Page 46 of Her Dreadful Will
“Too bad.” She shoved his chest. “I do anyway.”
She stalked ahead, toward the stretch of parking lot visible through the trees. She could feel his eyes boring into her back. After a second his footsteps scuffed after her. Had he halted in shock at her declaration? And why would she say such a thing out loud? Shetrustedhim? Now he would think she was a needy, horny, gullible weirdo. She needed to pull it together and reclaim the power in this situation. All this wanting would only make her vulnerable.
Across the parking lot stood the pavilion, a thick-beamed wooden structure with a handful of picnic tables under it and a few grills on a cracked patio outside. Soleil walked straight through a spider web on her way in. Stifling her disgust, she scraped the sticky webs off her jacket sleeves. The spider landed on the pavers, and she lifted a foot to squish it.
“No!” Achan dove to his knees, catching her ankle. “Don’t kill it.” He collected the spider in his hands. “I’m sorry about your work of art, my friend,” he whispered to it. “This girl is walking chaos—she can’t help herself. You’ll have to try again.” He tipped the creature against the doorpost, and it inched upward, leg after leg.
Soleil folded her arms, and when Achan looked up, she arched an eyebrow. “I’mwalking chaos?”
Still on his knees, he grinned at her, and she inhaled sharply. How was he so damn pretty?
She wouldnotbe that girl, losing her mind in a slurry of desire over a beautiful man. Spinning away, she stalked to one of the picnic tables and drummed her fingers along its edge.
Achan rose and stretched his hand through the pavilion doorway, as if feeling for rain.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“Shh. I have to concentrate.”
Soleil narrowed her eyes, watching him. In a few moments, she noticed tiny lights floating toward the pavilion. They blinked slowly on and off, on and off. Lines of gleaming dots spiraled into the enclosure, settling on the tables and on the beams overhead.
“Fireflies,” breathed Soleil.
“Well, you need light for my interrogation, don’t you?” He sat down across from her. “Begin anytime. And please feel free to torture me if the urge strikes you.”
Soleil smirked in spite of herself. “Sounds like fun.”
“It does, doesn’t it?” He winked at her.
Oh god.
The questions, the questions— “So you’re a rich kid then? If you’ve got money to throw at powerful witches, you must be.”
“My mom’s an actress in Hollywood,” he replied. “Lots of small roles—one of those faces you know you’ve seen somewhere. She makes good money. And my dad owns a tech company.”
“Is that how you got enough money to set up your own practice so soon?”
“Pretty much. What about you? How’d you get enough capital to start your business?”
“My parents gave me some. And my grandfather left me enough to take care of my college loans.”
“Check us out, with our privilege.” His lip hitched in a sneer. “I’ll bet you feel guilty about it.”
She slanted her eyes away, stifling a squirm. “A little. Though if I don’t get more customers at the store soon, I’ll be gone in a month or so. Then you can have the town to yourself, and carry out whatever nefarious plot you’ve got going.”
“Nefarious plot? Wow.” He rubbed his jaw. “Must I have one?”
“It’s non-negotiable.”
“Hm. I’d better get on that, then.”
“Whatareyour goals here? Your magical goals, I mean?”
“Learning. Becoming more powerful.”
“That’s all?”
He cocked his head at her. “You disapprove.”
