Safe Hex: A Hexy Witch Mystery (Womby's School for Wayward Witches Book 16)

by Sarina Dorie

  “It would be a shame if I took a photograph of you while you were wearing that dress and showed it to everyone at work.” It was an idle threat. Thatch wouldn’t have packed my phone in my bag.

  “This is a Fae household. You can’t have a camera. Elric’s security would have confiscated it by now.” She looked doubtful.

  I shrugged.

  A door burst open behind me.

  Vega shoved me down onto the love seat, hiding me from view. She whispered, “Play dead.”

  “What? Why?” I asked.

  “Where is Clarissa?” Elric asked, an edge of panic in his voice.

  She covered my mouth with a hand, her voice almost inaudible. “Because I want to have some fun.”

  Footsteps trampled closer. I closed my eyes and played dead. It was better to humor Vega and stay on her good side.

  The footsteps halted.

  “Son of a succubus! What have you done with her?” Elric demanded.

  “I’ve murdered her.” Vega paused. “Five times.”

  A cold hand took mine, discreetly palpating my wrist. It felt like Thatch’s touch, medically objective.

  “She’s dead? How could you? After all the effort I took to revive her?” Elric shouted. “I’m ashamed of you, Vega. I cannot believe I married such a heartless witch.”

  She giggled. Thatch squeezed my hand before releasing it.

  “Very well. You leave me no other choice.” Elric’s voice took on a flair of drama. “I will need you to return that diamond-encrusted coffin I gave you on our wedding night. Clarissa needs it more than you do.”

  I tried not to laugh. A coffin sounded like something Vega would ask for on her wedding night. She’d probably had sex with him in it too. I was not going to let anyone put me in one of her coffins again. Apparently, Vega wasn’t either.

  “No. She’s dead. She can’t appreciate that coffin,” Vega said. “She can have my old one.”

  “No. I quite insist. Mr. Thatch, fetch me a servant. I need someone to retrieve that coffin.”

  Vega clucked her tongue. “Here, I’ll revive her with my forbidden magic.” She smacked me on the knee, sending a jolt of pain up my leg. “Wake up. I resurrect you from the dead.”

  I blinked my eyes open. Elric leaned over me. Thatch sat in a chair, watching the melodrama with benign interest.

  “Oh, dearest Clarissa! Are you all right?” Elric asked, his expression the theatrical exaggeration of pain that one might see on a stage. “I’m afraid my wicked wife may have cursed you. But it seems all is well now.”

  “Is it?” Vega smirked. “How do you know I won’t do it again?”

  Elric winked at me, obviously not disturbed by Vega’s antics. He rounded on her. “Vile woman! I shall have to punish you!”

  She lifted an eyebrow. “What do you have in mind?”

  He grabbed her by the arms and lifted her from her chair, enclosing her in his embrace. He leaned toward her ear, his whisper too quiet to hear. A grin spread across her face. They were a good match for each other.

  I looked over at Thatch who was watching me. I sat up and patted the love seat beside me. He hesitated, glancing at Elric, who was occupied with nibbling at Vega’s neck.

  Thatch strolled over, planting himself next to me. “I take it you made up with Vega.”

  I nodded. “Or something close to it.” I still wasn’t sure what I needed to do to make it up to him.

  He leaned closer, his breath brushing my ear. “I imagine she told you it was her idea.”

  “What was?”

  “That you needed your affinity to help you heal.”

  Vega laughed in Elric’s arms, swaying to a song while he hummed. My heart played a sad note as I watched them. She had figured out what I needed even if it had cost her in the end. I wondered if she had realized Elric would need to be the one to cure me, not my own husband. She was a good friend, better to me than I had ever been to her.

  “How about some real music?” Elric turned to us. “I’m sure we’d prefer to hear the pianoforte over my humming, wouldn’t you?” He kissed Vega’s hand. “Will my beautiful wife do the honors?”

  “I didn’t know you played, Vega,” Thatch said.

  Was he serious? What didn’t Vega do?

  “Oh, she took it up recently in her spare time,” Elric said quite proudly. “She’s quite accomplished. Perhaps Clarissa will sing to accompany her.”

