“I will take you now, if you agree, tocco d’oro.”
My mouth opened to moan Yes, take me, but my head shouted a firm WTF, Connelly!
Something inside me snapped. My mind cleared. My body went cold.
“No.” I shook my head, trying to force every bit of hormonal haze from my brain.
“All is well.” His eyes sparked again, but this time I didn’t feel the bizarre urge to rip his freaking clothes off. “If you come with me,” he purred, “you will enjoy yourself. And I will return you to your world hale and hearty.”
My chest went tight. Panic pounded through me. What had just happened? Why was I making out with this super sketchy stranger?
I reared back, bent my knee, then launched forward, landing a strike in his groin.
He shouted and bent double as I spun on my heel to run. Rain pelted me as I half slipped, half sprinted down the hill. When I peeked over my shoulder, I saw him standing at the castle door, bracing himself with one hand on the castle’s doorway, not looking nearly injured enough for what I’d done to his man bits. He wasn’t chasing me; that was good, at least. What in the world had I been thinking, getting that close to some bizarre guy? I’d walked right up to his door. Stupid.
He didn’t call out. He just stood there looking glorious and sinister. What a nightmare.
I made it to my bike, threw my helmet on, then kickstarted the engine. Wind whistled under my helmet as I raged down the road toward my bakery, adrenaline buzzing through me like I’d had five espressos then chased them with a bucket of Red Bull.
My mind was like egg whites on a dough braid, sliding from one spot to another.
It was time to find Hekla. She never knew the answers, but her perfectly wonderful yapping made my brain work better. She’d calm me down, make me see sense, and figure out this madness.
Surely, there wasn’t an actual magical castle in my basic small town, and of course I had not just rubbed up on some stranger. No, that had not happened.
But I could still smell the pines, and the image of a forest flickered through my head as real as any memory. And had he mentioned my aura? As in that thing sweet, crazy Aunt Viv believed in?
Chapter 3
I rode hard to the bakery, glad the rain had fled as quickly as it had arrived. No patience for the delivery truck blocking my regular spot behind the boutique-style strip mall, I parked out front along Main Street. Through the front windows, I could see that the lights in the back were already on.
“Bless you, Hekla.” On the sidewalk, I bumped past a tourist who was simultaneously texting and keeping a hand on her toddler.
With shaking hands, I unlocked the front door and flipped the smiling cookie sign from Closed to Open.
As usual, Hekla had entered through the back and gone straight to the kitchen to get the croissants going and ready for the crowd that was already lining up on the sidewalk. The kitchen smelled glorious, and I inhaled the bready scent, knowing my nose would go after an hour of this. I could never smell anything after working a while. It kind of sucked. Not great for a baker.
In the kitchen, Hekla attacked me, throwing my apron over my head and shoving a cup of chai rooibos tea in my hand. The spicy scent floated over my face, and I nearly forgot my insane experience.
“Good morning, stormy face!” she said. “I guess you survived your drive home? That was something else, huh?”
I grabbed her arm. “Listen. Did you or did you not notice the enormous gigantic castle on the brand new, never-before-seen hill on Hillsboro today?”
Hekla scowled and hurried back to the dough she’d obviously been kneading. “The do-what-now?”
“The castle. In town. On the hill. With the most handsome man alive in it? Who may or may not be fluent in magical lustery?”
“Lustery?”
“Yeah.”
“You might need to lay off the Benadryl, Coren. I know the allergies are legit this time of year, but you should really consider a simple, non-mind-altering saline nasal spray. My sister-in-law said that stuff changed her life.”
“This is not about Benadryl!”
“So the addict says.”
“I’m not addicted to Benadryl, Hekla! There is a castle. And a hot dude. And I talked to him!”
Hekla threw the dough down with a thud and crossed her arms. Her left eyebrow disappeared under her blunt cut bangs. “You talked to a man? You haven’t talked to a man in three years, fourteen days, and fifty-three minutes.”
“You do not know that stat.”
“I do.”
“You are—just stop. No. You’re right. Fine. Okay. I haven’t talked to a guy in a while, but you’re missing the very important point here!”
Hekla wiggled her eyebrows. “I thought the point was getting you some.”
“Some what?”
“You know what.” She winked and began kneading the dough.
“That dough might press charges.”
Hekla slapped me on the arm. It kind of hurt. “Who is this fella?” she asked.
“Who says fella?”
“Spill it.”
“Hekla. You are not getting this.”
I wanted to drag her out the back door right away, but the customers were calling for help and I couldn’t just let my business die for the sake of a hallucination or whatever it had been.
“You can show me on our lunch break, okay?” Hekla cut the dough into triangles, her hands moving fast.
I sighed. “Sure. Fine.”
It was
