The Boy Band Curse: Chapter One

this is the first chapter of my unhinged adult paranormal fantasy rom com. enjoy the chaos! available now on Amazon/KU <3

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“Will you stop rotting in bed already?” asked the cat on my nightstand. “We’re out of food.”

“We are not out of food. You can go catch us a mouse or something.”

“You would eat a mouse? Even I wouldn’t eat a mouse, and I’ve been a fucking cat for four years now.”

I cast a sidelong glance at the blue-eyed Siamese cat perched on my bedside stack of books, the only orderly part of my attic bedroom. Months worth of clothes littered the crooked floorboards, and all the belongings I’d accumulated in my twenty-nine years of life spilled from the open closet, none of which had alleviated my impending doom.

“And whose fault is it that you’ve been a cat for four years?”

“Not mine,” she insisted, giving me her sassiest cat face. “It’s Mom’s fault.”

“Yeah, Mom’s fault—not my fault—so don’t act like I should suffer for you.” I threw my dirty pillow over my face and had to stifle a cough from the smell. Tossing it aside, I reluctantly met my sister’s judgmental eyes. “Fine, fine. I’ll go to the store tomorrow. I’m not starving to death yet.”

She lifted her furry chin toward the low slanted ceiling. “If you’re not going to feed me, you might as well work on your grand plan to never have to feed me again.”

“How’d you find out about my murder plans?” I playfully pouted, but she just cat-scowled at me, so I sighed. “I’ve given up, Simone. There’s no way to reverse Mom’s curse unless you find your true love.”

“Oh yeah, and how am I supposed to do that while I’m a cat? Find another cat to mate with? Then I’ll turn back into a witch and be in love with a cat!”

I buried my face in my hands this time. “I don’t know, okay?”

“Well, you should probably figure out how to nullify the curse for your own sake. Less than a month until you turn thirty, Nini. Do you really want to find your true love before then—or ever?”

“No,” I snapped, then noticed Simone’s hair sticking up and reeled in my aggravation. “I’m sorry, just…no, of course not. I can’t…I don’t…whatever…”

“Okay…” she said slowly, “then get back to work, otherwise we’ll be stuck eating mice forever.”

I waved a dismissive hand toward the protective crystals hanging over my bed. “Most cats don’t live past twenty. I’m sure you’ve only got another ten years in y—”

Simone swatted my forearm, drawing blood and adding to my endless collection of scratches from her.

“Bitch,” I said, more amused than annoyed, as I forced myself upright. “Fine. I’m going to heal this, and then I’ll get back to work. But I’m still not leaving the house today. I’m on my period. Don’t abuse me.”

Leaving behind the preening cat, I trudged down the rickety stairs to the first floor of our decrepit house. My sister and I had shared this shack since I was fourteen, and it was a miracle no human had ever stumbled across it during a walk through the woods. The place reeked of witches.

Dried plants hung from every wood slat of the ceiling, endless shelves of ingredients consumed the walls, and crystals were scattered on the coffee table’s open books—and probably lost in the crevices of our floppy green couches, too. At least a human might believe no one with magic would live in this cluttered condition, but alas, the spells required to keep this house tidy would demand more time and effort than simply picking things up.

Even that I didn’t have the motivation to do. What was the point? In a month, I’d be an inconsequential cat. Hopefully a black cat. If I was cursed, the least I could do was curse some other people in the process.

As I found the healing salve on a shelf, I eyed the open books, the evidence of my failed research. Counter curses were complicated for an average witch such as myself, especially when dealing with a curse that had festered for nearly thirty years. The only person I knew who was powerful enough was my friend Maya, and even she’d had no luck.

Well, she wasn’t the only person I knew, but I would crawl over every inch of hell before I asked him—

The front door burst open, startling me into dropping the salve jar.

“Go in, go in!” a masculine voice shouted, overpowering the shattering of glass. A man with shoulder-length brown hair rushed in first, followed by one with black curls cropped closer to his head. In unison, they slammed shut the door and leaned back against it, panting as they stared at the ceiling, not quite seeing the dried plants, definitely not seeing me.

“It’s fine, it’s fine,” the first one breathed, raking a hand through his messy brown locks. Eyeliner dripped down his cheeks as if he’d been crying, though now only sweat wet his face, glistening on his tattooed chest as well. His burgundy velvet shirt was torn down the middle, fabric and skin all speckled in blood. “Everything’s great—it’s cool.”

