Page 13 of Bewitched by the Wicked Witch (The Bewitching Hour #4)
Nine
Sage
I fed the danish to Cosmo in pieces as he purred, his usual chatty snarky demeanor more subdued than usual, as if he also felt the oncoming storm of something new.
Different yet also unchanged. A strange pressure curled in my gut, my magic prickling along my skin as if trying to warn me of something just out of reach.
Yes, there was a kidnapper out taking girls, but there was also something else wholly different that was nudging me toward the fear I had for Paige and Brexley's safety.
I let Cosmo polish off the last bite and wiped the crumbs from my hands.
If I was going to help find these missing girls, I needed to check my grimoire for tracking spells.
I pulled out my latest grimoire from under my bed's secret compartment.
The ancient book shuddered awake, its leather cover creaking as its one baleful eye opened to glare at me in judgment.
"Oh, don't give me that look," I muttered. "Next, you'll be complaining about the noise, like Cosmo." The book shut its eye in obvious disgust.
This grimoire had been passed down from my ancestors and, like many of my witchy relatives, it had very specific ideas about how a witch should be, and I fell short.
Only this book wasn't the same as the townspeople.
It wanted me to be more villainous. It reluctantly allowed me to flip through its pages and didn't force me to use the spells it preferred, something it had done in the past.
The eye opened and moved to the top of the book's spine to stare at me. So creepy. I shuddered, hating when it did that. Its single eye flipped to the comfy sweats I wore, the word ‘wicked’ scrawled across my butt with broomsticks and witches' hats patterned throughout the fabric.
"What? It's comfy, and I think it's funny.
Can we focus on the spell, please?" The grimoire pages rustled with what I swore was an eye roll before finally flipping to a tracking spell.
Though not before pausing briefly on spells titled ‘Fix your love life, or the lack thereof’ and ‘The proper Witches Attire: Why Dignity Matters?’
I snorted but focused on the tracking magic.
This grimoire had been a pain since day one.
It had called to me, and I'd later learned it originally belonged to the witch who had burdened me with this cursed reputation, the first witch whose magic had manifested the same as mine.
Yet, like me, she hadn't started out bad. They had forged her into it.
This grimoire had also been my mother's, and I stroked the pages with loving deference.
Some spells had been borderline dark, more gray than light magic.
I remembered her telling me life wasn't always pretty and sometimes we needed a spell that matched.
It was one of the few memories I had of her before she and my father had died.
The eye disappeared, going back to whatever it liked to do, knowing I needed to search the spells on my own and work out the problem before it could help me. It allowed me to decide what type of spell to use, be it dark, light, or gray.
I had lived my life embracing this, never fearing a gray spell. Sometimes, a spell needed to toe the line. Because life wasn't black and white, or good and evil. It was an array of muted tones, and I usually fell somewhere in the middle.
Yet as I searched, not one spell, gray or otherwise, would help me discover who was stealing and kidnapping shifter blooded girls. I tapped my chin, lost in thought, searching my memories for something that could help.
"Why do you even bother?" complained Cosmo as he pounced onto the sofa chair next to me, his fluffy tail high before he leaned over and stared at me with his star-speckled gaze.
"Because if they decide to blame me, and I suspect they will, there will be no one here to feed you danishes."
"We could just take them all out and run the town on our own." Cosmo purred as he sat on his haunches and began licking his enormous paw, letting his overly enormous claws extend.
"Because that's smart. Give them an actual reason to hunt me down and burn me at the stake.
" I shut the grimoire, sarcasm dripping from my words, watching as the eye closed and went back to sleep.
"That's all I need, the High Council of magic coming here and pinning everything on me.
" I rolled my eyes and leaned back on the comfy sofa, my gaze searching my underground space.
I'd used nearly all my inheritance to create this safe haven for Cosmo and me, a place to hide in case a witch hunt occurred. Only now, with money from the Hex Coin and my work, I could hopefully leave some for Paige if anything ever happened to me.
Cosmo let out a loud meow right as my security system alerted me that someone was at my door. I rose quickly to check the surveillance footage and, as I looked at the screen, I stilled.
No. No. No.
Callum Renshaw stood at my door, well, the door to my small dilapidated dwelling that concealed my real home.
