Cookies, Curses, and Kisses Read online

  “Ow! For crying out loud,” I cried and slapped a hand over the goose egg I could feel sprouting on the side of my forehead.

  I was dizzy, and my stomach was swaying.

  “Oh my God, Zinnia, I’m sorry,” Zane said in a breathless rush, and though my head banged like a drum, I was able to keep my eyes half open.

  He rushed around the counter and latched a hand onto my elbow, guiding me toward the back.

  “You need ice on that, I think. I didn’t mean to startle you. I... I just... well,” he said lamely, “I don’t know what I wanted to do other than see you tonight.”

  “What?” I asked, head hurting and ears ringing, because there was no way he’d actually said he wanted to see me tonight.

  “Boss? Boss, are you okay?”

  Delilah was at our side only a second later when she saw me walking through. I could only imagine the sight I made, staggering around, looking hoary-eyed on hooch and slurring my words. What a pickle I’d landed myself in.

  Again.

  Head pounding, I shook it slightly. “I’m just the bees knees, Del, but if you would be a peach and check on our customers, I need a minute, I think.”

  “More like an hour,” Zane said in his deep timbre. I shivered with heat despite the ice picks ramming through my brain. “That is, if you don’t mind,” he said, looking at me.

  Feeling a little numb and not altogether sure I wasn’t trapped in some lovely but painful dream, I shook my head. “I don’t mind.”

  A ghost of a smile flitted over Delilah’s pretty face before she nodded. “Sure thing, boss.”

  Then she was gone in a whirl, leaving a perfume of coffee and sugar in her wake.

  The breads in the back were baking, dough floating in the air as they rose. Unmanned spoons were stirring thick pots of porridge and sugary glazes. The griddle was sizzling with dozens of freshly-poured flapjacks, browning up nicely.

  There was no way to deny magick thrived in here. I expected Zane to look shocked or disturbed, but he looked neither. He’d taken a quick glance and then shrugged, as if it was what it was, and he was done expecting the rational around me any longer.

  Feeling more in charge of my faculties now, I gently extricated my elbow from his loose grasp and shuffled toward the cabinet that held all my spices.

  Willow bark tea would definitely help the dull ache in my head. “Where’s Edward?” I asked, reaching for something to say to cut through the silence.

  “Actually, he’s sitting at the counter eating his bourbon apple pancakes, demolishing them I would imagine. He wanted to come say hi to you.”

  I frowned. “I didn’t see him there.”

  “Considering I just about made you jump out of your skin, I can’t imagine why not.” His smile was soft, but shy.

  I sniffed, holding back a laugh that I knew would be far too painful to endure at the moment. “He must think me a right fool.”

  I rolled my eyes and scooped some ground bark into my mug before moving to add hot water. In just seconds, I would have some much needed relief.

  I gestured toward the hearth and the whittled bench that sat before it. It was a small hearth since I didn’t use the fire for cooking, but any good hearth witch always had a hearth on their premises.

  Nodding his thanks, he joined me on the bench.

  I was aware of the clean, soapy smell of him, the tang of woods and midnight musk. I wrinkled my nose even as my pulse banged like cymbals in the back of my throat.

  “Come to say goodbye, have you? That was awfully kind, especially considering what I put you through yesterday. I didn’t expect you—”

  He laid a tentative hand on my forearm, the arm I’d been stirring my tea with. My flesh prickled, and a slow, curling heat rolled like molasses all the way through me. I shuddered, hating how receptive I still was to him.

  “I haven’t come to say goodbye at all.”

  “Oh,” I said, feeling outside of myself, missing his hand on my arm when he finally pulled it away.

  The cup shook just a little as I took a sip of my tea. The willow bark worked immediately, massaging the pain right away. I sighed, feeling somewhat like new, though I could glimpse the swollen knot from the corner of my eye.

  I would have healed myself, but my wand was in my car. I never liked leaving it where any human could get their hands on it. Hilarity was sure to ensure if they did, and definitely not in a good way. I was rather more prone to being like my Aunt Violet than my straight-laced and keenly intellectual Aunt Hyacinth.

