Page 108 of Magical Moonbeam

The path ahead was long, but I wasn’t walking it alone.

And that, for tonight, was enough.

I hadn’t meant to glance back.

Truly, I hadn’t.

But something tugged at my attention as Keegan and I reached the alley. When I turned, there was Alex, sauntering toward Keegan’s boutique hotel with a woman draped on his arm like a stolen shawl.

I couldn’t tell if it was the same lady who had texted him earlier or not. I’d almost say… not.

Her laugh echoed off the stone, high and bright, while Alex held the door with a practiced charm that made my jaw tighten.

Keegan followed my gaze.

“Classy,” he murmured.

I said nothing, just clenched my teeth a little harder.

“Would you like me to slip a bed bug spell under his mattress?” Keegan asked casually, straight-faced. “Just a light one. Mostly itch-based. Horribly persistent.”

I choked on a surprised laugh.

“Of course,” I said sweetly. “Preferably the kind that sings show tunes at midnight.”

His grin widened. “Excellent taste in vengeance.”

I shook my head, the tension easing from my shoulders. He wouldn’t do it.

I knew that, but the offer was balm enough.

Some curses were subtle.

And some were just ex-husbands walking into the wrong town with the wrong woman at the wrong time.

And tonight, I had better things to think about than ghosts who refused to stay gone.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

I woke with a twitch in my fingers and the distinct feeling that today was already rolling downhill at a pace I wasn’t prepared for. My phone, tucked between a stack of spell notes and the cardigan I’d peeled off sometime after midnight, buzzed before I could reach for it.

Celeste.

I scrambled upright, heart lifting at the sight of her name.

Before I could even sayGood morning, a stream of images came through.

They were blurry at first, but then one was a painfully crisp close-up of Alex’s very blotchy, very red skin. His chest looked like it had wrestled a beehive and lost. A second photo zoomed in on his neck, which had what I could only describe as ‘welty’ polka-dots, if there was such a phrase, which there wasn’t.

“WHAT. HAPPENED,” Celeste texted in all caps.

I pressed a hand over my mouth to smother the laughter bubbling up, but it burst out anyway. A snort, followed by a hiccupped wheeze, and then a full-blown laugh that cracked through the quiet of my room like magic itself.

Keegan.

He had actually done it. The bed bug spell. I thought he was joking. Ihopedhe was joking. Okay, no…That wasn’t true.

On some creepy level, I had hoped that Keegan would do it anyway. Because I was not always the better person. I told myself I was, but deep down, I justwasn’t.