Page 24 of Hexed, Vexed, & Undersexed

Of apentagram.

I kind of want to punch the network in their stereotypical face, but I definitely want to stab someone when Jake grabs a handful of glitter—a fucking handful—and throws it over me like confetti. I watch it drop like fairy dust in the mirror, my eyes narrow slits of anger.

“I’m supposed to be a hippie—not astripper!” I shout.

“Oh, hush. Strippers so do not have a monopoly on glitter. I use this shit daily,” Jake counters.

“It’s embedded in our carpet,” Chance laments, earning a glare from his husband—at least, I’m guessing from the matching rings.

“Come on, Nora, we’ll get you dressed and briefed for the first trial,” Preston urges, but I refuse to budge.

“Not until we wipe this crap off!”

“No!” Jake shouts in offense, giving me a look like I’ve broken his heart.

The glitter might not be on the network—this might all be Jake.

“Nora,” Preston presses, and I wonder at the urgency in his voice until I hear someone that I can’t see in the mirror.

“How much for a lap dance?” Bellamy jeers.

That.

Motherfucking.

Asshole.

Slowly, I stand up and turn toward the witch dick. He’s wearing his usual ‘I’m better than you and I know it’ smirk and it takes all my willpower not to wipe it from his face. It also takes all my strength to hold back Binx, who definitely has no qualms about ripping into the obnoxious man—but I don’t do blood. Everyone can keep that shit inside their bodies, thank you very much. I finally get Binx over to Preston and follow him away from hair and make-up, but I can’t help tossing a parting comment over my shoulder.

“All the money in the world wouldn’t get you a lap dance from me, Putnam!”

“Maybe a look at the grimoire after I win will entice you,” he taunts as I walk away.

Don’t look back, don’t look back,I chant.Be the bigger witch.

I applaud myself for not making a scene as I catch up to Preston.

“That was good,” he mumbles, more to himself than to me.

“Yeah, I’m impressed with my self-control, too,” I agree.

“No, that little tiff you two just had—the network eats that shit up. The natural animosity that you two have for one another is exactly what the network wants.”

Yay—something to keep me on the show.

Boo—something to keep Bellamy on the show.

“This is your dressing room,” Preston says, opening a door labeled ‘Crystal Moon.’

I glare at the name and stomp inside to change.

“You better get in here and talk to me!” I snap to my coach, who isn’t doing a whole lot of coaching.

“Do you think that’s a good idea?” he wonders, clearly referencing the sexual tension that has exploded between us.

“Honestly, that depends on what you have to tell me,” I semi-joke.

He steps inside and shuts the door while I look cautiously around the room.