Page 1 of Do You Even Hex, Bro?
Chapter
One
REGINA
"Last call for Route 219 to Stormvale, departing from Gate 7."
The announcement crackles through busted speakers. I stare at my one-way ticket, crumpled from my grip. My hand won't stop shaking.
I count the bills in my pocket again. Sixty-seven dollars and thirty-five cents. Not enough for groceries, let alone a fresh start.
My magic drains away, circling the bowl. The glamour I've kept up for three years flickers across my face, and all I can do is hope my long, dark brown hair shields me from any curious onlookers. When I slip—which happens more often now—the jagged scar spreading out from my left eye shows itself. A souvenir of trusting the wrong creature.
"Gate closing in two minutes."
Sixty-seven dollars and thirty-five cents. A bus ticket to a strange city. No coven, no home, nothing. This is life after you catch yourboyfriend—your coven leader—fucking another witch in your bed.
My duffle digs into my shoulder as I trudge toward Gate 7. The night janitor eyes me. My hand flies to my face. I feel smooth skin, another effect of the glamour, but that means shit. The scar exists whether I feel it or not.
I board just as the driver moves to close the doors. He's burly with thick forearms and a beard that screams bear shifter, but he doesn't have the energy. That's the only reason I don't get right off this bus. He grunts at my ticket, jerks his head toward the back.
The bus sits half-empty. I pick a window seat far from other passengers. My reflection makes me wince. The glamour holds, barely. Under it waits the truth—star-shaped scars splintering across my face, pulling at my eye, warping my lip. The mark of a witch dumb enough to pity a monster.
A monster with friends outside.
Three figures stand in shadows beyond the station lights. Ryan's golden hair catches the streetlight as he skids to a stop on the edge of the platform. Of course Kyle sent him. His right-hand doing the dirty work, as usual. Two lower-ranking coven members flank him, backup for dragging me home.
The engine rumbles under me. Ryan steps forward, then stops. He can't make a scene in public. Not the coven's style.
Our eyes lock through the glass as the bus pulls away. His lips form words I can't hear.
"He'll find you."
I know he will. Only a matter of time. The coven bond runs both ways. It feeds me power but creates a connection. A leash Kyle can follow straight to me.
The bus speeds up, leaving my town—and five years of my life—behind. I should feel relief. Instead, I feel hollow.
And fucking spent.
I close my eyes but see Kyle, bare-assed and thrusting into Rebecca. Rebecca with her perfect body and "don't worry, Gina, she's just from my meditation group." Rebecca, smirking at me for months behind Kyle's back.
The worst part wasn't catching them. It was his explanation after. I still hear his reasonable, patient tone, like explaining simple math to a child.
"It'ssex magic, Regina. This isn't about emotion. It’s just about power. Power for thecoven, Regina! You know how these things work."
As if I was crazy for objecting to finding them in our bed, the sheets we'd shared the night before rumpled beneath them.
I lost it then. Five years of swallowing my doubts, accepting his bullshit, ignoring the whispers—it all exploded in one blinding flash. Left our bedroom in splinters. Kyle stood naked in the debris, his perfect face finally showing shock.
"You've always been too fucking emotional," he said, not covering himself. "It's why you'll never reach your full potential."
That was the final straw. Me, the girl who couldn't even cry at her own father's funeral.
Me, the girl who held her tongue after every slight from the rest of the coven so I'd never makeKylelook bad.
Me, the girl who denied her own magic for years because she just wanted, more than anything, to just be fucking normal.
And what was it all for? What the hell is the point of being in control if everyone just pushes and pushes and when you finally reach your breaking point, they call you the same fucking thing anyway?
