Page 72 of Potions & Prejudice
Istood behind the bar in the tavern, huddled over the spell that I’d spent so long looking at, I wasn’t even sure what I was seeing anymore. Only a few patrons populated the establishment, but it would fill up for the evening soon enough. I scrubbed a hand down my face, wondering for the thousandth time what I was missing.
My hand tightened, the same hand that had been between Elspeth Moonflower’s legs just two nights ago, her dripping wet cunt all over me. I could still hear her breathy moans, I could still taste her lips, and fuck it all if I didn’t want more.
She’d ran from the room, from me, and I hadn’t seen her since.
Which was exactly why I needed to focus on this. Elspeth probably regretted what had happened between us, realized she’d had a temporary lapse of judgment letting me touch her like that.
A better man would go after her, would make her talk to me about what was happening between us. But I was not a better man.
So I threw myself back into this stupid spell that continued to evade me. I’d changed the wording, the intonation, the command, but something was still off. Right now the mug in question was repeatedlybanging itself against the bar top. Elspeth’s face flashed in my mind again, and I banished it.
Focus, Draven. Just focus.
“Is that a smile on Draven Darkstone’s face?” Morty Hallow said.
Fuck. I’d forgotten she was sitting at the bar.
“You don’t see that very often,” she said before taking a sip of her drink.
“What’s your point, Morty?” I asked.
She raised her dainty chin, her spiral gray curls bouncing with the movement. “Just wondering what could make you smile like that.” She raised an eyebrow. “Or who.”
“Morty,” I warned. “I’m not a project. I know you retired from your tea shop and are bored, but you can take that boredom and focus it on someone else.”
Morty drummed her fingers against her tankard. “You know what I learned in my years running matchmaking events at my tea shop?”
I ground my teeth together. “No because I never attended any of those matchmaking events.”
“I learned,” she went on as if I hadn’t spoken, “that love always finds us in the most unexpected way. In the most unexpected person.”
I scoffed. “I’m not in love.” In lust, maybe. But that was as far as it went.
“Maybe not, but I haven’t seen a smile from you since you arrived here a year ago.”
I cleared my throat. This conversation was physically painful.
“If someone is giving Draven Darkstone a reason to smile, then I think that someone might be worth pursuing.” Morty stood and dropped a few gold coins on the bar top. They clinked as they hit the wood. “And who knows?” Her voice softened. “She might need you as much as you need her.”
My mouth hung open. I wasn’t sure what to do with that conversation, but I didn’t have long to think about it. As Morty opened the door, Edgar burst in, out of breath.
“We might have a problem,” he said, flapping his wings and hovering in the air in front of me.
My head snapped up, tension coiling in my muscles. “What now?”
I had a feeling I knew exactly what.
“Georgie is trying to free a firefox,” Edgar said in a rush. “We came across it in the forest, trapped under a log right next to the river.”
My blood ran cold. Lor River was known for its dangerous rapids and strong currents. Every year stories spread about a witch or foreigner who lost their lives to the river. I swore. Georgie just couldn’t help herself.
I swiped my hand out. “Out,” I said to the remaining patrons. “All of you.” They stared at me with wide eyes. “Now!” I roared.
They didn’t hesitate, jumping to their feet and racing for the door.
“Let’s go,” I told Edgar.
Edgar flew aheadof me in the forest, the river running alongside us. “She’s just up here,” Edgar said.