  Taking a deep breath, he squared himself up to me, looking at me directly as he spoke. He looked even more handsome because of the play of firelight dancing across the hollows of his cheeks.

  “I wanted to thank you,” he said slowly.

  I frowned, allowing the warmth of the willow bark to rest upon my tongue for a moment before swallowing. “Thank me? For what?”

  I noticed that Zane had a habit of running his fingers through his hair when he was stressed. He was doing that now. “This morning, when Edward and I left I-Illusion”—he stuttered briefly, but straightened his shoulders—“I had every intention of taking a few hours to sleep and then leaving Blue Moon, leaving vampires and ghouls and especially ghosts behind.”

  “Oh,” I whispered. “I see.”

  His full lips twitched. “Yeah, but when I woke up, everything had changed. I got... I dunno, perspective maybe.” He shrugged.

  I was silent, not wanting him to lose whatever thread of thought he had. I didn’t dare hope, but blast if my traitorous heart wasn’t fluttering like an excited magpie in its cage.

  “You gave me something I didn’t know I needed until this morning.”

  I wet my lips, tasting the woodsy willow bark on my tongue, so nervous I could scarcely breathe.

  “Goodbye, Zinnia. You gave us our goodbyes.” He jerked a thumb over his shoulder to where Edward sat in the diner.

  “I... um.” I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t want to shatter his hopes, but I knew he hadn’t seen his wife. Not really. What he’d seen had been the manifestations of his own heart and nothing more.

  He grabbed my hand, squeezing it gently. I couldn’t move, transfixed by the sight of him looking down at my fingers like a man unraveling the mysteries of the universe.

  “I know what you told me,” he said softly without looking up. His touch was so warm, so alive, and it made me tremble. “That it wasn’t her. Not really. But whether she was real or not wasn’t important.”

  “It wasn’t?” I was confused, and clearly he heard that because finally he looked up.

  The blue of his eyes was startling, making me feel both hot and cold and unbelievably aware of the scorching press of his skin on mine.

  How was he not terrified of me yet? Why would he want to sit here, touching me, telling me such personal and private things? My aunties had told me the truth of it, how I’d shifted in front of him. It wasn’t like I could control it. He knew what I was—a monster true, just as he’d called us all in Illusion.

  The squeeze in my chest was painful, but not terribly surprising. Not all humans could accept us, not even those fated to be our destined matches. I swallowed hard.

  He shook his head and brushed a stray curl of hair out of my eye. Every time he touched me, it felt like fire. I wanted to beg him never to stop, but I clamped my mouth shut, too afraid that if I did, I would reveal more than I cared to.

  “To Edward, it was absolutely real. The child I tucked into bed this morning and the child who woke up this evening...” He laughed, and the sound was full of unmitigated joy and wonder. “He’s not the same kid. Not anymore. He’s the one I thought I’d buried right alongside my wife the day of her funeral. When Elle died, a part of me, but a bigger part of Edward, died with her. But he’s back now, Zinnia. He’s back. And it’s all because of... of you.”

  I felt like a deer caught in headlight as I watched him lean toward me. I knew what he was going to do, and I had a split second to deci
de whether I wanted him to or not.

  But there was no deciding, because I’d decided it the very second I’d seen his handsome Paul-Newman face walk through my diner door. I closed my eyes and titled my chin up.

  I didn’t have to wait long for it.

  I smelled him first, all around me like a living hug. Warm. Safe. I yielded to his body, pulled in like metal shavings to his magnet. A tiny sigh was the only thing I heard before I heard nothing else at all.

  When his lips touched mine, they were strong, solid, and firm. His touch was bold, not tentative or gentle, but coaxing and powerful. He was a man. I was a woman. It felt right, felt good.

  I opened up on a sigh, and he took the invitation as I’d intended, sliding his silky tongue along my own.

  I’d never kissed a man like this before, with my whole body, my whole soul. His hands were sure as they slid up my forearms, moving slowly but surely toward my bicep and holding fast. Squeezing. I moaned, my entire body lighting up like a torch.