  “Oh boy.” Because I was ever so accomplished and refined, just like a young lady from a Jane Austen novel.

  Vega crossed the room, sitting at a bench. She scooted to the side, making room for me. Reluctantly, I sat beside her. She opened a music booklet and began to play. Elric and Thatch sat in chairs, speaking quietly while watching us. Thatch scowled until he caught me watching him. Then he plastered a great big fake smile on his face. I didn’t know if we were meant to be entertainment or this was to distract our attention from their words.

  Vega nudged me. “You are supposed to sing.”

  “Oh yeah.”

  I skimmed the lyrics. It wasn’t a song I knew. I tapped my heels against the floor, trying to soften the stiff slippers.

  She nudged me again. “You missed your cue.”

  I started singing, which was mostly reading the lyrics since I had never sung using sheet music to guide me for a song I’d never heard before. She stopped playing, glaring at me. “Can’t you at least try?”

  “I am.”

  I heard Elric on the other side of the room speaking to Thatch. “It isn’t like you had a better idea.”

  Vega glanced over her shoulder, looking her husband up and down. “I’m not going to make beautiful music for you if you’re going to just ignore me.”

  Elric closed his mouth and folded his hands in his lap. She had him trained.

  Vega started singing, loud enough to drown me out, which I was thankful for. She had a pretty voice. It was perfect, like the rest of her. At the end of the song, our audience of two clapped.

  A servant brought us wine, and Vega started up another song. She leaned toward me. “Go walk around the room and try to listen to what they’re saying as you admire the furniture.”

  She was very clever. I took her advice and wandered around the room. I didn’t look at Thatch or Elric as I meandered past their seats. Even so, they both stopped talking as I neared. I was probably about as good at being a spy as I was at playing dead.

  My shoes were uncomfortable, and it was a trial to make rounds in the room. My foot hurt where Vega had stepped on it, and my leg had a charley horse from where Vega had punched me to “resurrect” me. I tripped on the hem of my dress. It sounded like I tore it.

  When Vega finished the song, Elric stood up, clapping enthusiastically.

  “What do you think of a minuet?” Elric asked. “Something we can dance to?”

  “You mean for you and Clarissa? Or you and Thatch?” Vega’s eyes narrowed. “We wouldn’t want you to overtax Clarissa.”

  Elric laughed. “That’s my wife. She can be so droll.”

  Thatch stood and offered me his hand. I took it. Vega started up a waltz. I could do waltzes. She played slow, either because she was afraid I wouldn’t be able to keep up or because she knew I wouldn’t be able to keep up.

  I stepped on Thatch’s toes.

  “Sorry, that’s my two left feet,” I said.

  He shifted to a slower shuffle, omitting the box step entirely. He held me closer so that I could lean my cheek against his chest. I enjoyed the closeness to him. My affinity fluttered with yearning. The only thing that distracted me from my magic was my uncomfortable shoes.

  As we swayed from side to side, I noticed the way I leaned against him more heavily.

  “You’re fatigued. It’s been a long day. It wouldn’t be rude to retire early,” Thatch said.

  It wasn’t that. I wasn’t tired. It was my feet. I tried to wiggle my toes in the pointed slippers. I couldn’t
tell whether they had grown too tight or I was losing sensation in my feet.

  “I think I need to take off these shoes. They don’t feel right.” My knees buckled, and I clung to him.

  Thatch’s jaw clenched. “We’re getting you to bed right now.”

  Before I could object, he lifted me into his arms. Vega’s music cut out abruptly. Elric was at his side.

  “I’m fine,” I said. “I just wanted to take my shoes off.”

  Elric removed my shoes and dropped them to the floor, trying to massage my feet as Thatch made his way toward the double doors to the dining room. Thatch’s face had turned red, and he was sweating. I wasn’t that heavy, but I knew he’d grown weak.

  “Give her to me,” Elric said.

  Thatch looked as though he might refuse.

  Vega smacked him in the shoulder with a fan. “Don’t be pompous and prideful. You’re going to drop Clarissa trying to go up the stairs.”

