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“I thought Tyson was your neighbor, Ariel.”

“He is,” I told him.

“So am I,” Quint said.

Sounding confused, Chucky asked, “You live with Tyson?”

Once again, I sighed. This was not how I envisioned my day going. I could not win for losing here.

Quinton kept the information flowing and told Chuck, “Ty’s my nephew. He’s lived with me for a few years now.”

“Huh,” Chucky said. “I knew his folks were dead, but nobody said anything about him living with an Uncle.”

My lips parted in surprise as I watched the two of them interacting. I wondered what would happen if I were to tell him it was Quint’s fault he threw up blood all over himself? Or, what he’d think if I told him his sudden infatuation with me was also due to the other man in the room? And, oh, hey, we’re witches.

“Yeah,” Quinton said. “They died a few years ago. Look, I need to ask Ariel about a few things and I’m going to need you to be gone for that. How about you go, and she’ll see you in school tomorrow.”

I didn’t care why Quinton was here, but I was happy he was. I’d had more than enough of Chucky and having Quinton here to get rid of him worked really well for me.

Chucky gave me a hopeful look as his eyes lit up. “You’re going to be at school tomorrow?” He asked.

I absolutely was not going to be at school tomorrow. If I was lucky, I’d never go back to that place.

“Sure,” I lied easily. “I’ll see you tomorrow. At school. Definitely not at my house.”

“Ariel,” Quinton said, interrupting me.

Right. I snapped my mouth shut. I’d been rambling. I did that when I lied or got nervous.

Chucky exhaled loudly. “Good,” he said. “Good. I don’t know what’s wrong with me, but I feel like I have to be around you, or I’ll go crazy.”

Being around him was going to make me go crazy. I hoped Quinton would be able to reverse whatever it was he’d done to the football player.

“You promise?” Chucky pushed it.

“Sure,” I told him cheerfully. At this point I’d tell him just about anything to get rid of him.

He ran his hand through the hair on the top of his head and nodded. “Alright,” he said. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

He grinned at me and his dimples popped out. Then he was gone.

One down, one to go.

“What are you-”

I didn’t ge

t to finish my sentence because he rushed me. He came at me fast, stalking me. I backed up and kept going until I hit the wall. He didn’t stop until he hovered over me, mere inches away from my body. His body hovered over mine as he placed both his hands on the wall on either side of me.

I was caged in and had no idea why.

His intense eyes roamed over my face. “I felt you, ya know?” he whispered. “I felt you when your mother was drowning you and I felt you just now when you were afraid of that stupid fuck. I don’t know how you do it but when you’re feeling something extreme, you call out to us with your magic. What did he do to you?”

My breath caught in my throat and I struggled to draw in air.

“Don’t talk about her,” I croaked.

“Why?” He shot back. “It’s true, she tried to drown you in the bathtub. She beat on you. And I felt you panic and we all felt your pain. She’s dead now and you’ve got no reason to hide from her anymore.”