Page 24 of All's Fair in Love and Magic

That was tempting.

Death was less tempting, though.

If I had to choose between dying to taking a mate, there was an obvious answer.

I waved, and Harv reached us quickly. His phone was already to his ear.

“Yeah, I found her. She’s fine. Made some friends.” There was a pause. “No, they look pretty female to me. Want to confirm?” Another pause. “Of course you do. Here.” Harvey pulled the phone away from his ear and put it on speaker. “Alright, say hi to your mate’s new boyfriends.”

“Hi, Liam. Great resort you have here,” Madison said aloud. “You should’ve given Sage a better tour. She’s never even been on the beach before.”

“For the record, wewouldmake great lovers,” Vera teased. “Even if we’re both currently unwillingly engaged to asshole men.”

“Technically, Sage is too,” Madison pointed out.

Liam growled, and I pointedly ignored his sound of complaint.

“I’m heading to the anchor to work on the wards,” I told him. “I’ll need the spellbooks by tomorrow, and I need a blank grimoire too. And pens and pencils in a few colors.”

“I’ll take care of it,” Liam said.

“Great.”

“She needs underwear too,” Vera called out. “And new bikinis. All of hers have been on someone else’s vagina before.”

“They were washed,” I protested, my face reddening.

It wasn’t fun to leave everything I owned behind. Not having anything to really call mine was shitty. But, much like the mate decision, it was that or death. So I was dealing with it, and I was doing just fine.

“Do you know how much we’re paying to stay here? Your fiancé can afford a few bucks to make you comfortable while you save his resort,” Madison said.

“I’m leaving,” I called, stepping away from the group before the conversation got any more uncomfortable.

“Don’t forget the surf lesson tomorrow morning,” Vera reminded me.

“I won’t.” I waved goodbye on my way down the beach.

Harvey caught up to me quickly, no longer on his phone.

“He’s on his way, isn’t he?” I asked, my gaze trained on the horizon. It was so hot that I was itching to dip my shirt in the water to cool myself off, but I refrained.

“Yup.”

“How pissed is he?”

“Twelve out of ten.”

I grimaced.

Fantastic.

six

SAGE

Harvey stooda few feet away while I sat down on my bench and went back to my bubble spell.

At some point, I felt the space behind me grow hotter, and knew Liam was there. He didn’t interrupt me, but there was no doubt he was pissed.