Page 74 of Rogue Witch

Pride fills me. I know she had to be afraid when the wolves in the Reaping stalked her, but she stood her ground. She tried to protect the boy…and me. The little fool.

If I shift into human form and knock on her door, will she turn me away? I sigh. Yes. She would likely never forgive me for following her. I catch a whiff of the demon. My hackles rise. Where the hell is the creature and what does it want with Leilah? I rise. Another car whizzes by. I sniff the air and catch another scent.

This scent isn’t the demon.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

LEILAH

A loud knocking startles me. I turn in a slow circle in the living room of Gram’s house. What was I doing? Had I come in here from the kitchen?

“Stony,” I call.

Where is that pig? I haven’t seen her since…. I can’t recall. I shake my head. She’s got to be off napping in some corner of her house.

The knocking on the door resumes, insistent this time. What the hell? I hurry to the foyer and yank open the door. Seton Alexander stands on the porch. Am I dreaming? The last time I saw Seton was the night he’d shown up below my window after I’d awoken to find Grams standing over my bed chanting. She’d kicked me out the next day.

At six feet two with shoulder length, dark hair—and he still wears the same leather jacket—his bad boy look appears much more dangerous than I remember. But the soft light in his eyes tells me he’s still my Seton. I throw myself into his arms. He hugs me tight and our seven-years separation melts away. I’m that fifteen-year-old girl who tagged along every chance I got. He watched out for me and even helped me practice magic, now and then.

I draw back and look into his eyes. “What are you doing here?”

He pushes aside a lock of my dark hair and smiles. “Did you think I wouldn’t come?”

Of course, he would come. He’s my best friend, the only best friend I’d ever had. Except for Stony.

“Why did you leave?” he asks. “I looked for you.”

Guilt washes over me. After Grams kicked me out, I searched for, but didn’t find him. Seton often disappeared for a month or two. He never told me where he went, but I assumed he found a girl to hit the road with on his motorcycle and after a couple months he grew bored of her and returned.

I shrug. “You weren’t around.”

“Bad timing.” He kisses my forehead. “Sorry. But that doesn’t explain why you ran away.”

“Ran away? Is that what she told you?”

He lifts a brow. “If you mean your grandmother, yes.”

I can’t believe it. She couldn’t even own up to throwing me out. Had I known her at all? I pull free of Seton’s arms and plop down on the old porch swing to the left of the door.

“She kicked me out.”

He sits beside me and takes my hand in his. “I had a feeling.”

I turn to face him and draw my left leg up under my right. “You always knew when something was wrong.”

A shadow passes over his face. “Not well enough to figure out where you were.”

I shrug. “I made a point of keeping a low profile.” Not that I always succeeded.

He studies me. “That doesn’t sound good.”

“Forget it,” I say. “What have you been up to?”

He leans back against the swing. “Not much. After I graduated from The Academy, I spent some time on the road.”

I wonder if he was looking for me, but say, “That’s right. You graduated from The Academy. What in the world made you decide to go to school?”

He groans. “It wasn’t my idea, if that’s what you’re thinking.”