

What was she talking about? “I just picked it up. Connor can too. Why?”

“That’s an athame.”

What? I looked at her confusedly. “It’s a brooch.”

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