Page 66 of Reckless Witch

My spidey sense isn’t right a hundred percent of the time. I have to be wrong this time. But wrong about all three men? They believe what they told me. Including that the Shadow husks in Miss Mack’s class were gathered from Grams’ house.

Impossible.

Grams hated evil. She lived her whole life in the light and helped others learn white magic. Yet, I am perfectly at home in the dark…in the shadows. I make deals with unsavory characters who operate in the shadows. Despite my efforts, I recall a particular drug lord in Chicago who wanted a disguise that would fool the police when they came looking for him at his girlfriend’s place. He’d paid me enough money to keep Stony and me in our tiny apartment for six months.

Eddy Hanks hadn’t been the worst drug dealer in Chicago, not by a long shot, but he had a mean streak that would give a badger pause. He did give me pause, but I can’t blame fear of him for my decision. Eddy is human, but his girlfriend is Fae. When the Fae go bad, they’re akin to demons. I’d tried telling myself she was the reason I took his money, but it’s a lie. I was simply weary of being two months behind in rent and fending off my landlord’s sexual advances and his threats of eviction.

The money got us out of that dump. Yep, I stiffed the bastard of a tenement owner and got Stony and I into a one-room basement apartment with a tiny fridge and a hotplate. We stayed inside the apartment that first week—no criminals, no fake IDs or disguises—and ate Chinese food, a little Mexican, and binge watched half a dozen Netflix series. When I finally took a stroll in my old neighborhood, I learned Eddy was looking for me. He liked my disguise and wanted half a dozen more for the boys in his crew. Bottom line, he wanted to make me his newest bitch.

I can’t repress a grim smile. I’m good at making fake IDs and disguises; the best, really, and Eddy knew it. What he didn’t know was that when pushed, I can give a badger pause, too. I regret not being there to see the look on his face when the cops busted down his door after getting an anonymous tip that the drug dealer was back at his girlfriend’s place. But, although I might give a badger pause, there wasn’t a chance in hell I was going to be anywhere that Fae bitch could sense me when the cops hauled her boyfriend away.

I lean my forehead against the cold widow pane. I wish I could say I turned Eddy in because he was a world class asshole, but I did it to save my and Stony’s bacon. What’s worse, Eddy isn’t the only person outside of the law I’ve helped. Maybe Raith is right. Maybe I am no good. Maybe Grams wasn’t any good, either. She did kick her fifteen-year-old granddaughter out onto the street.

I straighten. Did she kick me out so that she could practice Shadow magic?

A loud knock on my door brings me bolt upright in bed. It takes several heartbeats before I remember that I’d crawled back into bed just as sunlight began to reach across the sky. Sunlight now streams in through the window. The knock persists.

“All right, all right,” I mutter, and jump from bed.

I cross to the door and sense the absence of magic as I open the door. I blink at the sight of a man the size of a troll, dressed in body armor, standing at my door. Watchman.

He informs me that he’s my escort for the day while I attend classes.

I blink. “What time is it?”

“Nine,” he replies.

I have a 9:30 class, but had assumed Raith would keep me incarcerated indefinitely. Hell, I’m not going to argue with good fortune.

I tell the Watchman to hold on, then close the door, quickly change my sweats for jeans and a t-shirt, grab my jacket, and rush out the door before word can arrive that Raith wants to keep me locked up. I ignore the Watchman as he falls in beside me in the hallway.

I grab a quick bagel and coffee—also ignoring the stares the Watchman elicits—then head to History class. History. I can’t believe it. I really am in high school. I walk a little faster. The damn Watchman keeps pace alongside me without breaking a sweat.

We reach the classroom and I give the Watchman a cool look as he turns and leans against the wall outside the door, arms crossed over his broad chest. I enter the room and head for the back of the class. Stares follow my walk to the far corner desk. Apparently, everyone has heard about my near death. Popularity isn’t as grand as I thought it would be.

I drop into my seat as Thomas and his sidekick, the shrew fairy Ariel, enter. Their gazes lock onto me. One look at their dark expressions and I tense. Thomas brushes past Ariel and reaches me first.

“Proud of yourself?” he hisses under his breath. Before I can ask what he’s talking about, he adds, “You got Miss Mack suspended.”

I blink. “She’s gone?”

“There’s only one way you could have succeeded in getting her out of The Academy,” Ariel spits as she joins Thomas.

The other students in the room are now openly staring.

I keep my gaze glued on Ariel. “The fact Miss Mack experimented on her students had nothing to do with her getting tossed out?”

Ariel’s eyes narrow.

“Look,” I force a calm tone, “I didn’t say anything about Miss Mack.” I’m betting Blade did, though, and the knowledge elicits a strange wave of affection.

I catch sight of Fran as she enters and heads my way.

“We don’t allow black magic here,” Ariel says.

Black magic? That’s their gambit? I should have known it wasn’t my near death that has everyone whispering. I never really stood a chance of being accepted here.

Thank you, Grams. I direct the thought outward before catching myself and stifle a gasp as Thomas steps closer.