Old Demon and the Sea Witch (Welcome to Hell #9) - Eve Langlais Page 0,15

library I’d staked out as my own. I’d spread all my things out on a table and was bent over when she arrived.

My head remained bowed, my interest in the book feigned lest she guess how attuned I was to her presence. I sensed more than saw her moving close behind me.

When she placed her hands over my eyes, she whispered, “Surprise.”

“What are you doing here?” I asked, my heart racing so fast and pounding so hard, I feared she’d hear it. I never understood why she came to see me. Why she always smiled.

She smiled at me now as she said, “Looking for you. I haven’t seen you around. I missed you.” Then she did the most astonishing thing. She leaned in and kissed me.

On the lips.

It startled me enough that I jumped. My elbow knocked into a candle. It toppled right onto my book.

“Uh-oh.”

The dry pages immediately ignited and, infused with panic, I slapped at the flames.

“Hold on, I can put it out.” Dorothy snapped her fingers before I could warn her. Back in the day, the library didn’t have protection against magic.

I felt the power of it a moment before the space flooded. And I mean flooded. A tidal wave appeared out of nowhere and soaked not just the book on fire, but me, and that entire section of the library.

It lasted only a few astonished blinks, then the water receded, leaving a few fish high and dry. Everything else in the section dripped. Utterly soaked, including an astonished Dorothy, who wasn’t supposed to be there.

Who’d used witch powers.

The realization horrified. Not the fact that she could do such a thing, but that others would soon know if they found her. Would know and want to harm her. I couldn’t allow that to happen.

“I think you should go.”

“I—” She looked devastated. I wished I had time to tell her I would handle this. Keep her safe from the consequences. But I couldn’t do that if she didn’t leave.

“Go. Now. Before anyone sees you.”

Only in retrospect did I see how perhaps she might have misconstrued my words.

“You thought I wanted you permanently gone?” I snorted, then chuckled, then grew quiet as I suddenly realized what that misconception meant. “I told you to leave so you wouldn’t be around when the other librarians arrived. If they’d seen you and what had happened…” I shrugged.

Her voice was soft as she said, “You thought I’d be punished for destroying those books.”

“Punished?” I snorted. “We both know they would have killed you for being a witch.” And I wouldn’t allow that to happen.

She stared at me. “You were protecting me. You didn’t actually want me out of your life.”

“What a stupid thing to think,” I blurted, perhaps more vehemently than necessary.

She hung her head. “I might have misunderstood.”

“I’d say that went beyond misunderstanding. I never saw you again.” And had my heart crushed.

Dottie rolled a shoulder. “I was young and freaked-out. You yelled. I reacted.”

“By leaving town that same day?”

“Did I mention I might have overreacted?”

I crossed my arms, not willing to give her a free pass. “I heard you eloped with your sister’s betrothed.”

She winced. “I did. Not one of my wisest decisions, but not the worst. Gerard ended up being a good husband.”

“Well, good for Gerard,” I said with a sneer. It burned to realize that I’d lost her over a silly misunderstanding.

“You’re angry.”

“You thought the worst of me.” I towered over her.

She stretched up on her tiptoes, her eyes still that flashing brilliant green that haunted my memories. “Maybe if you’d not been a dick and said more than basically get out, I would have known.”

“How could you not have known given I worshipped the ground you walked on?”

“You never told me,” Dottie shouted back. “Never once showed me any indication.”

“Like hell, I never showed you. I did everything I could.” In the only way I knew how—by finding special books for her. Mustering the confidence to accept her casual invitations to dinner. Sometimes taking hours to gather the courage.

“Showing me would have been stealing a kiss, or saying, ‘Dottie, I like you. Marry me.’”

“Did you know me at all?” I snapped. Seeing it from her perspective, there was shy, and then there was me. I’d been such a timid fucker back then.

“I did know you, which was why I wasn’t surprised when I thought you were upset about the book and not happy to see me.”

How could she not know that seeing her was always the highlight of