I’d already devoured all the musty, moth-riddled tomes Zinny kept at her place like a junkie mainlining crack. I was sure I’d looked like a hot mess the past week with my hair poking up as I begged for more and more. And because my lady was a kind woman and had felt pity for me, she’d gone and borrowed tomes from her aunt Prim, who also happened to be the town’s resident historian.
“Well”—I checked my watch—“Edward will be getting home from school shortly. I guess I’d better get going.”
She twitched, giving her head a tiny shake, and I knew she’d begun to fall asleep. I frowned. I didn’t want to annoy her by constantly badgering her to take a break, but...
“Zinnia.” I heaved a sigh. “Sweetheart, you look exhausted.”
She rubbed at her brows. “Horse feathers. I’ve told you, everything’s Jake.” She dropped her hand and gave me a sweet smile. “I’ve just gotta get used to being awake while I’m a newt now, is all. I’ll adapt soon enough.”
That was the other thing about Zinnia. She still spoke as if she’d just stepped foot out of the Jazz Age. It’d taken me a bit to make sense of the phrases she sometimes said, and I still didn’t know them all, but in this case, horse feathers meant nonsense, and Jake was slang for fine.
Why she couldn’t just say fine, I didn’t know. But then again, the way she spoke coupled with that throaty transatlantic accent of hers was, as she’d put it, the cat’s meow.
As for adapting, that was the same answer she’d given me since her aunts had “fixed” her transformations almost a month ago. At least now she actually could think and reason as a human when she changed into her alter-form and that was definitely a step in the right direction.
“Fine.” I backed off with a smile to let her know I didn’t take it personally, “I have to run anyway. Maybe I’ll stop by when it’s bedtime for Edward, and I can hang out in your cottage while I finish up this next stash of books.”
It’d been different moving to Blue Moon and realizing that Edward and my normal sleeping schedule of waking up when the sun came out was just the opposite for most, if not all, residents of Blue Moon.
When in Rome, as they say, do as the Romans do. The switch from night to morning sleeping wasn’t an easy one, but we could sleep better in Zinnia’s cottage since the inside was spelled to keep things nice and dark.
“Of course,” she nodded.
I scooted out from my seat, hugging the book to my chest. She tipped her cheek up, and I gave her a quick kiss. Being with Zinnia, and even being in Blue Moon, just felt right... perfect.
“See you later, and if you can, try to get some rest before your cha—”
“Yes, wurp.” She pinched back a grin, but her eyes danced because she thought she’d gotten me.
I lifted a brow. “You think I don’t know what you just called me? But I do. And I’ll have you know, you bearcat, I’m no wet blanket.”
She laughed, and my heart lightened at the sound. Zinnia and my first wife were such polar opposites except in one way. Elle had been just as fiery and opinionated as Zinny. Elle would have liked her. I just knew it.
And though Zinnia said that our time spent in Illusion hadn’t been real, and the Elle that Edward and I had met there hadn’t been our real Elle, a part of me felt that she had been as real as Zinnia was to me now. Seeing Elle looking happy, and healthy (if not dead) had helped me to finally put the ghost of her to bed. Not only that, but I knew Elle had seen Zinnia and in her own way had given me the approval I’d needed to finally move on and learn to be happy again.
And I knew with Zinnia I could be. I would be.
From the corner of my eye, I spied movement and looked up just as Zinnia’s aunt Violet—who also happened to be my favorite of her three aunts—scampered by us. It looked as though she were trying not to be noticed by us, which was strange, because the woman was a real Chatty Cathy. Once she got started, it was near impossible to get her to stop.
I frowned, from the corner of my eye I noticed Zinnia reach out her hand.
“Oh, Aunty, I was meaning to ask you if—” Zinnia stopped talking when Aunt Violet suddenly turned on her heel and moved off in the opposite direction toward the ladies’ restrooms.
I looked at Zinny, who was frowning as she stared at the ladies’ bathroom door.
“That was odd,” she murmured beneath her breath before looking back at me. “I know she heard me. I saw her tense up, didn’t you?”
