Page 11 of Rise of the Witch (Witches of Keating Hollow #17)
“That was the perfect day,” Kassie said as she walked out of the studio. “I mean it, King. Just perfect. One of those days I used to dream about when I was desperately praying for a contract.”
“There will be more days like this,” King said as he fell into step beside Briggs.
“Well, we should celebrate this one. What do you say? Dinner at that place with the crab sign in the window?” she asked hopefully.
“Sorry, Kas. I have plans to help Briggs at Mystyk Pizza.”
Briggs knew that tone. King was getting irritated, and if Kassie pushed it, he’d shut down completely. “Why don’t you go get dinner while we’re working, and when we take a break, one of us can run you back to my place.”
“It’s better than construction work, I guess,” she said and then huffed as she took off down the road toward the Cozy Cave.
“One of us?” King asked. “It’s going to be you. I already did my good deed for the day.”
Briggs’s body shook with silent laughter.
“Shut up. You and Sadie warned me about this. But honestly, how can that woman have zero chill?” His dumbfounded expression only made Briggs laugh harder.
“Sorry, man. But you knew what you were getting into,” Briggs said. “You can’t even deny it.”
“I’m an idiot.” King sighed.
Briggs snorted. “You said it, not me.”
They walked the short distance to Mystyk Pizza and found that Bronwyn had gotten all the supplies they needed.
“Let’s do this,” Briggs said as he rolled up his sleeves.
King nodded and the two of them got busy redoing the ceiling.
A couple of hours later, Briggs heard Kassie giving a running commentary about how a local in Keating Hollow had lost control of his magic and was now working off his debt to the business owner. He turned and found Kassie videoing the restaurant and then pointing her phone right at him.
“This, my dear followers, is the poor soul who never learned to control his magic. Care to leave him some tips?” She gave Briggs a cheeky smile.
He schooled his features, determined to keep from giving her the reaction she was looking for. Instead, he just turned around and finished installing the next piece of sheetrock.
“Looks like our antihero isn’t up for it. Maybe next time. Until then, kisses!” She ended the video and said, “That was perfect!”
Briggs clenched his teeth, doing everything in his power to ignore her.
If he let her get under his skin again, who knew what he’d do this time?
Instead, he focused on the image of Melissa’s face and the memory of her touch the night before and pushed all thoughts of the media-addicted pop star out of his head.
When Briggs and King finished with the last bit of sheetrock, they told Bronwyn that they’d be back the next night to paint.
“Thank you,” Bronwyn said, relief practically wafting off her. “I was so worried, but you guys have really come through. After the painting, all we need to do is a little clean up and we’ll be back in business.”
Briggs shook her hand, apologized one more time for losing control, and followed King out of the restaurant.
“Want to pick up something to eat?” King asked.
“Yeah. I’m starving.” Briggs glanced around Main Street and frowned. “The brewery again?”
“I don’t think anything else is still open.”
Briggs nodded, and the two of them fell into step together.
“Wait!” Kassie called as she ran to catch up with them.
“She’s still here?” King asked softly. “I thought she’d left.”
“Not without a ride,” Briggs said with a sigh. He was proud of himself for successfully forgetting all about her for the past hour. It had taken some doing, but at least he knew he could do it if he tried.
“Two besties after a long day of work,” Kassie was saying.
“And look, with the moon shining down on them, it’s like something out of a romance novel, wouldn’t you say?
” Then she dropped her voice into a conspiratorial tone.
“I know there are a bunch of you Bings out there, shipping these two. Add this one to your saved folders, so when they finally come out of the closet, you’ll have the proof that you knew all along. ”
King stopped dead in his tracks while an electric bolt of magic shot up Briggs’s spine.
They glanced at each other, and Briggs saw the storm raging in King’s eyes.
He’d had more than his share of crazed fans stalking him.
It was the one thing he hated most about fame.
They both knew there was some speculation about the nature of their relationship, but that had been in the far corners of the internet where people wrote fan fiction. They’d mostly laughed about it.
But now Kassie was fanning those flames for views. And since she was working with both of them, she’d lend credibility to those baseless rumors.
Kassie snickered to herself and Briggs knew she was done filming. He spun around and glared at her. “Do not post that video.”
“Why? It’s funny,” she said, giving him a mischievous grin.
