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Chapter 9
Before Veronica even opened her mouth, he knew he was doomed, but like a condemned man, couldn’t let go of the last thread of hope.
“Are you fucking kidding me? Tell me you’re joking, Jax.” She jumped off the magic carpet. “Tell me!”
As if Mother Nature needed to add her two cents to the discussion, thunder boomed loud enough to startle the goose. It waddled over to Veronica and scooted its feathered butt close to her leg.
A fat drop of rain splattered Jax’s bare shoulder. “I didn’t do it on purpose.” He sat up and reached for her but she brushed his hand away.
She rolled her eyes. “What, you just accidentally whipped up a cauldron of double, double, toil and trouble?”
She couldn’t get much closer to the truth than that, but she’d never see it that way. Wind scattered the leaves at their feet and twisted her ebony hair around her face. Lightning flashed across the sky, illuminating Veronica in her fearsome glory. Like a vengeful goddess, she didn’t even flinch when thunder cracked a moment later.
“Answer me, dammit.”
He’d wanted so badly to make her his that he’d lost her. Bile rose in his throat as his body rebelled against his own stupidity. “Sort of.”
“What kind of answer is that?” She snorted and started to get dressed. “Then again, why should I expect any more out of someone who was willing to manipulate me with magic to make me do what he wanted.”
She stilled in the middle of pulling on her leather jumpsuit, her long hair twisting and turning around her head like an angry bird’s nest come to life. When she looked up, tears glistened, heavy in her eyes. Shoulders slumped with resignation, she slouched, half naked and emotionally vulnerable. She took in a deep breath and blinked furiously.
“You’re worse than my father. He’d berate and humiliate me in an effort to create his perfect little heiress, but he never stooped so low as to use magic to trick me.”
When Jax started to speak, she held up her hand. “Don’t bother.”
Helpless to do anything to stop her, short of sitting on her, he stood by while she finished dressing, her movements jerky. Every once in a while she’d go perfectly still with her hands curled into fists by her side. After a few deep breaths, she would loosen her hands and seemingly let go of whatever emotion had tied her up.
Seeing her like this was his worst nightmare come to life. He’d never wanted to hurt her, but it was all he’d done. A potent cocktail of guilt and remorse nearly choked him as his lungs tightened. His mother had urged him from the beginning to tell Veronica the truth, but like an idiot, he hadn’t listened. He took a deep breath and prayed it wasn’t too late. “I’d gone home to North Carolina to visit my mama after we’d recovered the Bavarian wolpertinger. You remember the craziness of tracking down that mean little horned rabbit? I’d fallen in love with you on that trip, but I couldn’t figure out how to get you to see me as more than that Jax boy with the funny accent.”
They’d spent two days tracking down the wolpertinger before cornering it in a hollow tree stump. Little did they know, the stump was actually a fairy house. A blast of magic had blown the wolpertinger out of the stump and into Veronica’s arms, the force of it knocking her on her ass. She’d lain there with twigs in her hair, laughing, but never let go of the horned rabbit. Something inside him had shifted as he’d watched dawn’s light dance across her smiling face.
“My mama had been working on a love spell when I surprised her by showing up unannounced. She’d left the bat’s wool, dog’s tongue, fairy wing and moon dust on the counter and run up to the house to fetch us some sweet tea. When I was checking out her crafting ingredients, I accidentally slipped and knocked them into her cauldron. Now, I’m a witch’s boy. I grew up next to that pot and know just enough magic to be dangerous, but not enough to help anyone a damn bit–including myself. Still, I know a love spell when I see one.”
He hadn’t planned to do it, but he’d been too selfish and lovesick to realize what a fatal mistake he was making.
“The water began to boil and swirl. A pink mist rose up, filling my nose with the scent of vanilla and my eyes with visions of your beautiful face. It knew what I wanted and just how desperate I was. I should have known better, but I called out your name anyway. That’s all it took. I tried to take it back, but it was too late. By the time my mama returned with two big glasses of sweet tea, the die was cast. Mama told me not to worry–love spells were notorious for being weak magic and the spell wouldn’t take. But when I got back to New York, it was like the world had started to spin on another axis. Within a week we were dating, a few months later we were engaged. I should have been the happiest man in the world, but the knowledge of what I’d done ate away at me. I knew I had to reverse the spell, whatever it took. What I did to you was the lowest thing one human being could do to another. I was wrong and I am so sorry.”
Pain shimmered in Veronica’s eyes as she zipped up her jumpsuit. “Did you reverse it?”
“Yes.” It had taken several pints of his blood and he’d had to forfeit three years off his life, but a medicine man in Haiti had done it.
“How do I know you’re not lying?”
“Would you rather kiss me right now or kick me in the balls?” She flipped him off and his gut sank. “Yeah, well that answers that question.”
She glared at him, bringing her hands up behind her neck. A moment later the onyx rabbit cameo fell to the ground. “Tomorrow morning we’ll go up that beanstalk. We’re going to find that damn harp for Antoine and make a dying man happy one last time. Then I’m going to walk out of these woods and never set eyes
on you again.”
She snapped her fingers. The magic carpet folded itself until it was the size of a business card and flew into a pocket on her tool belt. Without another word, she pivoted and marched toward the campsite, the goose dogging her heels.
The sky let loose with a torrential rainfall, pelting Jax with icy droplets that skated across his skin. Naked, alone and shivering at the sudden temperature change, he stood in the middle of the woods that only an hour before had been filled with their laughter. He had well and truly lost the only woman he’d ever loved and it was his own damn fault.
Chapter 10
Dawn broke without a single sparrow’s song or bright yellow ray of light. Veronica stomped out of her tent, not giving a damn about the thick gray clouds that blocked out any hint of sunshine. All she wanted was to get this last day over with. She tossed the duffel bag with Hermes’ shoes in front of Jax’s tent. She’d rather fall than accept any gifts from him.
One of her clients had been begging her to come to South Korea and hunt for Yongwang the Dragon King’s jade shield. She’d call them as soon as they got back down the blasted beanstalk. The Eastern Seaboard couldn’t get in her rearview mirror fast enough.
