Page 18

“Magic,” he repeated hollowly.

“Magic,” Mrs. Francis confirmed.

It was as Mrs. Francis repeated the word that Cohen’s mind flashed. He couldn’t explain where it had come from, but one moment, he was certain that he knew this was a strange earthquake brought on by climate change, and just then? Well, now he wasn’t so sure anymore.

When the earthquake hit, Cohen had been kissing Alana.

He threw his head back with a laugh, surprising himself and Mrs. Francis. He tried to compose himself and stop laughing, but he found that, for the life of him, he couldn’t.

Mrs. Francis watched on, grinning. “I’m pleased that our town has finally started to amuse you, Cohen, but I don’t know why the topic of magic should make you laugh so much.”

He shook his head. “Maybe it’s because we’re standing around, talking about magic. I’m losing my mind with all of this magic stuff.”And Alana, his wolf added completely unhelpfully.Don’t forget that Alana is definitely impacting our mind. I should know. I’m in here.

“That’s why I am telling you that you need to bring Alana Wixx here right now,” Mrs. Francis said, bringing Cohen back to the crisis at hand. “Alana will know what to do. Or at least, she will have an idea as to what we could do to stop it from happening again.”

There was something in Mrs. Francis’s words that didn’t sit right with him. It sounded like the elder had all kinds of secrets. The kind of secrets only Alana would know.

“I’ll find her and bring her to you.”

“Good, Sheriff Pierce. Now, someone bring me shredded carrots. I need to think.”

Cohen made sure someone was going to fulfill Mrs. Francis’s request before seeking out Alana Wixx.

The witch who made his world shake.

* * *

Cohen was frustrated.He was looking for Alana, but there was no sign of her bright red hair anywhere on Main Street or in the community center. When he finally tracked down Lila, he breathed a sigh of relief.

“Lila, where is Alana?”

The woman barely looked up from the huge pot of soup she was stirring. “Alana? Why do you need to find Alana?”

Cohen arched a brow at his future sister-in-law. “Does it matter why I need to find her? This is a crisis. I need her.”

Lila’s eyes sparkled. “Oh, you need her, huh? I like that. It’s nice to know that you see my best friend for what she is now. Someone who is good in a crisis.”

“Mrs. Francis wants me to bring Alana to her,” he responded dully.

“Right. Mrs. Francis is the one who needs her.” Lila continued to grin. “But you should know that I haven’t actually seen Alana in a little while.”

“Shit, okay.” He cursed under his breath and started to walk away, but Lila called him back.

“You should know something about Alana,” she looked around, keeping her tone low. “She’s been through some stuff, my girl. I would hate to have to kill you because you’re mean to my best friend.”

“I don’t go around hurting people, Lila. I’m the sheriff, so you could say that it’s actually the opposite. I save people.”

“Well, be that as it may, you should know that Alana isn’t as tough as she likes people to believe. You keep knocking against her armor, but you’ll break her one day if you’re not careful.”

Cohen wanted to get the hell away from Lila and her cautionary warnings. He didn’t want to know that Alana went through some rough times because that would only make it that much harder to keep hating her, especially now that he knew what it was like to kiss her. He could clearly remember the little moans of pleasure she made whenever he took a swipe of her mouth.

He shook himself to remove the searing memories from his mind.

“I would never purposefully hurt Alana,” Cohen assured Lila.

“I know,” she was quick to respond. “I know you would never hurt her on purpose, but it’s not theon purposepart that worries me.”

“I’ll see you around, okay? I need to do my job right now.” Cohen left, still seeking out that shade of red that he could only ever equate with Alana’s hair.