Hex and the City Read online

  Hex

  and the

  City

  WOMBY’S SCHOOL FOR WAYWARD WITCHES

  SARINA DORIE

  Copyright © 2019 Sarina Dorie

  All rights reserved.

  ISBN: 1793314918

  ISBN-13: 978-1793314918

  NOT-SO-COZY MYSTERIES

  IN THE womby’s school for wayward witches SERIES listed in order

  Tardy Bells and Witches’ Spells

  Hex-Ed

  Witches Gone Wicked

  A Handful of Hexes

  Hexes and Exes

  Reading, Writing and Necromancy

  Budget Cuts for the Dark Arts and Crafts

  My Crazy Hex-Boyfriend

  Spell It Out for Me

  Hex Crimes

  Of Curse You Will

  Cackles and Cauldrons

  Hex and the City

  Wedding Bells and Midnight Spells

  Hex Appeal

  Safe Hex

  The Joy of Hex

  Other Titles to Be Announced

  Table of Contents

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  A PREVIEW OF BOOK 14:

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER TWO

  Personal Ads

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  If you are reading this far in the Womby’s School for Wayward Witches series, I’m guessing you have read the other books as well. Whether you have stuck with the series because you love the quirky characters, you want to know if Clarissa will turn into a wicked witch like her mother, or you are waiting to see what happens with the potential love interests, I appreciate your enthusiasm.

  If you haven’t already signed up for my newsletter, I want to encourage you to do so. This helps me as an author connect to my readers, lets you know when books are being released, and gives me a way to gift you with free books and short stories.

  You can find the newsletter sign-up on my website: sarinadorie.com or you can go to: https://mailchi.mp/sarinadorie/authornewsletter

  Also, be sure to check out the fun bonus and contest at the end of the book!

  Happy reading!

  CHAPTER ONE

  Mommy Dearest

  Candlelight glowed through the partially open curtains of the canopy bed, casting a warm glow across Felix Thatch’s pale skin. The white lines of intricate tattoos resembled lace against the flush of his naked skin.

  He smiled and kissed me. I had just cured my roommate, Vega, of her curse and defeated my enemy, the Princess of Lies and Truth, by sending enough electrical magic into her to keep her from harming anyone I loved for quite some time. I had saved Thatch from being accused of murder and gotten away with necromancy—and helped Khaba become a free djinn in the process. Mostly free. The occasion called for celebrating.

  “I love you,” I said. With my heart and soul, I couldn’t imagine anyone I wanted more.

  I came with him inside me.

  “‘Thus with a kiss I die,’” he breathed into my hair. “Sweet Alouette.”

  The shock of those words sent a jolt through me. Sweet Alouette? My biological mother?

  Just when I had learned to let go of my past, I had to learn he hadn’t fully let go of his.

  I should have been relaxed and happy in Felix Thatch’s arms, basking in the afterglow of our lovemaking. Instead, every muscle in my body tensed at his words.

  I stared at him. “Excuse me?”

  Felix Thatch’s eyes were closed, a contented smile on his lips.

  I wouldn’t have put it past him to say something wrong on purpose to get a rise out of me, but not with this. He had unintentionally said my mother’s name. From the peaceful expression on his face, I doubted he even realized what he’d done.

  My heart thundered in my chest. Horror paralyzed me.

  His eyes fluttered open. He smiled, completely oblivious.

  Did this mean he still wanted my mother after all this time? Not me?

  If I told him, I had no doubt he would make an excuse and lie. Nor could I usually decipher when he was telling the truth anyway.

  “I need a moment,” I said, drawing away from him.

  Feeling dirty, I held the sheet to my chest to cover my nakedness. I didn’t know what to say. I never knew what to say in uncomfortable moments. This was uncomfortable multiplied by one hundred.

  His brow furrowed. “Clarissa? Is everything all right?”

  “No. I—” I swallowed the lump in my throat. “Would you hand me my clothes?”

  He retrieved them from the floor for me.

  “What do you think about a shower?” He waggled his eyebrows. “Together?”

  “No, thank you.” I fought to brave the storm inside me. “You go ahead.”

  His eyes narrowed. “What aren’t you telling me?”

  “Nothing.” Everything.

  “Fine,” he said, his tone turning terse. “I shall shower without you. You know where the door is if you want to leave.”

  The moment he entered the bathroom and closed the door, I dressed and left. Normally I would have leapt at the chance to shower in his private bathroom, but I needed to be alone. I needed to think. I showered upstairs in the women’s dormitory bathroom.

  What if he wasn’t in love with me at all, and he had deluded himself? I couldn’t tell the hot tears streaming down my face from the scalding shower.

  I tossed and turned most of the night. Vega was absent, either recovering in the infirmary or spending the evening with Elric, her current lover and a Fae noble, so at least she wasn’t around to complain about me keeping her awake. I wished I could have confided in Josie, but even if she had known about my relationship with Thatch, she would have just told me he was a jerk, and I should break up with him. I would have even settled for confiding in Vega, but I was forced to be alone with my thoughts.

