Page 1 of Hexual Healing
ChapterOne
Islammed my car door with the kind of force that immediately announced to anyone nearby that it was not a good Tuesday, which was mighty damn impressive considering I was limping, swearing, and partially on fire.
“Drive, Gary!”
The snail did not, in fact, drive.
One eyestalk rose.Then the other.He blinked.Slowly.Deliberately.His version of,You brought this upon yourself, dumbass.
My fingers fumbled over the ignition rune etched into the dashboard.The faint blue swirl of magic flashed, but no activation spark came.I cursed for the millionth time and swatted at the hem of my skirt, which was quietly smoldering like an unattended campfire.
Behind us, the air shimmered, a visible distortion of heat and rage and the kind of draconic magic that made your teeth ache and your ancestors roll over in their graves and may have caused a bitch to pee a little.Someone screamed my name like they wanted to wear it as a necklace made from my bones.
“Tansyyyyyyyyyyy!”
Gary blinked again.
“I swear on your overly bedazzled shell, if we die because your squishy little ass wants to make a point…”
He uncurled himself and finally sludged forward, antennae twitching.With a reluctant boop, he tapped the ignition rune.
The rune flared.
Nothing happened.
“Seriously?!You had one job, Gary!”
He turned to me slowly, somehow managing to look both insulted and resigned.He had the air of a creature who’d once been something terrible and ancient and powerful and was now…a mollusk.
“Okay, fine.Two jobs.But you picked the rune.I just drew it.”
The windshield cracked.Not from impact, but from sheer magical pressure.Hairline fractures danced across the glass like frost spreading in jagged spiderwebs from a central point behind my head.
Then I felt it.
A spell.But not just any spell.A hex.
It wasn’t the kind of hex that hits you like a slap or a stab.This one was surgical.Sharp, old, personal.It crept into my rib cage and settled behind my heart like it belonged there.Like it’d always been waiting.
You’ll never find love unless the one meant for you dies.
I froze.
The curse rang like a bell in my bones, like it was both spoken aloud and etched in silence at the same time.My pulse thudded behind my eyes.My breath caught in my throat.
And then I knew.
I knew who cast it.
“Illanya.”
The name scorched my tongue.
Gary stiffened.“She tracked the spell.”
“She probably recognized my signature,” I muttered.“Had to have felt it through him.I mean, weweretogether for years.”
Ten crazy years full of drama and emotional ups and downs.And I loved almost every second of it.