Page 66 of Heart of Mischief

“Aw, Charlotte.” He covered his face with a hand. “Stop it. You’re making me blush.”

She tapped her foot on the stone. “Can we get started already?”

Elias dropped his hand. At first he was looking at her face, but his eyes traveled slowly down, tracing her chin, her neck, her collarbone… and finally coming to rest on her chest. Not her breasts—just above, though the proximity to such a sensitive part of her body and the heat in his gaze was enough to make her stomach tighten and bring warmth to her cheeks.

“Riddle me this,” he said, still focused on that spot in the center of her chest. “If youtrulyhate me as much as you say…”

He closed the space between them in a few swift strides, stopping a foot in front of her. Charlie inhaled at the proximity. He reached up, slipping his fingers under the steel necklace hanging from her neck. Charlie held her breath. Images of Elias ripping it from her neck or even using it to strangle her flashed through her mind.

Instead of doing either of those things, he merely lifted the chain up and shook it in front of her eyes.

“Then why did you keepthis?”

Charlie’s heart thumped against her chest.

“It… it protects me,” she stammered. “It would have been foolish to throw it out.”

All of that was true. Why, then, did her voice sound so shaky? Was it just from having him so close?

“Okay, sure,” Elias allowed. “But you could have gotten a new one. A cheap little chain to match the ones you clearly bought for your other loved ones.” His head cocked to the side, green eyes flashing. “Why decide to keepthisone?”

Charlie swallowed. He was right, of course. Shecouldhave bought herself a steel chain, too, when she got them for the others. It’s not like they’d been expensive. She’d considered it, her mouse hovering uncertainly over the box labeledQUANTITY. She’d wavered between the two numbers on her keyboard, four and five, before finally clicking four and then checking out as fast as possible, before she could second-guess her decision.

In truth, she didn’t know why she’d decided to keep the necklace. She’d told herself it was because it would be wasteful to throw it out, but…

“Can we just get started, please?” she snapped.

Elias raised his eyebrows. He said nothing in response, but the glint in his eyes before he turned away was one of unmistakable victory.

22

“Remind me,” Charlie said, eyesshut against the early morning light, feet aching from standing on the rock for too long. “When does the fun part start, again?”

“Shhh.” Elias shushed her for the dozenth time in as many minutes. “Concentrate. You won’t be able to access your magic until you canfeelit.”

“Feelit?” she asked. “What, is magic like the rug samples at Home Depot? Run your fingers over all the options and then choose the one your dog is most likely to shit on?”

“You don’t even have a dog.”

“No, but I have Henry,” she said. “And I still don’t know where or even if he pees and poops, a fact that disturbs me every single day.”

“No more talking about pee and poop, Charlotte.” Asmacksounded, presumably Elias clapping his hands together. “Focus. Find the current of magic within you.”

The current, she thought.Like a river. Or like the blood running through my veins. Except I can’tfeelmy blood moving, so that analogy is useless. Never mind. A river. Okay. Yes. There’s the time Lou, Abigail, and I drove over to the Manistee to go tubing. I could feel the current then. Granted, it was a currentoutsidemy body, not inside, and we only lasted ten minutes in the water before Abigail spotted a leech and screamed so loudly that some park rangers came running over.

“Charlotte,” Elias said. “Focus.”

Damn. Maybe hecouldread her mind.

Okay.She recentered her thoughts.Focus. Yes. Inhale. Exhale. Sink down into yourself. Inhale. Exhale. Be calm. Be steady. Be—

Oranges and yellows appeared suddenly behind her eyelids, blooming wide like a sunrise. Charlie gasped, eyes flying open. She blinked several times, but the colors remained, dancing and swirling against the fabric of her mind.

She hadn’t conjured those colors. Hadn’t willed them to appear. They had justarrived, like a package left on her doorstep filled with a slice of the evening sky.

And there was something more to them, outside of their beauty. There was almost… a feeling behind them. An emotion. It felt warm and soothing, like comfort or happiness.

“What’s happening?” Elias asked. “What’s going on?”