Page 22 of What The Hex (The Family Spells)
The demon snapped his fingers, and I felt myself begin to sink beneath the earth, the spell circle glowing gold all around us.
We emerged in the woods. Where, exactly, I wasn’t sure, but then Caine lifted his nose and sniffed the air for a moment, a smirk crawling across his face.
“Nicely played,” he drawled, shifting into his wolf form, his tawny coat rippling across his skin as he fell forward onto all fours and trotted ahead of our little group. As we followed him, emerging from the trees into an upscale neighborhood, I saw dozens of kids running around, dressed in costumes and carrying bags of candy. It made my heart hurt for my own kids, and I wanted nothing more than to drive over to Grace’s mother’s house, pick them up, and take them trick-or-treating.
Fuck.
Grace seemed to notice my hesitation, stepping up close to me and putting her fingers on my arm. I grimaced and then turned to face her, looking down into those beautiful emerald eyes of hers and feeling my heart seize in my chest.
“I know this is hard,” she said, licking her lips and glancing away from me. I reached out and gently touched the side of her chin, pulling her gaze back to mine and leaning down so that my breath feathered against her lips. When I inhaled, I could taste her on the back of my tongue, that sweet witchy scent of books and broomsticks. She once made bath bombs based on Caine’s scent, but all we wanted was a full line of body products based on hers. “But we’ll get through this … together.”
“That’s the cheesiest line I’ve ever heard in my life,” I said with a small chuckle, encircling her with my arms and pulling her close enough to kiss. Our mouths met in a rush of heat, and I knew that if we were anywhere else, under any other circumstances, we’d take this all the way. The passion was there, the want, the need, but we definitely didn’t have the time or the opportunity. I pulled away, leaning down to put my lips against her ear, my breath stirring her red-orange hair. “But I like it; your eternal optimism is one of the things I love most about you.”
Grace slapped me in the chest and turned away, reaching down to grab my hand before she started to pull me down the sidewalk. Some of the adults we passed were clearly freaked-out over Caine, but the rest of us managed to get away with our strange appearances based on the holiday.
Seems humans will believe anything is a Halloween costume if you play it right. Guess they weren’t really into the two-hundred-and-fifty-pound wolf though.
When we got to the intersection and had a chance to look at the street signs, I realized we were in District Heights, an upscale neighborhood only a few miles away from Grace’s mother’s house.
One thing I wasn’t sure of at all was if we were being followed or not. The witch-eaters would have to come through one of the portals, and based on their motive, and the fact that they were hunting us specifically now, there was only one that they’d be gunning for. I wasn’t sure if the coven’s defenses would hold up against an army that large. Thing was, we didn’t have our phones on us. There was no point taking them to Hael—they’d just be ruined when we crossed the Fire Veil anyway.
“Let’s head to your mother’s house first and warn the coven,” I said, stating the obvious. I just wanted to feel like I had some control over the situation, like Monster wasn’t ripping away everything I loved by entering Grace’s life again.
Caine didn’t wait for a group consensus on the matter; he just took off at a loping jog. It wasn’t too difficult for the rest of us to keep pace, pounding down sidewalks filled with children in costume, garnering strange but appreciative looks from their parents. Oh yeah, if we’d have entered a costume contest, we’d have won that shit hands down.
We made it to Abigail’s house without contest, but I hadn’t expected any. If Monster was telling the truth—and that was a big if—then nobody was expecting us back yet. And if he was lying, he was more than enough to make our lives a living hell anytime he wanted. He wouldn’t need backup.
“Grace,” her dad said as he opened the front door and we waltzed right past the wards. Well, all of us but Monster. He stopped, pausing with a half-smile on his face like he expected to be let in at any moment. The second Grace’s dad laid eyes on him, I knew that wasn’t going to happen. “What the hell is he doing here?” Giles continued, his voice dropping into a low, dangerous tone that I’d heard maybe twice in the entire time I’d known him. He was one of a few who’d seen Grace at her worst, wrapped up in all of Monster’s bullshit.