Barely moving an inch, I summoned my favorite dagger from the kitchen, its hilt studded with black tourmaline (change) to shield me whenever I struck. The panicked looks on the intruders’ faces didn’t necessarily befit hostile burglars, but both men were taller and more muscular than me. Plus, judging by the blood, I wouldn’t be the first person they’d maimed today.

“Yeah, yeah, totally cool,” agreed the other man, his hand gripping the door handle like a lifeline. He didn’t have any visible tattoos, but gold piercings gleamed on his ears and eyebrow, along with rings on his fingers and a chain peeking out from his t-shirt. Blood drenched his ripped jeans and his shaking hands. Not his, and likely not the other guy’s, since his only wound was a superficial slice down his chest.

“I can’t believe…” The tattooed one trailed off, staring dead-eyed at the stairs. “Shit, Blaze, that was…”

“Insane? Yeah, I know.” The dark-haired one, Blaze, pinched the bridge of his nose. “At least we can check ‘survive assassination attempt’ off our bucket list.”

“Do you think they’ll find us here?”

“Who?” I finally interjected, taking a careful step forward. “Who have you led here?”

“Ah!” the tattooed one yelled, jolting back against the door and shielding his face with his hands. When I didn’t immediately attack, he peeked through his fingers. “Holy shit, holy shit—”

“Shut up, Cam,” Blaze hissed, backhanding his friend’s chest. Cam yelped at the hit to his shallow wound, but Blaze didn’t take his focus off me to apologize.

“Who’s coming?” I repeated, raising the dagger.

Blaze studied me apprehensively, though not with nearly as much fear as his friend. His amber eyes lingered on the crescent moon marked over my heart, and I became keenly aware of my appearance—my knotty white hair, my threadbare nightgown, my lack of a bra. Cheeks heating, I awkwardly tried to cover my chest while keeping the dagger aimed their way.

Obviously, they both noticed, tension leaking away as their lips twitched upward.

“Are you a witch?” Blaze asked. Because why wouldn’t he.

“Yes,” I answered, deciding I’d kill them if they tried using the knowledge against me. I was already tempted to end them and their faint mocking smirks. “What are you doing near my bog?”

Cam’s black-smeared eyelids blinked. “There’s a bog around here?”

“Yes, it’s to the north. Usually deters unwanted visitors from that direction, at least.”

Cam scratched his head and then shook it. “No idea which direction we came from.”

“You’re…” Blaze let out a breathless laugh. “You’re fucking with us.”

“I’m not yet, but I certainly can.” I tilted the dagger farther in their direction. “Who sent you here?”

“No one!” Cam insisted hastily. “We’re hiding from the cops.”

I didn’t quite believe him, but I still hurried toward the front window to check. Even without wearing amethyst earrings, my hearing was good enough to discern Blaze’s muttered, “Should we subdue her or something?”

Ignoring them, I did a quick scan of the forest, desolate and motionless as always. My protective wards were still intact, visible only to the magically trained eye as a faint glimmer, but somehow these two had snuck past so stealthily I hadn’t sensed them cross the barrier.

“Today was your first day ever fighting anyone…ever,” Cam muttered back, even more audibly. “Don’t test your luck.”

“We fought kids all the time in school.”

“Yeah, when we were ten and there were no knives.”

“No one’s caught up to you yet,” I reported, pointedly meeting both their gazes in case they didn’t know I could clearly hear them. “I’m going to strengthen the wards. Don’t move, or I’ll sever all your major arteries.” I gave them my cheekiest smile as I stalked toward them, and they remained utterly petrified, not scurrying away when I stood directly in front of them. “I…will need you to get out of the way, actually, but then after that, don’t move.”

With the blade only inches away from impaling Blaze’s chest, they unquestioningly heeded the command, shoving and stumbling over each other until they stood behind one of the couches. I jabbed the dagger toward them in one last warning and then slipped out the door.

Weapon ready, I stepped barefoot through the leaves, watching for any sign of a trap. When none presented itself, I let my guard down a fraction, crouching to touch the ground where the wards started.

Against all survival instincts, I closed my eyes and spread my awareness across the protective barrier, testing for any tiny cracks or holes they might have slipped through. I must have prodded the whole dome at least five times, my heart rate elevating with each pass, before I accepted there were none. The wards were pristine.

