Page 25 of Clarity

Eyes wide, I looked around the small bathroom, my face getting hot when I realized,duh,he was in my head.

“Hey. How long was I asleep?”

“Couple days.”

“Is that normal?”

“For non-humans? Yeah.”

I nodded like he could see me, returning my gaze to myself in the mirror to remove the bonnet from my hair, surveying what was underneath.

Thank goodness for whoever had the thought to put it into two big French braids for me, so it wasn’t matted.

“That was your cousin Roseline.”

I frowned, not at the information, at him giving it. “So were you just ignoring me earlier?”

“I don’t believe so. Your warm fuzzies let me know you were awake.”

“My warm fuzzies?”

“Yeah, I got a surge of lovey-dovey off you. It was pretty sick.”

“Oh fuck you.”

“Not in your mama’s house, love.”

That made me raise an eyebrow.

“Wait, so you’re here?”

He didn’t answer.

Which, of course,wasan answer, and one that made me feel pretty damn giddy at that. I blamed my excitement on the magic of the blood-mingling tattoo,notthe eternally binding bite.

We could hate each other forever.

His name on my neck was the only explanation for the way I rushed around my room getting dressed so I could see him.

Him?

Bitch?

Where is your mother?

Oh, shit.

I moved even faster now, abandoning the need to “look cute” in favor of finding my mother to check on her condition.

That was the point of this, after all.

I found her in the first place I looked, her private library. Not everything they found—or everything I found for them—made it to a place in the store downstairs. There were many things that were too valuable or precious to be made available to the general public. Other witches in our community were welcome to visit this area, by appointment.

What she was poring over though, was only for us.

I wasn’t surprised to find the grimoire perched on a table in front of her, gloves on her hand to protect the pages from natural body oils. It was magic-infused, stronger than some regular ancient text, so the precautions weren’t actually necessary.

But I knew what she’d say if I brought that up.