Page 90 of A Witch-ish Guide to Protectors and Pendulums

I mean, he had to wonder how we’d made it through the wards. So the idea of me being Lilium couldn’t have been that crazy.

“She is not just any Lilium,” Shafira helpfully put in. “She istheLilium. CliffsNotes version.” She looked at me. “Is that what you said?” When I nodded, she smiled and went on. “She is Lilith’s granddaughter. She has to save the world, but we need to rescue her protector mate first.”

His eyes bugged. “You cannot CliffsNotes, long story short that, girl. Long story long. Now.”

We didn’t have time for long story long. His tanned skin glistened in the sun as he stared us down.

“Sorry, but we seriously don’t have time for more. I can fill you in while receiving the help, but this is pretty time sensitive.”

He waved his finger around in the air, suggesting he was about to refer to the rest of the coven. “It’s bad out there. Time sensitive or not, they won’t help until they trust you. Trustme. I know.”

I shoved my sticky, sweat-soaked hair away from my face in frustration. “Theyhaveto help. That whole ‘bad out there’ thing is exactly why I’m here. Do they want to die?” I ended on kind of a shout and his eyes bugged again. He used his hands to suggest I quiet down. “Oh,” I said. “I didn’t mean thatIwould do anything. I meant the bad guys out there.” I pointed behind me with my thumb.

“Listen,” he said placatingly as he moved to wrap an arm around my waist. He ushered us forward to the little thatch-covered bungalow that he’d stepped out from. “Why don’t you tell Uncle Karro all about it?”

“Who’s Uncle Karro?” I asked.

“I am.”

“Your name is Karro? I love that.”

“The one good thing I got from my father, aside from this flawless skin tone.”

“What did you get from your mother?” I asked as he opened the door to usher Shafira and me inside where it looked like a pink glitter bomb had deployed only moments ago. I’d never seen so much pink, glitter, and pink glitter in my life.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” he asked, but I could tell he meant it rhetorically.

“It is. I’m more of a lavender girl”—I pointed to my hair—“but this is amazing.”

“What did you get from your mother?” Shafira asked my question again.

He smirked wickedly. “Witchcraft. And my love of big, strong men. Though I didn’t know it, about the witchcraft. An imposing specimine of man always snagged my attention. Most of my life, stupid little things would happen, but I chalked it up to coincidence or told myself I was seeing things. I grew up in foster care?—”

“So did I,” I cut in.

He rolled his eyes. “Girl… then you know. It was a struggle just to survive. One of my foster dads liked to get a little rough, if you know what I mean. The other kids called him ‘Dad.’ I called him ‘Daddy.’”

“‘Daddy’?” Shafira asked. I shot her the ‘come on, put it together’ eyes and she blushed. “Oh…”

Karro held his arm out for us to sit and I flopped down onto the softest, fluffiest pink chair imaginable. I sunk into the cushion. The man could pick furniture, that was for sure.

“You were saying,” I said, “about foster care?”

“I went to this Renn Faire—this was after I aged out—and I saw these card readers. They said they were witches. And I was all, ‘Real witches? Yeah, okay.’ But then all three of them were like, ‘What are you?’ ‘What amI?’ How rude, right? But they didn’t mean it how I thought they meant it.”

I understood. I’d felt it coming off of him from our first meeting outside. Those witches hadn’t known what he was, just like witches never knew what I was. Because Karro had Lilium blood.Welcome to the family, Karro.

“They asked me,” he continued, “‘What is your magic?’ But magic? I didn’t have any magic —well, not until it clicked. All those things I’d convinced myself were figments of my imagination or had been mere coincidence. Magic. But it was only a small amount and I didn’t know where it had come from or what to do with it.”

“How’d you end up here?” Shafira asked.

“You sound American, like me,” I stated helpfully.

“I’m from SoCal.” So I was right. Point to Simone.

“It’s a fun little story. This happened about a year ago. I was with the mayor’s son and we were in the middle of—you know—doing it. And as I was being ram-rodded, I shouted, ‘Plow me with your jackhammer!’ and well, I don’t have good control over my magic—or I didn’t until about a week ago. Then it sort of started settling. Anyway, I felt his member shift into the shape of a jackhammer, still covered in flesh. Hard and soft—greatest orgasm of my life. But when he pulled out, he had a jackhammer for a member, so I couldn’t let him leave until I figured out how to change it back. He was considered missing for a little over a week.

“Then he kind of cracked up and the mayor accused me of slipping him something. The town grabbed its torches and pitchforks, which is how I ended up here. Witch covens started getting hit, just the little ones back then. Once I’d let my magicin, I locked into the world witch web.” The world witch web? Why didn’t I get the world witch web? Any lingering bindings needed to be gone yesterday. Given I was the one who was supposed to save the world, I should’ve been the one with the most powers. “Anyway, I remembered my mom saying my dad was from here. So I pawned everything I could get my hands on to buy a ticket andpoof! That’s how Uncle Karro ended up in his ancestral home.”

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