Page 72 of What The Hex (The Family Spells)
“My coven …” Hex began, his face blanching. “They want to sacrifice my baby?”
“Why do you think they were so keen on having you marry Violet Enfer?” Monster offered up, tapping his nails against the side of his mug. “They were hoping you would sire the Witch Queen with her.”
Hex just gaped at him.
“But I’ve been with plenty of women over the years. An accident could’ve happened at any time.” He scratched at the side of his head. “I mean, it didn’t; I was careful. But it could have.”
“Except for the simple fact that your fertility was blocked by a spell until recently,” Monster explained, and I couldn’t help but wonder how the fuck he knew all that. Violet had seemed comfortable with his presence. How long had he spent infiltrating the cabal? And how did we know that he wasn’t a double agent for them, even now?
“My fertility …” Hex began, clearly confused. His demon half was still visible, but I figured as soon as he got a moment, he would reactivate whatever glamour he was used to wearing. His wings would tuck back beneath his skin and then, eventually, they’d either have to be cut out of him or else they’d explode from his flesh like they did at the shop that day. “What the fuck does that mean?”
I thought about that paper I’d used to test the spell signature on his cock. If there had been a fertility blocking spell on Hex, it was possible that whoever cast it was clever enough to keep their tracks hidden.
To get a better look, we’d need demon blood—the stronger, the better. Monster could provide that, and we could try again though enough time had passed that it was likely we wouldn’t see anything at all. After we’d completed the spell to remove my mother’s curse—and Monster had used a summoning circle to move us across the city—Calla had tried once again to get the spell signature off Abigail’s body. She’d gotten the same complicated pattern as last time. It was possible that the same person had cast Hex’s fertility blocking spell, but that we hadn’t been able to see the signature because my spell wasn’t strong enough.
I’d used ink, not demon blood. Not only was it in short supply, but it wasn’t something one would regularly use to test a spell signature. Had I been too shortsighted before? I bit my broken thumbnail again as I mulled the information over.
“However it happened, the hex you’ve been under your entire life was removed,” Monster explained, his voice strained, as if he was becoming exasperated by the conversation.
“I must’ve …” I started, thinking on the spell I’d cast for Hex. Since I hadn’t known what, exactly, was wrong with his dick—in the end, he never did have erectile dysfunction of any sort—I’d made a generic but extremely powerful spell meant to cure any and all maladies related to his, uh, twig and berries.
I did that; I took away his fertility blocker, and everyone and their grandmother knew what happened after a fertility blocking spell was removed. It was as if all those years of lost opportunity came rushing to the forefront; the potency of his sperm was likely a thousand times or more than it would’ve been normally.
Yikes.
“I performed a spell on his cock,” I explained, glancing over at Monster. “I unblocked him.”
Fantastic.
This whole Witch Queen deal was sort of on me. I’d brought it to my own doorstep. I glanced over at Hex, who was still pale as hell in the face. He looked like he might very well keel over on the kitchen floor.
“Not that it would’ve mattered,” Monster continued, still watching me. “Based on the prophecy as I’ve interpreted it, you were always meant to be anointed with the powers of the Witch Queen, and Hex was always meant to be the one who would do the anointing.”
“None of that offers me any reason to let you stay in my house.” Argent stood up a little straighter. “Once we’ve recovered enough to refigure our own wards to keep Hex safe, you will leave. I’ll allow you to stay in the apartment above the store, since it’s clear we’ll be working together, but I sure as Hael will not be letting you stay in my home.” Argent pulled away from me and moved so close to Monster that it was simply impossible for him to remain unaffected by the demon’s pheromones. Still, he didn’t react to them, not the way I did. “You will never—and I mean never—have anything more with my wife. Do you understand that, demon?”
“If I had wanted her,” Monster breathed back at him, “then I would not have dumped her into your arms and walked away, now would I?”
He turned and stormed from the room as Hex scrambled to get out of the way.
