Page 18 of Love's a Witch
“I should be able to get you sorted shortly, ladies.”
“Thank you. Our hero.” Lyra fluttered her eyelashes at me, the warmest one of the bunch, and I grinned at her. Sloane rolled her eyes.
“A little warmth goes a long way,” I said, helpless not to poke at her.
“And was that a warm welcome you were giving us last night, then?” Sloane asked, her eyes widening as she crossed her arms over her chest.
“Touché.”
The bonnet popped open, and I moved around the front of the car, angling my face away from the arctic wind. While it would be easy enough to go get my car, jump the battery, and get the women on their way, it would take a lot more time than what I wanted. Glancing over my shoulder to make sure there were no wayward tourists wandering about, I held my hands over the battery.
A current of magick rolled through me, and the battery briefly illuminated before returning to normal.
My magick had always worked that way. It hummed inside me, like being plugged into an electrical socket, and the first year after I’d turned twenty-five had been wild as I’d learned how to harness it. I was best with elemental energy, invoking electrical currents, lighting flames, redirecting water—that kind of thing. But I’d also learned that I had strengths in many areas. Turned out, as I was a protector of Briarhaven, my magick had arrived as a jack-of-all-trades. It was useful, in many situations such as this one, and I’d been grateful for my gift many times since.
Slamming the bonnet, I rounded the car as the door cracked open again.
“Go on, then, give it a go.”
Sloane bit her lip, annoyed with me but clearly wanting her car to work. She turned the key, and the engine caught easily, much to the joy of her sisters.
“Thanks, I guess.” Sloane slanted me a look.
“I meant what I said, Sloane. I need you all to leave before this gets much worse.”
“That sounds like ayouproblem, not anusproblem,” Sloane said, and yanked the door shut. I pulled my fingers away just in time and stepped back as she reversed from the car park.
Her snotty attitude should make me dislike her more, and yet for some reason, it made me want to break through her walls and peel back her layers. Which, frankly, was infuriating. The Douglas family had prided itself on keeping peace here for centuries now, our duties taken seriously, and I wasn’t going to be the one that would allow our perfect record to be broken.
Or so I’d been not-so-gently reminded by my overbearing parents last night.
They’d phoned me from their riverboat cruise in Vienna, noting a disturbance in the force, and I’d had to listen to them rant about theMacGregors and how they should have exiled the whole family from town years ago. By the time they’d clicked off, my mother on her third martini, I hadn’t spoken in almost forty minutes. It had always been that way—my parents ordering us about—while we’d all had to fall in line. And the message had been clear. Sloane was the enemy, at least according to them. Who was I to even consider standing up to centuries of Douglas family tradition? What was good for Briarhaven always came first.
No matter what.
Duty weighed heavily on my shoulders. As firstborn, the responsibility had fallen to me to take up the helm when my parents had decided they wanted to see more of the world than tiny Briarhaven. They hadn’t even asked. As soon as I’d finished uni, I’d been brought back to Briarhaven and installed as provost, and they’d left. My two brothers, on the other hand, got to backpack through Europe and find themselves. Whatever that meant.
Instead, I’d put my business degree to use. If I was going to be stuck in Briarhaven, I could, at the very least, solve some issues that the town struggled with. A glaring oversight on my parents’ part. Not that I’d ever bring it up to them. Their wrath wasn’t worth pointing out that I thought they’d rested on their laurels, allowing the town to descend into an almost state of disrepair, as a tough economy had made everyone tighten their belts. Coupled with a reputation that Briarhaven was boring and decrepit, and the village had started to become a “must-miss” on a tourist’s itinerary.
Instead of railing against the reputation, I’d decided to lean into it. One night, after a few too many whiskies, I’d been moaning to Liam about the town’s woes when we’d stumbled upon the idea of making it a theme park of sorts—more attraction than theme park, really, as we didn’t have rides. A tourist destination for those who love all things magickal. I’d spent weeks drawing up the presentation and the zoning plans, and had even offered small business loans at zero percent interest for the townsfolk who were ready to invest.To my surprise, my parents had given me the go-ahead, and mostly everyone had embraced the new vision for Briarhaven. Not only has it been a roaring success, but it has also provided a much-needed refuge for the magickals in our world.
Gone were the days where we could live freely.
Briarhaven had been the home to a variety of magickal families for centuries. Witches, fae, broonies, and elves… all sorts of creatures with power resided here. As the years crept by and the human population grew, magickals—some feared, most untrusted—were forced to live in hiding lest their kind be hunted. The people of Briarhaven had long ago assimilated to the human world, but there was only so much we could do to hide the wisp of “otherness” that clung to our town. By turning Briarhaven into a destination, I’d been able to explain away many of the unexplainable happenings in our town. It was a point of pride for me, because I did feel that everyone should be allowed to live in peace, without persecution for what they were.
Briarhaven was happy, healthy, and thriving.
The return of the MacGregors didn’t bode well for this prosperous town. As for the pretty Sloane MacGregor, no matter how very much I wanted to trail my lips over that stubborn point of her chin and sink my teeth into that full bottom lip, I needed to stay focused on the one thing that mattered the most. Protecting Briarhaven at all costs.
CHAPTER SIXSloane
I think Grumpy McProvost has the hots for you,” Lyra said as I drove us carefully home through snow-slicked streets.
“Totally does,” Nova agreed from the back seat, where she’d opened a package of blueberries and was popping them in her mouth one by one.
Heat rushed through me, the mere thought of Knox’s hands on my body doing strange things to my insides, and I shook my head.
“You’re too used to seeing love everywhere. You can’t help it.”