  “Zinnia,” he murmured, and to hear him say my name in the shelter of the hearth’s flame, to know it was me he was fully with, turned my insides to pools of liquid heat.

  “Zane,” I whispered back, tasting the vowels of his name on my tongue like the sweetest of candies, and then tasting other things too—the sweetness of sugar and spicy hint of mint on his mouth. I trembled, feeling as though I might break into a thousand pieces, but he was with me, giving me strength, holding me together.

  And I was holding him back.

  When he finally pulled away, we were both breathing heavily. He rested his cheek on my good side, his thumb rubbing a steady circle on the naked skin of my arm. I shivered.

  “I want to know more, Zinnia,” he said after a moment. “I want to know everything about you and about Blue Moon.”

  I jerked away, looking at him with wide, wondering eyes. “You’re not... leaving?”

  His smile was crooked and shy, but his touch was deliberate. He touched me like he wanted to, like he needed to.

  “Not yet. I was thinking maybe Edward and I should hang around for a bit. Take in the local flavor.”

  I chuckled. “Local flavor is putting it mildly. Are you really sure you want to know the secrets of this place? You still have time to save yourselves.”

  He snorted, but the brush of his knuckles along my sensitive collarbone made me moan. I didn’t want him to go. Ever. But I needed him to stay because he wanted to, not because he was trapped into it.

  “No, I think I need to stay. At least for a while.”

  I wrinkled my nose, and he frowned.

  “No. No. No.” I held up my hand, realizing he was misconstruing my look. “Not that I don’t want you to stay, because I really do. But it wouldn’t be fair of me to trick you into it either. Blue Moon is cursed Zane.”

  His eyes narrowed, but he said nothing, clearly waiting for me to continue. His hands, however, remained on me. A good sign, I hoped.

  I took a deep breath. “It all happened three hundred years ago when a man named Tinker lost his son...”

  WHAT WAS SUPPOSED TO have been only one hour had morphed into three. Edward had found his way back to the kitchen and was curled up in a corner, playing with Lapis, who kept him endlessly entertained. But no one else in the Golden Goose bothered us, as though they sensed what was happening behind closed doors.

  Zane hadn’t released my hand once.

  “Wow.” He shoved fingers through his wavy hair. “Wow.”

  I shrugged, pinching my lips. The rest was up to him. I wouldn’t force him into anything, but I was really, really hoping he would still choose to stay.

  “You can say that again.” I nodded. “I know it’s a lot to take in.”

  He chuckled, giving me a sardonic twitch of his deliciously tempting lips. I really did deserve a medal for not attacking him again as I’d been inclined to do from the moment we’d first kissed. I knew the intoxicating taste of him now, and I wanted more. Being a good witch had never been more difficult.

  “No, a lot was walking through a paper world with you. A lot was finding out that the world I thought I knew wasn’t the truth at all. And a lot was discovering you’d turned into a newt. That’s a lot. This, though... this is incredible.”

  He laughed, and I wasn’t sure whether he was about to crack or whether he was slowly acclimating to my world, able to more readily accept who and what we were.

  “So, if I get this straight,” he said, “Malachite, your cat who is no longer your cat, arranged for the whole thing to happen. And he brought back another witch.”

  I shrugged. “We don’t know.”

  “Yes, but witches all have flower names.”

  I nodded, because that was sort of true. “Yes. All witches are flowers, but not all flowers are witches. We don’t sense anything mystical about her, but she’s certainly not human. That, at least, my aunties are sure of.”

  “Hmm.” He frowned. “Did Malachite know her before she was trapped there? Did he maybe belong to her already?”

  The ready-made denial slipped easily off my tongue. “No, it’s not pos—”

  My mouth snapped shut because yes, it actually was possible.

  “You look confused,” he said, his gaze level.

  I flicked a glance to where Lapis had been playing with Edward. The boy and the cat were both fast asleep. Lapis was curled on his chest, slumbering peacefully.

  “A little,” I finally said.

  “Explain.”

