Page 42 of All's Fair in Love and Magic

“It’s fine. I’ve already got a bunch of vampires in the resort wanting to kill me, so what’s another one?” Sage’s voice was tight, though she tried to sound upbeat.

My mate couldn’t lie to save her life. I had no idea how she’d hidden what she was from the other witches for so long.

“Miles won’t kill you with anything but math and sarcasm,” Tatum said. “And no one is better with the tech side of security than Zander. He won’t let any vampires get to you. Including his mate.”

“She’s addicted to his blood anyway,” Brynn added. “All of us smell and taste bad to her too.”

“We’ll get to work as well,” Bash said, leading his cheerful mate away.

“So will we. There’s chocolate to make and people to threaten,” Rafael agreed. “We’ll have to hit the waves together one of these mornings.”

I made a noncommittal sound as he and his mate walked away too.

Thank fuck they were all getting to work, because I couldn’t handle any more idle chitchat.

Particularly not while my mate was both uncomfortable and in danger.

nine

SAGE

I distinctly remembered invitingLiam to join my surfing lesson—after making it clear that he wasn’t invited—but he sprawled out on the sand on his ass instead. His scowl was trained on the ocean as I struggled through my first class.

Vera was basically a professional, and she did her own thing away from our class during the lesson. Madison was as new as I was, so I figured we’d be at the same level, but the woman was a freaking beast. She picked it up fast while I crashed over and over again.

After a particularly bad fall where I smashed my head on the board, I took a break to catch my breath.

Liam waved me toward him, and relief rolled through me.

The spellbooks must’ve been there.

I had an excuse to end the lesson early.

Finally.

I apologized to the instructor, who didn’t look like she gave a fuck that I was leaving. She told me to have Liam teach meeverything else. I was pretty sure she hated my smell as much as the vampire chick I’d met earlier.

Deciding not to let myself be offended, I waved to my friends on my way out of the water.

“The spellbooks are here?” I called out, retying my bun at the back of my head as I crossed the sand.

“They were just delivered, but that’s not why I called you over. The first witch was spotted outside the wards.”

The blood drained from my face. “Who?”

“The Villins are still trying to identify her. Your people aren’t exactly open with their information.”

“What does she look like?”

“Pale skin, white hair, extremely unhappy.”

“Hattie. Fuck.” I ran a hand over my forehead, then started walking quickly toward the anchor. Guess the time for fun was over. “She’ll be scoping out the wards, trying to figure out how difficult it will be to get through them. This is bad.”

“We should seal the bond.”

“No, that will take time we don’t have. They’ll definitely get through the wards if we do it. What we need are the spellbooks, and coffee. A lot of coffee. I’m going to have to fix the existing spells as fast as possible. Reinforcing them will come later, but if I can get more of them repaired, we’ll be safe for at least a few weeks.” We wove down the path through the jungle as we spoke.

Liam dipped his head. “Someone’s on the way with the books and breakfast. What else do you need?”