Bewitched (Betwixt & Between #2) - Darynda Jones Page 0,15

him all the more. Then again, he was an animal. It would’ve been rather bigoted of him to banish the furball.

“Percy doesn’t talk much,” I countered. “So, I thought you might know.”

The vine brushed the back of my hand lovingly.

“The house was built in the early 1800s.” The chief stopped eating long enough to speak up. “There isn’t much information about the original owner, your ancestor, except that he was a shipping magnate. And that the whole family, save one, died of fever. Not even Ruthie knows more than that.”

A heaviness pushed against my chest. “That’s sad.” The overwhelming majority of a family lost in one fell swoop. “I wish I could ask you,” I whispered to the vine.

It coiled, almost into a smile, and urged my hand up, encouraging me to eat. Having a pet plant was the best thing that had ever happened to me. It so beat a pet rock.

The meal was quickly coming to a close. Not that I was going anywhere without a slice—or seven—of pineapple upside-down cake. I had lost meals to make up for. But when it came to that bomb, it was now or never. Mustering all the courage I could, I cleared my throat. “I have to tell you guys something.”

Everyone stopped talking and gave me their undivided attention. Well, everyone except Roane. I already had his undivided. Even divided, his attention was a heady thing, though it did make breathing difficult.

I swallowed hard. “I’ve lost my powers.”

My dads stared at me, blinking occasionally to let me know they were still alive. The chief seemed shocked as well.

“I already told you,” Annette said. “You just have to pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and slip back into the saddle.”

“The saddle has nothing to do with it. My powers are gone. There’s nothing I can do about it.” I winced, hoping my dads wouldn’t kill me over this next part. “And I’ve decided to move back to Phoenix for a while.”

“You what?” Papi was the first to speak.

“Cariña,” Dad said, “maybe you should give this some time.”

“Exactly.” Annette’s face lit with hope. “You can’t just leave. What about Percy?”

“Percy has survived decades without my help. I think he’ll be fine.” I looked down at the vine near my wrist, but it was gone.

“Defiance.” Dad’s soft accent hardened like it did when I was about to get a lecture.

Except I was forty-four—forty-five—and plenty old enough to decide for myself where I would live.

“What is this really about?” he asked.

“Right?” Annette pointed her knife at him as though he’d nailed it. “There’s something else going on here. She can’t just lose her powers. To do that, she has to die.”

“She”—I said, growing annoyed at being spoken about like I wasn’t here—“never wanted the powers in the first place. Therefore, she says good riddance.”

Unlike the rest of the group, who gave new meaning to the term up in arms, Roane hadn’t moved a muscle, his hawklike gaze missing nothing.

She stood, placed her napkin on the table, and headed out of the kitchen before the grilling could commence. And, sadly, before she got a piece of cake.

As I left, the group sat there, talking over the odds of me losing my powers. “Maybe they’re just dormant.” “Maybe Dephne’s just scared after what happened.” “What did it all mean in the grand scheme of things?” “What would happen when she left Percy’s protection to go back to the A-Z.”

But she was nowhere near that selfish. They had to know I would never abandon them. Annette and my dads had moved a thousand miles from home to be with me. To be here for me. To help me through this time of transition. I just needed time to breathe. Time to think about what to do. Time to research and figure out how to get rid of my powers for real, because no way could I face what was coming. And if they knew what was coming, they wouldn’t want me to.

They could call me a coward when the time came, but they were clueless about what was out there. They didn’t realize that true evil existed. And I wasn’t talking about serial-killer evil. Or total-disdain-for-human-life evil. But an evil that could rock the foundation of the world as we knew it.

An evil that was coming for me.

Everyone I’d left sitting at the table thought Percy had been protecting me—even from them. And he may have been. But if my dreams were to be believed, he’d done so