Everybody Wants to Rune the World: A Happily Everlasting World Novel (Bewitchingly Ever After Book 2)

by Mandy M. Roth

  “So you were finally going to talk to her and be around her willingly?” asked Luc, seeming surprised.

  Sigmund nodded.

  Luc snorted. “All it took was the threat of her being alone with another man after the sun went down? Had I known that, I’d have pushed Darrell to spend more time with her after sunset ages ago.”

  Sigmund was not amused.

  “And then?” asked Luc. “What do you remember after heading back this way?”

  “Nothing. The next thing I knew, I woke up naked, partially in the water down near the docks,” he confessed.

  Luc stared at Runes. “Do you remember anything from your time in shifted form last night?”

  “I have vague impressions, which is more than I had in the past,” admitted Sigmund. “They don’t make a lot of sense.”

  “How is that?” asked Luc.

  “Because it feels mostly peaceful,” confessed Sigmund. “And oddly, I can’t get a Dolly Parton song out of my head this morning. The one with the same name as my aunt. To add to the level of weirdness, I keep thinking of wedding bells and a garden with an octopus, too. Doesn’t make a lot of sense.”

  Luc took another drink of his coffee. “What if I was to tell you that you paid someone a visit last night while in kraken form?”

  “Who?” asked Sigmund, his heart leaping to his throat. “Was it York? Did I attack his houseboat? Was it Walden? Is that why I haven’t been able to reach him? I plan to tell him everything—about how I woke up naked after having clearly lost control. About how I was right about the dead body he mentioned finding yesterday morning—I could have done that. Actually, I’m sure I did. My kraken is a monster in every sense of the word, and he’s back.”

  “York and Walden are fine,” said Luc.

  Sigmund noticed Luc avoided confirming whether he’d killed anyone while in kraken form. That was twice the devil had artfully dodged the question.

  That could mean only one thing: he’d taken another life. Maybe more than one.

  “So what is your plan for the day then? Planning to hire Arnold to walk around town announcing your kraken has been released?” asked Luc. “He has his bell back now, you know. His yearlong ban on it has passed. Town council gave it back to him—against my wishes I might add.”

  “I plan to give Blackbeard back his coin. And York mentioned before that his dad gets to work in the mornings around nine,” said Sigmund quietly. “My plan is to then head over to the station. I’m going to turn myself in.”

  Luc stood next to him, saying nothing for what felt like forever before he finally spoke again. “I see. Is that what you want to do?”

  “Yes,” answered Sigmund. “I should be locked away.”

  “Maybe, maybe not,” said Luc before he motioned to Runes. “Isn’t there anyone special you’d miss if you were locked away? If you and your kraken were contained?”

  Yes, but Sigmund wasn’t about to admit as much out loud.

  “I’m a danger to everyone I care about,” said Sigmund, choking back a sob. “I wanted to pretend that everything was going to be different down here. That I had the kraken well in hand. I don’t. I never did. I plan to be waiting outside Walden’s office when he gets in today. It’s high time I was put away for the safety of everyone.”

  “You hate your shifter side,” stated Luc, not saying anything Sigmund didn’t already know. “You think it’s inherently evil. It’s not.”

  “Right.” Sigmund snorted. “It got away from me last night, and may have been doing so longer than that. It happened before. It’s happening again. I’m sick just thinking about what that monster more than likely did last night. Who it hurt. Who it went after.”

  “It did something you’ve refused to do,” said Luc, no traces of worry in his voice.

  “W-what?” asked Sigmund, almost afraid to hear the answer.

  The devil had the nerve to grin, as if the topic at hand was anything close to amusing. “Your shifter side did what you seem to avoid at all costs. It went to her. It went to its mate.”

  Sigmund dropped his cup of coffee. What was left of the liquid within splashed onto the floor.

  The idea he could have harmed Virginia sent him into a tailspin. He started to run past Luc, to seek out Virginia. If he’d hurt her…if he’d done the unthinkable and—

  The devil caught his arm, holding him in place. “She’s safe and sound. You didn’t hurt her.”

