That had made her furious. However, after just a week, she begrudgingly had to admit that her Pack membership made it onto the list of things she liked. Since she was a member of the Pack, the townsfolk couldn’t harass her too much. There were rules against it.
Grace must have seen Ivy reaching her limit that morning two months ago because she swooped in to take control. She offered her old apartment to Ivy. The lease was still in Grace’s name and the rent was paid for the month. She and her mate Jack had driven her there. While Ivy showered, they had moved Grace’s extra furniture back in from storage. They were on the list of things she liked.
While Ivy’s new apartment came furnished, she had nothing to put in any of the matching sets of drawers. All of her clothes, books, and makeup were gone. Her car was still parked outside her building in Monroe Springs. Reason number two she hated Black Bird.
However, Anne Kane was a big bullet point on Ivy’s list of things she liked about Black Bird. While Grace had gotten Ivy settled, Anne had done just about everything else.
The only reason Ivy wasn’t stuck wearing the same set of clothes over and over again was because Anne owned Chic Chick. Anne had shown up at Ivy’s impromptu apartment with enough clothes for a week. She had growled when Ivy had offered to pay her back. Then, she turned around and gave Ivy a job.
She looked around Chic Chick and smiled. It was a really nice place to work on top of it all. She liked the tchotchkes and clothes Anne sold. She was probably the best boss Ivy had ever worked for.
Too bad nothing could make up for the last two items on Ivy’s shit list: every person in town wanted her dead and the Tate brothers lived there.
“Margot told me that the week she moved in all of her tomatoes died. Cursed,” Janice Daniels managed to yell the last word in a whisper.
Ivy rolled her eyes at the old woman’s antics. Janice and her best friend, Deborah Markman, had started visiting the shop recently. Before Ivy had started working there, they had never stepped foot inside the store. Now they were frequent visitors.
Saying the whole town wanted her dead was an exaggeration but it didn’t feel like a big one. Half of the people Ivy rang up wanted her gone. They told her while they waited for the credit card machine to go through.
“I’m not surprised. Just yesterday, Pearl was saying that she’s had a rash since the witch showed up,” said Deborah, quickly glancing at Ivy to make sure she was hearing all of this.
Ivy might not have super natural hearing like shifters, but it was hard to miss a conversation that was going on three feet away. She just shook her head and kept organizing receipts.
Honestly, she should be used to it by now. Like clockwork every day at ten in the morning, a pair of old women would come into Chic Chick to gossip about Ivy. To her face.
After the first time, Anne had explained that the town had, in Anne’s words, a “Queen Bitch” named Pearl Pierce. Pearl had made Ivy enemy number one down at the Senior Center.
Apparently, the old ladies who were stopping by were members of Pearl’s Gin Rummy club. It would not surprise Ivy to find out that they set up a schedule at their weekly game to make sure someone was coming to the store every day. They were that punctual.
Anne had offered to ban all of Pearl’s friends after she had found out what they were doing. Her offer was pretty tempting. In the end, Ivy stopped her. They were harmless. Pearl Pierce hated everyone. Besides, it was really good for business.
Ivy made a note to remind Anne to order more turquoise earrings. Deborah was eyeing the last pair.
“Pearl does have a rash,” Anne called from the back of the store. “She caught it from you mangy mutts.” She set a box down with a big smile.
The two women gasped. Deborah turned a molted red. Janice puffed up like a rooster about to caw.
“How dare you speak to your elders like that,” Janice spit. “You have no respect.”
Anne put a hand over her heart, looking contrite. “You’re right. That was not very respectful to mutts. Most dogs are kinder than you two.”
Deborah grabbed Janice by the arm. “Come on Janice, we shouldn’t be associating with low lives anyways.”
The two women began stomping towards the door.
“Don’t forget to pay for your purchases.” Ivy pointed to their full baskets.
Deborah screeched and threw her basket onto the closest table. Janice at least set hers down gently before slamming the door.
Anne shook her head and started unpacking the box of merchandise.
“I’m sorry about that,” Ivy said briskly. She was embarrassed that she kept bringing trouble to Anne’s business.
