The Whimsy Witch Who Wasn't - Donna Augustine Page 0,52

me himself if he thought something was wrong with me. There was only one person I could turn to here—Rabbit. And she was the one I was doing this for, so that wasn’t an option.

I looked at the newsflash papers sitting on the counter. In the last few days, I’d seen Zab, Belinda, and Musso all use them to summon someone who could do a specific job. It hadn’t been a big deal.

Well, I needed something, so I was going to send a newsflash. I was magical, and even though my magic might be temperamental, chaotic—evil—it seemed I had a lot of it, and this was very simple. And Zab had mentioned in passing that no one ignored a newsflash memo from the broker. No one.

I was going to do this. I had to do this. If I didn’t get Rabbit out of there, at least for a little while, she’d die. She was not dying. Not on my watch.

I grabbed a piece of paper from the ones they used, the ones I’d picked up, and jotted down my info, just like they had numerous times. The only thing I didn’t do was add a name to the bottom, as they usually did. But what if that had to be there? Like the postal service and a return address thing? Maybe it wouldn’t send without one?

To sign or not to sign? What to sign? If I used my name, they might laugh it off. I couldn’t do Hawk’s. I wasn’t willing to push it that far. I wanted them to assume it came from him, but forging his signature? No, that was way over the line. But a “representative of the broker” was accurate. It would have to be good enough.

I held it up and examined it for problems. It looked pretty good to me, not that I’d know an issue if I saw it. I folded the paper, folded it again, then again, the way I’d seen the others do. I walked to the front door and peeked through the glass for pedestrian traffic. As soon as the street had a lag, I swung the door open fast.

“Carry my message,” I said, tossing the note in the air.

The thing burst into an eagle that nearly spanned the width of the street. It was so big that I ducked. Then a loud pop, followed by a flash. Well, I’d done something, all right.

A man had just turned the corner, and he was staring right at me. Dammit.

I didn’t wave or acknowledge the attention. I swung the door shut with nothing left to do but wait to see if Rabbit would arrive.

The first person who showed five minutes later was the last person I wanted to see right now.

Hawk stormed inside the office, and it was immediately clear that he already knew something by the way he stalked over to me.

“What did you do? It’s Offday. Can I not leave you here alone one day of the week?”

Oh no. This was not good. Not good at all. I might’ve fessed up to what I’d done, but I wasn’t sure what that was yet. It wasn’t as if my magic was predictable. I was better off waiting to see what he told me I’d done. Maybe it wouldn’t be that bad?

“I didn’t even leave the building.” Technically, I hadn’t. I’d leaned out of it, but my feet had remained squarely within the threshold.

I edged toward the front door, in case running was going to be needed. I tried to go around him, but he blocked my path.

“You might not have left the building, but you did set off a newsflash from here,” he said.

I dodged right, and he followed. I dodged left, and he caught me about the waist, hoisted me onto the nearby table, and then kept me there with a hand on either side.

“What did you do?” he asked.

He was leaning over me, but instead of being intimidated, I felt my stomach getting all squirrely, and my eyes kept going to his lips, as I wondered what it would be like if he kissed me. I’d had a few kisses in my life. None were that good. I’d lost my virginity to a boy that I hadn’t liked very much in an effort to get the deed done. I’d never gotten flutters like I did with Hawk.

He was making me so nervous that it was worse than if he was threatening me with violence. Maybe he was threatening me with