Spells on Shelves

Chapter 2 || Like The Gemstone

Keeping his gaze on me, Paxton stalked toward us, every movement showing the calculated grace of a predator. He had to be a shifter. So why hadn't I sensed anything?

Livvy cursed. "Okay, just be cool. I'll handle this."

Moving closer, he was much taller than he'd appeared standing next to his gigantic friend. I was unprepared for that strange tingle of awareness that shot through my body and suddenly acutely away that I hadn't washed my hair in three days. 

His nostrils flared, and his indifferent expression shifted, eyes briefly turning to a golden hue. Right there, in that fleeting moment, I felt it. The raw, untamed strength of his wild magic crashed against my own like a tidal wave.

Not just any shifter. A very strong one.

My muscles locked up. The thumping of my heart was so fierce I could almost hear it—he probably could with those heightened senses of his.

Predator. Danger. Move.

No. I clamped down on my panic, trying to crush it with an iron fist.

If I ran, I'd be easy prey—not that I could outrun him anyway.

Years of being on the run taught me to trust my intuition. And now it told me, he was dangerous.

While I battled with myself, Paxton had closed the distance, and stopped a foot from our seats. "Who's this?" he asked Livvy in a low voice.

Shadows lined a pair of amber eyes that hadn't moved an inch from my face. Black swirls of ink peeked out from the collar of his shirt, curling around the side of his neck. 

Now that he was close I was againt met with nothing. As if he somehow eluded me, making the earlier feeling appear almost like an illusion? I'd never encountered a shifter who could conceal his power, especially not from me. 

Had I been wrong? No. Years of being on the run taught me to trust my intuition. The tired eyes and shadows made him appear harmless but my gut told me he was anything but. Maybe he was wearing an artifact.

Then why was an SSD agent of his caliber stashed away in a remote town like this? There were witch hunters who didn't measure up to him and those were considered the elite. He was exactly the kind of powerhouse I tried to avoid. It just didn't make sense.

Think.

I had to throw him off somehow. Despite my instinctual reaction, I knew my face didn't betray my flailing emotions. That didn't mean he couldn't pick up on other tells. Like my racing heartbeat–but maybe I could use that to my advantage.

Livvy glared at him and said, "This is Ja—"

With deliberate slowness, I straightened up, pushing back the strands of hair that had fallen across my face. "Jade," I purred, leaning in, and letting a small, purposeful smile tug at the corner of my lips. "Like the gemstone. And who might you be, handsome?"

As soon as the words left my mouth, I knew it worked. His lips curled, his eyes now radiating a cold, distant look that didn't match their warm color.

Livvy coughed. "Our new witch."

Time to finalize this.

"Excuse me," I began. "You didn't even introduce yourself—"

He turned towards her, aligning his body in a way that excluded me from the conversation. "I see," he drawled and she shrank. "Does Cam know yet?"

"I was going to tell him," Livvy mumbled, looking everywhere but him.

I began to feel uncomfortable. What did that mean?