Page 47 of Just a Little Wicked (Wicked Sisters #2)
Silence wove between the pops of the woodstove. Sunlight glowed in the kitchen windows and tangled in Winter’s hair, highlighting strands of gold among the red.
“Duh,” Missy said, and took a drink from a mug that said This Kitchen is Bitchin’ .
She was still dressed in the sweats and t-shirt she’d slept in, a bright purple sleep mask perched on top of her head.
Although she and Winter were identical, Erikson would be able to tell them apart with his eyes closed and his hands bound.
Their personalities were so entirely different that it seeped into every pore of their beings.
They even smelled different. Winter smelled like cinnamon and fire, while Missy smelled like strawberry-scented products and lip gloss.
“I bet you’re also the reason Erikson’s truck is missing all its windows.
” She waggled her eyebrows. “Yeah, I saw that in the driveway. The sex must have been earth- shattering .”
Winter turned scarlet, but the aunts appeared unaffected by the sex talk. They were definitely used to Missy’s absolute lack of filter.
“It was an accident,” Winter blurted, ignoring Missy completely. “I lost control.”
“Hell yeah, you did.”
“ Missy! ” Winter hissed. “That’s not something I want to discuss right now.”
“Later?” Missy asked hopefully, but even Erikson knew better. The only one who was getting details of Winter’s sex life was him, and that was only because he was part of it.
Winter grunted noncommittally. “This isn’t the first time I’ve lost control.
I think my power has outgrown my visions and the excess is manifesting in other ways, like the aunts warned it would.
It’s been flaring without my knowledge when I .
. . uh . . . when we . . .” she tossed him a helpless look.
“It’s been flaring when her guard is down,” he finished for her, trying very hard not to preen like some peacocking bastard about the fact that he made her lose control.
“Erikson’s presence definitely seems to be having an effect on your power,” Connor mused.
“My best guess? Your mental barriers aren’t as effective as they were when your soul was fractured.
Now that your soul is whole again, so is your power, and it won’t be caged.
What semblance of restraint you’re still able to impose on it disappears entirely when you’re intimate. ”
Winter gave Erikson a mournful look that he knew meant she was thinking the only solution to that problem was to stop being intimate with him and leave, like she had every time their souls had reconnected in the past. He reached across the table without thinking, his heart pinching when she yanked her hand away before he could grasp it.
“No,” he told her. “Not happening.”
“Now she didn’t say anything.” Missy glared at him. “Why are you wordlessly communicating with everyone? If you’re going to be my brother-in-law, we need some inside shit too. Don’t leave me out.”
Winter gripped her mug so tightly he was surprised it didn’t crack. “He’s not going to be your brother-in-law.”
Missy sighed. “Okay, don’t go panicking. I meant brother-in-law’s brother, because Connor is marrying Holly. Better?”
That definitely wasn’t what she’d meant, and yet Erikson hadn’t even blinked when she’d suggested he’d one day marry Winter. The assumption had felt right. Inevitable in the best way.
“That better be what you meant, because you just heard Connor. I can’t control myself around Erikson, and the result is people get hurt. In every life I’ve lived, people I love die because of me.” She scrubbed her hand over her face. “What a mess.”
At that moment Rose and Daisy shifted uncomfortably, and Missy gagged in her mouth.
“Witch incoming,” she grunted, and a second later Stacy strolled through the swinging kitchen door.
As fashionable as her brothers, she sauntered to the corner of the room, as far away from the Celestes as she could manage in the small kitchen, and leaned against the counter, crossing her arms over her chest. Her manicured nails were a bright purple against her crisp, button-down blouse.
There were lines of pain at her eyes, indicating a headache.
“Winter,” Stacy said without preamble, “my brothers told me you burned down your barn.”
Missy blinked sweetly at Stacy. “You and Holly might have buried the hatchet, but I still remember when you stole Winter’s clothes when she was at gym class sophomore year, and I will smack you if you make any more comments about her freakishly out-of-hand powers.”
“Thanks, Missy, but she’s trying to help,” Winter said, patting the back of her twin’s hand.
Missy pointed two fingers at her own eyes and then Stacy’s.
Stacy ignored her. Aunt Rose told Stacy to help herself to coffee or tea, so she took a mug from the cabinet and smirked when she saw it said, Witches be Bitches .
She filled it with steaming coffee and added a splash of milk.
“Where’s Holly? I have a theory, and we don’t have time for me to repeat it twice. ”
Connor glanced at his watch. “Let me check on her.”
“What do you mean, we don’t have time?” Erikson asked after his brother left the room.
Stacy took a sip of coffee. “Atlantes and I think we know why the Shadow Council wants Winter. And if we’re right, this goes way beyond a simple power struggle.”