They leaned down, giving me a gentle kiss before stretching up to James to give him the same attention. “Finish your drink. I worked hard on that.”
James uttered a “goodnight, Shiloh,” and they left.
He stayed quiet for a long moment, letting the slam of the back door ring through the hallway before he spoke again. “You didn’t tell them.”
I sighed and grabbed my martini. Of course he’d overheard. “Should I have?”
“You were only protecting me.”
“That’s not an answer,” I said, glaring at him.
His mouth quirked at the corner. “You noticed.” He sobered. “If I’d been here, I’d like to think I would have told them, but if I’m being honest, I can’t say I wouldn’t have dodged it either. It’s more of an omission than a lie.”
That sounded like something I would say. “That’s what I told myself too. But I regretted it the second it happened. The one thing Shiloh asked of us was open communication.”
James nodded gravely. “I know, love. So wewilltell them. We’ll have to. Sooner rather than later, if you’re going to turn.”
“Hopefully,” I muttered, glaring at the drawer that housed the spellbook. Victoria’s number was burning a hole in mypocket. Maybe she would have some insight as to why I couldn’t get the book to open.
James indicated the glass in my hand. “Looks like you got that drink after all.”
“Try it.” I handed it over.
The noise that came out of my fiancé’s mouth when he tried it was sinful. He looked up at me again, and his eyes showed emotion he couldn’t form with words. “It tastes like…you. Do I taste strawberries?”
I squirmed, butterflies kicking up in my belly. “Yeah. Shiloh’s idea.” I let James finish off the martini, and as I caught sight of his engagement ring glowing in the dim light of the office, I had an idea.
To my surprise, James said, “You thinking what I’m thinking?”
“Coffee and booze,” I said. “Perfect on their own?—”
“Even better together,” James finished.
His words echoed in my head. “Better together.”
My mind flashed back to his proposal, and the twangy country song that played through the speakers as he knelt in front of me and asked me to marry him.
“I think we’ve just found our wedding cocktail.”
The next morning,I decided to start picking through the things from the beach house. I still couldn’t open that damn spellbook, so it currently sat in timeout in my backseat until I met with Victoria that evening. James was at the bar, and Shi dozed with their head in my lap. I fished through pictures with one hand, winding Shi’s thick curls around my fingers with the other.
As it turned out, my mom was ridiculously fascinated with witches. More specifically, the witches of Salem. One of the albums we’d taken was filled with articles and sketches from the witch trials. Halfway through, I turned the page and a single sheet of loose paper slipped free. I caught it before it fell.
“Deaths Caused by the Salem Witch Trials.”
I glanced down at Shi, making sure they were well and truly asleep. I didn’t need them to see the way my hands shook. After all, it was nothing more than a generic death notice. It was easy to find on Google. In fact, that was probably where Mom had found and printed the list.
But that was hard to believe upon taking in the condition of the page. It was aged—veryaged, yellowed around the edges like it had seen better days. Most alarmingly of all, one of the names was highlighted—one that I recognized.
I had to dig deep to remember, but the faint memory of a bedtime story my mom used to tell me as a kid came to the surface.
Unsurprisingly, I had quite the imagination. Mom had to get pretty creative to find something to settle me down, and it turned out the trick lay in a woman named Suzannah Martin—a witch. Mom spenthourstelling me about the kinds of spells and magick that Suzannah cast on the people of Salem.
Staring down at that highlighted name, those stories took on a whole new meaning.
Heart pounding, I set everything aside and wrapped my arm tighter around Shiloh. They stirred, grumbling sleepily at me for disturbing their nap before they shuffled closer. “Five more minutes.”
I glanced between them and the death notice, and it was an easy decision. I closed my eyes, rested my head against the back of the couch, and tried like hell to relax.
