I’d been wrong about it taking two minutes for word to spread that Jax and I were at the café. It had taken a solid five minutes before the door began opening, and the locals started streaming in. Before I knew what was happening, we were surrounded with everyone insisting we have a taste of their favorite dessert. I’d tried Lavinia’s Sno-Balls, Crème Brulee, Pecan Pie, and Pralines before I’d had to draw the line. I swear I’d gone up three dress sizes in the space of an hour.
With my stomach uncomfortably full and the sugar rush so high I could hear colors and see noises, I pushed to my feet. The room dipped and swayed around me, and I leaned on the table for balance.
“You okay?” Jax asked in concern.
“I’m fine. Too much sugar.” I was starting to feel ill, and it didn’t take a genius to figure out if I puked up all of Lavinia’s tasty morsels, the townsfolk would be neither happy nor impressed. Fanning my overheated face, I headed toward the door.
“C’mon Banks,” I slurred, busting out the doors to stagger onto the sidewalk, almost mowing down Ursula and Pansy as I did so.
“Oh my!” Pansy exclaimed.
“S’rry,” I mumbled, frowning as I tried to focus on the white-haired woman.
“Darn, we’re too late,” Ursula said, then looped her elbow with mine and began leading me down the sidewalk.
“Wassup?” I did my best not to lean too heavily on her, well aware that I was twice the size and twice the weight of the diminutive witch currently propping me up.
“Not here.” Ursula shushed me, hustling me along. The door to the café opened behind us, and I heard Jax call out, “hey! What’s going on? Is she alright?”
“Stop him,” Ursula hissed to Pansy. I didn’t see what happened next, but I vaguely heard some sort of altercation taking place behind me. That’s when the penny finally dropped that I just might be in trouble here. Had I misjudged these two elderly women? Were they more foe than friend? But my brain was a fog, and my body was refusing to obey simple commands, basic stuff, like stop walking, turn around, and run!
Ursula was surprisingly strong as she half dragged me up the street and around the corner. “Have you had training?” I asked, looking down at her.
“What?” she had my arm draped over her shoulder as she hurried me along. I was amazed I hadn’t squashed her yet, given that I was leaning on her so heavily, despite trying my darndest not to.
“Training,” I repeated.
“I can’t understand what you’re saying,” she tsk’d. Ursula did a lot of tsking. “Save your strength.”
Save my strength? For what for heaven’s sake. This day was shaping up to be all sorts of weird. My knee, not yet recovered from the jarring I’d given it when landing in the swamp, started throbbing in earnest.
“You’re going to have to limp faster than that,” Ursula grumbled.
“Trying to,” I snapped, but each step was more painful than the last, and I was this close to sitting my butt down on the sidewalk and refusing to hobble another step.
“I don’t know why I bothered to ask,” Ursula said more to herself than to me. “I can’t understand what you’re saying anyway.”
“I’m sorry I couldn’t stop him!” Pansy came hurrying up to us, and Ursula stopped to shoot her a glare. Before I knew what was happening, I was swung up into a pair of muscular arms.
“Where to?” Jax asked.
“Oh, hey!” I patted his cheek, only my hand flopped around like a dead fish.
He grinned. “How you doing?” His voice was all warm honey, laced with concern. I decided I liked it.
“Oh, you know,” I sighed, “drinking the milk, eating the cookies.”
His eyes held mine for a moment, and as I gazed into their depths, I swear I saw a unicorn gallop across his irises, first in one eye, then across to the other, back and forth the unicorn ran, tail and mane flying, sparkles in its wake. “Wow,” I breathed, reaching out to touch and almost poking him in the eye. Jerking his head out of reach, he looked at Ursula and Pansy. “What is going on with her?”
“She’s been hexed!” Pansy declared, then slapped a hand over her mouth when Ursula delivered a sharp elbow to the ribs.
Uh-oh. A hex. That didn’t sound good. Weren’t we after a witch who was dealing in magic stealing hexes? I tried to think, but my mind wouldn’t cooperate.
