Page 6 of Cursing My Cheating Husband

After we hadn’t spoken for months, she had zapped herself over the very second I told her I needed help. I opened my mouth intending to say “I’m up here,” but instead I burst into tears again.

Brie clearly heard me, because I immediately heard her footsteps charging up the stairs.

The moment she appeared in the office doorway and saw me, her face filled with sympathy. “Tell me everything.” She wrapped me in a hug, and I could smell on her the scent of pine and sea salt I always associated with Nightshade Cove. It triggered such an incredible yearning for home.

Which reduced me to even more of a sobbing mess, but as Brie calmed me, I was able to collect myself and fill her in on the last few months. Every hideous detail. Maddox’s growing disinterest, all my pathetic efforts to regain his attention, tonight’s cheerleader disaster, seeing the sexts, my magic erupting out of me, my deep dive on Maddox’s communications with all these women. Brie listened, her hand squeezing mine periodically.

“So I don’t know what I cast or where it went,” I finished miserably. “And I can’t track it myself. I’m way too much of a mess.”

“Leave it to me. I’ve got this.” She paused, looking around the room with a frown. “I need something with lunar essence for the tracking spell. Do you have any moon water?”

I shook my head. “I don’t.”

“Any willow or jasmine growing?”

“I don’t have any supplies.” I felt like such a disappointment as a witch.

“Don’t worry, I’ve got this. Permission to go through your medicine cabinet?”

I nodded my assent, and she charged purposefully into the bathroom. After a few moments of hearing her shuffle everything around, she emerged proudly bearing my most expensive moisturizer. “I knew you’d have something with pearl powder,” Brie said triumphantly. “That’s all I need, one element that’s lunar aligned.”

“You are so impressive.”

Brie shrugged. “It’s not the first time I’ve had to whip up a scrying medium from a cabinet of human beauty products.”

I reflected that I’d probably have the wherewithal to come up with these kinds of adaptations myself, had I spent any of the last four years on magic instead of a man.

Brie dabbed some moisturizer onto her fingers and drew a small circle on her palm, then another on her forehead, before making the same marks on me. The pearl extract within it shimmered as she whispered an incantation and closed her eyes. As Brie extended her hands, her magic flowed through me, an even more comforting sensation than her hugs.

After a few moments, she opened her eyes, and a properly wicked smile spread across her face. She chuckled. “Oh Callie. You are such a magnificent witch.”

“What did I do?” I wanted to return her smile, but anxiety got in the way.

“I thought you said the only magic you’d been doing was occasional beauty spells?”

“That’s true.”

Now it was Brie who was looking at me with awe. “We always knew you were a genuine talent, but if you managed a curse this perfect after four years of nothing… that’s astounding.”

I was about to jump out of my skin. I hadn’t even realized a curse was what I’d cast. Those couldn’t be undone like a regular spell. “Who did I curse?”

“The right person. You’ve already got the perfect revenge on him. You were surgical about it.” Her laugh was pure delight. “Your magic found the source of Maddox’s betrayal and neutralized it. Permanently, I think.”

“But he’s on his way to the other woman right now,” I protested.

Brie laughed. “Well, I don’t think they’re going to have a very satisfying evening.”

“Can you please stop being cryptic and spell it out for me?”

“You cursed him below the belt.” Brie’s grin widened. “There’s only one woman in the world Maddox can perform for now, and I’m looking at her.”

CHAPTER 4

MADDOX

Parking outside Gwen’s lake house, I was a bit baffled. I wasn’t hard yet. Usually on nights with her, just the anticipation had me straining against my zipper before I’d even killed the engine.

This couldn’t still be some kind of reaction to Callie, could it? Was I feeling worse about disappointing her than I thought?