Spellbound Read Free

happened.”
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    Columbus, Washington, is about an hour over the border from Portland, the city we call home. My bosses—former guardians—Paige Winterbourne and Lucas Cortez were on vacation in Hawaii, and Adam had been away at a conference, so I’d gone to Columbus alone to investigate the murder of three young women, and had left five dead bodies in my wake. None of them died at my hands, but with the exception of Tiffany Radu—a witch killed by the hunter—all would still be alive if I had never set foot in Columbus.
    It had been a setup. Leah O’Donnell, a half-demon from my past, had escaped her hell dimension and convinced a necromancer to zap her into the body of a young PI our firm had worked with before. She’d killed the third victim, Claire Kennedy, and staged it to look like the work of the same person who’d murdered Ginny Thompson and Brandi Degas months earlier. Then she’d added occult overtones to bring me to Columbus to investigate.
    Leah hadn’t even wanted me . She’d only wanted to get close enough to lower my defenses, and poison me, then call my mother. My dead mother. Who somehow had the power to keep Leah out of hell. I had no idea how, just as I had no idea how Leah managed to escape. It’s like Adam said about my “bargain”—even in our supernatural world, stuff like that doesn’t happen. But it had.
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    When I’d arrived in Columbus a week ago, I’d written it off as a zombie town—dead but still functioning. With the sawmill closed, it was dying. There was no doubt of that. But it was still a town and the people there had become real to me.
    I’d wreaked havoc here. I hadn’t meant to. But I hadn’t seen through Leah’s ploy until she’d killed the others. I hadn’t solved the case fast enough to stop her before she could send proof of Paula’s guilt to the police. Then Paula was arrested and her granddaughter, Kayla, was shuttled off by social services.
    So as Adam drove us into town, I sunk into my seat. The real Savannah Levine seemed to have fled with my powers, leaving a shell as nervous and fretful as any Coven witch. When he tapped the brakes, my arms flew out, as if bracing for a high-speed collision.
    â€œIsn’t that Paula?” he said.
    â€œWh-what?” I twisted to look up and down Main Street.
    He backed up the Jeep and pointed. “There.”
    I followed his finger to the diner. Through the window, I could see the server, Lorraine, at the counter, filling coffee for two of the regulars. It was as if the past week never happened and I was right back where I’d started, waltzing in, cocky as ever, thinking I’d trick the ignorant locals into sharing a few tips about the murders.
    â€œThat is them, isn’t it?” Adam said.
    My gaze tripped across the diner patrons and stopped on two at a corner table. A tiny nine-year-old girl with a blond ponytail and her forty-year-old doppelganger shared a Belgian waffle dripping with strawberry sauce.
    â€œOh, my God,” I whispered.
    The last time I’d seen Kayla—was it only yesterday?—she’d been getting into a social worker’s car, refusing to look at me, being trucked off to a foster home while her grandmother sat in a jail cell.
    â€œThis doesn’t mean you really cut a deal with the Fates,” Adam said.
    â€œWhat?” I blinked at him, and it took a moment to realize what he was saying. “Bail,” I whispered.
    â€œNo, I don’t mean—”
    â€œBut that would make sense, wouldn’t it?” A lot more sense than giving up my powers so she could be home with her granddaughter.
    â€œI think it’s too soon for bail. My guess is that they realized it was an accident and dropped the charges—without any divine intervention.” He parked and swung open the door. “One way to find out.”
    I let him get to the