Hands trembling, I rose and marched back toward the house, trying not to panic. No, I wasn’t close to being the most powerful witch, but breaking any magical ward took tremendous power and always left a trace. Somehow these two dimwits had bypassed all that, like they’d become intangible and ghosted through.

I’d never heard anything like it, and no way had they accidentally utilized such potent magic. They were playing dumb.

When I reached the door, I went to throw it open, but it didn’t budge more than a centimeter. They’d pressed their bodies against it. They’d moved.

“Oh?” I took a moment to laugh to myself, and then I danced my fingers on the wood in a magically imbued gesture, forcing the door to fly open.

It slammed the guys into the wall, and I kept my fingers lightly on the wood to pin them there.

Their groans and curses filled the air, but I didn’t give them a moment to regain their bearings, pressing the tip of my blade to Blaze’s chin since Cam was wedged too far into the corner.

“Did you really think I didn’t have a precaution against people locking me out of my own house? I will admit, I did learn the hard way when my sister locked me out seven years ago, but we all need to learn the hard way once in a while, don’t we?”

Blaze swallowed and struggled not to fidget. “We haven’t had the best experience with knives today. We’re being as cautious as you are.”

That piqued my interest, but I refused to fall into the lure of some over-powered manipulative creatures. “How did you get into the house?”

“We just opened the door.” Blaze’s eyebrows pinched together with a mixture of frustration and sincerity, but I couldn’t risk trusting him, especially when all evidence pointed against them.

“That’s impossible. The door is locked to everyone I don’t like.”

Cam’s white smile gleamed through the door’s shadow. “You must like us a little, then.”

Blaze’s eyes traveled up and down my ratty nightgown with the confidence of someone who didn’t have a dagger against his throat. “You must be a fan.”

“A fan of what?”

Giggling, the guys exchanged a look.

“She’s so obsessed with us,” Blaze said.

“Don’t be embarrassed,” Cam consoled me. “It’s okay to be like everyone else.”

“What—”

“Meow.”

Their laughter faded at that evidently human voice. Simone had finally deigned to leave the attic, now sprawled on the third step, demanding attention. With my luck, she would cozy up to these assholes and invite them to live here.

“Stay over there,” I told her.

“Aw, your cat’s so cute,” Cam cooed, completely serious.

I pressed harder against the door. “Do not go near her.”

“Me-ow,” Simone repeated, infusing the word with as much agitation as felinely possible. We didn’t get visitors often, and even as a witch she’d desperately craved social interaction. Didn’t matter if it was with blood-soaked intruders.

Blaze squinted, disturbed by her strange meows. “What kind of cat is that?”

“The kind that wants to know how the hell you found our house.” I poked the dagger against his skin, not hard enough to draw blood but enough pressure to redirect his attention. “No one ever comes back he—”

“We just thought this was a creepy abandoned house in the woods,” Cam insisted, and Blaze nodded as much as the blade allowed.

“It’s not abandoned,” I retorted, genuinely offended.

But…they seemed genuine, too. And the fact they hadn’t called out Simone for being a witch trapped in a cat’s body was proof enough they didn’t actually know much about magic, if anything at all. Bypassing the wards had been a fluke. Perhaps my magic had felt empathy for their terror.

Warily, I removed my fingers from the wood and let the door creak shut. Cam rubbed his sternum, hissing at the contact with his wound, and I fended off the urge to ask if he needed help.

“Why are you hiding from the cops?”

“Well, we were doing a show in the city,” Cam began.

“What city?”

He glanced at his friend for assistance, and Blaze’s lips parted. “You know…the city.”

I dropped the dagger to my side in exasperation. “Do you even know what state you’re in?”

Ten seconds passed, and then Cam clapped his hands together. “Anyway, after the show ended last night, we were kidnapped by our worst nemesis. Thane Calloway.”

My brows furrowed in confusion. “Am I supposed to—”

“He and the Long Schlongs tied us up,” Cam continued, “and…and they started torturing us.”

“The…the Long Schlongs?”

“They’re jealous we’re more popular,” Cam clarified, as if that explained anything. “And we are, as you know.”

“I don’t—”

“Thane said he was going to kill us,” Blaze added, anxiously twisting a ring on his finger. “He’s a total psycho. Or…or he was. He cut Cam’s chest open.”

My eyebrows arched at the already-healing wound. “It’s a mild laceration.”

“And now the cops think we killed him,” Cam concluded, banging his head back against the wall.

Head spinning, I tried to piece together their vague, disjointed story. “Did…did you kill him?”

