Page 4 of Lunar Diamonds
“When isn’t there?” I itched at the skin under my witch bangle.
She flicked her hair. “True.”
If only I were as pretty as her.
“At least you’ve had some action.” She unfolded her arms, tugging at her lanyard and fiddling with the name badge hanging on the end of the green strap. “I’ve been printing new Dewey labels.”
Nina loathed the Dewey Decimal system and never let anyone forget it.
She needed a career change.
“I need a gin,” she said.
A spiced rum and coke was my usual, but I’d go for a gin. “Got any?”
She laughed. “At work? Dream on, Riley.”
“You can’t blame a guy for salivating at the prospect of booze.”
She faced me, inspecting me with her brown eyes. “Where did the book hit you?”
I pointed at my right foot. “Here.”
The red light on my witch bangle flashed green. “Oh. Look…” I held it up. The light only ever turned green if an attack or threat to life was imminent.
Clever things, really. There to regulate witches, heavily restricting magic, activating whenever we needed to protect ourselves from danger.
Like now.
I guess you didn’t see the goblin’s book throwing as much of a threat, huh?I thought at it.
The workroom’s solitary skylight collapsed, the glass shattering with a terrifying crash.
I yelped, staggering forward in surprise as a shade landed on the broken glass, its menacing crimson eyes fixed on me.
Oh, crap.
Chapter 2
RILEY
Shades. Creatures made of flesh and shadows. Created by shadow magic, a menace to society for the past forty years. Unkillable.
Humanoid in shape, shades were in possession of big claws and murderous intent. Let one get too close, and you may find yourself in the afterlife.
The shade hissed, showing off its strange, pointed red teeth as shadows rippled across its genderless body.
Crap. Why wasn’t the Radiance Pulse Cannon kicking in?
Ice flooded my veins, fear coming in for an unwelcome hug. The bite scar on my left thigh throbbed in memory of a shade attack that almost took my life six months ago—after leaving a great date with a werebear.
It’d been one of the worst shades I’d ever seen, and the strangest. After it bit me, it circled me, not going for a second attack, its crimson stare so bright it made my eyes water.
“What do you want!” I’d demanded, helpless and in pain on the ground, too frightened to use the magic of my witch bangle to defend myself. And too confused by its behavior.
My date had found me, having heard my screams. The shade fled, and I got whisked off to hospital without the werebear.
I never heard from him again. Officially ghosted.