  “I didn’t?” Sigmund’s breathing was harsh as his pulse raced.

  Luc kept hold of him. “You gave her a small scare to start with, but the second she saw the kraken, she knew it was you.”

  Closing his eyes, Sigmund fought to keep hold of his emotions. “She saw me as a monster?”

  “No, Sigmund. She saw you as what you are, a shifter male.”

  “A monster,” corrected Sigmund.

  “Her concern for you was so powerful, it’s what alerted me there was an issue at all. Her line has mystical connections to me. It has for centuries. Winston, Missi’s familiar, also paid me a visit, letting me know you were on the loose.”

  “You’re related to them?” asked Sigmund, surprised that Luc had never mentioned as much before.

  Furfur hurried over and began lapping up the spilled coffee from the floor and the baseboard. Sigmund would have worried about the hellhound drinking coffee, but he’d seen the thing eat a demon the other day right after spending the afternoon chewing on a femur that he’d dug up from the cemetery next door. Not to mention Betty was always giving Furfur dried werewolf toes as dog treats, which she’d gotten in bulk and were delivered on a monthly basis. She’d even mentioned something about saving by subscribing, whatever that meant.

  Coffee was the best thing Furfur had ingested as of late.

  “No,” said Luc, his voice tight. Something was off with the man. “I’m not related to them, but I do have ties to them. I sensed Virginia’s fear and reached out mystically, but I don’t think she sensed me. Her greatest fear last night was of losing you. She understood you wouldn’t have shifted into a kraken on your own—willingly—that you hate that side of yourself. She knew seeing you in kraken form meant you’d lost control, and she was afraid you’d leave here like you did Everlasting. That is the last thing she wants to have happen.”

  Sigmund tensed. “She wants me here?”

  Luc glanced at him. “For a man who has an IQ well into genius range, you can be incredibly stupid at times.”

  “Uh, thanks,” said Sigmund, looking out the window at Runes. “She never seems to notice me, and she doesn’t talk to me at all. Is it because she’s shy?”

  Luc laughed. “Oh, she notices you, Sig. Virginia is actually very talkative and outgoing. But with you, she’s different. I think she senses a connection to you but doesn’t understand what it is. Not to mention, you give her nothing in the way of hints to indicate she’s important to you or that she matters at all. In fact, of the two of you, you’re the one who doesn’t speak to her, and from her vantage point, doesn’t notice her.”

  “I more than notice her,” said Sigmund, his entire body tense. “She’s all I notice.”

  “I know that, but she can’t read your mind, Bails,” added Luc. “Nor does she speak kraken, which, from what I gather, Petey is well on his way to learning. I’m not sure if you’re aware of this, but it’s very close to how dragons speak.”

  “What?”

  Luc shook his head. “What are you going to do about your mate?”

  “Nothing. I don’t bring anything to the table,” said Sigmund. “She deserves better.”

  “Well, if you keep ignoring the pull to her and keep doing your best to get locked away, she’s likely to find someone else,” warned Luc.

  Sigmund stiffened more. “Darrell?”

  “Yes.”

  Mine.

  His breath caught at the visceral reaction he had to the idea Virginia would end up with that man.

  Luc laughed.

  He shot him a hard lo
ok.

  Luc appeared amused. “Baiting you is easier than it should be, Bails. Far easier.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  “Are you picking on Sigmund again?” asked Morgan, her voice sounding close.

  She’d yet to show herself to Sigmund, but he’d gotten used to not being able to see her. Used to her presence. Even used to the ’80s music she played nearly nonstop some days.

  Luc smiled. “I am. It’s almost too easy.”

  Morgan laughed softly. “Sig, did I hear Bob talking about you and Virginia having twin love children due any day now, and that the two of you were married in a secret ceremony out behind Runes?”

  Sigmund groaned, dropping his head into his hands.

  Luc snorted. “Twins? Wait until later today. It will be triplets.”