Anne waved her off. “You have nothing to apologize for. Honestly, those women should apologize for their lack of imagination. You killed Margot’s tomatoes? Please. Everyone knows Margot Jennings couldn’t keep a cactus alive. She keeps filling her doorway with dead potted plants anyways.”
Ivy shrugged. Margot lived in the same apartment complex as her. Currently, an Easter lily sat by her door. It was November.
“I mean really,” Anne cried, “we have a bonafide witch living in town and the best they can come up with is that she’s withering tomatoes?” Anne pointed at Ivy. “I saw you literally set a bomb off using some herbs and a few words. If you were going to cause problems, I bet you could do worse than killing a few plants.”
“Shh,” Ivy hissed, frantically looking to make sure the shop was empty. Heat flushed her cheeks. “Anne you can’t say stuff like that. People might take you seriously.”
“Ivy,” Anne said deadpan, “every Enforcer in the Pack and every able-bodied shifter in town saw what you did in the woods. That’s why none of them mess with you. You’re the big bad witch.” Anne said it like that was something to be proud of.
What Anne thought of as a crowning achievement, Ivy defined as the exact moment she had ruined her life. It had certainly fallen apart right afterwards.
“I don’t want to be a big bad witch,” Ivy muttered.
“Stop sulking,” Anne said, with a hint of irritation. “Do I need to remind you what happened two months ago?” She leaned across the countertop and whispered, “Ben won’t admit it because he’s Alpha and all, but we were royally screwed.” She shook her head. “Then, out of nowhere, the Tate brothers say they know someone who can help us and…pow!” Ivy jumped when Anne’s hand slammed on the counter. “There you were. A tiny dynamo who sent the rogues running.” Anne sighed dreamily, “I smile just thinking about it.”
Ivy had to change the subject. “All I did was nullify a spell. You should be more impressed with Betsy. Riding in on a stolen ATV with a shotgun on her shoulder.”
Betsy Robbins was another one of Anne’s friends. She was also one of the few humans in Black Bird. Not that you’d be able to tell if you met her. She was literally raised by wolves.
Anne got a silly smile on her face. “My little Valkyrie. There’s no way she was going to sit in the high school gym and let us have all of the fun.”
“I thought her step brothers were going to kill her,” Ivy admitted.
Anne nodded, “Yeah and once they were finished yelling at her, Paul tanned whatever hide was left. Those two just need to fuck and put us all out of our misery. Speaking of unrequited love, have the wonder twins shown up today?” Anne asked. Her eyes were focused on the necklaces she was unwrapping. Too focused.
Ivy felt her muscles tense. Pretending she hadn’t heard the question, she stacked receipts and folded them into the banker’s bag. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Anne glance up.
“Cause, I haven’t seen them today,” Anne continued slowly, “I was wondering if I had missed them.”
“You are just as bad as Pearl and her groupies.” Ivy was so tired of people trying to nose their way into her life. When they weren’t being openly hostile, the residents of Black Bird were trying to pick her apart for details about her relationship with the Tate brothers.
Ivy wished they would beli
eve her when she said there was no relationship. Not anymore at least. They had stopped talking to her. She couldn’t imagine what would have scared them off say, eight weeks ago.
“I am nowhere near as bad as Pearl and her Coven,” Anne’s head shot up. “Oh Ivy, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that.”
“Yeah.” Ivy shook her head. At least Anne apologized. Most people in town didn’t think twice about saying stuff like that in front of her.
“Besides, I’m just trying to get dirt on Ezra and Ezekiel. They’ve lived here for nearly a decade and all I can say about them is that they’re hot and never talk.” Anne shrugged, “You can’t blame me for trying to solve a nine-year-old mystery.”
Ivy saw red. Her hands hit the counter so hard the sound echoed through the store. “Well, let me shed some light on the situation.”
Ivy’s finger jerked towards the front of the store. Across the street was a bench where the Tate twins sat to spy on her every single day. They never came in. They never did anything other than stare. It drove Ivy insane.
