“Well, I found this book in the storeroom.” I smiled sheepishly as he started to ring up the dress. “I was just closing the door for you but saw it on the shelf. It doesn’t have a price tag on it.”
Hugh picked up the book and inspected it, turning it over in his hands the same way I had. “The Malediction Codex. Huh, I don’t think I’ve ever seen this before.”
I stared up at him.Hopefully.
“Someone must have just donated it with a bunch of other stuff,” he said, looking at me. “Seeing as this is a momentous day, I’ll give it to you for five dollars.”
“Oh, Hugh, you really do know the way to a girl’s heart.” I grinned, popping my card down against the little pin device, which was quite literally the only thing in the Oddity Vault, other than myself, that wasn’t over fifty years old. “My grandpa says to say hello. Said he saw your wife at the lemons.”
He saw your wife at the lemons? Jesus Quincey.I am going to have to mentally brush up on my socialising before this evening.
I popped the dress into my Aldercrest University Occult Sciences tote bag they’d handed out on the first day of term and headed out of the store. I glanced down at the little book and chuckled to myself. My night of drunken small talk and using mouthfuls of food to avoid social interactions with people just got a little bit more interesting.
CHAPTER TWO
Istood in the kitchen, watching the party unfurl before me as I sipped on a cocktail pegged theCreepy Eyeball,which was simply lemonade, grenadine, tequila, and a Halloween-themed eyeball gummy thrown in for good measure. I would have said the eyeball was the only thing that made the drink scary, but the ratio of tequila to mixer was so off that I was absolutely petrified of the hangover I’d have tomorrow.
Other than the cocktail in my hand and the obscene amount of Halloween-themed food and booze that lined the kitchen island, I wasn’t sure if Zeta Sigma Noctura truly understood the concept of Halloween. Nothing, and I meannothing,about the party was scary.Other than the sheer volume of people in attendance, that is.
Everything about the party was cowboy-themed. The girls of the ZSN sorority were all in matching outfits. They donned mini denim shorts or tasselled suede skirts and danced about in matching flannels in greens and reds with adorable cowboy boots to match.
From lasso-themed bunting to the country music playingthrough the speakers, I felt like I stepped into one of those cowboy romances. Which, as a matter of fact, was where the idea had originated. The ZSN girls were making their way through a long series of interconnected romances set in a small rural town where the men were rugged but had hearts of gold and the girls were as fearless as they were flirty. I’d never considered myself to be particularly interested in cowboys before. Still, there was something about the way Esme had described the books that had me temporarily swooning over fictional men.
And as much as I would have preferred this party to screamHalloweenin the way that cobwebs and fake spiders and those cheap dollar store skeletons that held up cauldrons of candy did, I couldn’t help but appreciate where they were coming from. I didn’t think it was possible, but if men like the ones in their books truly did exist, I’d be out line dancing and pulling on those pointed leather boots everywhere I went.
“Did you hear they found another body in Beaumont?” a girl in a glittery silver cowboy hat mused to a group of people as they walked through the kitchen. Over the last few months, there had been a number of terrifying attacks that had left three girls dead across the state. It was easy to push the notion to the back of my mind when the deaths were removed and far away, but Beaumont was a couple of towns over. The whole thing had left our town a little on edge, because like the Darling, the cluster of surrounding towns were all small, close-knit communities. All places that never had to worry about violence and crime.
Before I could descend further into the depths of my fear, a ray of sunshine came hurtling toward me with a tray of shots in her hand. Esme looked stunning. Her silky blonde hair sat just beyond the collar of her tartan red shirt. In true Esme fashion, which was to say everything she ever wore was well thought out, she’d paired the shirt with some red cowboy boots with floralappliqués and the tiniest pair of denim shorts that did wonders to highlight the length of her legs. Her smile was absolutely blinding, and her dimples were on full display, highlighted by her rosy, red cheeks and shimmering makeup.
“Where are the rest of your shorts?!” I said, looking up at her incredulously before giggling and allowing her to pull me into a hug. She was one of the few people I would ever allow to touch me, butGod,it was nice to see her.“You look,” I mused, tapping a finger to my lip in an exaggerated fashion, “what was the word you used earlier?Fuckable.”
“Don’t I fucking know it.” She laughed. “It’s why we sent a taxi to come get you. I couldn’t get Isaac out of the door.”
“Eww, gross,” I moaned, pushing her away from me. “We’ve been through this. You guys talking about sex with me is so weird. Isaac is like my brother. And you’re like my sister.”
“Well, thank god we live in Darling, Connecticut instead of rural America.” Esme winked.
“How are things with you guys anyway? I know you’ve both beensobusy.” I cocked my head and looked at her.
“Things are really good,” she said, jumping up and down and pulling me into another hug. When she pulled away, I tried to read between the lines of her smile, looking for any doubts or insecurities, but found none. I found nothing other than the genuine happiness painted across her face. And that helped settle my worries,not that I was justified in having any.But I loved them both so much and I just desperately wanted to make sure they were making time for each other.
You don’t just give up on that once-in-a-lifetime love.
“If we get divorced, though, you can have double Christmas and birthday presents,” she added, laughing to herself. “You know, all we really needed was to carve out a little more time for each other. I’ve said I’m going to attend his practices too so we can hang outafterwards.”
“Oh no, howunlucky,watching hot guys getting sweaty playing sports,” I mused, letting my sarcasm drip into the space between us, before taking her hand earnestly and squeezing it once. “He’s a lucky boy.”
A moment later, Esme had shoved a shot into my hand. The pleading grimace that made it onto my face did nothing to win me any sympathy points as my best friend settled me with a look that said, ‘Quincey Sterling, you’re doing this shot with me.’The liquid burned at my mouth and throat and sent a heated sensation coursing through my body and up my nose before she handed me another.Oh, it’s that kind of night then.
“Well, cheers to you guys,” I said and backed the next shot, once again trying to still my fear when considering how god-awful I was going to feel the next day.
As if fate itself had summoned him to our little spot in the kitchen, a man that could only be described as female-written-golden-retriever-cowboy (one that had likely been pulled straight from the pages of Esme’s book to this party) sauntered over to us. A black cowboy hat covered his usually brown, messy hair, and his sun-kissed skin contrasted well with the blue of his shirt.
“Howdy, Ma’ams.”
For such a short sentence, I didn’t think it physically possible for someone to showlessprowess with accents, but I’d never heard a worse southern accent in my life. And it was quite possibly enough to undo all my previous interest in cowboys right there and then. The tall man leaned in to give me a hug before shuffling backward and instinctively wrapping a hand around Esme before kissing her on the cheek.
“Isaac,” I said, smirking up at him. “I see Ez has convinced you that thecowboy wayis theonly wayforward tonight.”
