Chapter 4. Caitlyn
One week later...
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I shot off a quick text as we stepped out into the cool night air, leaving the town hall—and the awful memories of Lex’s trial—behind me.
My friend’s trial is done. I’ll be at the meeting point tomorrow as planned. Thanks for being chill about the delay.
Not that Blaise, my security guard from Shadowbound Security, seemed to mind.
He’d accepted the job without complaint and didn’t appear remotely bothered that I’d postponed things all week.
Not that he had much to complain about. I’d been paying him since the day after the Samhain summoning.
And aside from a curt K or the occasional thumbs-up emoji, he didn’t seem at all concerned that he’d spent the last week lounging at home on my dime.
But Lex was my childhood friend. When her grandmother—the head of the coven—asked me to attend the trial, it was never going to be a no.
Gods, though. I wished I could unsee it.
Her boss’s attempted sexual coercion had been pulled straight from her memory and projected for all of us to witness. And honestly? Hexing his dick off felt restrained.
She’d been found innocent. Of course she had.
Even Priscilla had voted that way—though I’d half expected her to say guilty out of sheer spite. Dating Lex’s brother might’ve helped. Though “dating” was probably a generous term for what she and Jake were doing.
I glanced over my shoulder. Yep. There they were. Bickering. Again.
And I could guarantee it had something to do with Billy, the silver-haired wolf shifter and Lex’s best friend, who’d come to support her through the trial. Billy was marching ahead of us now, deliberately out of supernatural earshot of Priscilla and Jake’s latest lovers’ quarrel.
The way Billy’s ice-blue eyes had tracked Jake all evening... yeah. I had a strong suspicion that those two were mates. And judging by Jake’s indignant “What’s Billy got to do with anything?” he didn’t have a clue.
It would be funny if it weren’t so sad.
“Lochran said he’d take me away,” Lex said suddenly.
I glanced at Lochran, Lex’s accidentally summoned mate. He was charming in that polished incubus way: all sharp cheekbones, easy smiles, and eyes only for his fated mate.
Ever since the day Lochran first walked into my shop, I had been avoiding him for no other reason than because he knew things I wasn’t ready to ask... but desperately wanted to.
Incubi born in the same Samhain cycle grew up together in the Shadow Realm. Which meant Lochran knew exactly who hadn’t been summoned yet. And with only two witches my age left to do the summoning—me and my cousin Jen—he would absolutely know who our mates were.
Well. Technically, there were three witches left. But Priscilla didn’t count.
So, instead of asking “So, Lochran, who’s still hanging around the Shadow Realm unsummoned these days?
” like I desperately wanted to, I smiled lightly and said, “Like, on vacation? If you want, I have a cabin near Headless Hollow. It’s booked until the end of the week, but it’s yours if you want it. ”
I was still mildly amazed that the current guest hadn’t canceled yet. Cassandra Calloway had officially made ScareBnB history—the first person ever to reach the halfway point of their stay. I was going to have to come up with some kind of prize. A medal, maybe. Or a certificate of survival.
“Headless Hollow?” Lochran said. “Sounds like a place from a horror movie.”
Billy slowed slightly, ears perking.
Lex scoffed, but her whole face softened as she looked at Lochran. Just days ago, she’d been adamant she’d never summon him. Now? She looked at him like he’d hung the damn moon. It was disgustingly cute.
“Headless Hollow is one of the few towns in America that exclusively caters to magical creatures from all walks of life,” Lex explained. “It’s been on my bucket list for years! I didn’t know you had a property there, Cat?”
“I don’t, technically. I’m just looking after it until...”
Lex met my eyes, understanding flickering there. Until Jen gets released from mortal prison and comes back to the coven.
“What do you say, Lochran?” Lex asked, smoothly steering the conversation away from my incarcerated cousin. “Oh! And Billy, you should come too!”
“I don’t want to be a third wheel—” Billy began, her eyes flicking briefly to Lochran. He just smiled, supportive in that I will cheerfully endure anything for you, even if it means inviting your emotionally constipated wolf-shifter best friend on our first vacation together way.
Lex gasped. “I know! What if Lochran and I go alone, and you can stay here and mind the house for us? It adores you, Billy.”
Fantastic. Even the random wolf shifter had a house that loved her.
Meanwhile, my house had left scissors on my pillow and a lock of my hair on the floor this morning because I’d caught Priscilla creeping around my yard last night and told her, before I could stop myself, to fuck off within Creep’s earshot.
Honestly, if the house loved Priscilla so much, maybe it should’ve just opened its doors to her instead of me.
