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We all turn, finding the two witches from last night standing in line at the coffee shop next door. My heart screams erratically in my chest as I lock eyes with her.
“What are they doing here?” Hynde hisses, standing up straighter.
“Send lover boy to find out.” Jett pushes at my back with encouragement, but all I feel is an unsettled stomach mixed with a tendril of curiosity.
“You two stay here,” Lennox says as he nods for me to join him.
I set my needle and canvas aside and follow him outside. Sera and the other witch leave the line to meet us.
“How’d you find us?” Lennox murmurs, eyeing the steady crowd filling the sidewalk.
“We didn’t mean to.” The dark-haired witch huffs. “We were looking for something else, but for some reason, we keep getting led to you.”
Len pretends to look unaffected as his gaze slips to mine. I’m sure we’re wondering the same thing: Are these the witches we’re looking for?
“What are you looking for?” I ask.
“I think we’ll keep that information to ourselves for a little longer.” She sneers, folding her arms over her chest.
“Sloane, are you sure?” Sera murmurs between them.
Sloane looks at us with feigned sympathy. “Sorry, I’m going with statistics, and statistically, demons aren’t to be trusted.” A spark of pink magic flickers at the tips of her fingers.
“Too public.” Sera gasps, lacing their fingers together.
“We don’t want any trouble.” Lennox holds up his hands, his forearm bearing the mark of a demon: an inked circle intersected with lines and arcs. I have the same one inked on the back of my right shoulder.
“Neither do we, but something’s happening in Hemlock.” Sera raises an eyebrow. “So we’ll be keeping an eye on you, in addition to looking into what that magic was last night.”
“Sloane!” Someone calls from the coffee shop. Sloane narrows her eyes before turning and collecting two to-go cups.
Lennox gives me a look from the corner of his eye, subtly nodding toward our apartment upstairs.
“Come with us,” he says once Sloane returns with their drinks.
Lennox cuts between us, heading back inside the record store. I hold out an arm gesturing for them to go first. They appear to have a silent conversation before following my brother inside. He enters a code on the keypad, revealing the staircase that leads up to the apartment we’ve been staying in.
I go upstairs first to open the apartment door.
“What?” Len asks, still at the bottom of the staircase holding the door open for the witches. “Is this not what your gentlemen do?”
“Some of them,” Sera mutters, and I chuckle as she moves past Len. With every step the split in her long skirt parts, showing smooth, pale legs. My gaze travels up as she gets closer until they meet curious green eyes.
Sera offers me a small smile before she steps through the door and takes in our apartment.
Sloane’s boots clomp the whole way up. “If you check out my ass, I won’t hesitate to put you on yours,” she calls over her shoulder to Lennox. He shakes his head then closes the first door behind him and follows her up.
“You guys actually live here?” Sera asks, turning in a slow circle.
Huge windows line the back wall with views of the dense surrounding woodlands hugging the weathered architecture of the old town. Tall ceilings bathe the apartment in natural light. An open, galley-style kitchen sits to one side, while a living room full of mismatched couches and shelves line the other.
“Demons. Not guys, Sera.” Sloane pauses just inside the entrance as Lennox moves into the kitchen.
My hand reaches for the pendant beneath my sweater as I answer. “Yes. My brothers and me.”
“And you own the record store?” Sera’s long, slender fingers wrap around her coffee cup. Each one is stacked with silver rings and tiny inked symbols, her nails painted in a glossy deep purple.
Lennox’s gray eyes shift to mine as my feet move as if pulled by a tether to Sera. “We’re… investors. We pop in from time to time. Tell us more about Hemlock. You said something’s happening here?”