  The next morning, I overslept, missing my magic lesson. Not that I felt like going anyway. Lack of sleep and worry made me crabby during my classes. I was short-tempered with my students. I yelled at Trevor, the underage student who had been admitted to the school under special circumstances, for gnawing on the back of a chair. He sniffled and sulked during the rest of the class. I felt guilty afterward. I wasn’t really mad at him. I wasn’t mad at any of the kids.

  When I came back from lunch duty, the air smelled of spring, even though it was about thirty degrees outside, and we were in the middle of December. I found a bouquet of pink roses nestled in licorice ferns on my desk. A group of students waiting at the door followed me in, heading straight for the flowers.

  “Oooo! Someone has a boyfriend,” one of the boys said.

  How quaint and simple their lives were that they didn’t have to worry a bouquet was intended as a death wish—like the last flowers had been that my Fae enemy had sent me. I didn’t think the pansies or violets nestled around the roses were toxic, but I asked one of the more experienced Amni Plandai I had observed in the greenhouse. She said all the flowers were harmless.

  A note was tucked in the bouquet. Perhaps it was as harmless as
the flowers appeared to be, a gift of penance from Thatch, but I didn’t know that for certain. I was supposed to perform the spell to detect poisons and curses that Thatch had told me to use when accepting mysterious gifts. I also wasn’t supposed to use magic in front of my students.

  No one was supposed to see evidence that my magic had restored so quickly.

  I made a junior demonstrate the spell to be safe. The air around the note glowed purple, but it faded too quickly to indicate whether the flowers and note were safe or not.

  More students entered the classroom, talking about the upcoming winter break or their plans for the immediate weekend. I became swept up in teaching, taking attendance, and explaining the art lesson. When I finally had a chance to breathe, I made Imani try the spell this time. Purple light surrounded the flowers, but nothing happened.

  Imani’s dark brown eyes twinkled in delight. “Who sent you these flowers?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “There’s one way to find out.” She reached for the note.

  I slapped her hand away. “Don’t you dare touch that,” I whispered. “The last gift someone sent me through the school mail was hexed. This bouquet could kill you.” I didn’t mention the human heart. That one hadn’t been hexed. It had just been gross and shocking.

  “Need assistance?” Thatch’s cool monotone said behind me.

  I whirled, finding him in the doorway to my supply closet. My heart palpated upon seeing him.

  “No,” I said. “What are you doing here?”

  He was classy and elegant in his three-piece suit and cravat tucked under the high collar of his shirt. His shoulder-length hair gave off the same cobalt sheen as raven feathers.

  He held up a box of chalk. “I thought I would pillage your closet since I’m out of chalk again.”

  My voice came out sharper than I intended. “You know I don’t like it when you use that secret passage.”

  “It isn’t a secret anymore,” one of the students laughed.

  Thatch leaned against the doorway. His gaze flickered to the bouquet.

  “And you know I don’t like it when you steal supplies from my closet. I have a limited budget, and I have to work to get those supplies from the Morty Realm.” Especially now that Elric’s main priority was filling Vega’s closet of supplies, not mine.

  One brow lifted in incredulity. “You’re fortunate you have me to take you to the art supply store.”

  Yes, I had to rely on him or someone else to chaperone me off school grounds because every Fae Court wanted to kidnap me. Being treated like a child wasn’t exactly a perk. Everything about his smugness irritated me. Any other day I would have welcomed him in my classroom.

  But not after the previous night.

  He strode closer. “Would you like assistance with Casimir’s Hex-Detecting Spell from an expert? That way you can tell the true intentions of your secret admirer’s heart?” He swept a hand at the flowers.

  Students giggled.

  “She does have a boyfriend!” one of the girls squealed.

  The dam holding back the tide of anger inside me exploded. “No, I don’t.” I pushed the flowers off my desk and into the garbage can.

  The glass vase clanked loudly inside the metal of the can. I was surprised it hadn’t shattered. Imani looked from me to Thatch. Slowly, she backed away.

  My hasty gesture wiped the smug expression off Thatch’s face. He stepped back, a flicker of surprise flashing in his eyes before being replaced by a mask of neutrality.

  He lifted his nose into the air. “You know where my classroom is if you should wish to apologize to me later.”

  “Get out.” I pointed to the door at the front of the classroom, the door for people who didn’t sneak and skulk around.

  I waited until he left to pick the note out of the bouquet from the garbage. Three simple words in Thatch’s elegant penmanship were written across the small card:

  I love you.

  Most of the day I was lost in my own thoughts, hardly noticing as I went about teaching and eating mechanically. I didn’t even notice the new principal in my room observing me during seventh period as I taught class until he stood from a table in the back and handed me a list of assessments he’d made.