“Little odd, yes, but your aunt Violet isn’t exactly the most normal of the bunch.” I squeezed her shoulder.
She snorted. “True enough. It’s just, call me addled, but I could swear that for the past week all three of them have been actively avoiding me, which is quite strange, even for them. Why last night, I even went so far as to call up Lady Olga to chat with Aunty Prim about a particular spell I was having some troubles with since they’ve had a long-standing poker match for the past fifty years, mind you. And Lady Olga said she wasn’t there.”
I shrugged. “Maybe she wasn’t. Nothing odd about that.”
She pinched her lips. “Lady Olga runs the saloon just down the street from me. I can literally see her sign from my place.” She gestured toward the street. “Exactly a minute after we’d hung up I spotted Aunty Prim waddling out the doors. She lied, you see. And they never lie to me. No, those biddies are up to something. I just know it.”
“That is weird,” I agreed with her. But I wasn’t as bothered by it as Zinnia seemed to be. People often acted squirrely when they were keeping secrets. “Maybe they’re throwing you a surprise birthday party?”
Glass-green eyes fastened on mine as her lips thinned into a straight line of irritation. “Applesauce. My birthday’s not for eight more months yet. They couldn’t possibly.”
I chuckled and tossed up my hands. “Then I don’t know, newt, but I do know this. Your crazy aunts love you. Whatever they’re doing, I’m sure you’ll learn about it soon enough. Don’t drive yourself crazy imagining what ifs.”
She grumped, crossing her arms over her chest, before finally letting go of a long-suffering sigh. “Fine. Fine. Maybe I am tired. No, scratch that. I am. I am tired, Zane. Very. I need sleep. Maybe tomorrow before I come into work, I’ll drop by my aunts’ place and see if they can’t give me something to help quiet my mind. I think you’re right. I just need some rest, and then I’ll be right as rain.”
I grinned. “Good to know I’m still good for something.”
She patted my stomach, giving me a beatific smile that stole my breath and made me hot under the collar.
“You’re good for a lot of things, Zane Huntington,” she said in a heated drawl, “a lot of things.”
“Mmm. Well then.” Leaning down one last time, I brushed my thumb over the spot of white on her nose and breathed her candied scent deep into my lungs, wishing I had so much more time with her than I was given each day.
“Sugar,” I said simply, feeling as if I were walking on air at the way she looked at me all soft and pretty.
She clutched at my wrist with her dainty fingers. “Thanks.” Her word was sensual and breathy. Her big, luminous eyes hypnotized me.
It was so hard to leave after that.
So hard.
Chapter 1
Zinnia Rose Thorn
“I CANNOT BELIEVE YOU always knew.” I sighed two nights later and shook myself like a wet dog as the last electrical sparks of transformation faded slowly from my body, leaving me feeling less empty and cold than I used to feel. But turning from a newt into a witch wasn’t exactly berries for me either.
Meri Undine—resident siren and one of my very best friends—flipped her jeweled mother-of-pearl tail back at me as the tinkling bell of her laughter chimed through the gathering dusk of night.
“Knew? Not exactly.” She winked. “I didn’t know the strange and unusual newt was you. But I did suspect for some years that there was something very peculiar about that particular amphibian, which was why I made sure you’d always
remain within the relative safety of my waters. Newts are fabulous eating to the average siren, you know.” Her cat-slitted pupils flared for just a moment as the echoes of that truth shivered eerily between us.
I clutched at my naked throat, allowing myself to air dry before pulling on my clothes. “You... you eat newt?”
A greedy curl of a smile tipped her full pink lips up at the corners before she spoke in a voice that echoed with the strength of her siren powers. “I eat a great many things, witch.”
I shivered.
She laughed, tipping her head back and causing the tips of her sea-foam-colored hair to wind through the blue waters like writhing sea snakes. “But friends, I do not eat. Not for anything. You were always safe with me, Zinny.”
I chuckled, as much from nerves as mirth. “Well, I’ll be. Guess it pays to have friends in high places after all.”
She sniffed as she lazily trailed her long, slender hands through her waters, causing them to froth and churn like Auntie Vi’s witch’s brews that she was always drinking.
