Page 74 of A Witch-ish Guide to Protectors and Pendulums

“It’s just a scratch,” I tried to tease, but I ended up in a coughing jag from too much speaking so soon after almost dying. It hurt, too. Like, really bad.

“The one time Iwantyou to talk,” Connor muttered. I opened my mouth to try to relieve some of his worry, but he stopped me with a kiss of theheart-melting, this man truly loved mevariety. I sighed instead.

“How’s our girl?” Luc’s soft, sexy-melodic voice interrupted our moment.

“Alive,” I replied.

“Listen, I have some bad news. Can you handle it?”

“No—” Connor said.

At the same time, I answered, “Why not?”

“Sorry, man. This is important, so I’m going with her answer. The demons wouldn’t talk for a ridiculous amount of time, no matter what I did to coax it out of them. Finally, I got one to break. They were sent by Beetle. Something about Simone controlling all the world’s magic.”

“I don’t—” I started. “That’s not right.”

He shrugged. “I’m only telling you what he said. It’s like a super highway with you as the hub. He’s either going to control you or kill you.”

“Why?” Connor asked as he gave my hand a squeeze.

“Supers keep the world in check.”

“Easier to take over,” my mate mumbled. “Shit.”

“Shit, indeed,” Luc replied.

“Let me get this straight… This Beetle person wants to take over the world, and he either needs me on his side or dead to do it?”

Luc nodded several times in short succession. “Seems like it.”

“How unoriginal. Why do the bad guys always have to be so trite?” I asked, causing both men to laugh at me, which, with the way Connor scowled so deeply that it caused the skin to wrinkle around his mouth, was a feat. If he didn’t let up on the death grip on my hand, my new nickname would be ‘Stumpy.’ “Connor,” I whined and he snapped his head to look at me then down at my hand beginning to turn purple.

“Sorry.” He let go and that pins-and-needles feeling spread through my hand and up my arm. “I want to talk to them,” he said to Luc.

“No can do, buddy.”

“You’re really going to try to stop me?”

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” Luc answered what I felt was earnest. “But one of them managed to get his hand down his boot, where he apparently kept two sort of tiny death grenades because he tossed one at the other demon and the dude disintegrated right before my eyes. And while I was distracted, he smashed the other one against his own chest and the same thing happened. I’ve never seen that kind of magic before. You have to behead a demon to kill it.”

“I don’t like the sound of that,” I said.

“I fucking hate it,” Connor countered. “Do Simeon, my sister, and Lily Joy know?”

“Lily Joy was with me. She witnessed the whole thing. Madigan looked after Simeon while he recovered.”

And speak of the devil, or should I say Lilium. “Knock, knock,” Lily Joy said from the doorway. She carried a tray of tea. “This is either an illegal party or strategy session. Neither of which my cousin is strong enough for yet.” She walked the tray over to me, set it down on the bedside table, and began to pour me a cup. “Move,” she ordered Connor, who simply growled at her and scooted his chair back slightly. I’ll note, he didnotmove.

Next, I heard, “This must be the cool kids’ room.”

“You too?” Connor barked at his sister.

“Sim wanted to check on his sister and I’d like to meet my sister-in-law. Since they’re one and the same, here we are. Deal with it, big brother.” She held my brother’s hand as they walked in together. He appeared tired, but not much worse for wear. He made it to the bed, dropping down on the opposite side of Connor.

“Hey,” he said, smiling at me.

“Hey,” I said back.

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