Total pages in book: 132
Estimated words: 125083 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 625(@200wpm)___ 500(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 125083 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 625(@200wpm)___ 500(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
Grabbing what looked like homemade tea balls out of a cupboard, Xavier snickered. “It’s a euphemism.”
Hattie’s nose wrinkled. “For what?”
He stifled a smile. “It’s when a man … offloads on a woman’s face.”
Hattie gaped in horror. “He pees on her?”
“Yes.”
Anabel’s head snapped up. “No, it—Xavier, don’t be an asshole.”
Feeling his lips twitch, Cain took a seat at the table. He didn’t think he’d ever met a group of people who were so different who yet fit together so well. Turning his attention to his witch, he glided his fingertips over her scalp. It was a few moments before her eyelids fluttered open.
Finally, she righted her head and blinked up at him. “Oh. You’re here.” There was no unwelcoming note in her voice, just pure confusion.
“You didn’t come to me like you usually do,” he said. “I came to see what was keeping you. I didn’t expect to find you asleep.”
She rubbed at her eyes and sat up. “I didn’t mean to doze off.”
“You look tired. And drained. And too pale for my liking.”
“Flatterer.” Wynter sighed. “Anabel, you’re supposed to be using the test bowl,” she called out without even looking in the direction of the blonde.
Anabel froze with a large wooden spoon halfway to her mouth. “I am. I did. A little something is missing. It’s easier to tell what it is if I taste it.”
Xavier gave the blonde a droll look. “It’s also harder to keep pieces of your sanity if you keep using yourself as a trial subject.”
Anabel rolled her eyes but dripped the potion into a bowl and tossed in some crushed herbs. A waft of blue smoke hit her in the face, and she cursed like a sailor between coughs.
Xavier walked to the table and set a steaming mug of tea in front of Wynter. “Here, this will perk you up.”
She smiled at him, lifting the cup. “Thanks.”
He slid his gaze to Cain. “She needs to get plenty of rest tonight.”
Cain was impressed. Not even in the face of an Ancient did the male fail to speak up for his Priestess. Cain liked that. She deserved such a depth of loyalty. “I’ll make sure she does.”
Xavier gave a nod of satisfaction and then crossed to another cupboard, where he began pulling out jars.
Wynter glanced around. “Where’s Delilah?”
“Chatting with Annis,” replied Xavier.
Cain felt his brows knit. “Annis?”
“She’s a descendant of the Black Annis,” Wynter told him.
Cain blinked. “As in the witch version of the bogeyman?”
Wynter nodded. “Yup. Delilah goes into meditative states where she communicates with Annis. The ability to do so allegedly runs in the family.”
“It doesn’t concern you that your coven member is in contact with a highly sinister entity that was a literal scourge upon the Earth?”
“We’re not a coven.”
Cain felt his lips tip up. “Trust you to concentrate on that part of the question.”
“We’re very much a coven, no matter what you say,” Xavier cut in before taking a bite of a sandwich.
Wynter frowned. “What are you making? That brown stuff looks like shit.”
“It’s a Snickers sandwich,” said Xavier.
She slanted her head. “A, what?”
“You’ve never had one?” Xavier lifted a hand. “Oh, it will change your life. Put chocolate spread on one slice of bread, lather peanut butter spread on the other slice, and then slap them both together.”
“Is there anything you won’t put on a sandwich?”
“Not really. Now stop stalling and drink the tea. I know those mixes taste awful, but they work.”
“I will, I will, just give me a sec.”
As a yawn cracked her jaw, Cain swept her hair away from her face. “If you’re too tired to traipse all the way to the Keep, we can stay here tonight, if you’d like.”
There was a loud bang, and then a cloud of thick green smoke burst out of Anabel’s bowl. “Motherfucker,” the blonde cursed, waving her hand.
Wynter’s eyelid twitched. “Your place works,” she said to Cain. “I just need to throw some of my stuff in a bag.”
“I’ll come with you,” he told her. “I want to see your room.”
Her brow pinched. “Why?”
“Because.”
She shrugged and then knocked back some of the tea. Tea she almost promptly spat out. “Jesus, it tastes like cat food.”
“You’ve eaten cat food?”
“I’m not good at turning down dares.”
He gave her a wolfish smile. “I’ll bear that in mind.”
She forcibly chugged down her tea, grimacing and shuddering. Finally done, she led Cain upstairs and into her bedroom. The space might not have an altar or pentagrams, but the décor clearly stated ‘a witch lives here.’
“A lot of the stuff was given to us in trade,” Wynter told him, noticing he was scanning the space. “The room was pretty basic originally.” She put the back of her hand to her mouth as another yawn escaped her.
“I don’t like that you seem so exhausted.”
She blinked, her mouth curved. “Well, then maybe you shouldn’t have fucked me in the middle of the night. Don’t worry, the tea will kick in fast. Then it’ll be like I’ve been downing energy drinks.”