“Those two fleabags flirted with me, took me out on dates, and fooled me into really liking them for a full year. Then,” her voice cracked with emotion, “after pleading with me to help them, they stop talking to me.” She inhaled deeply, both out of anger and some desperate attempt to keep from crying. “If that isn’t the worst of it, they got me roped into some crazy end of world bullshit that will most likely kill me.”
Ivy stared at the bench across the street wishing it would catch on fire. She wanted it so bad she could feel her body warm just imagining it. “And they don’t even have the decency to leave me the hell alone. They follow me everywhere I go like they expect me to turn on their precious Pack mates. They used me,” Ivy forced the words past her clogged throat.
“Shit,” Anne yelled.
The alarmed noise shook Ivy out of her tunnel vision.
Smoke filled the air. She looked around but couldn’t see where it was coming from. Anne sprinted towards her, fire extinguisher in hand. Startled, Ivy jumped away from the counter. Anne pointed the nozzle right where Ivy had been standing. She hit the trigger on the extinguisher. With a shriek, white foam covered the counter top.
Ivy dodged as Anne pointed the hose at her. “Stop!”
Anne let go of the nozzle, chest heaving. They both stared at each other. Ivy groaned when she saw the pile of papers that was soaked. She rushed forward, trying to clear away the foam. Anne set the fire extinguisher down.
“You good?” Anne asked, panting.
“Yeah,” she nodded, very confused. Now that she was fine, she was mad. “What the hell was that?”
Anne didn’t say anything. She just pointed to the countertop. On the unfinished pine surface was the charred outline of a hand. A small hand. Exactly where Ivy’s hand had been.
She had just lost control of her magic. In public. She hadn’t even realized she was using magic. It had just happened.
Ivy couldn’t catch her breath. This was not good. Ivy didn’t practice magic on purpose. She absolutely did not want to practice it accidentally.
If magic wasn’t given direction, it went wild. Uncontrolled magic was dangerous. Ivy stared at the black ash settling in the impression of her hand, obviously.
Ivy glanced at Anne waiting for her to freak out. Anne stood staring at the countertop. Ivy felt her muscles start to bunch. Slowly, Anne raised her head with a sheepish smile, “You’re not going to fry me, are you? Cause I’ll stop asking about the Tates if you don’t.” Ivy didn’t laugh at the joke. “So,” Anne broached, “what was that?”
Ivy hesitated, unsure if she should lie. Anne was dating the Pack’s Alpha. If he knew that Ivy was losing control of her magic, in his girlfriend’s store no less, she would be in big trouble.
Of course, shifters could smell dishonesty. Confused by Anne’s lack of reaction she admitted, “I lost control.”
“Okay, well feel free to step outside if you need a break.” She smiled at Ivy. “I figured you would have lost your temper at one of the old bitches. Should I be offended that I was the one to finally make you lose control?” She teased.
“Why aren’t you calling Ben to run me out of town?”
“Ivy,” Anne pulled a face, “I turn into a furry monster when I get worked up. It’d be kind of hypocritical to freak out at you for sparking up when you’re angry.” She pointed to the post office across the street. “Last week, Mr. Jenson went full wolf because a package was late.”
“But I could have hurt someone,” Ivy protested.
Anne looked her up and down. It felt like she was cataloging everything about Ivy from her too blonde hair down to her comfy leather clogs. “Nearly everyone in this town could hurt someone if they lost control.” Anne put her hand on Ivy’s shoulder. “This was a hiccup not an offense. Ben doesn’t care about hiccups.”
All of the energy left Ivy’s body. She wilted, suddenly lightheaded. She had been expecting the worst. In Ivy’s experience, everyone was okay with her being a witch until they saw her actually use magic.
“Does this happen often?” Anne gestured to the burn mark. “The shoddy control thing?”
Every day since what happened in the woods Ivy thought. She couldn’t tell Anne that the fire had not been a hiccup. It was happening a lot. She couldn’t lie either. “I just get mad when I think about how the Tates played me.”
That wasn’t a lie. Last night, Ivy had blown an overhead light when she noticed Ezekiel sitting in her apartment parking lot.
