Page 103 of A Witch-ish Guide to Protectors and Pendulums

In a weird way, I respected his answer. “Who is this Cain?” I asked. “Where can we find him?”

“I don’t know. He seeks me out when he has a job for me.”

“What does he look like?” Shafira asked.

“Big, burly man. A real attitude on him. He’s a human with the balls of a demon. Dark hair. Dark, angry eyes. A neck like a bull. I don’t like him, but I have mad respect for a human who thinks he can go toe to toe with one of us.”

“A big, burly man with a thick neck? That’s all you’ve got?” I asked. “That describes like a half a billion people.”

“He’s tan—more like her…” He pointed to Shafira. “No, more like you,” he said to me. I had a natural tan a few shades lighter than Shafira’s skin tone.

“Can I kill him?” I asked Luc. “Let me kill him.”

We went through all this trouble to capture him and all we got was ‘a big man with tan skin’? I cracked my neck, ready to take him out until Connor snuck behind me, wrapping his arms around my waist.

“Enough,” he whispered in my ear.

“He tried to kill you and the only reason I kept him alive was to get answers, which he’s not giving. Don’t tell meenough.”

“Simone, baby… We still have to get the grimoire, find Lily Joy, and meet up with Sim and Maddi to join the jewel with the hilt of the dagger.”

“Not to mention stopping demons from wiping out more covens,” Karro unhelpfully put in.

“Yeah, and your point is?” I asked sarcastically.

“We might still be able to use him down the road. He’s not going anywhere with the wards in place.”

“Have you figured out why demons think this place is haunted?”

Kimaris’s eyes went huge.

“You aren’t afraid?” Connor asked. “A big, tough demon like you?” And he might have snickered. Oh, Connor Baghest was an evil man when he wanted to be. Was it wrong to be so turned on by that?

“I feel like we should split up to not draw attention to ourselves,” I said. “But I worry about Shafira and Karro alone. They’re powerful, but demons can be tricky sons of bitches and I don’t want them getting hurt in a surprise attack or something.”

“I can’t cloak them like you, but I can keep them safe.” Luc really didn’t deserve the bad press he got all the time. I loved the crap out of Luc—in a sisterly way, but, like, not a Cersei and Jamie Lannister sisterly way—although Luc was hot. But no… just no.

“So where will you head, then?” I asked.

He shrugged. “Since we don’t have to worry about this guy”—he thumbed over to Kimaris—“I’ll take Shafira and Karro with me. We’ll see if we’re able to hunt down the identity of Beetle.”

“Right. Then Connor and I will head back to our place to retrieve the grimoire. Hopefully, we’ll be able to contact my brother and Madigan again and find out about Lily Joy. This whole thing got old, like, last week.”

“Lily Joy is smart. She’s powerful. I’m sure she’s fine.” Luc was probably right. I certainly couldn’t let myself entertain any other ideas at the moment. I cared for her. Once upon a time, I’d thought that going from being completely alone to having this ever-expanding family was so cool, but now they were people I cared about who could be injured or killed if I didn’t stop this crap. Another thing to worry about. I’d probably end up with the digestive tract of an eighty-five-year-old by the time this ended.

“You’re not going to leave me here?” Kimaris asked.

Okay, so he made this part of the job fun again. “Ready?” I asked Luc. “I’ll take you, Shafira, and Karro back to the safehouse and you all can figure out where to go from there. Connor and I will head home.”

“Since it’s unlikely we’ll be able to meet back up for a while, anyone have a phone?” Karro asked.

“I do. Back at the safehouse,” Luc answered. “And yes, I have both Connor’s and Simone’s numbers.”

“Check in as often as you can, but we’ll set a time for… what?”

“3:00p.m.Eastern Standard Time tomorrow?”

I turned to Connor. “How’d you decide on that?”

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