Page 14 of Outlaw Witch

“And how did you know where to find me in the first place?”

“They turned up just after you left this morning, said that theyreallyneeded to talk to you, so I told them where you’d be.”

That comes from Luna. My sweet sister. My sweet, romantic, fucking idiot of a sister.

Or as she calls herself, an ‘optimist’.

‘You have to be when you deal with plants and potions as much as I do. Hoping your seeds will take, that your potion will mix well, that you’ll still be here in six months or a year to see the fruits of your labor.’ That’s a direct quote etched into my brain.

Which... fine, makes sense.

Still though.

“What the fuck, Luna?” I hiss at her.

It’s a strict rule. Wenevergive out the details of our jobs. Otherwise, what was the damn point in me masking my identity? If these guys hear about the artifact theft and they give a shit about it, they’re gonna know exactly where to point the finger.

She doesn’t care about my glare, though. She just winks at me and gives me a sly smile, like she did me a favor.

It makes me want to shake her, just a little. Enough to rattle some damn sense into her.

“Look, we just want to talk to you.”

“You’ll want to hear us out,” Zeph says, shooting me with a stare so intense it’s like being hit with a concrete block.

His attitude makes my hackles rise. “Oh yeah? Well, typically I’m not inclined to talk to people that turn up uninvited to my home, or apparently follow me around.”

“We wouldn’t have come back here if you hadn’t run off.”

“Trust us, we don’t want to be here,” Zeph says, staring around like a snooty, grumpy shithead.

Dude is an ice cold asshole.

He doesn’t deserve to be as hot as he is. Clearly, my pussy took over my decision making last night. If I’d let him speak for more than two seconds, I would not know what his tongue tastes like. Or how his thick cock felt in my hand.

“I mean, if anyone should be pissy here, it’s me. I went to all that effort with the fire and we might as well have just stayed here and waited for you to get back.”

Hold up. “What do you meanyou went to all that effort with the fire?” I ask.

He smirks wider. “It was impressive, huh? Illusion’s kind of my thing. That’s how I recognized you, even though I bet no one else at that big house would be able to. I can see through illusions. And other than some small time spells masking zits or de-frizzing hair back at the coven, your glamor was the strongest illusion spell going.”

My mind reels. “Hold up, what are you saying? The fire wasn’t real?”

It sure smelled and felt real. That’s... pretty damn impressive.

“Had to come up with a way of luring everybody out as quickly as possible. Thought it might be doing you a favor, but didn’t expect you to freak out like you did.”

Seriously? “I thought the damn place was on fire,” I reply dryly.

“Annoying,” Zeph mutters.

Roscoe snorts. “Don’t mind Z, he’s just mad he’s missing his beauty sleep right about now.”

“Okay.” I’m still reeling from the revelation the fire wasn’t real. Although surreptitiously sniffing my hair, I find I don’t actually stink of smoke. Huh, at least that means it can’t have done too much damage to my lungs. It’s not like I can afford a trip to the hospital.

“You clearly went to a lot of effort to talk to me,” I say, folding my arms in front of me and trying to get some control over this situation. “So what is it you want?”

“Is there somewhere private we can speak?” Zeph growls.

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