Anne started hanging necklaces. “Happens to shifters too. I knew a kid who grew wolf ears when he was nervous.”
They lulled into an easy silence. Anne kept unwrapping and hanging necklaces. They were new. Ivy didn’t recognize the packaging on the box so she had to guess this was a new artist’s work. They were pretty pieces.
Each had heavy, copper chains. They looked like braided strands weaving towards a massive piece of pietersite. The stones ranged in color from solid midnight blue to flaming orange and any mixture of the two. Each stone was wrapped in copper wire, bound together delicately with fine copper threads. They were beautiful statement pieces.
Ivy realized that she had been zoning out. “How do you deal with it?”
“We practice. Usually our parents or an elder will teach us tricks to keep us from losing our skin.” Anne paused. “Do you have anyone you can talk to? Practice with? Like a senior witch or something?”
Ivy shook her head. The only witches she knew were from back home and they were the last people she wanted to contact. Ivy wasn’t about to start practicing magic again either.
Anne cringed. “You could try the Black Bird Coven. They technically live in town but they hate us so we never see them. You’re not a shifter though so they might talk to you.”
Ivy really didn’t want to talk to any witches so she doubted she would be testing Anne’s theory. “I should be fine,” she played it off, poorly.
“If you say you’re fine,” Anne sang. She reached across the counter top and jabbed a finger into Ivy’s chest. “Don’t think the fire distracted me. At least tell me how you met the Tate twins. They loiter outside of my business. I deserve to know.” Her eyebrows wagged dramatically.
Ivy shook her head, “I almost burned your store down and you’re asking for details about my love life?”
Anne rolled her eyes. “I’m way more interested in your love life. What’s interesting about filing an insurance claim? Now spill.”
“I met Ezra and Ezekiel at Daniel’s.” Ivy almost smiled at the memory. “We talked for a second and then the next day they showed up at work.”
Ezra and Ezekiel Tate were breathtaking. They both had jet black hair and olive toned skin. She had never seen dark chocolate eyes but they both had them. Ivy thought their brown eyes were a family trait.
They were twins but they weren’t identical. Ezra had a slight build and was shorter than Ezekiel. His hair fell in waves naturally. It accentuated hi
s strong jaw. He was classically handsome with a grumpy personality that drove Ivy crazy. Sometimes in a good way.
Ezekiel was broad. His hair was short and perfectly disheveled. The man had cheekbones too. Stark, honest to goddess cheekbones. When he smiled, Ivy sighed. He was also the sweeter of the two.
They were roguish and completely out of her league. Sure, they had flirted with her at Daniel’s but that’s just what hot guys did. They flirted. When she saw them at work the next day, she had to do a double take.
Ezra had swaggered up to the roses Ivy was pruning and inhaled deeply. “That’s why you smelled like flowers.” And then he’d smiled. She had almost fainted.
Meanwhile, Ezekiel had been looking at the roses. Trying desperately to shake off the effect Ezra had on her, she’d asked, “Are you looking for flowers for your girlfriend?”
Ezekiel had smiled softly before asking, “Which do you recommend?”
They had talked about flowers for a while before the brothers had bought a decorative pink rose that Ivy loved. The two men walked out of the nursery and presumably out of Ivy’s life.
When she had gone to work the next day, the pink roses were at her work station, now inside a cute pot, with a note.
“See you soon - E&E”
They had showed up every day that week.
“We started dating last summer,” she shrugged. “I thought it was going really well. Then they asked me to help Black Bird with the rogues.” She turned to Anne. “I didn’t even know they knew I was a witch. They convinced me to help and once the Pack was safe, they stopped talking to me.”
She was not shy about telling everyone she met: Ezra and Ezekiel Tate were the number one reason she hated Black Bird.
When Ivy looked up, Anne was scowling. Her eyes had gone all weird, like they were reflecting light. There was a tuft of hair sprouting on her left cheek. Ivy forgot what she was upset about and leaned in closer.
“Are you okay? Your eyes are freaky right now.”
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