Page 61 of A Witch-ish Guide to Protectors and Pendulums

Shocked, I nodded, blinking like an idiot.

She looked from side to side then held the door open. “Please, come in.”

We walked inside the home filled with comfortable furniture. Big. Old. Lived in. A fire roared in the stone fireplace, filling the room with peaceful warmth. “Iloveyour home,” I said and she smiled.

“Thank you. It’s taken me a while to get it how I wanted it.” Then I watched as she shut the door behind us and swiped a flat hand through the air above it. The cracks between the door and doorjamb glowed an orangey hue before dissipating. “Please have a seat.”

Now that I got a good look at her, and this might’ve sounded crazy to most people, considering the distance between us in the family tree, but she looked like me. Same dark eyes. Samenatural hair color. Although a bit thinner than me, she had those same soft features, cheeks, chin, and nose. She even dressed similarly, I mean, not to what I wore today, but an all-around style. She wore an oversized, pale pink sweater and black, skinny jeans. If I scanned my wardrobe in my mind, I was sure I’d land on that exact same sweater.

“Can I get you something to drink?” she asked.

“Water?” I responded and I half-expected her to wave her hand and have the glass appear in my hand. That wasn’t what happened. She walked to the kitchen and came back expertly carrying three tall glasses of water, handing one each off to both me and Connor before taking a seat across from us.

“Thank you,” Connor said.

“Does it just kill you to be pleasant?” I asked him teasingly.

He winked. “Only with you.” Then he took a sip of his water before setting the glass down on the table in front of us.

I noticed Lily Joy’s eyes moving between Connor and me as we bantered. “Your words make it sound like you don’t like each other, but the feeling I get from you is far different.”

“He grew on me,” I answered. Then tacked on, “Kind of like a fungus.”

She pointed between the two of us. “So he’s your protector…” Connor and I both nodded. “But he’s also your mate?”

“Guilty,” he replied.

“I’ve never met a mated protector before.”

“Well, I’ve never met a relative before,” I said and she turned her head to look at me in apparent disbelief.

“You were orphaned, too?” she asked.

Uh… why did hertoohit me as ominous?

“Yes, I was orphaned. How did you know my last name?”

“My parents died when I was a baby. I don’t know how. But life was very difficult. I have power like a witch, but I’m not a witch. Not really. Every year, I’d get a little more power—like theuniverse was doling it out in increments. Then a couple of weeks ago—bam! It was like the magic smacked me between the eyes.”

I looked to Connor. A couple of weeks ago? Like when Connor and I had met? What did I do with this information?

“Anyway,” she continued, shaking her head as if to clear it, “I jolted awake in the middle of the night. A woman’s voice said, ‘Simone Lamia. Remember Simone Lamia.’ Then she was gone. I couldn’t go back to sleep to save my life.”

“You don’t sound like you’ve grown up in England,” Connor said.

“Oh, that’s because I didn’t. I’m American. I was drawn here a couple of years ago by the will of some long-lost relative who left me this land.”

“No way that’s a coincidence.” Connor voiced exactly what I was thinking.

“Here’s the thing,” I said, then I let out a long breath and went for it. “You’re not a witch. I mean, you are, but you aren’t. Just like you said. The same as me. I… well… Our family history is a bit hard to hear.”

Lily Joy gripped her glass in one hand, resting it on the other as she leaned forward, listening.

“I think the woman you heard—the voice that woke you up—was Lilith,” I said bluntly.

And cue the disbelieving eyes in five… four… three… two… There they were. “Excuse me?” she asked.

“It’s kind of a funny story. See, Lilith is my grandmother. She took me on the day I was born because Grandad Adam led a surprise attack and killed my parents, Shoshana and Baruch. You’re my cousin through my uncle Peter, Shoshana’s brother, and one of the two children of Lilith and Adam.”

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