Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 87609 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 438(@200wpm)___ 350(@250wpm)___ 292(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87609 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 438(@200wpm)___ 350(@250wpm)___ 292(@300wpm)
“Where do we start?” Alistair asks, all business.
“You could pay me,” she says. “That’s one way to break the ice.”
Out of his jeans pocket comes a wad of money. “I believe you said the fee for an emergency reading was one thousand dollars.”
“Yes. For you, it is.” Willow doesn’t count the cash. Just slips it into the pocket of her robe and takes a seat at a small round wooden table. “Go on, then. The clock is ticking. Ask your questions.”
“I can ask whatever I want?”
“Within reason.”
“How did you get into this?” Alistair sits opposite her, the picture of cool, calm, and confident. As if he’s interviewing Willow or something. “Being a witch?”
“That’s what you want to ask?”
“I’m interested in your story. I’d also like to know what credentials you have exactly to tell people they’re about to die.”
“Hmm. I inherited the gift from my grandmother. She had a talent for knowing things.”
“It skipped a generation.”
Willow just nods.
“What sort of things could she predict?”
“If the biscuits would burn or when her neighbor would go into labor or if her father was going to lose his job.” Willow shrugs. “Things of a domestic nature mostly, since that was her world. Messages can be both big and small.”
“And yourself?”
“The times had changed. I grew up in the city and often traveled with my mother. So the things I saw were of a different nature.” And that is all she says.
“At about what age did it start?” asks Alistair.
“With the onset of puberty.”
“Seeing the future at such a young age must have been terrifying.”
“There were often times when I didn’t understand the message. As a child, I simply lacked the maturity or the knowledge.” Willow gives him a long look. “You learn to keep quiet after scaring and alienating people. Growing up is hard. However, being alone and misunderstood is its own special sort of hell. As you well know.”
He ignores her last remark and asks, “How did you handle it?”
“I was fortunate—I had my gran. But knowing things isn’t always nice, as your fiancée can attest to.”
“Talking of my fiancée, how do I save her?”
“Her heart will stop soon,” says Willow. “There’s no getting around that.”
I freeze in my seat as if my heart has stopped already. Hearing it said out loud in this manner is a whole new world of awfulness. Not even him referring to me as his fiancée can soften the blow. Though I sure like the sound of those words coming from his lips. I know it’s nonsense, but still. Why not enjoy it?
“Are you sure you can’t sell us a protection spell or something?” he asks.
“I can sell you as many protection spells as you like. There are also amulets, potions, and talismans I could recommend. If you like, for another thousand dollars, I could pull out my cauldron and wand and get busy,” she says. “But the fact is, none of these things can fight fate.”
“So they’re pointless.”
“Everyone has to die someday,” says Willow in a gentler tone of voice.
“Not her,” insists Alistair in a stern voice. “Not right now.”
Willow sighs.
“How often are you wrong?” he asks, his head cocked. “Things like Lilah’s idiot of an ex cheating on her and missing out on the promotion seem pretty standard life events. Horrible, but nothing out of the ordinary. They could happen to just about anyone at one time or another. Though the lotto numbers were impressive.”
“Thanks,” says Willow dryly, flicking her silver hair over her shoulder.
“As for her and me meeting...it’s a hell of a coincidence. But you must guess incorrectly sometimes. Nobody’s right all the time, are they?”
“But I’m not guessing.”
“Let’s agree to disagree.”
Willow’s gaze moves to me. “Look at you, standing over there, quiet as can be. Are you going to let him do all the talking, Lilah? Is that who you are now?”
“No. I’m standing over here and staying out of it because I feel like we said everything we needed to the other day in the garden.”
“True enough.”
“But if I think of anything new, I’ll be sure to ask.”
“Glad to see you haven’t lost your voice. It happens so often to women in relationships with, shall we say, alpha types?” Willow’s answering smile is amused as she turns back to Alistair. “So, Prince Not-So-Charming, you want me to prove myself?”
Alistair’s gaze is arctic. “If it wouldn’t be too much trouble...”
“Not at all. Lay your hands on the table.” Willow shifts in her chair, getting closer. “Palms up.”
“You’re going to perform some palmistry?”
“If you shut up long enough to let me.”
Alistair closes his mouth, though his expression remains conflicted. Half amused and half worried. Like he can’t quite believe this is happening. As if he hates how he’s not in control of the situation. How exactly had his choices in life led him here? And that makes two of us. He flinches when Willow’s hands touch his. Then he falls back on his usual frown, the one he definitely got from his father.