Hexed and Vexed

by Rebecca Royce

  Ava shook her head. “If you knew me, you wouldn’t even suggest that was a possibility.” And just like that, Ava was done with this conversation. Lawson was like everyone else. He only saw the Blakely name and not what her life was really like. “If you need help, let me know.”

  Lawson touched her arm again. “I don’t know you. You’re right. And you’ve twice surprised me in three days. That’s unusual. You can make assumptions about me, too. I know better. My apologies.”

  “If we’re going to continue this conversation, can we do it in the car?” Ava opened the door.

  He nodded, climbing into the passenger seat. She watched him for a second while he looked all over the car. Ava had seen this before. Most witches didn’t regularly ride in vehicles. Her small, two-door ride seemed to fascinate him. Finally, he looked up at her. “How did you pick this one?”

  “I didn’t have much of a choice. It was for sale only one train stop away from here. Mitchell and I went and…” Ava’s voice trailed off. That had been a good day. So what, Mitchell had said. So what that she couldn’t fly and never would. They would go and get her a car. She’d be one of those witches that drove. She was so cool that soon everyone would want one… She shook her head. Everything had changed. “Anyway, what were we talking about?”

  If Lawson noticed what happened, he didn’t comment. “I was apologizing to you, which I almost never do by the way.”

  “Because you’re never wrong or because you’re just obnoxious like that?”

  Lawson laughed, a loud, hard sound that he immediately followed with a large, tooth-showing, cat-like grin. A quick hint of delight filled Ava, and she couldn’t help but grin back at him. In school, Lawson had been so quiet. She wasn’t sure she’d ever heard him laugh before.

  Caught up in the gravitational pull that was Mitchell, she wasn’t sure she’d even been aware that other boys existed. But it was hard to ignore Lawson Abramowitz. He’d grown tall very early. By the end of ninth grade, he’d been a head taller than most anyone else. He didn’t come from the wrong location, but he hadn’t been among the elite, either. He was there on scholarship and mostly kept to himself.

  Unless he was called upon in class. Then he knew all the answers, produced the spells the fastest, and aced every test like he’d been born to do it. Jealousy had flown freely toward him, and he’d hardly seemed to notice—or maybe he did, maybe he just hadn’t cared. And he hadn’t taunted her, ever.

  “Maybe it’s a little of both. I’m mostly right, and I can be a bit of an asshole to top that off.”

  She leaned her head against the back of the seat, feeling the headrest. She sat straight when she drove and never relaxed in the car. Sometimes she forgot the device was there. “Yes, well I imagine you’d have to be. How else could you do all that you do?”

  “So Mitchell helped you pick this out? That makes sense.”

  Ava tried to catch up in the sudden shift of conversation. “How so?”

  “Small-minded imbecile gets you a small car. If you were my girl, I’d want you protected in something big, something that couldn’t get knocked over in a gust of wind. I’d want to know that in a crash, your car was more likely to walk away than the other one.”

  Ava’s first instinct was to argue on behalf of Mitchell. They’d talked about it, and he’d felt that given her size, she was more likely to be able to handle a petite car. Only, she didn’t snap back. She kind of liked that Lawson had called Mitchell a name. Oh, she knew she was a Blakely and they were supposed to be above it all. Political families didn’t go around saying negative things about anyone, at least not publicly. Her parents hadn’t even been rude to Mitchell after he left her at the altar. Melanie would throw a slur, and Zoe had been hostile for the first few months afterwards, but no one—not one single person—had ever done what Lawson just did.

  A warmth spread throughout her. Lawson would put her in a big car to keep her safe. He might be wrong about the safety thing, but the instinct she applauded.

  He thought about things like that.

  “What happened with you two?”

  She shifted in her seat. “He left me at the altar.”

  “Well, that I knew. I mean, what happened?” He turned up the heater and altered the direction of the vents so they blew directly onto her. “Why did that happen?”

