Page 30 of Pitch a Witch
“My father never gave his consent for conceiving a child with an angel.” All the blood drained from my head, and a whooshing sound filled my ears. River kept talking. “He raised me, although he never wanted my existence. My father is a very good man who never joined a coven, all so he could protect me. I’m not searching for my mother for sentimental reasons, Hazel. I want to find the bitch so I can kill her.”
“Why are you telling me this,” I breathed through numb lips.
“Because I’m going to need your help.” He didn’t look at me, but I felt his damn gaze drilling into the core of my being.
20
“Sissily,” I hissed as I darted through the trees in search of my best friend. “Sissily!”
Screw orders and everything else, I needed to talk to her like yesterday. After the bomb River dumped on me, all I could do was blink and breathe in the car. The moment we reached our destination and his two-seater was parked behind the last SUV in a line of many, I was out of that bitch like my ass was on fire in search for Sissily.
“Will you stop yelling,” my friend hissed as she rushed to meet me.
“I was whisper-shouting. There’s a difference.” Never missing an opportunity to needle her, I bared my teeth. Blondie was right on my heels, but I ignored the dumbass. Who in their right mind dumps something like that on another person?
A jerk. That was who.
“What’s wrong?” Sissily took hold of my shoulders and eyed me up and down. “You okay?”
“Oh, I’m wonderful, but I’m so glad you asked,” I piped in cheerfully. Good thing we were all parked a mile or so away from the Blackwood pack lands because I was ready to scream. “Pulling off a rescue mission, dealing with a dumbass, planning a murder. How about you? Are you having fun?”
“Wha-what?” She probably thought a screw had loosened in my head with the way she was eyeing me before glancing at Blondie over my shoulder. “What did you do to her, River?”
“Nothing,” Blondie answered in a flat tone.
“I don’t think it’s nothing.” Sissily searched my face, no doubt seeing the crazed glint in my peepers. “I think you broke her.” She glowered at him.
“We can discuss this later, ladies. The Alpha might need our help.” Using logic against us, he waved his hand to indicate we should get moving.
“Go, I’ll tell you later.” Reluctantly, I decided that River’s murder plan could wait. “But if pretty boy ends up as an anthill, know that it wasn’t my fault.”
With a shake of her head and her ponytail lashing at the back of her head, she ran to join the shifters ahead of us. Maybe one day I’d be trusted not to kill everyone, and they’ll invite me into the front lines, too. Until then, I had no choice but to stick to potential killers. The humans back in the days had one of those, too. A pretty face that killed so many, but no one had ever suspected what kind of a twisted psycho rested under it until it was too late.
“Hazel.” With a sigh, River glued himself so close behind me I could feel the heat from his skin. “I’m not asking you to kill anyone. What I do with my mother is on me.”
“So, you were asking me what? To compare knitting patterns with her while you stab her in the back?” The glare I threw at him over my shoulder would’ve made anyone else run for the hills.
River smiled, just a small twitch of his lips. “Just to have my back, that’s all.” Ducking to pass a low branch, he glided smoothly through the trees. “She’s an angel. I don’t want you to get hurt, but I want to be prepared for any scenario.”
“How does that even work?”
It didn’t escape my notice that I was a hypocrite. While I preached to Blondie about trust, the first time he’d shared something with me, I ran to Sissily so I could blab it out. Not that River blinked an eye or anything, but still. Maybe it was time to rethink things. The night that cursed book opened the floodgates to my magic wasn’t the only thing that had changed in my life. I let people in where I normally would’ve baulked at the idea. It wasn’t just me and Sissily against the world anymore. We had more people in our corner.
Could River be one of those?
“How does what work?” River swatted another low-hanging branch out of his way.
Lost in my thoughts and distracted by Blondie prowling through a forest dressed in pants and a button down, I didn’t move fast enough. The damn tree reached for my hair, and it got tangled there while prickly thorns stabbed my scalp. Flailing didn’t help much either, especially when Blondie snorted. I had to stay still while he took his time and detangled my hair from the vegetation, all the while I pretended him being that close didn’t affect me.
“This.” Using the conversation to divert my attention from his body and scent, I flicked a finger between us. “How is it I’m not dead on contact?.That’s the first lesson they teach us before we can walk. Stay away from Fallen and Angels. One touch, and you’re done. But you’ve touched me, and I’m still kicking.”
“It’s used as a caution, everything they say about any celestial being.” His face was tilted up as he gently extracted my strands from the branch. He was focused on it as if it was the most important job in the world to have. “Angels, as well as the fallen, need intent before their magic can work because it’s so potent. Whatever, or whoever, created them didn’t want any accidents to happen, I guess.”
“You’re saying they’ve killed everyone that touched them because they felt like it?” I found my fingers pressing to his sternum, and I snatched my hand back. What in the actual fuck was happening to me around River? “On purpose?” I blinked when I heard the awe in my tone.
“I thought you might find that very appealing.” River grinned down at me, and my breath ended up stuck in my throat. “Yes, they chose to kill anyone who dared touch them. That’s why nothing will happen if you …” His voice deepened, and the smile slipped from his lips. “If you want to touch me.”
My lungs screamed from lack of oxygen as I stared into his smoldering gaze. A lock of his blond hair fell forward, and unable to resist, my hand lifted to his face and brushed it aside. The tips of my fingers grazed his skin, and with a barely audible groan, he closed his eyes.
