Page 5 of Dramatic AF
“I should probably let the director know. This close to opening night, he’s totally going to lose his mind.”
“You don’t have to—”
“I feel fine, though.” I brought the black plastic straw to my lips and sipped as I mentally recited my lines for the upcoming scene. Yep, all there. I glanced at Trick. “Maybe you did it wrong. Do you want to try again?”
“No,” he snapped, the barest hint of a growl in his tone. “I’m trying to tell you that I haven’t hexed you.”
“Oh, okay. Are you going to do that now?”
Trick closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. “No, I’m not going to do that now.”
“Is something wrong? Is it because of that weird thing that happened earlier?”
“Nothing iswrong.” Dropping his hand, he stared at me through narrowed eyes. “Why are you so calm? I just told you that someone paid me to scramble your brain.”
“True.” I shrugged and took another sip of coffee. A little watered down from the ice, but otherwise, pretty good. “Would panicking help?”
A crooked smile curved one side of his mouth, and he carded his fingers through his hair again, pushing the inky strands back from his face. “No, I guess it wouldn’t. I’m still not going to hex you, though.”
“Why not?”
“Do youwantto be cursed?” he asked, his tone incredulous.
Okay, fair. I definitely didn’t want him magically tinkering with my brain, but I did want to know why he had refused to carry out a task he’d been paid to perform.
“Just answer the question.”
“I have my reasons.”
“Which are?” I pressed, eyebrows raised in challenge.
“Don’t worry about it.”
“I’m actually quite worried about it.” I pushed my hip out to the side and tilted my head. “Just tell me.”
He growled again—not a human sound but kind of sexy, nevertheless. Although he had claimed to be a warlock, I wondered if he might have a mixed heritage. A shifter parent or grandparent, perhaps. Feline maybe.
The guy certainly moved like a big cat—sleek, confident, predatory, and certifiably lethal.
“Is that really important?” he demanded.
“No clue. I won’t know until you tell me.”
“I think you should focus less on why I won’t curse you and more on who would want you cursed in the first place.”
“Well, I’m assuming the goal is to remove me from the play, which makes a strong case for it being my understudy.” Itseemed pretty obvious to me, but maybe Trick was new to this. “It could be my co-star, I guess. He doesn’t like my aura.”
To that last part, Trick rolled his eyes and muttered under his breath, “Fucking elves.”
“Fucking elves,” I agreed.
“Anyone else who might want you gone?”
“Well, I heard the director wanted his son to play the lead.” His involvement seemed unlikely, though, considering his kid hadn’t even been cast as the understudy. “Other than that, no one else I can really think of, but that’s assuming they are targeting me specifically.”
“I wasn’t hired to hex anyone else,” Trick pointed out.
“That doesn’t mean you were the only one hired, though. If someone wanted to sabotage the play in general, taking out the leads would be a good start.”