  She shook her head. “He met someone else. That’s all I’ve ever known. These things happen, and he didn’t want to marry me anymore.”

  “That’s what he said? These things happen?” He adjusted his seat, pushing it back so his legs fit better. “Drive us somewhere?”

  “Ah…” Was this seriously taking place? “Like where?”

  He reached over to buckle her seatbelt. “Do you know the warehouse district? There’s a street called Masidonia. Ten minutes from here. Drive us there. I’ll direct you.”

  “Okay, but you have to stop doing that. I’m not a little girl. I can buckle myself into my own car.”

  Lawson leaned back in his seat. “Of course you can.”

  He seemed to feel that response settled something. Ava put the car in drive and headed toward the warehouse district. She never came down this way. There was little reason to. Her suppliers did it for her. But she knew the area because back before her father had taken up whiskey, he’d occasionally bought an illegally imported rabbit’s foot. There had been many nights when she’d come with him, unbeknownst to her mother, to collect a new and interesting find.

  Lawson was so quiet she wondered if he’d fallen asleep. His eyes were wide open as he stared at the road in front of them. She expected the streets to be bumpy since most were, but as they drove together through the early evening, there didn’t seem to be a lump in the pavement anywhere. He finally pointed left and right, instructing her where to turn. At his instruction, she brought the car to a slow stop in front of an abandoned building. Or at least it looked that way. There might be something inside the open walls and rotted exterior.

  He pointed at it. “If you ever need me, come here. Walk inside. And just start talking. I’ll hear you.”

  Ava had heard of such things, but she’d never seen one before. Lawson must have spellcast the warehouse to carry messages to him. “Why here?”

  “Here is the safest place in this city.” He picked up her hand and kissed her knuckle. Sparks of warmth pooled in her fingers and traveled through her bloodstream. Ava gasped. Had he done something? A spell? Or was Lawson such a ball of heat that he created it with just a kiss to her hand alone?

  “Ah…”

  He winked at her. “Night, Ava Blakely. Drive safely.”

  And just like that, he disappeared as he’d done the night she’d cleared the hex. The man kept disappearing without so much as a warning. She exhaled loudly. He’d stolen her breath with just a kiss to her hand.

  What would it feel like if Lawson ever kissed her for real?

  After her encounter with Lawson, she’d driven straight to Melanie’s house. She couldn’t technically tell Melanie about any of it. Her best friend still thought she’d only been with Lawson because of a break in. The lie had to continue, particularly since she’d agreed to keep her mouth shut. Or maybe she hadn’t agreed, but the implication was there.

  Still, she needed her best friend and that was how she found herself eating pizza at Melanie’s table listening to her talk about her love life. Melanie never had a shortage of men around. If anything, she had too many. But she hadn’t met the right one and was becoming more and more convinced she might never find him.

  “So then, Taylor was there, just chewing, and all of this food is falling out the side of his mouth. It was everything I could do not to vomit.”

  Ava sipped her tea. She’d prepared the tea bags for the few days that Melanie came home from work feeling stressed and anxious. Ava was benefiting from the mixture herself. “That’s gross.”

  Melanie laughed. “It really was. I’m so glad you’re here. I’ve been wanting to talk to you about someth
ing.”

  “What’s that?” With Melanie, it could be anything.

  “I think it’s time for you to start dating.”

  Her words would have been shocking if Ava hadn’t been half-contemplating that herself. Lawson’s kiss had been way too much of a turn on for how small it was in reality. He’d kissed her hand and she was still reeling from the contact hours later. She must be really, really hard up. “Do you think anyone would want to marry me? I mean, I have no power. The whole genetics thing… And I don’t want to be with someone who wants my parents’ money or power.”

  Melanie waved her hand in the air. “Who’s talking about marriage? Stop being a Blakely for a second, please.” Ava rolled her eyes but listened. “I’m talking about dinners out, drinks—sometimes human kinds, like wine—and getting laid. Wouldn’t you like that? It’ll get you over Mitchell. And then, yes, eventually, someone will want to marry you for the right reasons. You have the kindest heart. How could they not want to?”