“Come on, we’re almost there.” Ursula led the way, and I enjoyed the journey, cradled safely in Jax’s arms. I marveled at his strength and stamina. It was no easy feat carrying me. I must have told him so, for he squeezed me a little tighter and dropped his mouth to my ear. I swear he whispered, “darlin’, you’ve no idea what my stamina can do.” I briefly wondered how he could understand me when Ursula couldn’t, but as soon as the thought entered my head, it fluttered away again, replaced by steamy images of Jax proving to me his… stamina.
“Pansy, go on ahead and open the door.” Ursula interrupted the X-rated thoughts charging through my brain. We were approaching a huge Victorian house, green hedges out front, rhododendrons bordering the path. Pansy shot past, a cloud of butterflies fluttering around her. I peered closer. They had little golden threads attached to her, almost as if she were a puppet, and they were controlling her.
“Oh wow,” I whispered, eyes huge, “Pansy’s a puppet.”
“What language is she speaking?” Jax asked. I twisted my head to look up at him. So he couldn’t understand me? I was so confused.
Ursula tsk’d again. “She’s having a reaction to the hex. Which is a good thing. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have known until it was too late. As it is, we might just be in time to save her.”
“Save her?” Jax choked, the gravity of my predicament only just hitting him.
“Save me?” I echoed. This wasn’t one heck of a sugar rush after all? I’d been hexed. Hexed. I tried to shake off the fog crippling my brain but it was so hard to think. How had I been hexed? And why hadn’t I noticed? Had it been in the food at Lavinia’s? Was Lavinia the witch we were hunting?
I opened my mouth to ask that very question. Instead, I said, “I’d really like to sleep with you.” I clapped my hand over my mouth, well, tried to. Instead, I merely slapped myself in the face, which, as it turns out, was equally effective. Thank the Goddess, it appeared as if Jax, Ursula, and Pansy couldn’t understand a word I was saying. My mortification would remain my own little secret.
Ursula hurried ahead as Jax climbed the five steps to the front porch, then in through the red door with the dragon door knocker. The dragon flapped his wings and winked at me as we passed.
“Lay her on the sofa,” Ursula instructed.
The world dipped and swayed as Jax deposited me on the sofa. “Now what?” he asked.
“Now, we need to find the sigil that’s binding her and destroy it.”
“The only jewelry she’s wearing is this bracelet,” Jax said, “and she was wearing it before she came to Rhalanise.”
“Whoever did this did it in a hurry, with whatever they had on hand. The sigil could be painted on her skin.”
I struggled to sit up, the movement jerking my knee and making me cuss out loud as barbs of pain shot up my leg. Groaning I slumped over, holding my knee with both hands. I really must get some medical attention. I laughed hysterically, here I was, hexed and apparently next in line to have my blood boil in my veins and my magic stolen, and I was worried about my darn knee?
“What’s she doing?” Pansy paced back and forth, concern evident in the way she clasped and unclasped her hands.
“She seems to be in pain,” Jax observed. Astute. I knew there was a reason why I liked him. Again, I was horrified that I even thought that. Must be the hex, I assured myself. Once this hex was lifted, all romantic thoughts of Jax would go with it. I just needed to resist the urge to jump his bones in the meantime.
Easier said than done, with him kneeling on the floor next to the sofa, one hand rubbing up and down my spine in a comforting gesture. I straightened, one hand on my throbbing knee, the other I slung around his neck and drew him to me. “You are so pretty,” I whispered, faces inches apart. “I really like your eyes. So green. Do you know you have a unicorn in there? I’ve never met anyone who has a unicorn in their eyes before. Is that a fox shifter thing?” Before he could respond, I pulled him in for a warm kiss that melted away any worrying I had. When he finally pulled away, I was hotter than a fire hydrant chasing a dog.
“Oh my!” Ursula declared at the same time Jax sprung to his feet, slapping at his pants. Pants that were on fire. Oh no, I’d set him on fire without meaning to. I glared at the bracelet on my wrist, the one meant to keep my wonky magic under control. It slithered and slid around my wrist, hissing like a snake.
