Wicked Release (Wicked 3 3)

“You look worried, Winston.” Con knelt beside her, picked up the bottle and handed it back to the trembling man. “Any reason why?”

Sarah watched, unblinking as he twisted off the bottle’s top and tipped his head back. A sudden sinking feeling hit the pit of her stomach when he finished the bottle with one swallow. “Mr. Maris, what’s in that? What are you drinking?”

He started to laugh, though it came out more like a choking, gargle. “You’re not possible, Blackwood. But you’re here, aren’t you? You are here.” His small, dark eyes, so much like Hester’s, met hers with resignation. “So I can’t be.”

“What the hell?” Con reached for him just as Maris tilted over on the couch, white foam lining the seam of his lips. “What just happened?”

Leah came to kneel beside him once he’d stopped seizing, searching for a pulse. “He’s alive. His pulse is normal. Weird. We’ll have to take that bottle in and find out what was in it.”

Sarah noticed Lorie staring at her as his sister came to stand beside him. “Can you heal him, Sarah?”

She held out her hands and shrugged, feeling helpless. “He isn’t sick or injured. It’s a potion. He must keep it out in case of emergencies.”

Leah snorted. “How does that work? ‘Uh-oh, I’m in trouble, better take a nap’?”

“In a way he got what he wanted, didn’t he? He won’t be answering any questions for a while. He’s not responsible.” Sarah glanced over her shoulder at the closed, black box. “At least we have the book. It is definitely in there. Maybe the answers are inside.”

“I’ll take the book.” Harrison’s voice was steady as she took control. “Leah, you bring that bag of weenie and all his junk back to Tucker. Someone must know how to wake him up. Con and Lorie, you should take Sarah back to the Salem house and stay under the radar until we sort this out.”

Con shuddered. “You don’t have to tell me twice. I think we all need a shower or five to shake this particular visit off our shoes.”

Sarah couldn’t move. She wasn’t sure why. She couldn’t seem to tear her gaze away from Winston Maris. She was frozen. Trapped.

“Sarah?” Lorie slid his arm around her back for support. “What do you need, sweetheart? What can I do?”

Her mind was reeling. “Did you hear what he said? He recognized my name. He knew my name.”

Lorie leaned his head against hers. “I know, my love. We’ll figure this out. I promise. We won’t stop until we know what the hell is going on. Whatever it takes.”

Con stood and turned to face them, his expression resolute. “Whatever it takes.”

Leah walked over to Harrison and shook her to get her attention. “Why do I get the feeling this has nothing to do with my little jewelry sting? Harrison? Who is she? What is going on?”

“Ask your brother.”

Chapter Eight

She was sitting in the steaming bathtub, her hands cupped and filled with water as she watched Con attempting to fulfill his promise. She’d challenged him to cook breakfast from scratch. No magic. No clothes.

So far he hadn’t set anything important on fire, but she was watching, just in case.

Lorie’s voice startled her, causing the water to spill out of her hands. “Why do I get the feeling you’ve done that before?”

Sarah felt her face flush, but sent him an innocent grin. “I’m sure I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Lorie walked inside the bathroom and sat on the edge of the tub, his hand dipping in the soothing water to caress her thigh. They’d been here for six weeks, just the three of them, watching television and cuddling in Lorie’s special room. After the madness of the first few days following her release, it was a welcome change.

She’d gotten to know her triad. Their habits and expressions. Their fantasies. And she’d gotten to know herself again through their eyes. She knew it would take time for her to truly heal herself. It wouldn’t be as easy as mending a physical wound—but she knew now there was hope.

And still after all this time together and all they’d been through, they could not keep their hands off each other. It was more than a good sign. It was paradise.

“Are you finished?”

He nodded and she brought her knees up protectively, wrapping her arms around her legs while she studied his grim expression. They’d bound the secon

d book along with the first, to give them a chance to study it before it was destroyed, as it had to be when Harrison broke the spell. Lorie had brought it here, saying he had to be the one to read it. But only in a room Con shielded, as far away from Sarah as he could get and still be in the same house. It seemed she wasn’t the only one nervous about that book.

They still weren’t sure what would happen when she and the rest of the Abbott family arrived this evening to end this curse once and for all. Harrison was confident that Sarah wouldn’t be affected.