“N-no—no.” Cam dug his fingers into his hair, avoiding my eyes. “I didn’t.”

“I did,” Blaze said with solid self-assurance that withered as soon as our gazes met. “I don’t… The ropes around my wrists were loose, I guess, and I got free and I grabbed the knife from him and I…I stabbed him. In the gut, I think. I didn’t think it would kill him.”

“You didn’t think it would kill him?” I echoed flatly. “Are you lying to me?”

“No!” he practically snarled, masking the tears in his eyes with anger. “Why the fuck would I lie about murdering someone?”

“What you described wasn’t murder. It was self defense. If you’d actually murdered him, you would frame it as self defense, like you just did.”

Cam stepped forward as if to guard Blaze from my criticism. “We never would’ve gone after Thane. He stole two of our friends from us, sure, but that was years ago, and fuck them anyway. We’ve been better since they left us.”

“But everyone will think we killed Thane on purpose,” Blaze said. “We’ve had beef with him for years—fake beef, on our end, but apparently not his.”

Cam tapped his lip pensively. “Unless it was all an elaborate stunt for publicity.”

“It wasn’t. They weren’t live-streaming—there weren’t cameras. And now there’s no proof of what happened. It’ll be the word of three people against two, and…it’s been a few hours. The Long Schlongs have probably already turned the public against us.”

By this point, I was totally puzzled as to why these guys were famous—famous enough to have a murderous rivalry, at that—but I had no interest in inserting myself into the drama. All I wanted was to get them out of my space.

“Whether you’re innocent or not, you can’t stay here,” I said. “I can’t have people coming here and snooping around.”

“Because you’re a witch,” Blaze surmised, still not buying it.

Fed up, I tossed my dagger in the air, and the guys flinched until it flew in the opposite direction, sailing smoothly into its holster near the kitchen sink.

Cam’s jaw dropped, and Blaze stalked around me to check for some trick wire, some illusion.

“You…” He pointed at me, trying to cobble together an accusation, but then he turned his focus on Cam. “You slipped me something while we were running through the woods, didn’t you?”

“Oh, yeah, sure, I totally just slipped some drugs in your mouth without you noticing,” Cam said, aggressively sarcastic. “I don’t even have anything on me, dude. Could use something right now, though, considering…everything. You don’t have, like, magical drugs, do you?”

I clamped down on my tongue, mightily tempted to offer a tonic that would knock them into the next dimension indefinitely. That would be my backup option if Plan A went to shit.

“I can put a spell on you guys so no one will recognize you—so you can leave here and no one will ever know who you are.”

“Ever?” Cam echoed, and I couldn’t tell if he was excited or horrified.

“How?” Blaze demanded from behind me, more skeptical. “What does this spell entail?”

I pivoted so I could see both of them, disliking how they flanked me from either side. The kitchen island separated me from Blaze, and Cam still lingered near the door at least six feet away, but that didn’t alleviate the cornered feeling.

If I was going through with this, though, I needed to grant them a sliver of trust. The magical process was vulnerable. Intimate.

“It’ll require a ritual—a quick one, hopefully.”

“What will the spell make us look like?” Cam asked before Blaze could refuse.

“Cloaking spells are difficult,” I admitted, crossing my arms over my chest. “I can’t make everyone see the same thing; it’s just…impossible. Everyone perceives things differently. So you won’t look the same to everyone, but that’s probably already true. Like, some people probably think you’re attractive, which is either bad eyesight or some form of psychosis—”

“Ha-ha,” Cam fake laughed. When I didn’t smile, his face fell. “Wait, you’re serious?”

“This spell will make people see you however you want to be seen,” I concluded, refusing to look at either of them as I walked to the coffee table. Under a jar of wildflowers, the book on cloaking spells lay open, a remnant of my futile attempt to cloak myself from the effects of my mom’s curse.

When I sat on the couch to flip through it, Cam plopped onto the cushion beside mine. “Sick, so I can have abs?”

“You already have abs,” Blaze said as he perched on the other couch’s armrest, both feet propped up so he could rest his elbows on his knees.

“Yeah, but I have to maintain them. It’s so much fucking work.”

“Wait.” Blaze dropped one leg off the side of the armrest, and I reluctantly glanced up from my book to see his grave face. “Will we be able to see each other normally?”

“Probably. I’ve never done this to two people at once. Never done it at all actually,” I added in a mumble as I resumed reading the table of contents.