  It seemed right that I should do so. After all, he’d thought of something that, in hindsight, seemed logical, and yet my aunts and I hadn’t even considered it a possibility because of Sage’s lack of mystic flame.

  “It’s just that our animals are our familiars. There is a mystical bond between us, and cats are far more sensitive to the flame than any other arcane species. Knowing Malachite as I do, I just can’t see him bonding with anyone but a powerful witch. But Sage has no flame.”

  He shrugged. “She has none that you can detect anyway. What do you know of her, really? Do you buy her story?”

  “I, uh...” He’d flummoxed me again. “But why would she lie?”

  “I don’t know.” He shrugged. “She may be exactly who she says she is, but it’s worth considering that maybe she’s not, that maybe there’s a bigger mystery at play here. You say the veil will close over Blue Moon again soon?”

  “Golly, I don’t know.” I shook my head. “This is an awful lot to take in.”

  He chuckled. “Welcome to my world. I’m just saying be careful, Zinnia. You’re far too trusting for your own good.”

  I snorted. “And you know that already after such a short acquaintance with me.”

  The smile on his face slipped, and his mood turned more serious. “Yes, I do.”

  I pursed my lips as my stomach suddenly erupted with nerves, like a disturbed butterfly nest.

  I clutched at it, fingers digging into the fabric of my dress to try to quell the riot.

  He grinned. The man was undeniably good-looking, and I for one was glad I would get to see that mug of his for a while longer yet. But I had to try, one last time.

  “You know, there’s no telling when the curse will fall over us again. It could be months, but it could be days. Once it falls, it’s curtains for—”

  He placed a finger on my lips, and I couldn’t help but sigh.

  “My mind’s made up, newt.”

  I wrinkled my nose. “Oh Goddess, what a terrible—”

  “It’s my favorite amphibian, and”—his eyes sparkled like sapphire flame—“the thought that I can study your species in a way no other scientist has before fascinates me to no end. What do you think when you’re—”

  I blew a raspberry, inadvertently swiping my tongue over his fingertip as I did it. Molten heat flickered through his gaze, and it was his turn to shiver.

  He finally dropped his hand, and I sighed. I’d meant to nibble it some. Ah well, maybe someday.

  �
�Well, that’s a swell thing to say, Paul Newman. A woman might get jealous, thinking you’re only wanting to neck so that you can study her other form.”

  I narrowed my eyes at him, but the humor was still there.

  “Mmrphm.” A throaty rumble vibrated through his chest as he wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me snug into him. “You speak in the most unusual way, woman, but I like it. And since I only understood half of what you said, I have two things to say to you. One, in case you’ve forgotten, my name’s not Paul, but Zane Huntington.”

  He kissed me, and my entire body went up in flames. Oh, the man knew how to work that mouth of his, I would give him that. He had the looks of a saint but the touch of a sinner. I sighed, feeling as though I might have tiny hearts floating around my head when he let up.

  “And two, maybe I am fascinated by all aspects of you, Zinnia Rose Thorne—the witch and the newt.” He flicked the tip of my nose, and I couldn’t help but chuckle.

  “You don’t say.”

  “I do say. But unfortunately, it’s high time I get my son back to bed. I have a feeling he’s going to be making up for lost time when it comes to eating and sleeping.”

  I pouted, but I did understand. His fingers gently brushed the rather severe knot on my forehead. I winced when he hit a delicate spot.

  “Can you poof that gone?” he asked, and I couldn’t help but laugh at how well he was handling this new world he found himself in.

  “If by poof, you mean use my witchy prowess to heal myself, then yes, I can. But my wand is outside, and I’m rather comfy where I am at present.”

  He stood, pulling me up gently with him. His arms were heavy but nice as they wrapped around my middle.

  Zane was taller than me by several inches, but we fit like we’d been made for each other.

  He rested his chin on my head, fingers idly stroking the small of my back. It felt good to be hugged by a man, but it felt even better to be able to hug one back.

  “For so long,” I whispered, “I never thought I would be fortunate enough to know what this felt like.”

  “And?” His one word question rumbled through my chest.