Page 27 of Bewitched By the Headless Horseman
“I take it the Headless Horseman is back.” Lucia whirled around and held up a finger, pointing it at his chest. “I feel a presence right here.”
“So your sister-in-law is aspecialwitch,” Kit purred. “She’s good.”
Stevie ignored him and grabbed Lucia by the shoulders to face her. “Remember when I told you Kit said time was of the essence? He wasn’t bluffing.”
“Come tell me everything.” Lucia shut the door behind them.
On the kitchen counter, Maxine perked up inside her pot, the plant’s mouth widening into a smile to show her rows of teeth. As Lucia poured Stevie a glass of milk, she relayed what Kit had told her.
Lucia released a puff of air. “Sounds like a revenge story. Lots of witches and warlocks have done that over the years. Did they have sex?”
Stevie looked toward Kit who sat in the chair opposite her, remaining silent. “Did you? You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to.” She couldn’t lie that she was now itching to know.
“No, we didn’t pleasure one another,” he said, his voice deep. “But she did kiss my cheek on several occasions before leaving the apothecary.”
“Just goodbye kisses on the cheek.” A sense of relief washed over Stevie that wascompletelyunreasonable.
Lucia nodded. “So back then that could be like getting down and dirty in bed.”
She had a point… Stevie bit her lip, contemplating something.
“What is it?” Lucia asked, taking a sip of water.
“If this Levi warlock hated Kit enough to murder him, why wait to send him to burn in the Hollow? Especially if no one knew if or when the Eyes would ever open. Is he a ghost too?”Stevie focused on Kit. “And how did you know you could put on someone’s head to replace your old one?”
“Neither Inferno nor I have seen Levi, so I don’t know,” Kit said. “As for the other question, I was wandering in the cemetery. I didn’t know where I was, only that I could feel my bones below the ground. Inferno came to me with the fortune-telling witch. The one spell that she could provide was with the jack-o’-lantern and placing another’s head on mine that would remain temporary. She told me the world would darken if I stayed headless, yet if I found my missing head and reattached it, with the blood of a seer, I could live again. After that she passed on. Her unfinished business, I suppose.”
“Blood of a seer?” Stevie gasped. “You meanme?”
“That’s what I’m hoping.”
“What is he saying?” Lucia inched closer to Kit, seeming to think that maybe she could hear his words by doing so.
Stevie repeated what Kit had confessed, and Lucia folded her arms before saying, “This is more than a revenge story. I’m going to contact the Crowned Witch. Adelia would have to know something, but the only way to reach her is by letter. Let me think on it more tonight and I’ll come by tomorrow. I’ll get started on the letter now though.”
Stevie and Kit left Lucia’s, and she went straight to her room, plopping down on her bed. Kit sat in the desk chair across from her and Roxy hopped into his lap. He easily ran his long fingers through her fur.
“I think you’re forgetting whose sidekick you are,” Stevie teased. Roxy didn’t hesitate to bounce onto the mattress and paw through Stevie.
A second later, Kit sauntered toward Stevie. He stood before her, then bent his knees until they had to be eye to eye.
Stevie took a deep swallow, unable to find any sort of drive to scoot back or push him away, not that she could’ve done the latter anyhow. “Yes, Your Headlessness?”
“Are you going to take my bone out of your pocket?” he asked, his voice gruff.
Stevie’s eyes widened. “Oh! You’ve felt it in here this whole time?”
“Mm-hmm,” Kit purred.
“Even when you were in the woods?”
“Not as strongly, but of course.”
“And you didn’t come sooner?” Stevie fished the bone from her pocket, her fingers curling around it. He shivered and she wrapped it in the hem of her shirt.
“I could have, yes,” he said, his tone serious. “I was ready to give up all hope after another useless search for my head. With what little time I had left, I believed it didn’t matter anymore. And then to put your life in an upheaval for it is selfish on my part.”
Stevie’s heart thumped at how his shoulders hunched forward, at how long he’d been looking for his head and coming up empty. “Ah, Horseman, you now have a teammate, no matter how much we might bug each other. I’m not going to let you suffer.” She moved over, making room for him.
