“Which means?”
“She is bound to it in ways she might underestimate. All magic comes at a price, and the power it must have taken.” I shake my head as he skims his hands down my aching spine. “There’s something I can use. I just know it. But to utilize it, I need to know the details.”
“You aren’t going to find those in some stuffy books, Cora.”
“I know.”
“So think outside of the box... or in this case, inside.”
I tilted my head back to catch his gaze. “Go to the source?”
He bopped my nose and winked. “Now you are getting it, little witch. Always know your enemy.”
Guess I was about to play house and happy families with the architect of my misery. Lucky me.
“I’m tired, but there’s so much to do,” I grumbled around a yawn.
“We should take the reviews down.” He glanced toward the laptop with a frown.
“We can’t. Freedom of speech and sponsored slander arm the keyboard warriors with a false confidence to type shit they wouldn’t dare say to my face.”
“Then stop reading them and concentrate on what you can change.”
Pete chose that moment to inflate his throat like a smug balloon and croaked. Hudson stared, then laughed, real and bright, the sound bouncing off the walls and making the candle flame shimmy.
“Why do you have a frog in your office?”
My lips twitched. “The result of a witch with glitter eyeliner who accidentally toaded her fiancé.”
He blinked. “This house is never boring,” he said, leaning his forehead against mine.
“No, it’s not. But right now, I need to unpack the supply delivery and pay some bills. The epitome of boring.”
My phone buzzed on the desk with a message.
Sophia: Leftovers in the fridge. Cabbage is love.
Hudson snorted.
“Stay?” I asked, my voice small as I prepared myself for his departure into what I was sure were a million more important things he needed to do.
He kissed my forehead. “Try to make me leave.”
My chest warmed, and a small crack sealed. “You are very dedicated.”
“I’m very in love,” he corrected.
I closed my eyes, because he’d said the thing and the curse listened to truth, and I refused to let panic be the first thing it heard. Hudson’s thumbs traced my jaw.
“Now, about your TripAdvisor stars. How do they feel about the full moon?”
“Stop,” I groaned.
“And we are going to respond to those reviews with grace and dignity.”
Ugh. I had neither in abundance.
“And then we are going to make Rebecca bake apology cookies for the entire internet.” He paused. “Actually, we’ll get Maggie to bake them and Rebecca to hand them out.”
