Witch In Charge - Celia Kyle Page 0,25

shoulders and tousled sandy hair, but he didn't look eager and panting like most of her dates. He seemed…shell-shocked.

“Why don't you come in for a minute?” she suggested smoothly. “I need to grab my purse.”

As she turned to lead her date inside, a crunchy creak rattled the boards behind them. Craning her neck, she looked back but didn't see anything but Mark's shiny ride in the circular drive. And Ronun, of course, sitting in the same spot he’d planted himself in every night just before dawn.

But is he in a slightly different position?

Her date's hesitance to enter the house drew her attention back to where it should have been.

“It's not haunted, I promise.” Not a total lie.

Even so, as she grabbed the banister to run upstairs, she gripped it hard and murmured, “Behave.”

Mark was hot. He didn't look like the brightest bulb in the box, but that didn’t matter. He would be a fun night and she needed one of those in the worst way.

But she didn’t just want to throw away her cares on a night of meaningless passion, even though that was an attractive prospect. This was an experiment, of sorts. She wanted to know what it would feel like to kiss him—to kiss any guy who wasn’t Ronun. She was attracted to Mark, but she wasn’t getting as lathered up as usual and it bugged her.

I’m just tired. It will all come around.

By the time she skipped back downstairs, Mark was nowhere to be seen. She checked the porch but didn’t see him anywhere. Eventually she called out to Nathan in the basement.

“He went to the bathroom,” he called up the stairs. “I cruised through to check out the goods and gave him directions.”

“Great,” she muttered, pissed she had to go look for this guy, who was probably well and truly lost.

After checking the downstairs bathrooms, she headed back to the porch, confused. Mark's car was gone, only a set of skid marks where it had once sat.

“Dammit!” she cried.

Her phone buzzed in her purse and she hauled it out just as the shutters on the house started to bang.

It was the many sixes. The house.

He’s not 4 u.

“Oh, fuck me,” she spluttered, exasperated. It seemed that the house was now determined to manage all of her relationships, not just her roommates.

Ten

“Ugh,” Kelly moaned, pulling the blankets back over her head to block out the sun. “I hate getting up early.”

The sound of her jewelry and random pieces of makeup rattling on her dresser sounded chiding. She sat up, exasperated, pointing at the dresser, ready to accuse whoever it was of not letting her get enough sleep.

To her surprise, the small items danced in little circles just on the surface. She realized it was a chiding tone and the brownies were trying to help her get up.

“Oh, man.” She put her face in her hands. “I don’t know if I’m ever going to get used to this!”

Her phone buzzed on the nightstand. She snatched it up, groaning at the number.

Cora, was the entirety of the text message.

Right, she had lunch with Cora today. That was why she had to get up early. Obviously, the house wanted this—it had tried to push her into seeing Cora yesterday. There was no way out. Even if she wanted out. Which she didn’t. She was excited to see her old boss and coven mate, just not excited to get out of bed.

Changing quickly into some jeans and a t-shirt, she hurried to brush her hair and teeth. She was going to be late, as usual, but if she kept up her pace, she wouldn’t be too late, and that had to count for something.

As she ran downstairs, she heard some commotion in the kitchen and paused to check it out. A cloud of pink butterflies filled the room so thickly it looked impossible to even breathe. Nathan was trying to yell at everyone but couldn’t open his mouth wide enough to get words out before butterflies flew in. Tiffany was sneezing like crazy and Aurora stood twirling her fingers in the air.

“Will you—AH-CHOO—stop!” Tiffany commanded.

“Stop sneezing, Tiff. Control your damn magic.”

“Butterflies don’t live long. Why are you keeping them alive?”

Aurora snickered. “They’re cute.”

Just as Nathan managed to draw a deep enough breath to blast them both, Kelly turned and hurried out the front door. Tiffany was more powerful than anyone had bargained on and cute bunnies with pink ribbons, little singing birds, and pastel butterflies had been showing up all over