Page 1
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.
Table of Contents
- Page 1 (Reading here)
- Page 2
- Page 3
- Page 4
- Page 5
- Page 6
- Page 7
- Page 8
- Page 9
- Page 10
- Page 11
- Page 12
- Page 13
- Page 14
- Page 15
- Page 16
- Page 17
- Page 18
- Page 19
- Page 20
- Page 21
- Page 22
- Page 23
- Page 24
- Page 25
- Page 26
- Page 27
- Page 28
- Page 29
- Page 30
- Page 31
- Page 32
- Page 33
- Page 34
- Page 35
- Page 36
- Page 37
- Page 38
- Page 39
- Page 40
- Page 41
- Page 42
- Page 43
- Page 44
- Page 45
- Page 46
- Page 47
- Page 48
- Page 49
- Page 50
- Page 51
- Page 52
- Page 53
- Page 54
- Page 55
- Page 56
- Page 57
- Page 58
- Page 59
- Page 60
- Page 61
- Page 62
- Page 63
- Page 64
- Page 65
- Page 66
- Page 67
- Page 68
- Page 69
- Page 70
- Page 71
- Page 72
- Page 73
- Page 74
- Page 75
- Page 76
- Page 77
- Page 78
- Page 79
- Page 80
- Page 81
- Page 82
- Page 83
- Page 84
- Page 85
- Page 86
- Page 87
- Page 88
- Page 89
- Page 90
- Page 91
- Page 92
- Page 93
- Page 94
- Page 95
- Page 96
- Page 97
- Page 98
- Page 99
- Page 100