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Chapter 1. Jen

A stone-faced guard slid a crumpled paper bag through the hatch, his expression as lifeless as the flickering fluorescent light overhead. It was heavier than I expected. The weight of the last nine years pressed into my hands as I clutched the paper bag against my chest, my fingers tightening involuntarily.

Inside, I already knew what I’d find: a tattered checkered backpack, my wallet, a pouch of crystals, a change of clothes, my ID, an old iPhone, a tin of trinkets, my trusty tea flask—which I prayed to Hecate they’d cleaned out before storing—and a photograph of my parents.

My getaway bag.

The one I barely remembered packing.

The one I’d planned to escape with after murdering my parents.

Even now, the thought made my stomach lurch.

I still didn’t understand why I had done it. A tingling numbness crept into my fingertips every time I tried to unravel the reasoning, as though my mind recoiled from the truth. I could remember the act in excruciating detail, but thewhy?

I had nothing.

I loved my parents. And aside from the odd teenage-witch tantrum, our relationship had been as strong as any familial bond could be.

But the summer I turned eighteen, everything that could have gone wrong did.

Our family belonged to the Briar Coven witches, an old and peculiar coven. Centuries ago, our ancestors had struck a bargain with a clan of incubi, binding our fates. As a result, every Briar witch had the power to summon their fated incubus mate on Samhain for the past four centuries.

It was a rite of passage.

And one that I had been obsessed with. Sex-demon fated mate? Yes please!

I’m not even going to blame the fact that I was part succubus for being so eager to meet my fated mate. It wasn’t just about the mind-blowing sex that awaited me, though I was certainly looking forward to that part. I was ahopelessromantic. And I couldn’t wait to start a whirlwind romance of my own.

Until that summer, my succubus side had remained dormant. Some of my friends had been under the influence of their succubi for years, like my friend Lex. From the age of sixteen, she’d been sneaking off to the mortal cities to party and play, and had decided to put off her summoning indefinitely to live among the mortals.

Which was just utter madness. Who in their right mind would give up their fated mate for a stranger?

Most of my peers had shared my excitement, spending the summer preparing their homes for their mates, hoping a magic house would either open for them orpoofinto existence entirely.

Me?

I had been dragged off to Headless Hollow for our annual family vacation.

“Sweetie, if you’re going to summon your mate this Samhain, then this is the last summer vacation we’ll have as a family,”my mom had said.

Guilt had been a powerful weapon. So, while the other witches in the coven prepared their homes, whispering excitedly about their mates, I had been dragged away on our family vacation.

But, as it turned out, we didn’t have any time to spend together when we got there anyway.

Our elderly neighbor in Headless Hollow, Ms. Cadmus, had become forgetful. Her husband was struggling to care for herand leaned on my parents for help. So, what should have been a last family vacation before I shacked up had turned into me spending most of my time moping about the house on my own.

And then there was Rowan.

A cinnamon-roll orc with a heart of gold. My friend. Part of my Headless Hollow trio, alongside Brooke, a stunning water nymph.

Rowan was harboring amajorsecret crush on me.

Which would have been fine... if it hadn’t been for my newly awakened succubus side.

I had been warned about the succubus touch a thousand times. A sex demon—the full-blooded ones, that is—fed from sexual desire, their touch enhancing existing feelings of sexual attraction to almost feral levels. My touch was a diluted version, being only part succubus. But one innocent greeting hug had been enough to turn Rowan from smitten to stalker overnight. Not that I’d realized, my own obsession with my soon-to-be-summoned fated mate the only thing filling my mind.

I didn’t realize that it was a date he was after when he wanted to hang out and conveniently forgot to ask Brooke. The fifty million texts he’d send a day? I skimmed through them while thinking of the summoning. Catching his huge form watching me from outside my house—yeah, in hindsight, that was a pretty big clue—but it still wasn’t enough to pull my thoughts from my mate. We only realized the problem when my dad came home to find Rowan had broken into our house (though, is it technically breaking in if the house willingly opens its doors for you and makes you a cup of tea?) and was lying on my bed, surrounded by my underwear.