Page 52 of Hexed, Vexed, & Undersexed
Now, I start backing away. I’ve stepped so far from him that I bump into my dressing table and my legs give out from beneath me. My ass slams onto the top of it with a thud.
Why would a shaman witch need Mother Shipton’s grimoire?
Bodie must read the question in my eyes because he says, “There's a spell in there that was passed down from my ancestors to Ursula.”
It takes me a moment to process his words.
“Are you saying we're somehow related?” is the first thing that comes out of my mouth.
Goddess—please don’t let me be related to this asshole.
Bodie snorts.
“No more than you and Bellamy are,” he points out.
I freeze at this.He certainly seems to know a lot about the Porters and the Putnams. . .
Kai’s magic suddenly flairs to life inside of me like a beacon. It starts sensing my surroundings and picks up on something familiar—another’s magical properties.
Oh, motherfucking shit.
Bodie’s a real witch, too.
The shaman instantly sees that I know and advances upon me swiftly, pressing his hands tightly around my neck.
“I only blackenedoneof Bellamy's eyes—what the fuck do you think I'm going to do to you once I get free?” I manage to pant out in between trying to breathe.
“You don’t scare me, little witch,” Bodie spits, stepping away from me.
I crumple to the floor, gasping for air, and watch in horror as a ball of fire fills Bodaway’s hands.
“It's a shame that Porter got pyromancer and I got cartomancy this last trial. Any fool can pretend to do tarot, but there's an art to finding answers in flames. Of course, the network gave Porter the most challenging form of divination. It should have been me to see into the fire and go to the final trial! No matter,” he dismisses. “I still plan on winning, and the only way to do that is if something tragic were to happen to one of the other contestants. That’s why, little witch, you are going to be burned. Nothing more tragic than a Salem bitch burning in this day and age.”
The psychopath casually tosses the ball of fire next to me, and it instantly starts sparking to life. My clothes for the show immediately go up in flames. Hastily, I scramble to get away, but Bodie steps out of the room and slams the door shut. His parting words to me through the door are enough to make wish he never had been born.
“I’m sorry it had to end this way, Crystal Moon. Perhaps we’ll meet again in another life,” he laughs.
That dick better hope we never meet again.
I run to the door and pound my fist on it, screaming and cursing for help, but nobody comes. Smoke billows from underneath it into the hallway and the flames grow to engulf the majority of the tiny room. Trying not to choke on the growing fumes, I wonder how not evenoneperson knows that there's a fire—how no one can hear me!
And then it hits me like a ton of bricks. Bodaway magicked it so no one knows that I'm about to incinerate to death.
That dick hole!
I should have gouged his eyes out when I had the chance!
As I breathe in more and more smoke, my head gets fuzzy and I try not to panic.
This is it,I lament mentally. No, Nora, you're a bad witch bitch. Get up. You have magic now, remember.
Like before, I feel Kai’s power pulse to life within me and I call upon it, but magic isn't as innate to me as it should be. I summon it with all my strength, but nothing happens.
This isn't the time to be a pansy ass,I scold my newly inherited magic.My survival is on the line. Please save me!
I pray, beg, and plead some more, but the bastard magic doesn't do shit. Angrily, I lash out at the door. If I don't get out of here soon, I'm going to look like Ann Putnam—a pile of ashes. Choking and gasping, I slam to my knees, keeping my head lower than the haze of smoke. Fires licks at the walls and the panic that I was trying to keep at bay becomes a raging inferno inside of me.
I'm going to die and that son of a bitch Bodie is going to win.
