Page 21 of Hex You

Hunter hung up and slid the phone back to Jax.

“Well?” Jax asked, blinking at her expectantly. “Wild, right?”

Hunter pressed her napkin against the puddle of water at the base of her milkshake glass. “She just sounded worried.”

“She’s not worried. She’s obsessed,” he said for the second time before letting out an exhausted exhale. “You’ll see.”

Thoughts racing, Hunter jabbed at the frozen core of her milkshake with the mushy end of her paper straw.

Tell him now. Say that you didn’t know what would happen. That he’s right, everything’s not okay. Say it. Say it! Say—

“What my mom saw on the beach. What she still claims you did in our garage apartment. The things people are saying about you and Mag…” Jax’s dark eyes met hers, and she froze, her breath trapped in her chest. “I know you’re not some horrible evil witch, but—”

There it was again. Thatbutthat could take away the only person in the whole world who saw her for who she truly was.

“There’s something going on. If you don’t want to tell me, that’s fine, but I won’t sit here and pretend like everything’s peaches and that we didn’t hurt Kylie.”

“Wedidn’t hurt Kylie.Idid.” The words exploded from her on a breathy exhale. “I didn’t really know what that spell would do, but I needed the magical energy it created.” The backs of her bare thighs sounded like Velcro against the sticky booth as she shifted. “Amphitrite gave me a spellbook, and I believed her when she told me that,if I fed it enough spellwork energy, it would give me what I needed to fix the gates.”

Jax scratched his chest, his forehead creasing with the beginnings of an idea. “If you used the book to do the spell, it has to have a way to undo it. Do you have it with you? We can—”

“I don’t want to use the book!” It was Hunter’s turn to blush as customers swung around to gawk at the outburst. “It’s tied toher. I don’t even know if it’s still alive now that she’s gone.”

“Alive?” Jax grimaced. “That’s what you meant when you said you needed magic from the Kylie spell. To give it to the book?”

Hunter opened her mouth to respond with a quickyesbut caught herself before she let another half-truth masquerade as the whole truth. “It likes blood way more than it does spell energy.”

Jax stopped mid-drink, shivered, and pushed his milkshake to the edge of the table.

Her stomach churned and gurgled, warning her to hold on to her lies, but she had to keep plowing forward. She had to tell Jax everything. They both deserved the truth, and she wouldn’t be free until she did.

“You know Chuck, therepent your sinsguy who hung out downtown?”

Jax’s lips moved with ayesHunter couldn’t hear over the roar of her heartbeat.

“He had a knife…” Her mouth went dry, and tears stabbed the backs of her eyes. She blinked them away, the deep scarlet of Chuck’s blood flashing in the empty space of each fall of her eyelids. “He tried to give it to me. He had killed someone. Amphitrite was there. He heard her. I know he did.”

Jax’s thick brows furrowed, and his mouth opened and closed with an unspoken question.

Slow down,she scolded herself before taking a deep breath. This time, she didn’t stop the warm gush of tears from washing down her cheeks. “Amphitrite led me to the alleyway between Suzette’sCreperie and Main Street Meats. I thought I’d have to jump into a bloody meat dumpster with the book, but she had something else planned.” Hunter dropped her gaze to the pile of fries, unable to look at her best friend. “Chuck was there. He’d just murdered a man. The voice of God had told him to, but I know it was Amphitrite poisoning his thoughts.” She lifted the soggy napkin from the table and pressed it against her hot cheeks. “He brought me the knife he’d used, held it against my hands. He wanted me to take it—”

Her voice caught on a sob, and she clutched her pendant to remind herself of her strength and Tyr’s support. Even after everything she’d done, the god of the sky had come back to her. She hadn’t been terrible. She’d been lost.

“Amphitrite was right behind me. I thought she would help me. I thought she would help both of us.” Crystals of salt shimmered like stars against the crispy fries as tears once again welled in Hunter’s eyes. “She pushed me, and the knife”—she bit down on the inside of her cheeks to keep from wailing—“there was blood everywhere,” she said, hiccupping back another sob.

Jax covered her hand with his. “I’m sorry you’ve been alone with this.”

“He’s dead.” Hunter’s watery gaze flew to Jax. “And it’s my fault.”

He squeezed her hand. “He’s dead, and it’s Amphitrite’s fault.”

That might be true, but nothing would make it better. It had calloused a part of her heart, and Hunter would spend the rest of her life filling the world with good in an attempt to erase the bad of that night.

She cleared her throat and wiped her nose on her sleeve. “There’s more,” she whispered, staring down at his hand over hers. “I used magic to break Kirk’s fingers. He assaulted me, and I fought back. I don’t know if I feel bad.” She chewed her lower lip. “Sometimes I do, and then I remember his hand on my throat and that look in his eyes, and I want to break his fingers all over again.”

Jax smoothed his thumb across the back of her hand. “Hate to sayit, but that’s what he gets.” He hiked a shoulder, his eyebrow arching. “I don’t feel bad, either.”

A smile scratched her lips, brittle and sharp. She didn’t deserve such a good friend. She wanted Jax to be angry, disgusted, make her pay for what she’d done. The act of telling wasn’t the release she thought it would be. Confessing didn’t wash her clean. She needed to do that on her own, forgive herself. But how?