Page 1118 of One More Kiss

Thisbook called to me.

This book wanted to be opened.

Thisbook was a dirty tease, and I was getting pissed.

“What the fuck, Jeff? Why won’t this damn book open?”

Did I also happen to stomp my foot? Maybe. But I chose to ignore Asa’s chuckle and Jeff’s simpering kitty face in favor of answers.

“It requires blood, Jasper. Take the athame from the table and prick your finger. Drop the blood on the fore-edge, and it should open.”

What is with everything requiring blood in this house?

Reluctantly, I reached for a silver knife resting among the cluttered tabletop. The hilt was made of some kind of bone, and the guard was a trio of moons: a crescent, a full, and another crescent. I longed for an alcohol packet but screwed up my courage enough to slice the surprisingly sharp blade into the side of my thumb.

I barely felt the pinch as blood welled from the small cut, and I eagerly smeared my thumb against the pages. With a faint hiss, the book's fore-edge began to glow, the light ramping up until it almost hurt my eyes. All too quickly, the light winked out, leaving me with spots in my vision and an open book.

As soon as I opened the front cover, a white piece of cardstock fluttered out, landing face-up on the tabletop.

Jasper,

If you’re reading this, I’m gone. There was so much I failed to teach you. So many things I failed at, my sweet girl. I thought we’d have more time, I guess. Listen to Jeff. He’s an ornery old cuss, but he’ll serve you well. Try to get him back in his human skin every once in a while, will you? He gets cranky being in cat form all the time.

I fear I’ve left you with a mighty big mess to clean up, darling. I didn’t intend to, but I can’t change it now. Protect Asa, keep an eye on Jeff, and under no circumstances are you to go back to that fool family or that bastard of a husband. They never deserved you. They didn’t see you—not the real you, anyway.

Everything you need to know is in this book. All my history, the wrongs I’ve done to you, the secrets I’ve kept. Everything. I apologize for what I’ve done, darling girl. Please understand that I did it to keep you safe. There are forces at play, ones even I couldn’t contend with if you’re reading this.

If you wish to know what you really are, whisper the incantation: I accipit fatum meum.

I truly am sorry, Jasper. I pray one day you forgive this old woman for her mistakes.

I wish I would have gotten to see you come into your powers, dear. You will be such a sight to behold.

All my love,

Mercy

Tears burned their way down my cheeks by the time I reached the end of Mercy’s letter. Her death hadn’t seemed real until that very moment. Not until I read the words of a woman not long for this world lamenting the mistakes she’d made.

Even if nothing made any sense to me, even if I worried over what it all meant, I still heard her voice in my head telling me to say the incantation. My Latin was not rusty—not even a little. I knew exactly what the incantation meant.

I accipit fatum meum.I accept my fate.

I wanted to ask Jeff what I was getting myself into. I wanted some sort of reassurance that one of those “sorrys” in Mercy’s letter wasn’t for what I was about to do.

But I’d lived a boring life in a dead-end marriage to a mediocre man. I was as vanilla as I could be. I didn’t have any adventures or tales of excitement. I didn’t have epic love affairs or close calls. I didn’t have powers or a legacy or anything people yearned for.

Until Mercy’s death, my life was circling the drain. I had nothing and no one to hold onto.

The words fell from my lips before I could debate it to death.

That’s all I’d done. For forty-four years, all I’d done was debate and worry and consider.

It was time to be reckless. It was time for escapades and folly.

It was time for me to accept whatever I had in store for me, meeting it head-on and relishing every frenetic second of it.

One second the world was a dim attic, my thumb throbbed dully, and my knees ached a bit. The next, I was flying through the air, the blast of the spell blowing me off my feet.

Okay, maybe I was in over my head.

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