Page 36 of A Witchy Spell Ride

I didn’t answer right away.

Briar stood beside me, shoulder to shoulder, like she could hold the world back if I needed her to.

“When?” Reaper snapped again.

I looked up and met his eyes. “A few weeks.”

His nostrils flared.

Ghost shifted his weight just slightly between us. Subtle. Protective. As if he already knew where this was headed.

“What the fuck do you mean, a few weeks?” Reaper’s voice was rising now. “You didn’t think to tell me?”

“I didn’t want you to go off like this,” I said, sharper than I meant to.

“Like what?” he growled. “Like a brother who finds out his sister’s being watched like prey in her own fucking shop?”

“It wasn’t like that at first.”

Briar touched my arm. I nodded and began laying it all out.

All of it.

Piece by piece.

“The first thing was a charm. Left on my windowsill. Looked handmade, but… not mine. Then a photo. One from the clubhouse. Everyone scratched out except me and Ghost.”

His name in my mouth felt strange.

Ghost didn’t react. Didn’t move.

Just kept his eyes on me. Steady. Unshaken.

“There were notes. A few. Nothing threatening at first. Just… weird. One of them said I was ‘meant to be adored.’ Said I’d see soon.”

Cross muttered something and pulled out a small notepad from his pocket, already scribbling.

“Then the vase moved,” I went on. “The front door lock was left unlatched. And the charm the psychic gave me, the one wrapped in red thread, it was moved too. Like someone had been in the apartment.”

Reaper’s jaw clenched so tight I swore I heard it crack.

“I haven’t seen anyone,” I finished quietly. “But I’ve felt it. Every day. I know someone’s watching. Getting closer. And today…” I gestured toward the rose and note on the counter. “Today they got inside.”

The silence that followed was worse than shouting.

Reaper ran both hands through his hair and turned away for a beat, pacing hard, boots heavy against the wooden floor.

Bones picked up the note carefully and read it.

His brow furrowed. “This is an obsession.”

“No,” Briar corrected, eyes like knives. “This is a delusion.”

Cross looked at me. “You sure you never saw who left anything?”

“Not once.”

Ghost finally spoke, voice low. “The sedan.”