Page 40 of Snow's Charming
We are stopping at the rest stop exit in one mile.
The three dots appeared almost immediately, and I held my breath, waiting for a reply.
Okay, princess. How are you? I miss you. BTW, this is Joker texting back his response, so don’t get all Lovey, Dovey. I might puke all over Sylus’s phone, and that would suck for him.
I giggled a snort before responding to Joker.
No worries, Joker. I wouldn’t do that to you. Just tell my Pookie Wookie that I miss him, too.
Sesi, you just gagged me with a spoon.
Is that yet another slang term from your younger years that I’m clueless about?
Guilty. ;p
What? No emoji this time? Would you rather be lazy and type it out? It’s not that hard to switch keyboards, you know. Plus? There’s this wonderful feature called predictive text. Tryit.
Sesi, you wound me. Seriously? Now let’s stop this texting because we are about to put the car in park, and I’d rather you talk to him instead of bantering with me. Plus, it’s silly to text you when I can see you getting out of the car.
I giggled again as I hopped out of the automobile and looked for Joker. Sure enough, they parked in the space next to us. That man always knew how to make me laugh—even when it was a dad joke sometimes. And truth be told, I needed it after the shitshow with Jackie and now the curse. Joker smiled at me and then motioned in my direction to Sylus. Sylus walked up to me, smiling brightly.
“How do you feel, babe?”
He asked me this as he tucked a few strands of hair behind my ear that blew into my face.
For the first time since I’d learned about this wretched curse, I felt a calmness wash over me. A calmness that made me dare to believe that everything would work out. I smiled, wrapped my arms around his neck, and pulled him into a hug.
“I’m good. I’m calm, and dare I say that things are looking up?”
Sylus put only enough distance between us to gaze at me with a smile on his face.
“I’m glad one thing is in our favor.”
As a group, we headed to the restrooms first. They were in a secluded part of the stop near a walking trail.Once I got out of the ladies’ room, all the guys greeted me with a smile. It really must be nice not to have to squat. Ugh!
“Let’s get some burgers and fries!” said my dad as he wrapped an arm around my shoulder.
“I think you’ve already had your last meal.” Said a voice in the shadows.
It seemed to bounce off the trail. My eyes darted in all directions, but I couldn’t find the source.
A burning heat welled in my core, and it had nothing to do with the proximity of Sylus. I grew pissed that someone, yet again, was trying to kill us. My belly coursed with a biting venom that shot through me like a bottle rocket.
I noticed movement out of the corner of my eye. I glared to my right just as a man came out of the shadows and waved his hand in front of me. My belly instantly cooled. I tried to move but found myself frozen in place.
“By the 14th-century peace treaty proclamation, I proclaim that Sylus and Sesi must be vanquished under magical law.”
The man finally stepped into the light.
“Accius! Of course, it’s you! Have you learned nothing since you accused Teagan and Kiku of a similar crime? The Common Trifecta Law was void of that accusation. We proved you had zero legs to stand on then, and you have far less now!”
Zhang said this as he waved a hand in the air. Astaff that radiated a white and bluish glow appeared before him, and he hedged it in Accius’s direction.
“Zhang, are you still trying to call yourself a neutral ally when you so clearly side with the abominations?”
“They are part of the prophecy for the werewolves. The Moon goddess deemed it so, Accius. You can’t deny that, especially since you were there!”
Accius laughed.
