also not reliable when required to help me out.
Fine. If you won’t show me what I did, then show me Ian. Where is he?
Rather than an image of the man who’d rocked my tongue, I got a view of rolling waves. How completely fucking useless.
“Ha. Ha. Is that your funny way of saying he’s on the ship?” Didn’t matter. A big ship like this…how hard could it be to avoid my soon-to-be ex-husband? Not my first, I should add. As a woman of almost thirty-five years, I’d been around the circle a few times. Lived with a fellow until I saw him cheating in the future. I broke up with him before he even met the other demon.
The guy I’d married, I’d genuinely liked. And had been fooled. Knowing of my power, he’d worn an amulet to nullify my ability in order to hide his true Bluebeard intent. Once I found out what he planned to do to me…I’d told my friend Aella, and she’d taken him out. With an ax. Aella might have found love for herself, a demon and a Scot of all things, but she was as badass as ever.
I wondered if Ian wore some kind of charm to prevent my seeing him. It might explain why I hadn’t seen anything even when we were kissing. If we did run into each other again, I might just frisk him and relieve him of any possible magical objects. It would be interesting to see what kind of future he really had.
Track him down and find out.
The seeing, what I called my ability, had a pushy idea of what I should do. It went contrary to what I wanted. So, I ignored it.
I had a different plan in mind. I showered and dressed quickly, determined to find the chapel, get my hands on the paperwork, and start annulment proceedings.
Crossing my room, I noted that my shoes weren’t the only ones strewn on the floor. I eyed the leather loafers kicked off beside them, indicating that he had come back to my room.
Then had left barefoot. Without a note. No goodbye.
Asshole.
Husband was the seeing’s smug reply.
Married to a stranger. The reminder raised my gorge. Hadn’t I just escaped that situation? How had a few drinks totally whipped my mind around, making me do the one thing I didn’t want?
I had to get to the chapel and catch them before they filed the paperwork and made it official. I rushed to the door and paused with my hand on the knob. Mostly because the seeing teased.
Is he or is he not out there? I can see a few futures where he’s waiting to pounce.
“Do any of them have coffee and donuts?” I muttered before I slowly opened the door. My nerves stretched taut as I wondered if I would actually find Ian standing on the other side. The hallway appeared empty.
Thank the devil. Hopefully, my luck would hold.
Quickly, I made my way to the chapel, noticing it was just as gaudy as a Vegas strip one with flashing lights. Familiar, too.
For some reason, I kept hoping it had been a strange hallucination. That the smoke in that lounge had been benign and I’d just gone to bed early. The seeing cackled, ruining that fervent wish.
Entering the Quickie Wedding—replete with shelves packed with memorabilia that was tacky and expensive—I was confronted by a woman with bouffant orange hair and bright red lipstick.
“Why if it isn’t the bride!” she said, clapping her hands. “You two were so cute.”
“You remember me?” I swallowed the disappointment.
“As if I could forget. You and your hubby were so eager to tie the knot. Our very first wedding on board.” She clasped a hand to her astounding bosom. I could only hope mine would maintain that kind of control over gravity.
“I don’t suppose you could lose the paperwork for it?” I asked hopefully.
The woman, whose nametag read Margie, blinked. “As if that would ever happen. Efficiency is why I was hired for this post. We filed the record with the Hell archives the moment it was done.”
My stomach sank. “How do I go about getting an annulment?”
Margie snickered. “You can’t. The marriages we perform are for life.”
If Ian had spoken the truth, that might not be very long. “Can I have a copy of the certificate?”
“You already do. We dropped it off at your husband’s room just this morning. But since you’re here, I do have one more thing. The pictures are ready.” She slid an envelope across