“Nic, you go to her. She needs you. You,” she looked at me, “come with me. I’m going to read your hand and figure out what’s going on.”
“Nic?” I asked, not letting go of his hand. Maybe this half bear/half raccoon witch bossed people around here but I had no ruler except that dragon who already held my heart in the palm of his taloned hand.
“I’ll be alright. Chinda won’t hurt you. She’s good at reading palms.”
“Is this your mum’s coven?” I asked.
“No, this is the coven who protects Shiny Butt Cosmetics. Every company worth its weight in salt has protection,” Nic shrugged. “Chinda is the one who suggested I seek out Crilus a few exes ago.”
“Well, at least now that you found this purring morsel you won’t have to do that. Ready, big guy?” she reached out for my hand.
Nic grinned at me and shrugged, “I gotta get her. If she’s still enraged, she might start eating people who aren’t dragons.”
“Eh, she can try to eat me,” Chinda shrugged. “She can try all she wants.”
I missed Nic as soon as he walked away. Chinda took my hand in hers and led me down a tight hallway into a tiny room with no windows and only the single door which we’d come through. In the center sat a table draped in red with a single burning candle, housed inside of a chipped teacup. The cup was white with a blue floral pattern that glowed in the candlelight. She took her seat in one of the high back chairs and motioned for me to sit down in the other.
“Hand. Palm up, kitty,” she said, holding out her own hand.
Begrudgingly I gave her my palm, and she frowned at it.
“I expected to see more secrets in this hand,” she said after a few seconds of rubbing her finger this way and that like a child trying to follow the lines of my hand. “Not many secrets. It doesn’t talk much of your magic. That means you’re probably not a caster like most of us here.”
“I have magic,” I said, unwilling to offer more of an explanation than that.
“It’s just built into you. Some species come out with their magic built in and some of us have to learn all our magic. Now, you could learn other magic. Goddess knows you have enough magic lines under this middle finger to learn whatever magic you wanted to. You’ll be homesick soon too. You’ll miss so much but I guess that can’t be helped. Annila is going to need some time off work and Nic’s the only one she trusts to run the company. Besides, she’d be all alone if you dragged Nic back to your place. Oohh…. You’re connected to other cat men. Some people are going to be thrilled in the next decade or so. Not me. Of course, not me. If you have any single cat man friends who want to hook up, send ‘em my way. Actually, anyone. I’ll go out with anyone once. Variety is the spice of it all, huh?”
“That’s why Nic made sure she knew we were his mate,”my cat chuckled inside his inner sanctum.
“You really did those things, huh?” she leaned back in her chair and let go of my hand. “You took that fucker’s hand and the other one’s tail. You’re a good guy.”
“They were courting gifts. I still have to get him another one since Tops is dead now.”
“Three? Is that a custom?” she asked, her thin eyebrows raising high on her head.
“Yes. Three to prove that we can care for our mates,” I nodded.
“Noted. I’ll remember that for the future. Is it always body parts?”
“No,” I shook my head. “This was a special circumstance. I lucked into hearing a conversation while Jon and Chard thought they were alone.”
“We’re glad to have you. I’m tired of watching people break Nic’s heart because he’s so desperate to fall in love and have thathappily ever after. That’s how he rebels against his mum,” she shrugged. “Annila doesn’t believe in love like that. He tries to prove it’s real. She got lucky that way. It could’ve been drugs or gambling or something. I’ll put the kettle on and we’ll have some tea while we wait on them. You do drink tea, right? It’s just the black stuff. Not allergic?”
“Tea would be great,” I managed a smile for her, but I was ready to be back with Nic.
Chapter Thirteen
Nic
Moonscale London
Mum was surrounded by women but thankfully none of them looked like the woman in the wanted poster that had been plastered all over London not so long ago. I wasn’t sure Chinda would let Sharon Claudis down here. She was friends with Crilus and even if Sharon was a witch, she crossed a lot of lines with how she went about things.
“Nic!” Mum pushed herself to her feet, breaking free of the women who stroked her hair and patted her hands like she was still ill with a terminal disease. “You found me! I got it! I got Topher’s heart.”
I hugged her and a story gushed out of her about how she dated Topher and he was just another Jon. Heck, maybe he was the original Jon.
“I’m so sorry. I think I put you on their radar, but I didn’t mean to. I didn’t know. I thought Topher was a decent guy who was down on his luck and…”