“Quit it,” I said to the snake. Color me surprised when the snake disappeared, and my bracelet returned. I watched as Jax danced around the living room, Ursula and Pansy flapping their hands at him, trying to extinguish his pants. He was never going to forgive me for this.
Eventually, they put him out, and he stood there in Ursula’s living room, tattered trousers still smoking.
“I have some pants you can borrow,” Pansy told him. “I ordered them online. Only I got the sizes wrong. I reckon they’ll fit you.”
“Thanks—” he started to answer her, but Ursula cut in.
“Are you hurt? Burnt?”
He shook his head. “Oddly enough, the flames didn’t burn. Well, not my skin. Can’t say the same for my pants,” he added ruefully. Returning to my side, he crouched and cupped my cheek in his palm.
“I know you didn’t mean to do that, so stop stressing,” he dropped a long lingering kiss on my lips before slowly withdrawing. “Now, tell me about this pain you have.”
I flopped back, disappointed at that lack of kissing, but the impact of my back on the cushions sent a jarring pain back to my knee, reminding me that yes, I was indeed in pain.
Rather than answer him, I tugged up the hem of my dress, only to hear the gasps of Ursula and Pansy. Jax’s hand shot out to stop me.
“Easy there, tiger.” His hands may have stopped me, but his grin told me he was more than happy for me to continue this little strip tease later.
“She appears to be in heat,” Ursula said. Pansy nodded in agreement.
Ignoring the blush of embarrassment, heating my cheeks, I rolled my eyes and then pointed to my knee. This was no striptease. I merely wanted to show them my knee. I tugged at the fabric again, making sure I stopped when it reached my thighs.
“Ohhhh.” The three of them said in unison.
“Damn, that’s swollen,” Jax said. “How has she been walking on it?”
“How did it happen?” Pansy asked while Ursula hustled out of the room, saying over her shoulder, “I’ll get a poultice.”
Jax studied my face gravely. “You did this when you fell climbing out of Henry’s boat, didn’t you?”
I nodded.
“And we laughed at you.”
Yeah, you did. Asshole. But adorable asshole. I sighed. “It’s okay, I forgive you. You can kiss it better later.” Oh. My. God. What was wrong with me? I’d gone from categorically denying any semblance of attraction to the man to wanting to jump his bones and ravage him. Was it the hex? It had to be the hex. Thankfully no-one could understand a word I was saying, but that kiss didn’t need words. That kiss had made my intentions very clear, like it or not.
“I wonder what she’s saying?” Pansy said, the hand wringing continuing. If she kept this up, her skin would be rubbed raw.
“Probably something about kicking my ass later,” Jax drawled, then winked. He knew! Oh, the cheeky bastard, he knew exactly what I was saying, if not by the words, but the inflection of my voice. My face got even hotter.
“Here, put this on her knee.” Ursula returned with the promised poultice. Jax gingerly placed it on my swollen knee. “Not like that,” Ursula tsk’d yet again. “Put some pressure behind it.” She leaned forward and pressed hard. I practically shot off the sofa at the searing pain.
“Don’t be a baby,” she scolded. “The poultice will take the swelling down, and Pansy has a nice balm that will take care of the damage you’ve done to yourself.”
Done to myself? As if I’d done this on purpose! I shot Ursula a glare, which she ignored. “Right, you—” she pointed to Jax, “out.”
“What?”
“You heard me. Leave the room. We’ve got to find where this sigil is, and it clearly ain’t out in the open. No way you’re getting a sneaky peek at the goods while she’s under the influence.”
The disappointment on Jax’s face matched my own, but he dutifully rose and headed out the door, calling for Banks as he went. Banks, the furry little traitor, happily trotted after him.
“Now what?” Pansy asked, still wringing her hands.
“Now, we find the sigil.”
I pressed myself back against the sofa cushions as Ursula approached, grim determination on her face. I had a feeling this was about to be the most humiliating experience of my life to date.