Open All Hours (Carnival Magic 2) by Eden Royce

Author:Eden Royce [Royce, Eden]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: BIN 07317-02359
Publisher: Changeling Press LLC
Published: 2015-04-05T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Four

Instantly, sounds came back full blast, shocking her now sensitive ears.

“Ugh,” she groaned, clutching her ears. Her knees buckled and she sank to the floor.

“Hey, hey… what’s the issue?” Tone’s voice was right above her and he lifted her from the floor onto a stool from the customer side of the bar. “You look strange in the face.”

Where else would I look strange? “I -- I’m fine. I’m okay.”

The dual-pigmented man’s face was impassive, but somehow he was able to communicate his disbelief of her statement. Don’t depend on anyone. Especially not a man. Only yourself, her inner critic scolded her, even as she opened her mouth to speak. She silenced it quickly this time. It’s magic. Witches and curses and spells. What can I depend on myself for?

“She was here.” Leesa knew Vol had mentioned she was attacked in the woods to the thin man, but she didn’t know how much Tone knew. “The woman from the woods. She threatened me.” Her words came out forced as she pushed past her hesitance.

Tone nodded. His face showed no sign he thought she was weak or helpless. It said: I know that was hard. “Why didn’t I hear anything?” The question was directed to himself, but Leesa answered.

“Some kind of spell. Everything slowed down, went quiet, except her and me.”

“She gone now?”

Leesa nodded and dragged in a deep breath.

“You stay here.” He sniffed as if congested. “I’mma do a sweep, see what I can find. Five minutes, okay?”

“Okay.” How the hell had this become so complicated and crazy? A sweep? Good Lord. Her mother would be saying, “If you had only taken that kindergarten teacher job I had lined up for you, this wouldn’t have happened.”

He looked her over again, clinically -- assessing her wellness -- then took the tie from her hair. Her braids fell forward, gently beating against her cheeks until they finally stopped against her shoulders. Then he was gone.

One of the servers came up and ordered a vodka gimlet for a customer. “Bit early for the hard stuff, isn’t it?” Leesa curled her upper lip in a disdainful manner.

The bald woman shrugged. “Not really. It’s after eleven.”

Leesa made the drink and as she shook it vigorously, she saw a few of her braids swing away from her face in the reflective metal of the cocktail shaker. Trembling, she poured the drink into a glass and pushed it at the young woman. As she touched her cat ears, she drank the rest of the cocktail in one shot from a coffee mug.

Tone and Vol returned together a few minutes later. She’d heard the motorcycle pull up when she was mixing the drink, but she presumed they wanted to have a private conversation. Fine by her. As long as they could come up with a way to get this cat curse out of her. She wanted her life back.

What terrified her more though was the lie. That lie she’d just told herself. She didn’t want her life back.

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