“Kassie,” King warned. “I’m telling you that if you don’t delete that video right now, I’m pulling out of the song we recorded today.”
Her face went ghost-white, looking sickly under the lamplight.
King’s phone pinged with an incoming text. He glanced at it and scowled as he showed it to Briggs.
It was King’s manager. The video was already posted.
Briggs reached for Kassie’s phone, but when she snatched it away and glared at him, his magic flared out of control again and all they heard was a loud crack, followed by window glass clattering onto the sidewalk.
He stood there, shaking as he took in the scene.
He’d shattered the front window of Hollow Books.
If that weren’t bad enough, magic was still pulsing all over his skin.
He closed his eyes, counted to ten, and willed the magic to stop.
But when he opened them again, the glow of magic was still there, clinging to him like a bad scent.
“Briggs, I—” Kassie started.
“Don’t,” King barked. “Not one word from you.”
When Briggs’s magic crackled again as if he were giving off power surges, King pointed at Kassie. “Get out of here.”
“Where am I supposed to go?” she asked, looking downright petulant. “It’s not my fault he can’t control?—”
“Go!” King bellowed. “Before he blows up the entire town.”
Kassie took another look at Briggs and then hurried away.
“Briggs?” King said, starting to reach for him.
The magic sparked again, but Briggs barely felt it. He was numb on the inside, watching as magic crawled all over him. He looked up at his best friend and huffed out, “Call Melissa. Get her here, now.”
After her long day out on the road, Melissa had gone home to pack some things to take to Briggs’s house.
When she was done, she curled up in her overstuffed chair by the fireplace with a mug of hot cocoa just as her phone buzzed.
She smiled, thinking it was Briggs letting her know he was home.
She figured she’d meet him there after he was done at Mystyk Pizza.
But when she looked at the screen, she saw Sadie’s name instead.
“Hey. Are you home? I’m having hot cocoa. I could?—”
“It’s Briggs,” Sadie said, cutting her off. “He needs you.”
“What happened?”
“I don’t have all the details. All I know is that King said his magic is out of control again and he needs you… like yesterday.”
Melissa’s pulse kicked up as she jumped to her feet, already headed for the door. As she grabbed her bag and her keys, she asked, “Where are they?”
“Hollow Books on Main Street. I’ll meet you at your car.”
Melissa rushed out the door. Just as she was climbing into her SUV, Sadie ran out of her house and joined her.
Before Sadie even had her seatbelt buckled, Melissa peeled out of her driveway and sped down the street. “Do you know anything else?”
“No. Only that Kassie pissed them both off and Briggs lost it.”
“How this time? Did she try to force him to pay for Botox or something?” Melissa asked, wondering what ridiculous thing Kassie had cooked up this time.
“King didn’t say, but I think this might answer some questions.” She peered at her phone, upped the volume, and waited as they listened to Kassie imply that King and Briggs were more than just friends.
Melissa’s nostrils flared with irritation. “Doesn’t that woman know how to go through one day without causing major drama? I swear, she’s the absolute worst.”
“King is going to hate this,” Sadie said.
“Not the implication that he might be anything other than straight,” she added hastily.
“He doesn’t care about that kind of thing, but the fan stalking and endless rumors about him have finally died down now that we’re together.
If the internet takes this and runs with it, who knows what kind of crazy people might come out of the woodwork again. ”
“It’s not just King and Briggs that will have to deal with harassment if people think you two are lying.
They’ll be calling you a beard and hating on you for pretending to date King.
You realize that, right?” Melissa said. The internet was a strange place.
It was why Melissa stayed off it most of the time, but she’d gotten to see the darker side of it just a few months before when King had been the victim of internet sleuths stalking his every move.
She’d done a deep dive, trying to understand what Sadie was getting herself into.
The various corners of the online social media site Reddit had been really eye-opening.
She wasn’t hopeful that people would be rational about Kassie’s engagement-bait video.
“Ugh, you’re right,” Sadie said. “There are already comments on this video about that.” She shut her phone down and shoved it into her pocket. “It’s best to not even look.”
“Good plan.” Melissa slowed slightly when she got to Main Street. When she turned to park in front of the bookstore, her headlights flashed on the damage, making her wince. There was glass everywhere.