Page 77 of All My Witches
I squeezed his hand. “It’s more than fair. But that exercise was for me, not you. I’m sorry you got caught up init.”
“You think I don’t get it, but I do.” Landon lowered his voice as he leaned closer. “You’re working hard not to worry about me disappearing. You’re almost there. Aunt Tillie wanted to push you over theedge.”
He understood more than I ever gave him credit for. I was always amazed when he figured things out, as if he could see directly inside mysoul.
“It was still a little mean,” Landon said. “But I get it. As for the other thing … I’m always going to bethere.”
“I know.” I smiled. “I think I’ve known since the moment you came back, although I didn’t want to allow myself to believeit.”
“Oh, will someone please gag me?” Nikki complained. “I can’t watch one more second of thistripe.”
“Join the club,” Thistle said dryly. “Can you two stop stroking each other and focus on the bigger picture? We need this Aunt Tillie to take us to the other Aunt Tillie so we can take down the main Aunt Tillie. That won’t happen if we keep hanging outhere.”
“Did you follow that logic?” Landonasked.
I nodded. “Sadly, I did. She’s right. We have to find the other Aunt Tillie. The most evilone.”
“What will you do when you find her?” Nikkiasked.
“What do you want us todo?”
“Make her pay for putting me in thewell.”
“We can do that.” I tilted my head to the side. “We need you to tell us where they are if you expect us to help you get yourrevenge.”
Nikki blew out a sigh. “Fine. I’ll tell you. In fact, I’ll do better than that. I’ll showyou.”
And just like that, I knew we were back on track. “Then let’s doit.”
NIKKI LED USTHROUGHthe woods, sticking close to the path as she cast the occasional derogatory look in my direction. I finally couldn’t take her cold silence any longer, so I decided to engage withher.
“What do you know aboutme?”
“You were married to my nephew until you divorced him for that one.” She jerked her thumb in Landon’s direction. “My nephew was a complete and total psychopath. He impregnated women and threw bar glasses across the room for sport. All he had going for him was a nice set ofdimples.”
“I didn’t really know him very well. I can’t comment on hischaracter.”
“You were married tohim.”
“It’s difficult toexplain.”
“Well, I knew him,” Nikki said. “He was a pus-filled little jerkwad. I always hatedhim.”
“Even before the braintransplant?”
“He was worse before the braintransplant.”
“Well, I guess I’m glad I didn’t know himthen.”
“Yeah, he was a real piece of work.” Nikki leaned closer. “But he was nowhere near the douche that guyis.”
I knew she was talking about Landon. The jab should’ve upset me, but it didn’t. I figured she was merely spouting the script Aunt Tillie wrote for her. “I guess, from your point of view, that’s probablytrue.”
“What about from your point ofview?”
“He’s a hero. He’s myhero.”
Nikki smirked. “I guess there are two sides toeverything?”