I glanced around, noting the scamper and movement of nocturnal creatures furtively escaping their lairs and holes for the night in search of prey and food. It was close to the witching hour, which also meant it was high time for me to get back to my diner and begin preparations for yet another busy night of slinging pies and pouring java.
I gathered my still-damp curls high up on my head and pinned my hair to allow it to slowly air-dry. Then I rubbed my hands quickly down my body to dry off as best I could.
I’d left my blasted wand at the Golden Goose. I’d been woefully unprepared for my shift the previous night, but I blamed my lapse in awareness solely on the blue-eyed Paul Newman doppelgänger—Zane Huntington the III—who made me all tongue-tied and silly of late. We’d been talking around my hearth the night before, and he’d been telling me all about his and Edward’s house search instead of talking about Aunty Prim’s books for once. He’d asked me if I had a preference between the arts-and-crafts cottage versus the abandoned farmhouse close to Annabelle Lee’s gingerbread Victorian, and well... I’d completely lost track of time.
The shift had taken me swiftly but without the pain I’d grown accustomed to feeling the past several decades since I’d fallen under the curse’s spell. Zane had laughed uproariously at my sudden transformation. I’d hissed at him, which had only made him chuckle harder. He’d called me cute, and I’d called him something far less flattering, starting with dung and ending with heap.
Then I’d scampered off while holding my newty head up high, as proud as any newt could be—which wasn’t much, to be sure—back to the safety of my woods and Meri’s waters. As a newt, I was far more instinctual than I was as a human, but regardless of being more self-aware, habit was habit. For decades, Meri’s waters had been my home away from home, and it had seemed pointless to change that setup now.
I was still just as exhausted as I’d been for the past month. I had gone and visited my aunts’ cottage just as I’d promised Zane I would two nights ago, but both times I’d gone, they’d been conspicuously absent. Which wasn’t altogether unheard of for them. They were busy women, my aunts. But they’d usually kept me apprised of where they were going or even where they’d been. I hadn’t spoken to any of them for at least a week, and apart from the quick glimpse I’d had of Aunt Vi and Aunt Prim a few nights past, I’d not even seen them.
I did wish I could have gotten that sleeping tonic from Aunty Cinth, though. Having two sets of memories and instincts I could barely control during the day wasn’t an easy adjustment to make. At least before, I’d had very little memory of my time spent as a newt. But I remembered that Malachite had often tried to eat me, that traitorous villainous feline I’d once called my familiar but didn’t anymore.
More often than not, his days were spent in the company of Sage Cherry Azalea—recent transplant to Blue Moon Bay and complete mystery to all. She did talk and seemed pleasant enough, but it didn’t help that she had absolutely no idea who she was or who she’d been. The only concrete memories she actually had were from the point that she’d been pulled out of Mirror.
When I had managed to speak with my aunts several weeks ago, Aunt Prim had confessed to me that she was going quite insane over the complete and total mystery of who Sage was. The young woman’s mind had been entirely scrubbed clean, which was certainly concerning and brought up a myriad of other questions. But I had faith that if anyone could crack the riddle of the maybe witch, my aunts certainly could. My auntie Prim had never been very good with the not knowing and had a tendency to drive herself insane until she solved whatever conundrum she was presented. This time, though, things had felt different. The last time I’d seen my aunt, she had definitely been harried looking, and her eyes had been bloodshot from days spent poring over her historical documents.
What was worse, even Aunty Vi’s legendary sight was no help at all. Sage, whoever she really was, was a complete and total blank to us all. And that wasn’t comforting in the slightest.
Still, she wasn’t exactly the most threatening of sorts. I rather liked the shy mouse for all that. One thing we all knew for certain was that Sage was no human. But that was all we knew. Her memories were nothing but blocks of Swiss cheese, riddled with holes, but the fiery core of her soul, which connoted whether a person was a paranormal or merely human, blazed as hot and bright as any creatures in Blue Moon Bay.
Zane found the idea of Sage endlessly fascinating, which didn’t bother me in the slightest. Not one bit. Nuh-uh.
