Page 55 of Love's a Witch
“Dance? I’m not sure I can even walk,” I admitted, adjusting my top.
“Want me to carry you in, then?”
I blanched at the image and straightened.
“Absolutely not.” I shot my nose in the air. I had no idea how to act around him after what had just happened. What I’d allowed to happen.
What I’d loved every second of.
“I’ll see you in there.” Knox gave me a rueful smile when my head snapped to his. He nodded down to his pants, and I gaped at the bulge. “I’ll need just a moment.”
“That’s not my problem,” I said, walking to the door. “You got yourself into this mess. Now you get yourself out of it.”
I left the room, my legs still shaking, but needing to walk out on somewhat of a sassy note to reclaim some semblance of myself—of the woman who I thought I was. Not the woman back there in the classroom who’d melted around a man who’d pinned her to a wall. No, I didn’t know her.
And that more than freaked me out.
“Maybe I don’t want to get myself out of it.”
Knox’s words trailed after me in the hallway, and it was enough to spur me into action. Racing toward the dance, I ducked inside just in time to hear screams.
“Sloane! Where were you?” Nova and Lyra materialized by my side, covered in head-to-toe glitter.
“What happened?” I gasped, ignoring their question.
“The disco ball exploded into actual glitter. A freaking glitter bomb. Half the people are furious, and half the people are delighted. Nobody knows who did it.” Nova’s eyes sharpened on something over my shoulder. I turned to see Knox walk in from the hallway.
We were the only two in the room not covered in glitter.
“Yup, time to go.” Lyra hooked my arm and pulled me from the room, Nova at my heels.
“Bloody hell, Sloane.” Nova laughed, long and loud, as we stumbled outside. “You’re going to blow up the whole damn town when you finally shag him.”
I certainly hoped not. But at the moment, I was too damn satiated to care. What I needed to do was try to convince myself that it was best for everyone that I never touch Knox Douglas again.
CHAPTER FIFTEENSloane
For some reason I expected everything to be pink,” Nova hissed in my ear.
“Somehow, this is worse.”
The house was white.
I don’t just mean white walls and furniture, I mean white, everywhere. White statues, white wood carvings, white cushions, white rugs, white chandelier, white cabinetry and countertops. It was sterile to the point of severity that I wasn’t sure if signified a mental break or a rigorous attachment to a very clean house. Either way, Mandy Meadows could eat off her floor, and any offending speck of dust was likely destroyed with a ruthless efficiency to which I could only aspire in my own cleaning habits. No wonder Mandy Meadows had been so obviously disgusted by the dust and dirt in our home. She essentially lived in a sterilized laboratory.
It was the morning after my incident with Knox, and I hadn’t been brave enough to try out my magick yet today. Instead, Broca had shooed us out the door for an emergency Charms meeting at Mandy Meadows’s house, and now I stood, clutching my to-go cup of coffee, terrified that I’d spill a drop and trigger some sort of magickal trap that would leave me missing a limb.
Mandy Meadows, not uncharacteristically, seemed to be wound a little tight. It would be in my best interest not to push her over the edge. For now, at least while we were in her space, I needed to hang to the back. The sooner we figured out how to read this book, the sooner I could go home to curl up on the couch with Blue and badger Broca into doing her hip exercises.
“I think it’s chic,” Lyra murmured, glancing around the room. “But she could use a plant or two to soften the space. Some greenery. Maybe a disco ball in the corner.” Lyra slid me a cheeky look.
“A disco ball requires someone to have an actual personality,” Nova pointed out.
“But the lightwouldbe beautiful sparkling across all this white.”
“Can we please not talk about disco balls?” I hissed, wincing at the memory of glitter everywhere. Nova and Lyra had been made to strip out of their costumes outside the house last night and march directly to the showers, as Broca refused to deal with cleaning up glitter.
“Ladies.” We snapped to attention as Mandy Meadows ushered us from her living room through a door to a large back room. The rest of the Charms were already there. I had no idea how, as it was barely seven in the morning. They were all put together and looked fairly alert given the early hour. One would think they’ve all had their wake-me-up coffees too. I was in an oversized cream fisherman’s jumper, leggings, and Ugg boots. Raven looked soft and lovely in a cloud-blue floor-length velvet dress, Felicity was slightly rumpled in a pastel purple sweater set and jeans, and Tam rocked a neon-yellow-and-electric-blue running outfit, while Mandy Meadows clearly slept in her in pink fembot suit.