Blaze’s other leg dropped onto the couch cushion. “You’re joking.”

“Waaait…” Cam slammed his hand right next to my leg, and I scooted a few inches away. “Will you still be able to see us normally?”

“No.” I flipped through the book toward the necessary spell. “Why do you care?”

Cam leaned closer, invading my space with the scent of his cologne and the magnetism of his sly smile. “Well, you’re just, like, so into us, you know.”

I shoved his shoulder, and he flopped dramatically toward the other end of the couch, snickering. His mood sobered as soon as I started flipping pages again.

“And you’re the only person who will actually know who we are,” he added. “Like, who we really are.”

“I just met you. I have no idea who you are, and once this is over, I’ll never see you again.” I paused when I reached the proper spell, meeting both of their uncertain gazes. “You can either become new people, or you can rot in prison. Your choice.”

Blaze drummed his fingers on the armrest between his legs. “If you can make people see us differently, can’t you make them think about us differently—like, believe we’re innocent?”

“That’s…not a level of magic I think I’ll ever reach. It’s dark, to twist people’s thoughts like that, even if it’s the truth. And for you to be able to affect people’s thoughts when you’re not around them—to brainwash the whole world at all times…not possible.”

Simone hopped onto the armrest beside me to read the spell, giving a discreet nod of approval. In her witch days, she’d never done ritualistic magic herself—she’d always preferred raw, fluid, unpredictable magic—but after our years of scouring for a counter curse, she understood the basics of spellcasting well enough.

“Purrr,” she said. Her version of “good luck,” apparently.

Blaze gawked at her like she had three heads, and I abruptly stood before he started spewing questions.

“Let’s get this over with. I’ll need you both to stand side-by-side—probably behind that couch—and then…” I skimmed the page again, stomach bottoming out. “Um…you’ll need to get naked so the magic knows exactly what to cloak.”

A half-smirk slid onto Cam’s lips. “Really? We have to get naked?”

“This has to be the weirdest way a fan has ever tried to seduce us,” Blaze mused as he moved behind his couch.

“You should’ve just told us you wanted to fuck.” Cam tsked as he pushed to his feet and walked backward to join his friend. “Much less embarrassing than this obvious scheme.”

My whole face flamed as I read the instructions again, praying they might magically change. “If you’re wearing clothes, the spell will confuse what parts are purely you. I—I mean, you can keep your underwear on, I’d think. It’s not like anyone will recognize your dicks.”

“Wouldn’t be so sure about that,” Blaze said, pulling off his shirt. I averted my eyes as soon as his tan chest was on display, resisting the urge to peek at the few small tattoos on his torso. It didn’t matter what he looked like. After this spell, he would wear a whole new skin.

“Yeah, my shaft is tatted,” Cam informed me for some ungodly reason. Instead of removing his shirt normally, he ripped the rest down the middle and shrugged it off his shoulders, exposing his thoroughly inked upper body. “Kinda unmistakable. Hold on, I’ll show you.”

“No, nope, that’s…no,” I said as he shimmied out of his jeans. The couch blocked most of their lower halves, but I could still see the very top of their underwear bands. And then the V’s of their groins when they took off their boxers.

Pinning my attention back on the book, I ignored their mutterings to each other and engrained the spell in my brain. “You’ll need…” I rummaged around the coffee table until I located two milky orange crystals. “Hold these directly above your hearts.”

I chucked the sunstones without fully looking at the guys, and Blaze dove to catch his while Cam juggled his like a hot potato.

“I like this color,” Cam said when he finally stopped being a doofus. “Kinda similar to your nightgown.”

Scowling, I hugged the open book over my chest. “Crystals on hearts now.”

The guys complied, though Cam wouldn’t stay completely still, rubbing his thumb over the stone.

“I’m gonna close my eyes to focus—”

“Because we’re too distracting?” Blaze cut in, tracing the stone around his nipple.

“Because I need to block out the physical world to connect to the metaphysical. Don’t move, okay? This has to be very precise.”

I didn’t wait for them to make more lewd remarks, closing my eyes and deflecting all sound from my ears. The inky infinity of magic’s realm unspooled before me, and I recited a few phrases in the magical tongue, summoning a glowing orange orb from the depths.

Within the supernatural space, I reached for the light, imagining the two strange men who’d shown up at my house, projecting the mystical energy toward them. As soon as my mind envisioned their faces, though, their voices penetrated my awareness, fracturing my concentration.

