Page 53 of The Trouble With Spells
“You break it!” he shot back, shoving his hands in his pockets.
“If I could, I would. Now break it.”
Michael was watching us with wide eyes but had remained silent so far.
“How’d you even know about it?” the man asked, flicking his hair out of his eyes.
“Because I’m a born witch,” I hissed, pointing a finger at him, “unlike you.”
His eyes grew big and for the first time he looked scared. “Look, it was just a bit of harmless fun. I got it on the internet. I use it when someone is being a dick, just to give them a taste of their own medicine. Have a bad day like he made me have.”
“Bad day?” Michael finally said, his teeth clenched tightly. “I lost all my cases! I nearly got hit by a car–several of them–when I tripped and fell into traffic! My condo building caught on fire! Innocent people could have died! What the fuck is wrong with you?”
The man’s face paled, and he shook his head. His voice was trembling when he said, “That wasn’t me! It was supposed to just be a bit of an annoyance. Spilled coffee, maybe your car wouldn’t start. That kind ofthing. No one was supposed to get hurt! I’ve done it before and nothing like that has happened!”
“Break. The. Spell,” I bit out.
“I can’t!” he cried. “Only he can!” He pointed at Michael, who looked as shocked as I felt.
“What?” Michael whispered.
The man–I wasn’t inclined to even ask his name–ran a shaking hand through his hair. “Youhave to break the spell. I can’t do it. It’s part of the spell. At least I think it is. I’m not very good at this stuff, I just dabble.”
“How?” Michael demanded, “Like with true love's kiss or something?”
“Dude,” the twink snorted, “what the fuck? This isn’t some Disney movie.”
Grabbing Michael’s hand, I gave it a squeeze, and the gesture didn’t go unnoticed by the other man. “Dude, hate to break it to you, but your boyfriend’s been stepping out on you.”
“No, he hasn’t,Dude. Trust me on that. How does he break the spell?”
He rubbed a hand over the back of his neck, and I could tell he was trying to work out the relationship between Michael and me.
“He has to put someone else before himself.” Pointing an accusatory finger at Michael, he muttered, “You’re a selfish prick, so good luck ever breaking it.”
“I was,” Michaelagreed, “you’re right.” Turning to me, he whispered, “We’ll just wait for Daphne to get home. It’s probably what we should have done in the first place. Can she still…do whatever she does?”
Running my hand down his slightly stubbled jaw, I whispered, “She should be able too, yeah. You’re sure you want to wait?”
“I’m sure. Let’s go home.”
“You,” I waved my finger in the twink’s face, “stop putting spells on people! You can’t just get something from the internet and go around messing with things you know nothing about. And if you don’t, I’m going to find you. And you won’t like when I do.”
He must have taken my threat seriously because he ran down the sidewalk, away from the club, looking back once before disappearing around the corner.
Michael was staring at me, an incredulous look on his face.
“What?” I demanded.
“That was kind of badass.”
Rolling my eyes, I grinned at him. “He irritated me.”
We started walking towards the parking garage where we had left Michael’s car. “Oh, I think we all got that message.”
“Did you reach Derek?”
“No,” Michael shook his head, pulling his keys from his pocket when we were close to the garage. “I tried him acouple times, but I just got his voicemail. I’ll try him from the car and if I don’t get him, I’ll just leave a message.”