  “If I don’t see improvement in your teaching methods the next time I observe, I’m sure we can find another arts and crafts teacher,” Chuck Dean said it quietly, but from the startled expressions on students’ faces, I knew the closest students had heard.

  The principal’s list included a range of infractions such as not listing the lesson’s objective at the start of class, forgetting a new student’s name, not noticing one of my students was drawing a penis on someone else’s art, and not cleaning my desk. I actually thought my desk was less messy than usual.

  Chuck Dean’s micromanaging was so much worse than Jeb’s negligence and incompetence. I’d never had to worry about being fired for having a messy desk before.

  In the evening as I readied myself for bed, I walked around out of sorts, at war with myself.

  Thatch wasn’t one to offer compliments generously or whisper sweet poetic endearments in my ear. He didn’t share his feelings often, and for that reason, his words in that card should have evoked love and joy in me—had I not been so troubled by his earlier words. It was bad enough he’d called me someone else’s name, but my biological mother’s?

  What did it say about me that I had fallen in love with this man? Why did I think I deserved someone emotionally unavailable, who probably wasn’t right for me?

  On one hand, it wasn’t his fault he didn’t realize he was in love with someone else. I felt bad I’d snapped at him and thrown away his flowers. I wanted to apologize—and probably would have if he hadn’t demanded I go to him and apologize. It only made me angrier. He was the one who should have apologized to me—only he was oblivious to what he’d done, and I didn’t want to have to explain it to him.

  More than anything, I was angry at myself for not talking to him about it right after it had happened.

  I was so much in a daze as I changed into my pajamas and then went to my wardrobe to pick out my clothes for the following day that I didn’t notice Vega sitting on her bed in her black kimono.

  “What’s wrong with your face?” Vega eyed me dispassionately. “You look like death warmed over—and I don’t mean that in a good way.”

  I jumped at the sound of her voice. “Nothing.”

  She tossed her twenties fashion magazine aside and rose from the bed. “Don’t lie to me.”

  I edged back from her. She tore the pink-flowered dress I’d removed from the closet from my hand and held up the green-striped leggings I’d placed on the bed.

  “Obviously something is wrong. This is worse than your usual fashion choices.” She shoved the dress back into the closet and selected a green lace dress that I’d worn once on a date with Julian Thistledown.

  She held it up to me. It was too low cut for a school teacher to wear on a weekday. Plus, I couldn’t wear that dress and not think of Julian and what a lying, womanizing pervert he’d turned out to be.

  “Tell me what happened.” The snarkiness left her tone, and her eyes softened. “Does this have something to do with the other night?”

  Vega probably thought this was about the mysterious Princess of Lies and Truth who had possessed her. The Fae would have killed us both if she’d had the chance. I was over that. The Fae wouldn’t be cursing anyone anytime soon after what I’d done to her with my electrical magic.

  I wanted to unburden myself to someone. I needed to. Vega’s lack of cruelty was all the invitation I needed.

  “Thatch.” My chest grew tight, and the words caught in my throat. “We were . . . you know . . . and he said someone else’s name.”

  “Are you saying what I think you are?” Her eyes narrowed. “While you were having sex with that disgusting man, he said someone’s name that wasn’t yours?”

>   I nodded. Tears filled my eyes. I thought she might be able to sympathize since she hadn’t been Elric’s first choice either. But that meant my roommate would have been capable of empathy.

  “Did he say my name?” she asked.

  “No!”

  “Gertrude, then?” She barked out a cruel laugh. “This is what you worry about? Not about the wicked Fae who wants to kill you? Not about me almost dying?” She imitated a whiny voice. “‘Wah wah, my fuck buddy said someone else’s name instead of my own.’”

  I sighed in exasperation. So much for confiding in someone caring. “Stop calling him my ‘fuck buddy.’”

  “At least he didn’t say your mother’s name, right?” Vega asked.

  I didn’t answer. I pushed back the covers to my bed.

  “Wait a minute. He did?” She cackled harder. “Mother fucker!”

  Not funny.

  She doubled over, hugging her sides as she tried to catch her breath. “That’s as bad as being thrown in a coffin and buried alive.”

  “No, it isn’t,” I said. “It’s worse.” Especially if being thrown into a coffin hadn’t bothered her enough to not sleep with him afterward.

  She crossed her arms. “Did he apologize, at least?”

  “No. He doesn’t realize what he did. At least, I don’t think he does.”

  She smacked me in the shoulder. “Do you try to be a fucktard, or were you born that way?”

  I eyed her, not answering. I didn’t want to know why she thought I was stupid today. No doubt she would tell me anyway.

  “You can’t let him get away with that. You go march down to that dungeon and demand he grovels on his hands and knees for your forgiveness.”

  “I can’t. He expects me to apologize for being rude to him later.” And though I did feel bad for snapping at him, it was no worse than all the times he’d been rude to me. “Plus, I’m not supposed to be wandering around the school at night by myself.” Never had I been more resigned to follow that school rule than after the tampering with the school wards.