  “It’s not a big deal. I can walk up the stairs on my own.” I said it, but I wasn’t so sure. As Thatch transferred me to Elric’s arms, I noticed my feet tingled. I wasn’t sure I felt my legs where he grabbed them.

  Elric carried me, taking the steps two at a time. Thatch and Vega followed us up to our room, shadows in the stairwell behind us.

  “Do you feel as though you’re about to fall asleep again?” Elric questioned. “Do you feel pain? Discomfort?”

  “No.” This wasn’t like before when I’d fainted. I just couldn’t control the creeping numbness making its way up my legs. “Maybe it was the shoes. They might have been cursed, like the one time I wore the red high heels that I thought were a gift from Felix.”

  Elric’s Fae wife had been behind that curse.

  He shook his head. “These slippers you wore tonight weren’t cursed.”

  Thatch’s voice came from behind us, out of breath. “Not cursed, but uncomfortable. That’s what you said? Your affinity requires pleasure. It’s possible the shoes disrupted the healing Elric did by providing the opposite of what your affinity needed to continue healing.”

  “And now you’re going to need some more fucking pleasure to fix things again,” Vega said. I wasn’t sure if her curse word was meant as emphasis or as a descriptor to the kind of pleasure I needed.

  The moment Elric set me on my bed, he lifted my skirts above my knees and tore away my stockings. He started massaging one of my feet. His touch banished the cold prickles and sent feeling back into my muscles.

  Vega shouted something at a servant outside the room, her voice harsh and clipped, sounding angrier than panicked. “Find my husband’s crown of healing. And that damned scepter covered in gemstones. And there’s a tonic in a green glass bottle in my room that will lend him more strength. Make sure not to grab the one that smells like bitter almond.”

  Apparently she kept cyanide in her room.

  Thatch sat at the foot of the bed and picked up my other foot. He massaged my heel with quiet determination, as though my life depended on it.

  “Now might be an appropriate time for you to focus your awareness,” Thatch said, eyes glued on my foot. “Direct Elric’s magic to the places it would benefit you the most.”

  “I thought you told me to not use magic.” He hadn’t wanted me to hurt myself, to drain myself more.

  Thatch cast a resentful glare at his rival. “Elric wasn’t here earlier. Now he is. He can temper any fluctuations in your magic if you should start to lose control.”

  Elric nodded in agreement.

  I had lost control in the past. People had gotten hurt. “If I lose control, I might electrocute Elric.”

  “Not with me here, you won’t.” Vega poked me in the shoulder.

  “Ow!” I said. “You’re not helping me make happy touch magic every time you beat me up like that.”

  She snorted. “I’m not beating you up. You’re just a wimp.”

  Elric shook his head at us. “Ladies, could we have some quiet? We all have a job to do here.”

  Vega fell silent, her mouth set in a grim line. She adjusted the pillows behind me, making me more comfortable. Probably she didn’t want to leave me alone with her husband. I couldn’t blame her. I wouldn’t want her and Thatch to be left alone together if I knew he still had feelings for her and the only way to save her from losing the ability to walk was by having sex with her.

  Servants came in with a crown, a rejuvenating tonic, and a scepter. None of those made a difference. I could feel the magic radiating off Elric. It was so strong it burned my eyes, but none of his toys were able to increase my own magic. My affinity remained separate and guarded, protected by a barricade of stone.

  The only action they were able to do to bring relief was touch. I felt like a patient in a hospital with multiple doctors working to resuscitate me. It was difficult to focus on energies with an audience. Slowly the broken lines of light inside me that I’d noticed earlier strengthened. They filled with strength, energy shifting from my core, through my pelvis and to my legs. The flow of red light was still weak in some areas, but I felt whole and complete, my affinity strengthening as they massaged me.

  Yet every time Elric or Thatch stopped touching me, the numbness seeped back into my legs.

  Elric exchanged a look with Thatch. He glanced at me and then away. I feared I knew what that look meant. It was time for sex magic again.

  Vega stood up abruptly. “I need to go check on the baby.” She marched out, high heels hammering into the floor at a rapid pace.

