“And he just”—Renee twists her wrist dramatically—“pop?”
I bob my head. “Yep.”
“I don’t really know how to feel about that,” she says as she scrubs the other side of the scorch mark with a soapy brush.
I scrub my side and hold my tongue because I know how I feel about it, and it’s insane. Hekilledsomeone and I should be horrified. I should feel anything else than what I’m feeling.
Protected.
Cherished.
It was kill or be killed, and Bastian chose their blood on his hands rather than mine on the floor.
Except for the one who escaped.
Did he survive? Will more be coming?
“Hellooo.” Renee waves her blackened bristle-brush at me.
“Sorry,” I say, clearing my throat. “What did you say?”
“Iwas saying it’s not that I disagree with his decision. If someone is in my place about to toss it and end me, I’ve got shotty shells behind the bar addressed to them. It’s just how he did it, I guess. It’s…scary.”
“It is?”
“Yeah, that he snapped his neck with one hand?” she says. “Girl, what if he accidentally did that to your cootch?”
I choke on my spit and cough into my sleeve for a bit while Renee laughs.
“I’m glad he was here to protect you,” she says when I finally have my breathing under control.
“Yeah, me too. And Oscar.”
“Do you just attract magical creatures?”
“I have no idea,” I say with a chuckle.
“Holy shit, amImagical?” she asks, looking at her hands.
I shrug. “I don’t know how this witch stuff works, but Bastian sniffed me out easily.”
“You may have some latent powers within you,” Bastian says as he and Drew bring in buckets of lacquer.
They had the fun job of cleaning up Oscar’s bloody mess since Bastian is still too weak to manifest fresh boards. Fortunately, Renee and Drew were available to help before opening so I didn’t have to deal with any blood or flesh.
I shiver at the last thought.
“I might be a witch?” Renee squeals.
“Sure sound like one,” Drew says with a snarky smile.
I can see she’s considering throwing her brush at him, but holds back. “You don’t like witches? Fine. No more witchcraft, a.k.a. protein cookies.”
“Baby, no! Please, you sound like a super hot witch, like the one from that show,” he says.
“Which one?”
“Yeah, the witch one,” he says.
