mythean arcana 07 - witchs fate by Linsey Hall Page B

man.”
    It was a loaded sentence she didn’t want to explore. She also didn’t want to argue. They needed to get started. “Fine. Whatever.”
    She polished off her omelet quickly, swigged the rest of her coffee, then stood. He rose and stepped toward her, his clean, spicy scent sweeping over her. She wanted to breathe him in forever. 
    Bad idea. And his clean smell only reminded her that she hadn’t showered in ages. She hadn’t even changed. She’d just gotten out of bed and gone to seek him out.
    She definitely had a problem. 
    “I need a quick shower,” she said. “Is there a bathroom attached to the green room?”
    “There is.”
    She left without another word, her nerves twisted into knots over the way he made her feel. Eating with him had reminded her of what they’d once had. True, it had been far more fraught with tension this time, but it had taken her back to quiet meals with him at Corrier’s home. They’d fallen for each other during those long nights. 
    He’d been a different man then. Happier. He’d never been a jokester, but he hadn’t been entirely serious and dark. She’d never failed to get a laugh out of him if she wanted to. As she’d done this morning, in fact. She hadn’t meant the personal assistant bit as a joke. Not really.
    But she’d liked it when he’d laughed.
    Idiot. He didn’t deserve her soft thoughts. Nor could she afford them.
    Pushing thoughts of him from her mind, she raced up the stairs to the green bedroom and found her way to the bathroom.
    Whoa. The castle might be old, but the bathroom certainly wasn’t. Marble and wood gleamed. An enormous shower beckoned.
    She made quick work of washing up, though in any other circumstance she would have hung out a lot longer. Maybe tried out the huge sunken tub.
    A wave of her wand gave her fresh clothes and a warm jacket. 

 
     
     

    CHAPTER SEVEN
     
    “Holy shit, it’s cold here,” Sofia said.
    A grin cracked Malcolm’s face as he glanced at her. Surprised, he almost reached up to touch his own cheek. It was the second today. A record. 
    They stood in an alley near Salem’s main street, having just aetherwalked from his home.
    “I suppose you don’t get out of the jungle much,” he said. She wore a puffy brown jacket that somehow still managed to highlight her curves. He still wasn’t used to actually seeing her. After so long apart, it was hard to keep his gaze off her.
    Kitty stood at her side, scowling. The familiar didn’t like the cold either.
    “Not to cold places,” she said. “How is it colder here than in Scotland?”
    “Gulf stream. But it’s not much worse. You’re just used to the jungle.”
    “True.” She set off down the alley, her footsteps silent on the cobblestone.
    They walked out onto a residential street. Behind them were shops. Being one of America’s older cities, Salem was a mix of long-standing houses and shops pressed up against one another.
    “Looks like a Halloween bomb exploded here,” Sofia said, surveying the street avidly.
    Malcolm dragged his gaze from her. Red, orange, and yellow leaves rustled in the trees and floated through the air to land on the brick walkway beneath their feet. The homes on the other side of the street were all New England charm. Clapboard fronts with jack-o-lanterns on the stoops and a mishmash of other Halloween decorations. Two women in witch hats giggled as they walked down the other sidewalk.
    “Mortals,” Sofia said. “I hear they like it here around Halloween. It’s commercial, but the magic beneath it all is what draws them, I think.”
    “Makes sense. Some mortals are sensitive to it.” Though they had no idea that another world existed alongside their own, full of real witches and things that went bump in the night.
    “Let’s see if we can find the entrance to the Mythean street. Salem Hollow, I think it’s called.”
    They turned and headed up the street. A black wooden building sat on the corner. With a steep roof, an