Too Hexy For Her Wand (Hot and Hexy #2) - Susan Hayes Page 0,3
short amount of time they had left.”
“They knew?” She put down the papers and hugged the stuffed cat tighter. “We’ve never talked about this before.”
“Because it wasn’t the right time. Now, it is. So, open the last of your presents and then I’ll tell you what I can.”
Inside were a set of house keys on a tatty, hand-woven lanyard and a tiny key no bigger than her thumbnail. It was unadorned and simple, just a little bit of golden metal.
“No message, just this.” She held the key up so Tiff-Tiff could see it. “Is it an old-timey safety deposit key? Does it unlock the world’s smallest treasure chest?”
The locket she always wore around her neck warmed up and vibrated against her skin.
“I’ll give you three guesses,” Tiff drawled. “First two don’t count.”
The little gold locket someone had magically secured around her neck twitched and twisted on the end of its chain. “What the fuck is happening now?”
“Remember when I told you not to add bling to that thing? This is why.” Even as Tiff spoke, the custom diamond setting she’d had added fell off. Diamonds scattered across the hardwood floor, revealing the single emerald set into the middle of a simple, heart-shaped pendant.
“Crap! My diamonds!”
“I’ll deal with them. You open the locket.”
She moved the two objects closer together, and sure enough, both of them began to vibrate at what she swore was the same frequency. “Is this what’s supposed to happen?”
Before Tiff could answer, the locket flipped over, revealing a long-forgotten detail. Her initials were etched there in neatly looping script. The key zipped out of her fingers and hit the back of the locket with a sharp click, and then there was a musical tinkling as a hundred tiny silver and gold sparks swirled around the locket before fading away once again.
“This all seems needlessly complicated,” she muttered.
The locket looked the same as always. Plain and boring, but there was one new detail—a little clasp along one side that hadn’t been there before.
“You have got to be kidding me. All that just so I can finally open this little trinket?”
“It’s important, Fern.”
“It’s insane.”
Tiff-Tiff sighed and went back to batting the diamonds across the floor, slowly gathering them into a pile.
Clearly, she would get no help from that quarter, so Fern pressed the clasp. It sprang open, revealing a picture of her parents. She knew them instantly, recalling every forgotten detail of the way they looked and spoke. Goddess, she could even remember the smell of her mom’s shampoo. She lifted it higher to get a better look and then yelped in shock when the photo came to life and started speaking. In rhyming couplets no less. She was going to need more ice cream.
* * *
“It’s time for you to come back home,
Regain your life, no more to roam,
The darkness threatens, the battle comes soon,
But you’re our light against the gloom.
Second of three, you’ll take your place,
And our old enemy you shall face.
If this battle you do win,
It may be our fate to meet again.”
* * *
Her parents waved up at her, barely visible through the tears that filled her eyes and streamed down her face. “We love you so much. Happy birthday, little one.”
Fern let go of the locket and exhaled slowly. There was a moment of terrible grief, and she had to blink hard to rid herself of the tears that threatened to spill over.
“I’m sorry it had to be this way.” Tiff-Tiff came over and curled up at her feet.
“You really couldn’t tell me any of this before?”
Tiff looked up at her. “I really couldn’t.”
Fern rubbed a hand over her heart like she could ease the ache there. She didn’t get upset very often, and it never lasted long. Anger, sorrow, grief, it all sort of slid off her. But not tonight. Tonight, it hurt. “I don’t understand why I’m so upset, either. I mean, they’ve been gone half my life.”
“Because until tonight, you didn’t remember them well enough to miss them.”
She glowered down at her familiar. “I hate this.”
“I know.” Tiff pushed the remains of the ice cream in front of her. “Eat this. Then, we’ll talk.”
Chapter Two
Most days, Orion loved being in the kitchen of his pub because it was his. He and his brother had renovated every inch of the place themselves—from the front of the house to the walk-in coolers in the back. He’d ordered and inspected each ingredient that came into the place, all of it local and top quality. The