  “For sure,” said Morgan. “I was hoping there was some truth to it all.”

  Luc grinned, looking like the cat who ate the canary. “Who said there wasn’t?”

  Morgan chuckled. “Right. To marry her and have children with her, he’d have to speak to her first.”

  “What she said,” added Sigmund.

  “Are we staring at Runes this morning—again?” asked Morgan. “How utterly unsurprising.”

  Sigmund cringed. “I don’t stare at Runes that much, do I?”

  “Dude, you want me to answer that or just let it hang there and pretend I didn’t hear it?” asked Morgan.

  “Let it hang there,” replied Sigmund.

  Furfur picked then to run around the room at a high speed as a ray of sun came through the front window, just right to reflect off a hall mirror and onto a wall. He barked at the beam of light.

  “Who let him have caffeine?” asked Morgan with a huff. “Every time he has caffeine, he barks at light and the full moon. I swear he thinks it’s a big ball in the sky, just waiting to be thrown for him to fetch or bury in his secret stash areas. Speaking of which, I packed up some of the items he stole from guests last month. They need to be shipped out. I tried to arrange for at-home pickup, but Barnebas is terrified of coming to the door. Sig, can you drop them by the post office this week?”

  Luc glanced to his right. “I’ll handle it. Sigmund will be busy this week.”

  “Big fishing week?” she asked.

  “Depends on if you’re talking about him possibly catching a mate or not,” said Luc. “Or ending up behind bars.”

  Morgan huffed. “He has a greater chance of catching the flu with how much he doesn’t actually talk to his mate. And I’ve seen him walking down to the end of a block to cross there, instead of jaywalking. Not really a big lawbreaker. Unless you count that whole killing-the-Collective-members thing. Which we don’t.”

  Sigmund froze. “You know who my mate is too?”

  “Uh, Sig, pretty sure everyone in town has figured it out by now,” said Morgan. “Petey was walking around singing about the siren and the kraken the other day while he was eating a peanut butter and hot pepper sandwich. Side note, it turns out Betty is a fan of them. But she did say it would taste better with a kidney on it. Ran into him upstairs as he was coming out of the extra bathroom, wearing a pink polka-dot robe. He was singing the song ‘Jolene’ and then told me congratulations were in order for you and Virginia today. What’s that about? Why didn’t he use his own bathroom? And you wouldn’t happen to know anything about where he got the robe, would you?”

  Cringing, Sigmund averted his gaze. “Nope. No idea where the robe came from.”

  “Right,” said Morgan. “So that wasn’t you coming in late last night wearing that very robe?”

  Sigmund winced. “You saw that?”

  “Yep. Also noticed you tried making some calls right after you got in last night,” she said, sounding like she was up to something. “How did that work out for you?”

  “None of them would go through,” said Sigmund. “It was strange.”

  “Totally,” said Morgan with a snort.

  He tensed. “You didn’t have anything to do with that, did you?”

  “Luc, can you have Virginia work another spell for Sig? Maybe with more dark magic?” asked Morgan, ignoring his question about the calls not going through.

  Luc took a deep breath. “I could, but dark magic comes with a price. And there is the fact that while Virginia’s magic calls to her, like her siren side, she doesn’t like using it. She, like you, Sigmund, fears her supernatural side. And she avoids dark magic at all costs—or she did, until the day she met you. Then she didn’t blink at the idea. She leapt right in.”

  Sigmund gasped. “She drew on dark magic for me?”

  “She did.”

  His throat went dry. “She did something she hates for me?”

  “Under the always-put-together woman you see is a woman with a huge heart,” said Luc. “She saw a man in need, one she felt an instant connection to, and she did what needed to be done.”

  Sigmund stared at the restaurant. “Sometimes I sense magic coming from there. If she doesn’t like it, why do I feel it? And it’s normally when it’s not open. When it’s just her there. And I think I can hear singing coming from there then, too. I thought it might be the radio, but I tried looking up the songs, with no success on figuring out who the artists are.”

