Nightfall (Grim Gate 1)

“Is your house haunted?” Ethan asks, turning on the light over the stairs.

“No, thankfully. I looked at like twenty houses before finding one with no traces of spirits. I pay way too much for this little place too, but what’s that lame phrase? You can’t put a cost on a piece of mind?”

“I think that’s it.”

“It’s true. It’s nice having this place to shut out the world, though I do worry about it becoming haunted later.”

He takes another look around the basement and turns back toward me. “There are spells for banishing ghosts.”

“Do you know how to do them?”

“No.” He puts the gun back in a holster, hidden under his flannel shirt. “And even if I did, it wouldn’t work. I’m not a warlock with spell books.”

“Right,” I say and go back upstairs.

“You could,” Ethan presses.

“I don’t know how to do magic,” I remind him. “What happened today…it was out of desperation.” Hunter is waiting by the back door, and I undo the locks and let him out. “If I could cast a spell to banish ghosts, I totally would. But I don’t know how either.”

“You can trust me,” he urges. “I’m one of the good guys, and I know you are too.”

“As opposed to being bad?” I shake my head, not following.

“Casting a protection spell on your house isn’t a bad idea, either,” he notes.

“I don’t know how. I think my aunt was the witch, not me.”

“I saw you turn a demon into a pile of ashes. We both know you used magic.” He angles his body toward mine and steps closer. My heart speeds up and my stomach flutters. He’s such a gorgeous man—a dangerous, gorgeous man—and I want so badly to trust him.

“I have my aunt’s Book of Shadows,” I confess and then feel jittery right after the words tumble out of my mouth.

“You do?”

I nod. “Yeah.”

“Can I see it? There might be something helpful in there.”

“Yeah,” I say, nodding my head. I stay rooted to the spot for another few seconds, and then jump when Hunter paws at the door, wanting in. If there’s a way to cast a real protection spell on the house, I’ll do it just to help me sleep at night.

I let Hunter in and then go into my bedroom, cleaning up a mess Romeo made quickly before grabbing the book from my closet. Ethan and I go into the living room. I set the heavy book on the coffee table and sit next to Ethan on the couch.

“I’ve never seen one in person before,” he starts, reaching out and apprehensively touching the book. “Most witches are crazy protective of their books.”

“Should I not be showing you then?” I give him a sideways glance.

“I told you, you can trust me.”

“Which is exactly what someone I shouldn’t trust would say.”

“That is true.” He opens the book and twists to look at me. “If I wanted to hurt you, I would have, Anora.”

“That’s reassuring.”

“It’s true.” He goes back to the book, turning another page. “You said the spell to light the demon on fire just popped into your head?”

“Yeah, and I…I…” I close my eyes, letting my mental shields drop for a second so I can try to get a read on Ethan. I like him and find him attractive—very attractive. He knows more about demons and magic than I do, and if I want to get through this alive, I’m going to need his help. But trusting him? It seems just as risky as going back into the woods alone looking for more demons.

“You what?”

I open my eyes, not sensing anything malicious coming off Ethan, though, I’ll be the first to admit my desire to find myself naked and under him is overriding my sensibility at the moment.

“I think I used to be able to do magic, but I can’t remember it.”

“What do you mean?”

Sinking my teeth into my bottom lip, I shake my head. “I don’t really know, but for as long as I can remember, I’ve had these dreams about walking through the woods, going through some sort of portal, and now I’m getting flashes of being taught how to do magic. I met my aunt before when we were kids, and my brother said she used to babysit us while our mom finished her residency, but I have zero memory of that. And what I can remember is all wrong. I remember going to a café with my grandma, and I described it perfectly, but in my mind it was in Michigan overlooking the lake, not in Indiana,” I rush out. “Nothing makes sense. Why are chunks of my memory just missing? Why are the few memories I have all mixed up? And why the hell did my aunt leave her entire inheritance to me, including this spell book?”

“It’s all connected to her.” He straightens up and tips his head as he thinks. “Too bad we don’t know a medium to try to contact your dead aunt.”