Page 94 of A Witch-ish Guide to Protectors and Pendulums

“So what happens if he’s not in the mood?” I asked and Karro gave me the ‘are you serious’ eyes. “Okay, so what happens when he realizes that you aren’t going through with it?”

Karro’s gaze shifted to ‘oh, you sweet, summer child’ and I gasped.

“You are not pimping yourself out for us.”

“Girl, you need an in and I can buy us that time. Plus, Uncle Karro could use a bit of stress relief, so it’s a win-win.”

“Will you come back here, then?” Shafira asked him.

“No, I’m coming with you.”

“How will you find us?” she asked.

“You said you can manifest, right?” he said to me, but before I got the chance to answer, he went on. “I mean, I know you can. You brought Lilith in to talk to us. So give me like twenty-five minutes and then manifest me to you.”

“Twenty-five minutes?” I asked.

“It gives us both time to get into it. But he doesn’t last long once he is. So that should work.”

Without any other plan available to us, I gave in. “Okay, call him.”

In a perfect world, I’d have been able to manifest myself to Connor. But that black salt disrupted my ability to get to him. Now that I thought about it, black salt was probably the reason that mates had this honing thing to begin with. I still had so much to learn and no time to study.

Karro pulled his phone from the pocket of his caftan and pressed a contact. “I could use some sexual healing today, how ’bout you?” he asked into the receiver. The man must’ve saidsomething intimate because Karro smiled. “Great. Meet you in about ten minutes, lover.” Then he hung up. “Right. Other way,” he directed us and then he turned to start jogging to the far end of the town, where Adalaide’s bungalow sat. Both Shafira and I followed. He led us around the bungalow and we passed through the wards on the other side back into the desert. I cloaked Shafira and me, but I manifested for Karro to be able to see us. About ten minutes of walking and we ended up in this two-bit town exactly as he’d described. There were maybe three broken-down buildings. A grocery/gas station type of store. A mechanic’s garage and the bar. Karro led us to the bar and we walked inside.

A rather beefy man whom I could tell right away was a demon leaned against the bar. His tight pants showed exactly what he was working with. Karro smiled. “Hey, lover,” he cooed. The demon stood straight.

“No one here yet. Let me take ya over the table.”

My Lilium cousin shook his head. “Anyone could walk in. I’d rather go to our regular spot. You know how I like to get loud.”

“You know how I like to get rough,” he replied.

“Do I ever. Your desk is far sturdier than these old tables. You can ram me rough.” Karro approached the demon to run his finger along the man’s jawline. The demon’s eyes heated and he grabbed Karro’s hand, pulling him behind the bar. Shafira and I followed.

The demon hurried us down into the basement. It was dark and old with cobwebs and that dank basement smell. But he opened a second door behind the stairs we’d just come down to reveal a stone stairwell that I recognized very well. An entrance to Hades. We descended the step at a pretty quick pace and once we’d reached the bottom, the demon dragged Karro to an office down the main hallway.

A middle management demon.

“Will he be okay?” Shafira whispered.

“He’ll be fine. Come on.” I picked a different hallway. The setup was similar to Luc’s, so it made sense that I’d find the stairs to the catacombs if we went that way. We walked and walked, getting farther and farther away from the office setting and that was where we found the stairs.Hallelujah!Or you know, whatever a Lilium was supposed to shout.

“I don’t like the look of that.” Shafira pointed to the place we had to go. “It looks danker than the last tunnels.”

Getting a big wiff of mildew mixed with rotten eggs, I wrinkled my nose. “You won’t like the smell, either.”

But I felt Connor. My internal GPS kept me going in the right direction. At the twenty-five-minute mark from when we left Karro, Shafira said, “It’s time.” I hadn’t been keeping track. Good thing she had.

I closed my eyes, manifested keeping Shafira and me invisible while bringing Karro to us. He popped into our bubble. His eyes looked glazed. “Did he give you something?” I asked, horrified.

“Oh, he gave me something, all right,” he replied. “You caught me cleaning up. That man upped his game. I think I might be in love.”

“Seriously?” Shafira asked.

Karro pursed his lips. “With his penis.” He chuckled to himself still with that glazed, dreamy look in his eyes. “Oh—and I found out who he works for.”

News. Good. News helped. “Who?” I asked at the same time as Shafira.

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