  “The singing is Virginia. And the magic you sense is coming from her then, too.” Luc laughed. “She’s a witch, Sig. Her spells don’t naturally come in the form of potions or herbs. She naturally channels what she can do into something else.”

  Sigmund thought harder on it. “Her cooking!”

  “Yes. Her mother and grandmother tell her as much, but Virginia denies it. In truth, she isn’t aware she’s even doing it most of the time. It’s in her nature to want to fix things for people. To make them happy. To right their lives. She does this through cooking—or did you miss how she brought food over nearly nonstop for the first three months you were here? I’d also like to point out you’re no longer walking around sneezing your fool head off. That’s thanks to her magic being naturally woven into what she cooks for you. She’s helped your allergies all this time.”

  He paused, thinking harder about it all. Luc was right: he’d not suffered from allergies since the night Virginia had first met him and made them all dinner. That had been the end of his sneezing.

  She’d done that for him?

  “I knew she brought food, but she didn’t do it while I was present,” said Sig. “She avoids me. I figured it was because she knew about me killing the Collective members. I assumed I scared her.”

  “She has no love for the Collective. Trust me,” said Luc.

  Morgan made a small noise that sounded as if she were getting choked up. “No. Not after what they did to her—or tried to do.”

  Sigmund tensed. “What did they do to her?”

  “Hedgewitch Cove has had too many dealings with them to count,” said Luc. “Once, when Virginia was around the age of seven—which I think was around twenty years ago this week—an abduction attempt was made by a group working closely with the Collective. They wanted a siren. One they could mold into the perfect weapon. One they could gift to someone loyal to them. A top-ranking member.”

  “What?” Sigmund saw red, and his kraken roared within him, wanting free to hunt every last Collective member to the ends of the Earth.

  “Look at that. Got over his aversion to wanting to end them pretty quickly,” said Morgan through what sounded like tears.

  “What happened?” he demanded.

  “York and Louis were playing catch outside while Virginia read a book,” said Morgan. “The attempt was made on her, and the twins locked hands and drew on their magic side. It’s not something either of them use much, or have much control over, but in that moment, they were fierce. They were just kids themselves, but no one was going to touch their sister.

  “What they did sent up a red flare through town, alerting every magic here that there was danger. Howie and I felt the call, and we went right away. I can appear where I want
. Howie ran over. Blackbeard got there when I did, because he can pop into places too, and he didn’t take kindly to the Collective being anywhere near the kids. Howie took the idea of her being in harm’s way even worse, and let me just say, he is not a guy you want gunning for you. Murielle came running out of the house, ready to throw her magic into the mix, but she wasn’t even needed. We all had it well in hand. Blackbeard shielded the kids, I held York back, who was a scrapper even then, and Howie went to town on those Collective members.”

  Luc let out a soft sigh. “Murielle had been so upset with herself for not being outside when it all happened. She’d been inside tending to Missi, who had a case of the pigeon pox.”

  “You mean chicken pox?” asked Sigmund.

  “Nope. There was an unfortunate cursing incident between the kids,” said Morgan with a snort. “Apparently, the family had been down by the water the day before, having a picnic lunch together on the pier, when Missi took Virginia’s book—which she was never without—and ran with it, only to have her sister spit out a curse wishing the pigeon pox on her. It happened. Wasn’t catching though or anything. Just annoying for poor little Missi. Virginia felt horrible about it. Pretty sure they all still tease her about it to this day.”

  Sigmund thought about it all. “The Collective wanted a siren?”

  “Yes,” said Luc. “And had they been successful in taking her, they’d have more than likely been able to groom her from that young age to be every bit the weapon against the side of good that they were hoping for.”

  “I think that’s why she’s so scared of her siren side,” said Morgan. “Because she knows if they wanted her for that ability, it must be dangerous and powerful. And Sigmund, trust me when I say that knowing you took two of those evil men off the streets for good only made her like you more.”

  Sigmund blushed. “She doesn’t like me. Not like that. I’m nothing more than a friend to her brother.”