Page 27

“Before I say anything, what were you doing when you were hexed? Witches generally only hex as self defense, but some of us are petty assholes who do it for the wrong reasons.”

Pan could sense subtle changes in a person’s body when they were lying. Caleb had been telling the truth about the witch who hexed him. Or at least, he believed that was what happened. Given how obvious it was when a witch was doing blood magic, it probably happened exactly how he said it did.

Witches usually had talismans on them. It looked like regular jewelry, but it would subtly warn the witch by warming depending on what it was spelled to do. They had them for lying, danger, and a bunch of other things. I wanted some, but even though I was friends with a bunch of them, the covens had rules about selling them to humans.

Caleb didn’t know about all the lie detectors in the room, but he spoke his truth and we all believed him. Pan hadn’t said anything the first time he told this story and no one’s jewelry got warm the second time he told it.

“This is a very specific hex and since it was done by a blood witch, the curse is in your blood. She had to have broken the skin when you were taking care of her. It’s considered extreme even for blood witches. It alters your emotions and makes you want to give in to your baser instincts. The more you do, the more the hex spreads. When the thorns reach your heart, you die. Everyone has their own concept of the afterlife, even humans. The hex is designed to make you do things to fuck up your chances for any possible decent afterlife.”

“She stabbed me with a rusty nail. I had to get a tetanus shot and have the wound cleaned so it didn’t get infected. The nail tattoo appeared a few days later.”

“Nails are significant magical items in several types of lore. They are used to bind harmful behavior, protection, fortifying a relationship and to ward off evil spirits. They can even be used to break hexes. They can unfortunately also be used to hex.”

“Can you remove it?” Caleb asked. “I’ve been fighting it and haven’t done anything I regret, but would prefer not to.”

Except kissing me back.

“Not without killing you or you killing us. The curse is too close to your heart. Someone here can though, but it’s not my secret.”

“How’d you know?” I asked. “Do all of you know?”

“We see auras, Logan. Every living thing has one. We’ve always known.”

And they never said anything because I hadn’t. I can’t believe I hadn’t realized that. Witches had their talismans, but they also could read auras. Most of them had a familiar. Sometimes, it was a raven or a cat, but sometimes, it was a dog. Pan could shapeshift into a dog, but he couldn’t hide his aura or scent.

“Everyone here knows. Pan?”

Because it was his choice. Even if I really wanted or needed him to do something, I was always going to ask what he wanted to do. He wasn’t just a pet. He was my best friend, and I’d always treat him like a person.

“I know I can do this, but I’ve never done it before. Walk me through it?”

Sasha and Ariel grinned.

“I heard they could do that, but it’s weird experiencing it for the first time. You have venom in your fangs. A little bit will burn through any curse and a lot will burn a body from the inside out.

“Sorry, but if you want your curse gone, you’re going to have to let the Hellhound gnaw on you a bit. Just enough to puncture the skin. It’s going to burn like fire, but it’ll be quick. Hellhounds don’t get rabies, so you don’t have to worry about that.”

I also wasn’t telling Caleb he had to let my Hellhound bite him a little. That was completely up to him. I mean, he was a complete dumbass if he didn’t want the very cute cure that was sitting right there and I’d tell him that to his face, but I wasn’t telling him he had to.

“I’ll do it. And I’ll find a way to repay all of you for this.”

Iappeared calm on the surface, but my entire world was crumbling around me. I was coming to the realization that everything I knew was a lie and I’d probably killed people who hadn’t done anything wrong.

A witch had hit me with a terrible curse, but it was other witches who told me exactly what she had done to me. I had no doubt if I had sought one out before the curse had spread this far and explained how I got it, they would have tried to cure me. Except they didn’t know the full truth. I wasn’t a liar. They were helping me and they didn’t know what I’d done to their people.

I tried to explain, but they cut me off.

“We know you’re Venatio Daemonum. We’ve seen you around and the Quarter queens love the big sexy one. We have ways of knowing if you meant us harm, but we’ve also known Rainer for decades. Rainer wouldn’t be cooking his famous corn and crab bisque for you and letting you in his house if he didn’t think you could bring change. We also watched Logan grow up. She’d be a lot more hostile to you if you weren’t willing to listen. Logan wouldn’t have told you about Pan if she didn’t trust you. Neither one of them would have called us to help you if they didn’t think you deserved it.”

The problem was that I didn’t think I deserved it. Not after everything I’d learned the past few days. And I wasn’t even blaming Logan anymore. We really had waltzed in and acted like we knew better than her. We really didn’t. It was easy to blame her for all the priests defecting, but aside from our first meeting, she mostly just hurled insults at us. It wasn’t flirting. She legitimately didn’t like us on jobs. Not everyone was cut out for either side of being a priest.

And I couldn’t stop thinking about that kiss. It wasn’t all the hex that made me kiss her back. It usually took Solomon and Saul ages to bring me back when I lost control like that, but she did it right away with a kiss. She was wearing raspberry lip gloss. I was going to have to deal with that later or at least find a way to stop thinking about it.

“Hey,” Logan said. “If I didn’t think you deserved it, I wouldn’t have told you about Pan. I knew Pan could eat hexes if he knows what they are, he just needed a little help because he’s never done this before. Pan isn’t just a Hellhound. He’s my best friend and I will literally burn this entire world down for him. You couldn’t hurt him, but I’d beat the shit out of you for trying. Ask your friend William.”

Pan raked his tongue up her cheek. Lucky dog. What was I even thinking right now? And I actually would have paid good money to watch Logan give William a beat down. Was this the curse at work? I held out my arm.

“I just…let him bite me?”