“It’s so soft…or silky,” Cam whispered.

Blaze snorted a laugh. “Smooth’s the word you’re going for.”

“Yeah, yeah, smooth. Ooh, it feels kinda nice against my dick.”

“Shit, yeah, it does—it’s kinda warm and buttery.”

“Fuck—”

My eyes snapped open, yanking me from the darkness back into my living room. The orange orb still floated before me, connected to my fingertips, and beyond its flare, the guys were jerking themselves off behind the couch.

“What are you doing!” I yelled, and of course they both just gave me languid grins, eyes closed as they slowly pleasured themselves with sunstones in hand. “I leave you alone for five fucking seconds—”

“It was at least ten minutes,” Blaze argued, though his flippant demeanor dissolved as soon as he peeked an eye open. “Holy hell—what is that?”

“It’s like the sun,” Cam said, so awestruck he actually stopped stroking himself.

“Crystals on hearts!” I frantically commanded as the orb pulsed, growing larger by the second.

The guys were too stunned to listen, though, and I didn’t have time to rush over and force the sunstones to their chests before three lines of lightning exploded from the orb, slamming into each of us.

I flew back onto the couch where Simone sat, her panicked screech chorusing with the guys’ shouts. The air crackled for a few moments, but by the time my blinded eyes readjusted, no trace of the orange orb remained.

“God almighty,” Cam groaned from somewhere near the kitchen. “Worst climax ever.”

Blaze hacked out a cough. “You came?”

“Out of fear, yeah.”

“Is that even possible?” Blaze questioned as I pushed to my feet and hesitantly staggered toward the other couch. I didn’t necessarily want to see them naked—at least not under the current circumstances—but I had to know if the spell had somehow worked.

When I peered beyond the couch into the kitchen, though, they were nowhere to be seen.

“Where are you guys?” I stumbled around the couch and wove between the island and the counters, hoping I hadn’t accidentally infused them into the fabric of my house. If their disembodied voices haunted me forever—

“Here,” Cam said, sounding impossibly close. “You’re looking straight at us.”

Squinting at the floor two feet in front of me, I vaguely discerned the outline of bodies, but they were nearly invisible, almost a trick of the light. To check that I wasn’t hallucinating after the magical blast, I toed the nearest hazy shape, and Cam’s yelp accompanied the sound of him scrambling across the floor.

“Whoa, hey, I’m not in the mood for a footie right now, all right? I just fear came.”

“Sorry, I didn’t…” I hugged my torso and looked away from their general direction. “You should…you should get dressed and leave.”

“Did it work?” Blaze asked as he fetched his t-shirt. My vision stopped perceiving it once he put it on.

“I…I don’t know.”

“You don’t look any different, Blaze. Still got your Easter bunny birthmark and all,” Cam said as he shrugged on his ripped shirt, disappearing the burgundy fabric.

Some kind of magic had certainly overtaken them. Maybe they didn’t want to be seen by me? They didn’t care about being naked before, but perhaps they were rightfully humiliated after jerking off with my sunstones.

Or perhaps I’d accidentally turned them invisible to literally everyone.

“It had to have worked,” I insisted, mainly trying to convince myself. “That was the most powerful magic I’ve ever wielded.”

I sent a pleading glance across the room to my sister, but Simone simply shrugged her little cat shoulders, as clueless about this situation as I was.

“Well, guess it’s time to go test if that was an elaborate party trick just to get us naked,” Blaze said, and I felt his suspicious eyes on me even if I couldn’t quite see them.

“You’ll have to have a specific image in mind of how you want to look to others,” I explained as I opened the front door. “At the very least, you have to believe you don’t want people to see you as yourselves. If you get lazy about it, the magic won’t work.”

“Sure, whatever you say.” Blaze slapped the sunstone into my hand as he passed, his form growing gradually less transparent the farther he walked from my house.

“Blaze’ll never say it,” Cam muttered, so close his breath caressed my face, “but we appreciate you saving our asses. So, thanks.”

His fingers briefly touched my sternum, and then he dropped the second sunstone down the front of my nightgown.

I glared after his increasingly visible body as the crystal clattered to the floor. “Never come back,” I sang, falsely sweet.

“We’ll send you a pony or something,” Cam called, raising his hand in a wave without even looking back at me.

“Please don’t! That’ll be so much extra work for me!”

Neither answered or acknowledged me further, though, and I prayed to every ethereal energy that I’d never have to encounter them again.