The Shifter Romances The Writer
He grinned. “Good point. I’ll go get them and send them back. I need to talk to Deputy Blythe anyway.” He opened the door, then paused and leaned in to kiss her. “You’re going to do great.”
“Thanks.” Then she held on to his shirt to keep him from leaving and kissed him back. “See you out there.”
“You need anything, you just look at me. I’ll be in your sight line the entire time.”
“Got it.” She liked the idea of being able to see him anytime she wanted.
He left, and a few minutes later, Pandora and Kaley showed up. They squeezed into the office, and Pandora let out a, “Wow. It is packed out there.”
“I know. But that’s a good thing.”
“That’s for sure. I’d love to have an open house with this kind of turnout.” Pandora gave Kaley her attention as she held a hand toward Roxy. “Kaley, this is Ms. St. James. She’s the author we’re going to help today.”
Kaley was a cute thing with long brown hair and big eyes. She stuck her hand out and looked about as impressed as any teenager could. “I’ve never met a real live author before. Nice to meet you.”
“You too, Kaley. And I’ve never met a real live aura reader before.” Roxy shook her hand.
“Do you know JK Rowling?”
Roxy bit back a laugh. “No, sadly, I do not.” She released the girl’s hand. “It’s such an honor to have someone with your abilities here to help me today. Pandora has done nothing but sing your praises about how skilled you are.”
Kaley grinned. “Thanks. It’s the first time I’ve ever gotten to use my abilities in a professional way.”
Roxy smiled, tickled that the girl was taking it so seriously. “So tell me, what do auras look like?”
Kaley shrugged. “They’re all different. But there are similarities among them that tell me things like if people are telling the truth or not, what their mood is, how they’re feeling. All kinds of stuff like that. Like, you’re nervous, right?”
Roxy’s mouth fell open. The kid was spot-on. “Yes. You can see that in my aura? What else can you see?”
Kaley looked at Pandora. Pandora nodded. “Go ahead. She asked.” Pandora glanced at Roxy. “It’s not good aura-reading etiquette to just blurt out what you see around a person. Not everyone wants the world to know they’re not feeling so well or whatever.”
Roxy nodded. “Sure. Makes sense.”
Kaley squinted at Roxy. “You’re falling in love with someone.”
Roxy sucked in a breath. “Whoa. You can tell that?”
Pandora’s brows went skyward. “Well, now, that’s interesting. Might it be someone I know? A very hot someone who carries a badge?”
Roxy shot her a look. “I don’t think I’m ready to call it love, but we definitely like each other. And with my divorce being final, why not?”
“Exactly.” Pandora looked at Kaley. “Anything else you want to tell Miss Roxy about her aura?”
Kaley shook her head, her mouth bending slightly in disappointment. “Not really because I can’t tell what kind of supernatural she is.”
Roxy laughed. “That’s because I’m not one. I’m human.”
The teen wound some hair around her finger. “Not totally you aren’t. There are too many swirly blues and greens.” She pointed at the air around Roxy. “And that purple is definitely not a human color. That’s totally witchy.”
Roxy knees went a little wobbly. She reached behind her, found the one empty chair and sat. “That can’t be. Are you saying I’m a witch?”
Pandora put a hand on Kaley’s shoulder. “She’s saying that you have some supernatural bloodlines, and one of them looks like witch, yes. Right, Kaley?”
“Yeah,” Kaley said. “You’re a lot human. But not a hundred percent.”
“This is such good news.” Pandora grinned like they’d just won the lottery.
“It is?” Roxy asked. Her heart was pounding. And not because of the signing. “I don’t know how I feel about it. Maybe you should tell me more.”
“Sure,” Pandora said. “You know the spell you asked me about?”
Roxy nodded. She could manage that much.
“I was about to tell you that it couldn’t happen. I researched it and found out the physical cost for a human is far too high. There are some witches who would do it, I’m sure, but I won’t, and neither will any of the witches I know. In fact, Alex called me to let me know you might ask about it and he wanted to make sure we both knew how dangerous it would be. But now that I know you’re not entirely human, this changes everything. Especially the witch genes. Those are big.”
Roxy looked up. The fact that Alex had talked to Pandora about the spell was interesting, but not as interesting as Pandora’s obvious excitement about Roxy having witch in her system. “They are?”
“To borrow a word from Kaley, totally.”
“Okay, that’s a good thing, then.” She blew out a long breath, her head still swimming with the news. Witch genes. She was part witch. And some other stuff. It was boggling.
Pandora looked concerned. “I thought you’d be more excited, but you seem upset. I’m so sorry. I had no idea—”
“I didn’t mean to make you feel bad.” Kaley moved closer to Pandora’s side.