Witch-bitch and murder doll? A match made in hell.
“And haven’t you always talked about just letting your wolf roam free and away from your pack?” Lex continued. “Here would be perfect. There’re no mortals around, so you can spend your days frolicking in the woods, hunting bunnies, and rolling in fox poo to your heart’s content.”
Billy’s lips twitched—the first ghost of a real smile I’d seen since she’d scented Jake.
“I do not roll in fox poo. Or poo of any kind,” she said, her grin spreading.
“And I’ll have you know I happen to adore bunnies.
” She threw a glare over her shoulder and muttered, “Now black-haired, wraith-like witches on the other hand...”
“Perfect!” Lex squealed. “You can wait out the rest of the week with us and look after the house while we’re gone.”
“You’re staying here for longer?” Jake asked, breathless as he jogged up to us, Priscilla scowling at his heels.
“I... um... I dunno. Maybe,” Billy said, her cheeks flushing.
Her phone buzzed, and a look of pure, blessed relief crossed her face.
“Hey, Cassie!” she answered brightly. “Why are you calling me from your burner phone?”
I glanced around. Lex and Lochran were making heart-eyes at each other like they’d personally invented love, while Priscilla—nose wrinkled as if she’d caught a whiff of something rotten—glared daggers at Billy.
Jake, meanwhile, looked deeply confused and started jabbing a finger into his ear like he was attempting and failing to fish something out of it.
“Wait, wait, calm down, Cass,” Billy said, panic threading through her voice. “What do you mean you’ve run away? You do realize Death on Dark Wings is about to leave for the year, and every single wolf in the pack is supposed to be there guarding his hoard, right?”
She paused, brows knitting, her tone shifting from panic to exhausted big sister in the space of a breath. “I know I’m not there. Unlike you, I got special permission from the Alpha to leave.” A beat. “Yeah, well, you get special treatment when the Alpha is your best friend.”
Billy blew out an exasperated sigh. “Cass. You cannot just run off without permission. Jasper is going to kill you when he finds you—and he will find you. This isn’t like running away from Dad. Jasper could sniff you out from halfway across the world. He’s your Alpha.”
Her face twisted like she’d swallowed something sour.
“Ew. Gross, Cass. He is not your fated mate. And why—why—did you put the research you did for Lex’s trial in your old high school folder?
It was humiliating having everyone read Cass wants Jasper’s knot.
I am genuinely never going to recover from it. ”
My cheeks flushed, but no one else batted an eye at the conversation.
“... but don’t you think he would’ve realized by now if you were fated mates?
” Billy’s eyes flicked to Jake, and she let out a long breath.
“Actually, forget that. Fated mates can be oblivious as fuck. I’ve literally just found mine, and I think it’s gonna take a full-on mating bite to the ass before he notices me. ”
A high-pitched squeal erupted from the other end of the line, and Billy yanked the phone away from her ear with a wince as Cass unleashed a storm of delighted congratulations.
I glanced at Jake, who was still whacking the side of his head. No reaction whatsoever to the conversation revealing that Billy was his fated mate.
Unless... he couldn’t hear it?
Then it hit me like a truckload of Shuffle Truffles.
Dragon scale.
Oh. My. Gods.
Billy must’ve been spelled with the same enchanted dragon scale I used in my recipe ink. Which meant we were tuned into the same magical frequency. And not only that—but her dragon was Death on Dark Wings.
I didn’t know much about dragons, but everyone knew that name. Legendary. Ancient. Probably the most feared dragon on the planet. And something told me he wasn’t the kind of dragon who needed to sell off his scales to bolster his hoard.
Ethically sourced, my ass. I would be having words with my supplier the next time I saw them.
“No, he’s not a wolf shifter, Cass,” Billy continued. “He’s a warlock... and Lex’s brother.”
Another excited squeal pierced the air.
“No—don’t tell Maggie. She’ll—” Billy cut herself off, head tilting as she listened, her eyes widening. Then she dragged her hand down her face. “What the actual fuck, Cass. How have the two of you caused this much mess in twelve hours?”
She muttered a truly inventive curse under her breath, stabbed the screen to end the call, and turned to Lex. “Listen, I’m going to have to cut the visit short, Lex. Something’s come up with the pack, and I need to return home.”
“You’re coming back, though?” Jake asked, surprise flickering across his face like he’d just regained the ability to hear. Which, I reminded myself, he had.
“I dunno. Maybe. If I can sort—”
Jake’s brows crumpled, presumably as he lost that ability again.