Page 6 of Hexual Healing
The most I got from Gary was crinkling as he took another bite of chocolate.
The world grew darker.The air got moister and heavier as the humidity increased.My skin prickled with the kind of premonition I hated acknowledging.The dashboard flickered.My head was feeling a little funny and everything was getting all blurry and white on the edges as the spot where my head had connected to the concrete started throbbing.
Dammit… I hit my head!I shouldn’t be driving.I might have a concussion!
“I’m going to pull over for a minute.I don’t feel so well.”
The gravel road narrowed, so I pulled off into the woods a bit, just shy of the town line and a sign that said, “Welcome to Assjacket.”
The car coughed, sighed, and died completely.
And as soon as I put it into park, I collapsed.
Just like that.No drama.No final quip or warning to my shelled familiar.My body gave out the very moment it was allowed to.Gary slithered to the edge of the dash and stared at me as I fell over.
That’s when everything went black.
ChapterTwo
Iwoke up certain I'd died.
But death smelled wrong.Too clean.Too…intentional.As if someone had taken the concept of “cozy” and weaponized it against my will.
Cedar smoke.Fresh bread.Something herbal that made my sinuses tingle with suspicion.Not a single note of sulfur, decay, or the eau de dragon breath I'd been marinating in what felt like mere moments ago.
My eyes cracked open to find exposed wooden beams above me, honey-golden and warm in the morning light.A quilt that probably had a backstory involving someone's grandmother lay heavy across my chest.The window to my left showed trees.Just trees.Not the InBetween's gray nothing, the inside of a jail cell, or even the fiery flames of hell.
Still.Too still.Like the kind of awkward quiet that comes right before someone you’ve been avoiding for months finally corners you and tells you exactly how much money you owe them.
I tried to sit up.My ribs had other ideas, lighting up like someone had replaced my bones with hot pokers.The room tilted, sparked white at the edges, then grudgingly settled back into place.My mouth tasted like I'd been chewing on Gary's shell after a three-day bender.
Gary!
“Gary?”My voice came out like gravel in a garbage disposal.
No answer.No judgmental sniff.No theatrical sigh of long-suffering patience.
Panic and adrenaline gave me the energy to roll sideways.It wasn’t enough to mask the pain, so I bit down on the scream that wanted out as I made it to sitting.My small success presented the victory of showing me a room that was small and tidy.There were two doors, currently closed, and a dresser with nothing on it.A chair in the corner with my jacket folded on it like evidence at a crime scene.
That's when I saw him.
Not Gary.The man.
He sat in a chair he'd pulled just inside a third doorway.Big.Broad-shouldered.Flannel shirt that had seen better decades.Jeans with actual dirt on them, not the artful distressing of someone trying to look rustic.Work boots that could kick through a wall.Cheap black glasses held together with electrical tape.And dark hair that looked like he cut it himself, with a rusty hatchet.
And he was reading a book.Not watching me.Not looming.Just…reading.Like bored guards outside hospital rooms do when they're making sure you don't die or escape.
“You're awake.”He didn't look up from his book.His voice was deep, steady, and completely uninflected.Like stating the weather.Cloudy with a chance of hex witch.
“Where's my pet?”
“The snail?”Now he did look up.His eyes were brown.Just…brown.Not chocolate or coffee or any of those food comparisons romance novels loved.Brown like bark.Like dirt.Like things that were content to exist without apology.“Windowsill in the kitchen.Demanded espresso.Wouldn't let me move you far.”
Past tense.Wouldn'tlethim.Like Gary had been conscious.Like Gary had been making demands while I was passed out in the dirt like magical roadkill.
“Who are you?”
“Baz.”He closed the book with deliberate precision.“You crashed on my land.Three feet from my ward line.The magical explosion you set off killed two trees and set my shed on fire.”