Page 33

She swiped her finger across the tablet in front of her and read the screen. “Name?”

“I don’t have an appointment.”

Her gaze lifted. “Then I’m sorry, he can’t see you this morning.”

“You want me to sniff the fucker out?” Relic asked.

I wanted to say yes, but us barging in without an appointment and accusing him of sabotaging our cemetery would give him ammunition to take to the witch’s council. I needed to stay as calm as possible, which was easier said than done. I didn’t feel calm; I wanted to wrap my hands around his neck and squeeze.

“I’d like to make an appointment, then,” I said to her.

“Name?”

“Iris Thornheart.”

Her gaze shot back up, her expression changing to one of shock. “I’m sorry, that won’t be possible. He has no available appointments.”

“What about next week?”

“None.”

She hadn’t even looked back down at her tablet. “The week after that?”

She shook her head.

Security appeared out of nowhere, several burly shifters. They barred the way, like they expected us to make a run for Isaac’s office. Relic moved forward and bared his teeth. The shifter in front faltered but held his ground.

“You need to leave,” the nymph said.

Well, wasn’t this an interesting turn of events. “No problem. I’m sure I’ll catch up with him eventually.”

We walked back out, and Relic looked down at me, brow raised.

“Seeing him wasn’t necessary. Letting him know we’re onto him was.”

Relic nodded and grinned. “Savage little thing, aren’t you?”

I laughed, which was a nice change. “I’m working on it.”

He’d followed me on his bike into the city, and after he left, I drove to The Cauldron, Willow’s shop. My sister wasn’t here, I assumed she was still at the house, but I could still stock up on a few things. Whatever my task was, I had to be prepared. And if Isaac was involved in this, even more so. We kept most things at the house, but not everything.

I moved around the shop, loading up my bag, then headed to the back room where we kept our more specialty items, in other words, things that were not for humans.

The shop had an apartment at the back, and I’d thought about moving in now that Willow lived with Warrick, but I didn’t like to leave Rose. My family needed me with them, and honestly, I needed them too. Until our trials were over with, we had to stick close to each other.

I wrote a quick note for Willow, listing everything I’d taken, locked up, and headed to my car—

Tingles danced along my spine, and I looked up, stopping in my tracks.

Shit.

Draven stood on the other side of the street.

His hands were at his sides, fingers curled into fists, legs braced apart. He stood there motionless, looking right at me. I was frozen in place by his cold gaze…no, not cold, frigid.

He told me in no uncertain terms that he never wanted to see me again, so what was he doing here? I had to assume this was some kind of coincidence.

You don’t believe in coincidences.