  Ava nodded, looking away from her friend’s knowing gaze. Melanie had decorated the apartment to match her taste in most things—black and white, and minimalist. That was why her best friend was such a good advocate. There was right, there was wrong, and why fuss, just get the job done.

  “How do I get started on this dating life?” Ava looked up in time to catch Melanie’s big grin at her response.

  “I’ll do it. I’ll take care of everything the first time.” Melanie clapped her hands together. “So exciting. We are finally going to double date.”

  Ava picked up her teacup and crossed to the sink, intending to rinse out the cup when it vanished from her hand. A second later, it reappeared in the sink without Ava having to put it there. She rolled her eyes at Melanie. “I was doing that.”

  “Why bother? I’ve got it.”

  Why indeed. Ava sat down. “I’m not in need of help.” With either the teacup or buckling her seat belt. Although she hadn’t gotten the feeling that Lawson was acting on a belief she couldn’t fasten it herself. In fact, he’d said of course she could. Also, he’d used his hands. Not his magic. What did any of that mean?

  She could pick a fight with Melanie and even make the argument Melanie had started it by taking the cup out of her hand, but that wasn’t what she wanted to talk about. Melanie loved her, and most of the time, her heart was in the right place. None of this was new.

  “What do you remember about Lawson Abramowitz?”

  Melanie drummed her fingers on the table. “Well, I haven’t seen him since school ended, until your sister’s wedding, of course. He was always good looking. Even more so now.”

  That much Ava knew for herself. Chiseled was the right word for him. “Right.”

  “Are you asking because of the other night?”

  Ava shrugged. “Just made me realize I hadn’t thought about him in a while.”

  He’d come into the store once two years earlier. He’d paid. That had been about it. That didn’t really count as a run in.

  Melanie yawned. It was getting late. “He was quiet, reserved, serious, and moody.”

  Not one of those adjectives was how Ava would have described him, and certainly not now. He talked quite a bit, didn’t seem particularly reserved, he laughed, smiled and kept his cool. “Really?”

  “Yes. We got into a major fight once in spellcasting.” Ava had never taken that class. What would have been the point? “He was so sure he was right. He threatened to turn me into a toad.”

  Wow. That was a pretty big fight. “What happened?”

  “He got hauled down to the punishment floor. After that, he was more… cool, less affected by things. I always wondered what used to go on down there. For a scholarship kid to go? Big problem. I never wanted to be in trouble. They could have ripped my funding and sent me on.”

  Ava had never been powerful enough to warrant the attention from the teachers. Mostly, they pitied her. “So was he?”

  Melanie raised her eyebrows. “Was he?”

  Ava laughed. “Right? Were you right or was he?”

  “He was.” She rubbed her eyes. “I quickly learned that. You can’t turn iron into silver without going through liquid first. He never did apologize for threatening me like that. I mean, can you imagine if he’d actually transmogrified me?”

  “Someone tried to do that to me, once.” The memory was blurry. In fact, Ava hadn’t thought about it in years. She wasn’t sure what had happened. Just the sense that it had happened… or almost had.

  Melanie sat up straight. “What happened?”

  “I don’t know.” And even as she said it, Ava knew that was really weird. She’d have to ask Zoe. Her sister never forgot things. Zoe would know.

  Ava walked into her apartment humming a tune she wasn’t sure she knew. It was nonsense noise, but she was happy and it satisfied the need inside of her to make some happy noise.

  The blank wall on the other side of her apartment caught her attention. It stayed white and boring because Ava had never done anything to it. That was going to change. Even though it was late and she should be exhausted, an energy she’d not been aware she’d lost came back to her in a rush. Ava had always been the kind of person to go until she fell over. Lately, she’d been dragging like she could barely move.