I sighed deeply. Okay, so maybe it bothered me a little.
He’d yet to take me out on an actual date, even though he’d asked me on one more than two weeks ago. Not that I was counting, but I was counting. All he seemed to want to do was meet at my house every night with his son in tow, eager to ask yet more questions about Blue Moon Bay or Sage.
And while I loved getting to hang out with him whatever chance I had, and I didn’t actually want to push him for more, I did wonder if he even remembered asking me out. It was wrong of me, I knew. He was still working through the loss of his wife, Ellen, and clearly needed more time, which made me feel all balled up inside. Not that I would ever tell him so, but the truth was that I felt guilty for how I felt. I’d lost someone near and dear to me years ago, my best friend Eerie Thistlebottom, who was now a zombie. Why? Because, unlike Zane, I hadn’t been able to let Eers go. I’d brought her back from the grave, twining my life force with hers, and accidentally turning her into a zombie and cursing myself into a newt for my efforts.
No, I was no one to throw stones in this situation. Yet I couldn’t help how I was feeling either. I was damned if I did and damned if I didn’t. I sighed miserably again.
Added to that, I was just flat out tired. I got no rest during the day and none at all at night. I’d thought not remembering what I’d done during the days as a newt before had been bad, but now I remembered everything. Everything. And I wasn’t sure which was worse.
Zane kept telling me I should take a day off, and I was still torn about it. I’d not taken many days off... well, ever. I kind of thought that if I did, I might just wind up doing something egregiously stupid one of these days because of it. I was a ticking time bomb waiting to happen.
I sighed again as I slipped on my other shoe.
“Gods, Zinny, what’s got you so down this evening? I’d have thought you’d be happy to be human again.” Meri looked up at me with a worried frown.
I rolled my eyes as I tugged on my underthings with jerky, aggravated movements. “Ach,” I growled, sounding uncannily like my grumpy auntie Hyacinth, and shook my head. “It’s nothing.”
“Oh no.” Meri shook her head. “It’s definitely something. You’ve that angry aura about you.” She wagged her fingers at me, exposing the thick, almost translucent, webbing between them. “Don’t forget you taught me how to read the colors.”
I grimaced. She was right, blast her. I had. Wrinkling my nose, I huffed. “It
’s nothing.”
“Lies now? So unlike you, dear sweet witch. Tell me who’s hurt you, and I’ll eat them.” She licked her lips. Her words were thick with laughter, but also the bluntness of truth.
Long ago, her kind—the siren folk—had developed a reputation for luring sailors into rough waters with their magical voices, sinking the seamen’s vessels, and, well... eating the spoils.
But Meri had put her man-eating days behind her. Maybe. Possibly. I hoped.
I eyed my friend, and she laughed, batting my obvious internal thoughts aside.
“You know I gave that up the moment I moved to Blue Moon. Doesn’t mean the old desires don’t stir now and then. But tell me the truth, what’s got you so low, little witch?”
I heaved another sigh. Sounding like a bloody bellows, I blew out a raspberry. I didn’t have time to think about Zane or dates and kisses and being in his arms, wrapped up in his cologne and dreaming of a future together. We’d only just met. My head was in the clouds. And I wasn’t even certain it was Zane that had me all gummed up inside. I was just feeling rather low at the moment, and I wasn’t sure why.
Meri’s lovely turquoise eyes narrowed as she studied me. She said nothing for so long that I grew jittery, wondering what she saw in me. Maybe she saw a weak-willed woman, too impatient and ridiculous about things like romance, especially romance with a widower. I was a terrible person.
I was awful.
With a glower, I snatched up my white off-the-shoulder sundress that billowed around my ankles when I walked and quickly shimmied it on. I’d worn the bloody thing because it was the most flattering dress I owned for my figure, which was rather silly considering I’d transformed back into my human form in the muddy, dirty woods and my pretty dress would certainly not remain so after I’d walked back into town. I flicked at the hem with irritation.
“Ah.” I shook my head. “I’m just a dumb Dora. Forget it.”
She narrowed her shrewd gaze. “Hardly. And he does like you, very much, Zinny.”