Twisted Magic (Book 2 of the Ink Series)

White tie affair

We all stared at the giant billboard staked in the sand of the fundraiser.

"Light and faith community center," I said, reading the words out loud. I looked at Karsen and Kidd and then at Hutch. We all were confused by it.

"Like they don't have enough churches already," Kidd said. He threw his arm around Karsen, and they headed through the crowd. Karsen's pale pink dress hardly fit in with all the white swimming around her. And Kidd's black dress pants and dark-green dress shirt made him stick out like a sore thumb. Nevertheless, neither of them cared. They started dancing to the jazz fluttering around the fundraiser.

Kidd raised Karsen's hand and planted a kiss across her knuckles. He touched her face, and they twirled and swirled through the crowd. Immediate eyes fell on them as they danced around oblivious to the onlookers.

Hutch touched the small of my back and leaned down, whispering into my ear. "Do you want to dance?"

I shook my head, my eyes landing on Tucker's father making his way through the crowd in a white suit tailored made and crisp against the moonlight. My stomach did a flip.

Hutch pulled me close concerned, everything alright?" I kept my eyes glued to Mayor Sinclair.

"Yeah, everything is fine." I was realizing how bad of an idea this was. We should have never decided on coming to such an event. The idea of running into Tucker's father and Tucker made me sick to my stomach.

I gripped Hutch's arm tighter and pulled us through the crowd until we stood nestled between a group of stuffy socialites and a large stone water fountain.

I caught sight of Karsen and Kidd swirling through the crowd, bumping into people as they glided from one end to another. The looks on everyone's face proved just how unhappy they were with their antics.

"I didn't know this was your kind of thing," Tucker said nodding his head at the elegant lighting and white decorations lining every nearby table. Fancy floating candles sparkled on the table tops.

"We were passing by." I pushed the hair from my eyes allowing him to stare me down. "And no the church scene isn't my kind of thing."

Hutch cleared his throat. Tucker turned his attention to Hutch. He extended a hand. However, Hutch didn't accept. Tucker returned to his original stiff pose after swallowing down the rejection and the staring contest between the two of them continued.

"I don't see any signs that say we aren't welcome." Hutch's eyes flicked from one end of the shin dig to another. He held tight to my arm. "Usually churches welcome everybody. What's the big deal with this event anyways? I never knew a church to have a grand opening."

Tucker's lips pursed, he seemed to be gathering his wits and weighing whether he should speak again. He finally did. "We welcome everybody."

Hutch nodded. "That's what I thought. So we shall be on our way." He started to make a move to get us away from Tucker, but the crowd was a lot thicker than the last time we hurried through.

This gave Tucker enough time to grab me by the elbow. I pulled away, angry. "Keep your hands off of me."

Hutch stepped in front of me backing Tucker away. Tucker smirked. "Let me rephrase myself. We welcome everybody besides anyone involved in witchcraft."

The crowd caught on to Tucker's words, and it seemed all eyes were on us now. My cheeks heated.

Hutch leaned down to get more on Tucker's level. "What is it? You're trying to say?"

Tucker rolled his eyes. "Witches. I'm saying you're all a bunch of witches. And Cherry no longer is going to stand for it. So you can turn around and get the hell out of here."

"Or what," Hutch said, his fist clenched.

"Or suffer the consequences," Mayor Sinclair said stepping in. He put a protective arm around his son and stared at Hutch.

Karsen and Kidd butted through the crowd coming to a stand beside us. Karsen's cheeks were bright pink from the dancing. I was clear they too knew what was going on.

"You guys sound like a bunch of crazies. There is no such thing as witches." Karsen giggled nervously, only I knew just how nervous she was. To everyone else it was just a bad case of the giggles. "And who sets up churches to rid their town of witches?"

Kidd let out an uncomfortable laugh. "Ape shit crazies that's who."

Karsen grabbed my arm. "Well, we want nothing to do with this. Hope's grandmother is a major asset in this community. I will be sure to inform her of what is going on here."

We all started through the crowd, it parted rather smoothly after the word swirled through that we were witches.

Tucker's voice cut through the night. "Deny it all you want. There were reports of a strange ceremony last summer at the beach. One that should have killed you, few people survive having a knife plunged through their chest. Explain that one, Hope."

Karsen's nail dug into my skin. She was shocked. This was the first time she was hearing of this.

I shook my head and kept walking.