Page 69 of What The Hex (The Family Spells)
“It was … quick and dirty,” I admitted, biting my lower lip as I met Caine’s stare and then adjusted my gaze to Spectre and then Argent. None of them attempted to lie to me about their jealousy; it was apparent in all of their faces. But we all agreed that this is what we wanted. Not just me. Them, too. Hex was our soulmate.
In a past life, or in a future one, our dynamic might be different.
It just so happened that in this life, I was a straight woman, they were (mostly) straight men, and this is how it worked. I got a harem, all to myself. A smile teased my mouth as I crawled up into Spectre’s lap and sprawled across him. He set his book aside.
“He’ll fit in well, I think.”
“Eventually—maybe,” Caine offered with a sultry sigh, scooting close enough to me so that he could rub my back. “But I like you happy better than I like you cryin’. I gotta say, I give the little shit credit for standing up to your mother this morning. For an idiot like that, it ain’t easy.”
“It’s never easy standing up to Abigail,” Argent agreed with a long, sigh. He finished grinding the herbs—an anti-nausea spell, I think—and then spooned up a lump of the pungent plant matter onto a copper spoon. He offered it up to me, and I took it, gagging a little, but appreciating the almost instantaneous relief in my belly. Argent did the same for Spectre and even Caine, then dosed himself. He set the tray on the side table and then snapped his fingers, turning the lamps off and dimming the majority of the candles. “If he’d fled back to Coven Wyrmwood, life would be easier for him certainly.”
“Easier for us, too,” Spec said, his voice a vampiric whisper in the dark.
They were right.
Keeping Hex here was not an easy decision.
But it was the right one.
I knew with every fiber of my heart, my soul, and every ounce of my magic.
The following day, we all slept in—the kids included. Pretty sure my husbands and I would’ve stayed asleep until night fell yet again, but we didn’t have that choice. The twins started their howling around noon and that was all she wrote.
I soon found myself seated at the kitchen island, using magic to stir my spoon in my coffee as I attempted to puzzle out the million things we needed to get done. Mostly, we needed rest. I was hoping for at least another week of downtime, spent here in the house with few ventures out of it.
Because I knew, as well as anyone else, that stepping outside the wards of this property meant inviting trouble.
With the kids fed and entertained, I looked up to see Monster standing in the doorway to the kitchen. He’d kept himself well out of the way this morning though I could see from the moment I woke up that he’d been up for a while himself.
Coffee was made, the fires in the living room and kitchen were roaring, the floor was swept, the dishes were done. I didn’t know how to feel about any of it. Clearly, he’d been doing all of those things and more for a while. For weeks. An entire month.
“Graceley,” he said, his voice deep, a ripple across the surface of a dark pond. He strode into the kitchen, his gaze sliding to Argent almost immediately. The two of them paused to stare at one another, and Monster smiled. It was a cocky smile, a dark smile, one intended to draw the fae prince’s irritation.
“Good morning, Monster,” Argent began carefully, forcing a smile to his own lips. It was cool and empty, so empty that I was afraid for both men. If Argent started a fight with Monster, it would end with one or both of them dead on my kitchen floor. “Care to explain what you’re still doing here? Or why you thought to dream-fuck my wife?”
“Many reasons, faerie,” he explained with an incline of his chin, helping himself to some coffee. As surreal as it was to see Hex Sorciere in my home, it was about a million times stranger to see Monster here. He’d been free to do as he pleased in my house for so long, who knew what secrets he’d uncovered? What spells he’d written down and squirreled away to take with him? What rare herbs he’d pinched? “First and foremost, you still need me here. The moment I leave this property and take my magic with me, the onslaught will start. The cabal will send a horde over here, a true coup de main. They’ll send the witch-eaters to snatch your children from their beds.”
Argent grit his teeth so tightly that a muscle in his jaw ticked. His skin glowed brighter, casting silver light across the copper pots hanging from the pot rack above the island. They reflected the color on the ceiling, the walls, the floor.
