A Little Wicked (The Bewitching Hour Book #4)(5)

“As far as I know, those are the two who the darkness was using to try to get free.”

Parker shook her head. “The darkness. That doesn’t make sense.”

“It’s magic. From what I can tell, magic doesn’t care about making sense.”

“No, I get that the laws of physics mean basically bupkis now. But what I don’t get is this dark magic.” She stopped her pacing to pick up an empty foam coffee cup. “Let’s say this is the darkness, right? It’s evil, so a young Claudia locks it away in a supernatural prison years ago.”

Derek nodded, even though he wasn’t fully sure where she was going with this.

“Years later, the darkness realizes the prison is weakening and somehow manages to make a crack in it.”

“Jackson accidentally killed his parents as a kid and the darkness used that event to get stronger.” Even as he said the words, he realized how crazy they sounded, but luckily Parker was still taking all of this in stride.

“See, I’m okay with all that. I can understand how the prison opened. I can even get the whole human sacrifice thing to destroy the prison. Do you want to know what doesn’t make sense to me?”

“You’re already doing a hell of a lot better than I am,” he muttered.

She slammed the cup on the table where it shuddered a little bit before it settled without tipping over. “That’s a cup.”

“I can see that,” he said carefully.

“If you put that in a prison, it’s not going to try to get out. Because it’s a cup.”

Derek stared intently at said cup. “You’re not wrong.”

“A cup doesn’t try to get out of prison. A cup doesn’t take advantage of mystical events. You want to know what would do that?”

“A person,” he said softly.

“Person. Witch. Whatever this darkness is, it’s sentient. And that makes me wonder.... Is it really just another form of darkness? Or is this some type of creature? Most importantly, would we be able to kill it?”

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Claire’s head fell off her hands and the fall jerked her awake. She blinked a few times and smiled at the woman in front of her who was trying to get her license renewed.

“Are you falling asleep?” asked the woman accusingly.

Claire’s mouth fell open as she tried to find the right words to assure the woman she wasn’t bored to tears by her problems. “Of, um, of course not,” she stuttered. “I have something in my eye.” She rubbed at her eye and tried to look innocent as the woman took a deep breath as though she was about to start a tirade about how rude Claire was.

“I think ten more minutes won’t hurt you,” said a deep voice behind her.

The woman immediately calmed down and a peaceful smile covered her face. “Ten minutes won’t hurt me,” she repeated dutifully.

Claire tightened her lips and turned around to see Dante there. “You didn’t need to do that.”

“Well, if she started screaming at you, then everyone would get riled up and you really would’ve needed me.”

She knew he was right, but it still made her feel guilty that Dante needed to use his formidable mind whammy powers because of her own carelessness. Because falling asleep while working was bad and she deserved to be yelled at.

“Come on.” Dante held out a hand to her.

“I need to work,” she reminded him, which was kind of pointless considering he was her boss.

“Ten minutes won’t hurt.”

“Your powers don’t work on me,” she reminded him.

“Well, duh. If they did, you’d be wearing a French maid outfit,” he said with a little wink. “Come on. You’re not going to be good for much if you don’t take a break.”

So she put her hand in his and let him lead her away from her station at the counter. The DMV wasn’t exactly the best place to work, but the witch community liked to have people there to help when documents needed to be pushed through, and considering Dante’s abilities, he was the best person to be there. She’d only gotten her job there because he owed Sam a favor.

The fact that he and Claire had hit it off had been a happy coincidence. Dante stood out in any crowd, but in the square gray world of the government building, everywhere he walked, it was as if there were a spotlight on him. His hair was a bright green color and the piercings in his nose and ears fought with the tattoos on his neck for attention. If it weren’t for the mind control, he never would’ve gotten this job, but he didn’t seem to care what people thought of him. It was one of his more attractive qualities.

In Claire’s old life, fitting in had been her main priority in life. She knew she’d been adopted, and her family had always made her feel right at home until she’d outed herself as a witch. After that, she’d taken off running, living in the transient community of New York for a little over a year before Tommy Collins had found her.

No. Tommy hadn’t found her. Jackson found her and he was the one who told Tommy where to find her. Jackson was the reason she’d almost been raped and murdered. Twice. He was the only witch like her and she’d killed him.

Dante pulled her into the office he called his even though she never saw him actually work in it.