  That had to change. She was going to paint her apartment with the bright colors she’d purchased on a whim the last time she got her car serviced in human-land.

  Now seemed as good a time as any to get started.

  Every stroke of the paint filled something in her, made her feel solid and on her own feet again. She could do this. She could live alone. She could take care of herself.

  It was at two in the morning that she suddenly remembered the human girls. They were going to be coming on the train the next day, and they needed their necklace back. Or the one girl did. She still wasn’t sure what the purpose of the other young lady had been. Company?

  Ava sighed, dropping her brush back into the can. The apartment stunk, and she was going to have to sleep with the scent. This hadn’t been the smartest thing she’d ever done, which was okay. She was sick to death of always being smart about everything.

  If painting her apartment in the middle of the night was the wildest she got, so be it.

  What was she going to do about getting that necklace back to the humans? She supposed she could call Todd’s wife and ask if she’d seen the piece. Ava hated to do that. The poor woman had to be in deep mourning.

  Ava sat on the edge of her ladder. She had Todd’s keys to his shop. Ava was the resident key holder for all the businesses there. They all considered her trustworthy, which did make her smile. Her parents might think her incompetent, but her fellow merchants did not.

  She could always quietly go in Todd’s store and see if it happened to be around. He kept pieces he was working on in the back for repair. It was probably sitting right there. And if it wasn’t, she’d leave and there would be no harm done.

  Ava wiped at her brow. She was going to have to clean up the mess she made. But maybe it could wait. She yawned. For now, she’d open a window and face plant on the bed. It seemed like a great plan.

  Chapter 5

  Todd had only been dead for less than twenty-four hours and already, his shop felt more like a museum than an actual store. Ava walked quietly through the front end, trying not to disturb anything as she moved. Technically, she wasn’t breaking any rules. He’d given her the key, and she was simply trying to recover what she’d left with him. If he’d already started working on it, she’d be happy to leave money behind, too.

  Still, somehow being in the store without Todd there made her stomach twist in knots. Was she doing something wrong?

  The necklace was in the back where she expected it to be. Ava let out a breath she’d held. A sense of foreboding flooded her the second she walked through the door, and she’d almost turned around. But those girls were coming, and they needed to at least have the broken necklace to return to the mother.


  A noise sounded, and she whirled around. A man was behind her, his hand outstretched from where he’d tried to shove her magically. It was a good thing she was so non-sensitive when it came to spells. Zoe could sometimes affect her movements but other than her twin, spells didn’t push Ava around.

  “Hey,” she shouted. “Stop that.”

  Ava knew she should come up with something better, but that was the best she could do in the moment. He was dark haired and dark eyed, that was all she could see before he roared and threw her forward. She slammed into the back of a counter, all of the shelving coming down on her. Her attacker rushed forward, grabbing at the necklace in her hand. She gasped. One final shelf came down and knocked her into darkness.

  Ava woke up in the hospital, a beeping noise sounding around her. Her head ached, her body throbbed everywhere, and the bright lights glaring down at her did nothing to ease any of her discomfort.

  She blinked, looking up at the worried gazes of her parents. She cleared her throat. Well, she wasn’t dead and that was something, considering she probably should be.

  “Ava?” Her mother smoothed her hair off her forehead. “You’re okay.”

  Her father let out an audible breath. “I told you. They’d be able to help her here.”

  “Here?” Ava sat up a little bit and looked around. White, sterile, and with a board on the wall with five different faces asking her to determine her level of pain based on the way the cartoon looked on the wall. “Where is here?”

  Her parents looked at each other. Emilio spoke, as Lila looked away, unable to make eye contact with Ava. “A human hospital. The healers weren’t able to help you. The magic problem. You’re really getting immune to all witchcraft. When you were a child, they were able to help you.”

  None of this was news. Okay, they’d taken her to a human hospital. She’d deal with the ramifications of that later. Not being dead mattered more than any of this discomfort. “A man tried to kill me.”