“Hi,” she said, trying to infuse her voice with a note of breathlessness. It was helping to picture that she was talking to Felix, but even she could see through her fakeness.
“Hey, beautiful.” Skyler smiled, and Mia felt sick to her stomach as an uneasy feeling overtook her. Skyler took a glass from the barman and handed it to her, leaving her no choice but to take it. He watched on as Mia brought the glass to her lips and took a small sip of the cold tart wine. It slid down her throat easily. Unfortunately it was swiftly followed by the an odd feeling like something was sliding down her skin, only adding to her general unease. Was this what a love potion felt like when it took effect? She started to shudder, but caught herself just in time and plastered what she hoped was a lovesick smile on her face.
“Where’ve you been? I’ve been looking everywhere for you?” she asked, slipping a hand onto his chest. His muscles were as hard as Felix’s were, but they held none of the warmth that the dryad’s did. She didn’t like that. It felt wrong. In fact, the instinct to pull her hand away from him and break the touch completely was almost too much to ignore. She took a deep breath. She had to do this. There was too much at stake for her not to do this.
“I’ve been looking for you. I even checked the cleaning cupboards, but there was nothing there.” Ice formed in Mia’s veins as his words sunk in. So he knew about the cupboard, or maybe he was just guessing about it. But then, if he knew about that, did he know about Felix? And if he knew about Felix, then did he know that his love potion wasn’t working on her. “Got you.” He said his smile turning from a fakely affectionate one, to something far more predatory. Mia gulped. This wasn’t good at all.
“W-what do you mean, got me?” she asked, giving up all pretence of pretending to be under the spell. There was just no point anymore.
“What are you Amelia?”
“I don’t know what you mean.” She shook her head and tried to take a step back, but Skyler’s hand closed down on her wrist, holding her steady and close to him.
“I think you do. So answer me this, Amelia Thornheart, what are you? And how did you stop the potion working?”
“How did you?” she threw back, finding her strength again as her magic responded to the perceived threat. She could feel it simmering just below the surface, and knew that if she let it, it could cause an almighty stir. She may not be that naturally talented of a witch, but magic never failed when it’s owner was in danger. It was the same with shifters. They had a tendency of shifting automatically when danger was near, a trait a lot of them still struggled to tamp down on when they were out and about in the human world.
Thing was, could she risk her magic exploding here? She was in a room with a lot of humans, how would they take blue sparks flying from her skin and causing damage she couldn’t even imagine? Not well probably. Then they’d possibly have more than just Skyler to deal with. Mia glanced over her shoulder, hoping to see her sisters and Felix, or maybe even her Dad, he’d know that something was wrong after just a glance. But no one seemed to be paying any attention to the couple in the corner. Probably believing that they were just having a moment between them.
“That’s none of your business really, Amelia. Now are you going to come with me quietly, or am I going to have to make you?” The creepy grin accompanying his words gave her little doubt that he could, and would, make her if he needed to, but she really didn’t want to make a scene. Skyler no longer seemed the type to just let any witnesses be. And she had to protect the other people in the room. She didn’t want anyone else in danger because of her.
“I’ll come quietly,” she said, whispering the words as if hoping that he wouldn’t hear them and wouldn’t actually take her up on them.
Chapter Sixteen
“Something’s wrong.” He didn’t know what, but Felix’s gut was telling him it was true, and he didn’t want to think about what that meant. In fact, it probably could only mean that Mia was in danger, and whatever happened, he couldn’t just stand by while that was the case. Not when he’d just found her.
“It’s probably nothing,” Bex said, as she paced back and forth in the room. A rapid pounding on the door made all three of them jump. Faye was the first to recover and she pushed to her feet to open it. Felix’s heart was in his throat, the rhythmic pounding almost reassuring, but not quite. He hoped it was Mia on the other side. She might knock if she thought they wouldn’t just let anyone in. Really, they should have thought about that before they let her go. Otherwise a situation like this one could happen.
Faye swung open the door, revealing a redhead who he vaguely recognised, though that was probably just because she was another wedding guest, he’d work it out later when he could focus his thoughts on something that wasn’t Mia and the potential danger she was in.
“Reagan?” Bex asked. “Is everything okay?”
“Tell me Mia’s here,” Reagan responded, her eyes looking wildly around the room and taking in the three of them and their on edge stances. “She’s not, is she?” Felix shook his head when neither of the other two answered. A worried look flew over the new woman’s face, which didn’t do anything to help Felix’s anxiety levels.
“What do you know?”
“Nothing, I just had a feeling that I needed to check where Mia was.” She sounded frantic, as if there really was something to be concerned about. And yet, she didn’t question who he was at all.
“I’m—”
“Felix, yes I know.” She waved away his outstretched hand as she cut him off, and Felix frowned at her.
“Because I’m the best man?”
“No, because you’re Mia’s mate and I see things.” She walked over to wear Bex was standing and put her hands on the other woman’s
cheeks before starting to whisper something that Felix couldn’t hear. Instead of doing anything about that, he just frowned. What an odd way of acting.
“She has the sight,” Faye supplied. as she came to stand beside him.
“A witch thing?”
“Yes, have you seriously not heard of it?” He shook his head.
“There’s only a handful of witches born with it, even within families. Her brother doesn’t even have it, though I’ve been told not to ignore his gut feelings.” Faye’s bubbly tone wasn’t convincing Felix in the slightest. If anything she was more nervous than he was. Giving in to his instincts, he pulled her to him and hugged her tight. Not in the way that he would hug Mia, but rather the way he’d hug his own sister. Not that Autumn would let him hug her, she was notoriously closed off around everyone and he wished he knew why. Something to do with the time she’d got lost in the woods when they were children he was sure, but she refused to talk about it.
A sniffle at his shoulder surprised him, and Faye bunched up a handful of his shirt. Not that it would make any difference to how it looked, it was still scrunched from it’s trip to the cleaning cupboard floor when he and Mia had slept together. With difficulty, he brought his thoughts back around to the present. Thinking about sex with his mate, while comforting her sister, was weird in anyone’s book.