  Elric rose next. I felt some relief at that.

  He gave a curt bow. “I shall give you twenty minutes of privacy. Ring the bell if you need me, and I will come sooner.” He winked at me in his rakish way and exited.

  Thatch set my feet on his lap, trying to rub them both at once, but not doing the best job on either foot. “Elric and I have been discussing your condition.”

  “You mean tonight? When you were talking in the parlor and didn’t want me to hear.”

  “Indeed. Elric didn’t want you to hear. He has left it up to me to convince you that it’s for your own good to consummate your magic with his every day to ensure your full recovery.”

  “But you don’t agree?”

  He wet his lips, delaying, perhaps thinking it over. “I do.”

  “Every day? For how long?”

  “Until you’ve fully recovered. It might be weeks or months.”

  “Months? What about work?” My students needed me.

  His voice remained carefully controlled. “If you’re well, you can return in a few weeks even if Elric has to keep up with his . . . treatments. If you aren’t well, they have found someone who will cover your position. That’s the least of your worries.”

  I wasn’t sure what the majority of my worries were. Not recovering? Or our relationship not recovering. This was all too overwhelming.

  “What about you? And Vega? I married you, not Elric. Can’t you replenish your affinity faster so you can be the one to heal me, not him?”

  “I have asked myself the same question. The answer has yet to be determined.”

  I knew this was what had to happen, even if neither of us liked it. “How much time do we have before he comes back?”

  “Enough time for me to show you how much I love you.” He leaned forward and kissed my knee. “Enough time for you to enjoy my company and think about how wonderful I am as a lover and husband.” He scooted up next to me and drew me into his arms. He planted kisses along my neck. “When you’re with him, promise me you’ll imagine it’s me kissing you.”

  I laughed at that. “Good idea. I will.”

  He undressed me, his mouth nibbling a path along my naked skin. My affinity awakened in me like sparks of fire igniting dried grass. Everything that had felt dead inside me moments before now danced with life. I felt strong and new, my magic rebuilding the passages inside me as he healed me with his touch.

  I threaded my fingers through
his silky hair, pretending this moment might last forever. I lay entwined in his arms, hungry for him to have me before Elric came back. If only the hourglass of time could have paused for us.

  Elric returned all too soon. I didn’t even hear the door open or close.

  He tapped Thatch on the shoulder and asked, “May I cut in?” As though this were nothing more than a dance.

  I would have kept my word and imagined Thatch in Elric’s stead, but I wasn’t so disciplined. The moment Elric touched his lips to mine, I forgot all else but pleasure. It was going to be a difficult road ahead of me to separate love and lust.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Her Delicate Condition

  I found myself alone in my bed in the morning. I rose, unimpeded by a lack of ability. A servant eventually came in, served me breakfast, and helped me dress. She gifted me with a variety of slippers to try until I found ones that were the perfect fit. She was a quiet young woman who kept her gaze on the floor, not much older than Womby’s graduates.

  “Am I allowed to leave my room?” I asked, my gaze flickering to the sunshine outside.

  “I don’t know, ma’am. You would have to ask the master and the mistress of the house.”

  “Do you know where my husband is?”

  “He’s in the basement.” She lowered her gaze. “I . . . I was told he isn’t to be disturbed.”

  Ah. In the dungeon. Good for him.

  After she left, I gazed out the window. I considered the merits of remaining in the sanctuary of my room. There were books and art supplies. Yet those couldn’t tempt me. If I overtaxed myself, it meant I would need to have sex with Elric. If I injured myself and caused myself pain, most likely, it meant I would need to have sex with Elric. If I did nothing at all, and I recovered exactly as I was supposed to, it probably meant that every day I would still need to have sex with Elric.

  I decided to leave my room.

  No one stopped me.

  I wandered around the house, opening doors and giving myself a tour. It was even more immense than I had known—three floors plus a basement that was supposed to mostly be the wine cellar, larder for items that needed a cooler temperature, storage, and supposedly a dungeon with cells for prisoners and trespassers as one servant confided. I didn’t venture there. If Thatch needed privacy to draw out his affinity, I wasn’t going to intrude.