“Your husband’s motives are clear, but yours aren’t. Why areyouso interested in me?”
“Why do you think?”
“You’re a witch.”
She flashed her brows before taking another sip of her tea.
“I don’t know if I should trust you.”
“You shouldn’t,” she said without hesitation. “You shouldn’t trust any witch. I didn’t save Darius all those years ago out oflove. I wanted a constant source of power at my fingertips, and with him, I would never go hungry again.”
“At least you’re honest. If I shouldn’t trust you, why am I here?”
“Do you often place your trust in people you barely know?” she asked.
“Well, no.”
“I say this because I know the hearts of witches in the woods. Since you arrived, they know what you possess. They feel it—they smell it. You being here even awakens something in me that has lain dormant for over a century.”
The uneasy feeling returned, and the softness of her face went rigid.
“Why are you protecting the town from them? Are you doing this out of kindness or because you want more power?” I asked, half knowing the answer.
She let out a sigh, waving to one of the male kitchen staff who peeked through the door. He gave her a nod and scurried to the back.
“Neither. I fell in love,” she admitted.
“I thought you said—”
“Things change,” she interrupted. “When witches join a coven, we give up all emotions that would anger our prince. Compassion, empathy, kindness—even love was forbidden, and we were forced to lock it all away with the vilest magic that was nearly impossible to reverse. Darius knew my intentions. He wasn’t a fool. At first, I thought the beast simply craved what his instincts desired, and being a witch, I wanted his essence.” She reached into her cleavage for the intricate, folded mirror, then handed it to me.
“I don’t want to look at this again,” I said, handing it back to her, but she held up her hands.
“Words can deceive, and memories fail.” The waiter placed two cocktails in clear glasses on the table before hurrying away. “But visions don’t use gentle words or white lies. They tell painful truths. If you really want to know if you can trust me, that mirror can do more than what mere words can.”
I narrowed my eyes before taking a sip of what tasted like sangria. “How do I know the visions are true?”
She shrugged. “I’ll let you come to that conclusion. In order to know for sure, you should experience what I did on the first night Darius and I were together, and the events that happened years after.”
I held up the mirror. “This can do that?”
“Honey, I’m a witch. If you think this is amazing, you should see what I have in my cellar.” She looked at the clock and back at me. “Which reminds me. I haven’t fed Darius yet. Why don’t you take that home, and we’ll meet again tomorrow?”
After slipping the mirror into my pocket, I slid out of the booth. Willa held up my drink.
“For the walk home,” she said, standing to meet my gaze. “I meant what I said about Austin. You’re doing what instinct leads you to do. It’s what any pack leader would do, and I’ve been around enough werewolves to understand this. Have more trust in yourself, and trust in others will come naturally.”
The smell of fried chicken lured me into the house as I took one final sip of the drink I’d been nursing. I thought I’d only been gone for an hour, but when I looked at my phone, I saw it was nearly noon. I was losing time again, often when I was hyper focused.
“Ooo, yer in for some good shit,” Roscoe called from the kitchen. “The colonel’s got nothin’ on these herbs and spices.”
As I walked in, Roscoe lowered another batch of chicken into the dutch oven with a huge container of peanut oil on the counter next to him. On the other side stood a beautiful chocolate cake with whipped buttercream icing and a couple candles in the shape of a twenty.
“You already made his cake?”
“Sure did. I sent those two out for some errands, and Adam didn’t put up much of a fight. Austin wasn’t too keen on it, though.”
“Well, that’s Austin for you.” A large, familiar fruit caught the corner of my eye. “How the hell did you manage to get a watermelon? It’s almost October!”
