Total pages in book: 37
Estimated words: 34791 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 174(@200wpm)___ 139(@250wpm)___ 116(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 34791 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 174(@200wpm)___ 139(@250wpm)___ 116(@300wpm)
“And butter knives. I brought over some sweet butter, too.” Sky might have wiggled a bit when Nolan turned his back. This was progress. He was in Nolan’s place, and he was sort of comfortable with Sky. Baby steps forward were good.
Nolan returned and Sky removed three containers he’d carefully wrapped up in towels, along with a small bowl of butter, before placing the empty basket on the floor under the table.
“What do you have?”
“I have blueberry and raspberry muffins.”
“What about those?” Nolan pointed to a small pile placed on the far side of the round table.
“Chocolate chip, but you can’t have one of those until you eat something with fruit. Let’s at least pretend you can be healthy for five minutes.”
“Not only are you a witch, but you’re a mean one,” Nolan grumbled as he dropped into one of the wooden chairs across from where Sky stood, but there was the tiniest hint of a smile on his lips. Sky would bet his life on it. “A raspberry one, please.”
Smirking to himself, Sky picked out the largest raspberry muffin and placed it on the plate in front of Nolan. He selected a blueberry one for himself and sat. They passed a bit of time in silence as they doctored their coffees with sugar and half-and-half Nolan had grabbed from the fridge.
A surprised grunt followed Nolan’s first bite of the muffin. “Okay. Okay. But are you as good a witch as you are a muffin maker?”
Sky grinned. “Even better.”
“And those people who stop by for magic potions and seances to talk to dead relatives? You actually help them?”
Sky shrugged one shoulder. “More or less. Most people who request to talk to dead relatives want some kind of closure or help with dividing up an inheritance. There was one lady who was trying to get a sweet potato pie recipe from her grandmother, though, and that did not go well. A dead person’s memory is kind of so-so after passing. I wouldn’t rely on them to remember if something was supposed to be half a teaspoon or a quarter teaspoon.” Sky slathered more butter on his muffin. “I don’t do magic potions, in general, for my clients. My friends Maddox and Redstone are better at that. I’m good at dealing with ghosts, though.”
“The dead. Ghosts. You’re…”
Sky forced a smile and faced Nolan head on. There was no point in trying to be friends with this man if he was going to have to hide who he was. “In the various branches of the magical arts, I’m what’s called a necromancer.”
“Necromancer like raising the dead?” Nolan’s voice climbed a notch, but he didn’t appear to be in full panic mode yet. He was just sticking a toe into the waters for now.
“I can.” Sky shoved the last half of his muffin into his mouth to keep him from rambling on too much.
“Like you can raise an entire army of the dead to take over the world?”
Sky almost choked on his muffin. He took a sip of his coffee, clearing his throat of the crumbs. “I guess…if I wanted to. But that takes a lot of energy. And after I took over the world, what would I do with it? That’s a lot of responsibility. Plus, I really like afternoon naps, and I feel like that’s not going to happen if I take over the world.”
Nolan’s mouth twisted in the most interesting half smirk, half smile that made Sky want to kiss it. But the smile disappeared as he took another big bite of his muffin. If he couldn’t kiss him, at least he could feed him.
“How about you tell me what you know about your brother and how you ended up at Phoenix? Was that your first time there?” Sky inquired. It was probably best if he got them into the business that brought them together. Otherwise, he was going to keep flirting with Nolan and likely scare the man away.
His companion grunted and slathered more butter on the remaining half of his muffin. “I don’t hear from Owen regularly. Most of the time, it’s when he needs money or a place to crash for a night or two. I don’t think I’ve seen him in person in three months. He called about a month ago, wanting to borrow my car. I immediately turned him down because I didn’t want it linked to whatever shady shit he was into. He lost his temper, shouted at me. Kept saying he’d landed a new, big gig that was going to make him a shit-ton of money and I’d be sorry for ever denying him.” Nolan paused and shrugged one shoulder. “Figured it was more of his usual bullshit and didn’t take him seriously.”
Sky reached out to place his hand on Nolan’s shoulder, but stopped himself at the last second, settling for saying, “Why would you, if he has a long history of these kinds of things?”