The Ex Hex (Ex Hex #1)(19)

Moving to the counter, Gwyn faced Vivi, propping her chin in her hands. “What do you think?”

“I think that if you keep calling him ‘the Dickbag,’ you can’t also act like you’re a matchmaking tween in a Disney movie.”

“I contain multitudes.”

“Gwyn, I swear—” Vivi started, but before she could finish that threat, the curtain opened and Rhys appeared.

He looked irritated, an emotion Vivi had never associated with Rhys and one that, disturbingly, looked . . . really good on him. Something about the way frowning made the lines of his face even sharper, the blue of his eyes more intense.

She realized she was staring, and somehow sensing that Gwyn was looking at her with more smugness than any woman should, Vivi moved from behind the counter toward Rhys, holding her hand out for the mirror that he still held.

“Did it work?” she asked, and he blinked, like he was surprised to see her there.

“Hmm? Oh, yes. Yes, got through to him no problem, thank you,” he said, handing her the mirror. “You said you found it at an antique store?”

Nodding, Vivi looked at her own reflection in the mirror, fighting the urge to stick her tongue out at her too-pink cheeks and too-bright eyes. Get a grip, girl.

“Yeah, just hanging out in the back. The owners had no idea what they had, and I decided to store it here rather than at my place.”

“Why?”

Rhys was looking at her, really looking at her, and oh, shit, here was another thing she’d forgotten about him. He was a champion listener. And not for show. He genuinely cared what you had to say, always wanted to know more. It was like having a spotlight on you all the time, but not in a way that made you feel exposed or on display. It just made you feel . . . warm. Appreciated.

Until it was gone.

Vivi tore her gaze from his and looked back at the mirror. “I don’t know,” she said. “Too tempting, maybe. No one should look into the future too hard, right? Of course,” she added, wiggling the mirror slightly, “I didn’t know it could also be used for long-distance phone calls.”

“Only if you’re trying to contact a particularly pretentious prick,” Rhys said, and Vivi raised her eyebrows.

“So it’ll work to contact you, then?”

Rhys’s smile spread across his face as slow and sweet as honey, and over his shoulder, Vivi saw Gwyn smirk, her fingers coming together to produce a quick shower of purple light as she mouthed, Sparky.

Had Rhys not been watching her, Vivi might have had a few choice words to mouth back to her cousin.

Instead, she lifted her head, holding the mirror against her chest. “Anyway. Everything’s fine? With your father?”

I didn’t curse you? This is just bad luck and has nothing to do with a drunk and brokenhearted teenage witch nearly a decade ago?

Rhys’s smile faded, the moment lost, and Vivi told herself that was a good thing.

And then, to her immense relief, he nodded. “So it seems. Now just to charge the ley lines, and I’m back to Wales.”

“Right, the lines. When?”

He pulled a delicate watch from the pocket of his vest, glancing at it. “The moon rises around seven tonight, so sometime around then?”

Gwyn was still watching them although, thank the goddess, at that moment the door chimed again, meaning customers. When Gwyn learned that Vivi was going to charge the lines with Rhys, she was never going to hear the end of it.

She still wanted to do it, though.

As Gwyn walked toward the door, Vivi nodded at Rhys. “Meet me here at six-thirty.”

Just a few more hours. Then she could see the ley lines, Rhys could do what he needed to do and this could finally be over.

Which was what she wanted.

Absolutely.



Of all the times Vivi had thought about Rhys over the years—and it had been more times than she wanted to admit—she’d never thought about something as basic and boring as having him in her car.

But here he was, leaning back in the passenger seat of her Kia, the seat moved back, his long legs stretched out in front of him, her travel mug, the one with the green sparkles and frogs on it, held in one of his hands as Graves Glen disappeared behind them and they climbed higher into the hills.

Twilight had just started to deepen, turning the sky a soft violet, the rest of the scenery blurring into blue, and Vivi’s fingers flexed on her steering wheel as she tried very, very hard not to think of the night she’d met Rhys.

It hadn’t been exactly like this, of course. It had been June, not mid-October, the air softer and warmer, the colors different, but it had been another magical night, a special one, and she wondered if he was thinking about it, too.

He was uncharacteristically quiet over there in her passenger seat, staring out the window, occasionally taking sips of coffee. Was that part of it? Did he have to center himself or something before he did magic this big?

For the first time, Vivi realized that she might be in a little bit over her head here. Not with Rhys, exactly, but with the magic she was about to witness. She kept her spells small, could go whole weeks without using her powers.

Was she ready for what she was about to see?

“It is truly amazing how much I can hear you thinking.”

Vivi threw him a quick glance before turning her eyes back to the road. “What, literally? Like mind-reading?”