I cursed, wondering how he had made it past my wards without them informing me he was near.
My heart pounded loud enough I was sure he could hear it from upstairs.
I pressed the call button that would sound as if I was speaking from within the house.
"Go away," I demanded, proud that my voice didn't wobble, though I felt shaky and unable to catch my breath.
Callum was here at my door. How? Why?
Then realization hit me. He was here to investigate.
He had come here to investigate me. My lips pressed together and my heart slowly calmed as an eerie silence settled on me.
I reached out and embraced that part of me, the shadow side that terrified them, and welcomed it in.
As my lips curled into a smile that promised an unhappy ever after, I ascended from my lair, Cosmo on my tail, his eyes turning as flinty as my own.
"Shall I eat him?" he asked as his form grew and lengthened until a large jaguar stood at my side. "I'm still a bit peckish."
I rolled my eyes at him, snark filling my tone.
"When are you ever not hungry, or peckish, or in need of food?
" I sighed, forcing slow deep breaths to steady my frantically beating heart and the building anxiety.
"No, not yet," I said, rubbing him behind his right ear.
"Let's see what the bastard has to say."
"Won't be much if he gets a boner," Cosmo chuckled, remembering the hex I'd left Callum with after he'd torn my heart right out of my chest.
I snorted and held back a laugh. "Indeed. I highly doubt that will be an issue."
"Never know, maybe you could even give him a little ride and give that machine you have a?—"
"Do not finish that sentence," I commanded, annoyance lacing my voice. Now I had that image in my head of me riding the massive anatomy I'd cursed this man with. A shiver ran down my back as, for just a moment, that sounded nice.
He was the last person I had truly opened my heart to, the only one who had ever made me feel whole.
And goddess, it had been so long since I'd experienced the warmth he made me feel.
I vividly remembered the comforting way my fingers intertwined with his, the steady heat radiating from his body as we sat together under the stars.
His love had enveloped me like a soft, reassuring blanket, and the memory was almost overwhelming, a bittersweet reminder of what I had lost.
I glared down at Cosmo as we reached the upper level. "Thanks for that," I grumbled.
He gave a feline smirk and blinked. "You're very welcome."
I opened my mouth to add sarcasm, but then I was standing just a few paces away with only a door between us and Callum.
"Sage, open the door please," he whispered, almost desperately, from the other side.
I stepped forward, my hand touching my side of the door, but stood there unable to open that small barrier between us.
"What do you want, Callum?" I demanded, letting anger clip my tone as he had once clipped my heart into pieces like some damn crystal ball. Thousands of tiny shards disintegrating into dust and magic, only to form again, harder, darker and more imposing.
"I just want to talk to you," he said through the wood.
I wondered if he was running his hands through his long bangs, like he used to when nervous or unsure.
"Why?" I demanded, my voice lowering as I pushed all the old feelings and emotions deep down inside of me into a frozen lake where they needed to be. He didn't deserve one emotion from me. Neither good, bad, or even angry. Nothing.
Cosmo's wet nose nudged my hand, and I looked down into those star-flecked eyes as he stared up at me, ready to do anything I needed, letting me know he was there for me .
I didn't need the man behind this door. Just my grumpy, sarcastic cat. Still, a small smile tugged at my lips as I muttered the incantation and cracked the warded door open.
There he was, Callum Renshaw. Hair a mess, like he'd run his hands through it a hundred times. And just like that, I was standing in front of him again, my heart cracked wide open.
"Did you come to investigate me, Callum?" I growled, making my face cold and sharp, showing him the villain I'd become.
His bright green eyes studied me, sweeping over my body in that analytical way he examined everything and everyone. "No, Sage, I didn't come to investigate you."
"So what are you here for, then?" I demanded.
"I'm here investigating the disappearances," he said as he ran his damn hand through his blond hair.
I was tempted to slam the door in his handsome, perfect face.
"And that includes me," I trailed off, hoping he would finish the sentence, and hoping he would feel the frost I was creating in the air, the ice I was building around my heart to keep my true emotions concealed.
I hated this moment, the weight of it, the way I wanted to crumple and cry and reach for him. My fist clenched as I fought the emotions, fought my inner desires. Fought him.