When she went to touch him, though, her hands went right through his body that had turned to black smoke. She opened her eyes just as that smoke gathered over her and disappeared inside. It was a sudden reminder that he wasn’t a man… he was a demon.
She kept forgetting that important little fact.
An hour later, Eden stepped through the front doors of the bookstore. The first person she spotted was Nancy. The coffee shop barista was in the front row of an audience a few dozen strong. There was standing room only available in the area that had been cleared in the “Hot New Releases” section.
She also saw another familiar face. Vanessa the exotic dancer with bad taste in accountant boyfriends sat on the side opposite Nancy. She looked over at Eden and waved.
Eden waved back, feeling uncomfortable at having so many people there to see a dangerous curse-spewing three-hundred-year-old witch — even if the makeup in her headshots was spectacular.
She made a mental note to speak to Vanessa about the drifter otherwise known as Richard. By now, she figured that Fay had already taken care of her spousal issues. The fairy had sounded very determined on the phone.
“Are you nervous?” she asked. She sensed Darrak was. He hadn’t said much since he’d possessed her at sunset, but she felt his presence like an anxiety-filled weight on her chest.
“Yes,” he replied.
“It’ll be okay.”
“Of course it will. No worries at all.”
He didn’t sound convinced.
Eden joined the crowd and waited, listening to the mostly female audience chatting amongst themselves about how much they were looking forward to seeing Selina in person and how much her books had helped change their lives for the better.
There was no mention of black magic, eyes of newt, puppy dog tails, or anything else overtly malevolent.
That was a good sign.
A store employee approached the podium set up in front of the audience. “It’s our great pleasure to introduce internationally best-selling author Selina Shaw, the Love Witch. Please give her a warm welcome!”
The crowd burst into applause and Eden began to feel a growing nervousness as the woman in question appeared, dressed in a sparkly white, skintight dress. She had a white feather boa draped over her shoulders. The white of her outfit contrasted sharply with her black hair and green eyes. She looked exactly the same as she had on her website.
“Is that really her?” Eden asked breathlessly.
“It is.” Darrak’s voice was tight.
“Was she always that beautiful?”
“Yes.”
The one word answer brought forth an unexpected emotion from Eden. Was that jealousy she felt?
Jealousy at Darrak confirming that the witch who’d tried to destroy him three centuries ago was beautiful? How did that make any sense?
“Good evening, everyone.” Selina spoke into the microphone, smiling broadly at her audience. “Thank you so much for coming out tonight to see me.”
The applause swelled again.
“This is my latest book,
More applause along with some enthusiastic “woo-hoos.”
“I’m impressed! That’s almost all of you and it only came out last week.”
“You’re the best, Selina!” a woman in the second row shouted out.
She pointed at the shouter. “So are you. Thank you. Really! This is great. Why don’t we start with some questions? Then I’ll roll into a short reading and then we can sign some copies of these for you all. Sound okay?”
The audience appeared to approve as a dozen hands shot up.
“Yes.” Selina pointed at a woman in the front row.
“Oh, this is so exciting,” the woman said, standing up. “I am a huge fan. A
Selina pulled the microphone off its stand. “I appreciate that more than you know. What’s your question?”
“What I want to know is if there’s a man in your life right now and if your books about female empowerment were inspired by somebody in your past.”
“Excellent questions. Yes, I am dating someone right now.” She smiled, showing off perfect white teeth. “Actually, scratch that. I’m dating a couple of guys. Why limit ourselves to just one?”
The audience howled with laughter.
“Do they know each other?” the question-asker asked.
“They do and frankly, I think sometimes they might like each other more than they like me if you know what I mean.” She winked as the crowd laughed again. “I try not to take my love life too seriously. There are so many other things in our lives that are important. I don’t believe the focus of anyone’s life should be a man. I mean, are we the focus of their lives?”
“Hell, no,” the woman replied firmly.
“There are some exceptions, of course,” Selina continued. “Very, very, very few exceptions. But all in all, what should we do with most men?”
She held the microphone out to the audience.
“
“This may be the scariest thing I’ve ever seen in my existence,” Darrak said. “And trust me, that’s saying something.”
Eden raised her eyebrows. It was like a cult. A white, sparkly, man-hating cult.
“As far as my past—” Selina smiled like the Cheshire Cat. “Has my heart been broken into a million pieces? Of course it has. Such heartbreak has made me the woman you see before you today. I’ve lived. I’ve loved. I’ve worked my magic on many men.”
“That’s an understatement,” Darrak said unpleasantly.
“One cannot come out of such a romantic history unscathed. But now I know what to do to protect my heart for all eternity and to help you do the same. A little white magic sprinkled through our lives today can save us picking up the pieces of our broken hearts in the future.”
“White magic?” Darrak scoffed. “If that’s what she thinks she does she’s living in a dream world.”
“Maybe she’s changed,” Eden countered quietly so no one other than Darrak could hear her.
“Not possible.”
But the longer Eden listened to what Selina Shaw had to say, the more she became a believer. And it wasn’t all about magic. Sure there were some cute little spells involving candles and flowers and meditative walks through nature, but there didn’t seem to be anything particularly evil about what the Love Witch was selling.
After the Q&A, Selina launched into a reading that only cemented Eden’s feelings about the author.
“She’s kind of awesome,” Eden said quietly, her arms crossed. “I don’t know what she was like in the past but I think she’s changed. She’ll help us if we ask her to.”
“Is that your psychic read at the moment?” He sounded sarcastic.
“I don’t need psychic abilities to tell me she’s changed. Don’t you think it’s possible at all?”
“She—” Darrak began and then was quiet for a moment. “I don’t know. It’s possible, I guess. But unlikely. When I knew her—”
“That was a long time ago. I’m going to get her books. Just relax and let me talk to her.”
Despite Eden’s attempt to talk quietly to herself, a woman holding a stack of books gave her a strange look.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Darrak said. “Maybe we should leave.”
