Cresent Prophecy, Axelle Chandler [best feel good books .txt] 📗

that wasn’t even mentioning the whole witch destiny thing. Alex just didn’t fit in my life anymore. My feelings had changed…hadn’t they?

Ugh, Maggie was right. Boone was going to hit the roof.

This was trouble. Big trouble.

Chapter 4

The Three of Swords was haunting my every step.

From morning to lunch, I sweated it out, knowing it was only a matter of time before Maggie said something to someone, and then that someone said something to someone else… Soon, the entire village would know my ex-boyfriend had turned up, long before I had a chance to tell Boone.

Who needed the Internet when Derrydun had a perfectly adequate phone tree.

By mid-afternoon, there were rustlings on the grapevine, and by close of business, word on the street was things were rocky between Boone and I. At some point, there’d be a fight to the death between the two men. Pistols at thirty paces down the main road.

The only thing that had gone well today was Lucy. She’d taken to selling crystals and souvenirs to tourists like a duck to water. At least I didn’t have to worry about the shop. When closing came, I sent her off home and locked up Irish Moon, not knowing what I would find when I went back to the cottage. Happy Boone or mad Boone.

Shuffling around the corner, I took my time, trying to think of a way to let him know he shouldn’t be threatened.

There was one thing I didn’t understand. If part of my legacy calling me home was dismantling my life so I was free to return, then why was Alex showing up now? It was all a little convenient if you asked me. I’d unlocked my true powers when I’d fought the craglorn and released a golden light that blinded even me, and now here was Alex, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, wanting who knew what.

Boone was waiting for me when I got home. He was sitting at the kitchen table, leafing through the newspaper like he wasn’t a shapeshifter, and I wasn’t a witch. It was a picture of normalcy that was odd to my eyes. I almost wished he was still hanging around as Buddy the tabby cat rather than sitting in my house as a man I was about to piss off.

As I walked into the kitchen, he stood and pulled me in for a hug, burying his nose into my hair.

“Hey,” he whispered, clearly worked up about something. “Listen, about last night…”

Oh, God, he was going to get all sickly sweet and deep and meaningful about that lamb sandwich before I had the chance to tell him about Alex. Not good.

Boone was so sweet, hot, and my one and only confidant in this crazy new world, and now I had to tell him Alex had made some kind of grand gesture and was sniffing around. Alex, the man I almost fell in love with before my Crescent legacy had conspired to break us apart.

“Uh…” I pulled back nervously. “There’s something I have to tell you…”

His eyes narrowed, and his grip loosened. “What did you do?”

“What did I do?” I scoffed. “Pfft.” I extracted myself from his arms. “I didn’t do anything, just so you know.”

“Then what’s happened?”

I wasn’t sure there was an easy way of telling him another man was trying to cut his grass, because what other reason was that Australian buffoon here for?

“Alex showed up today.”

Boone tensed. “Alex, as in…”

“My ex-boyfriend.” I winced, waiting for the explosion.

“Your…” Boone’s face began to redden, and I wondered if I should dive under the table for some cover. “What is he doin’ here?”

“I don’t know!” I pouted, crossing my arms over my chest. “I was busy… I…” I was being totally lame.

Boone wasn’t convinced I didn’t have anything to do with it, though. “Why does any man cross the world to look up their ex-girlfriend?”

“Well, he came a long way for nothing!”

“Are you sure?”

“What do you mean by that?!” I cried, my voice becoming shriller by the second.

“I know things have been—”

A knock at the door silenced out argument but not for long. Boone glanced in the direction of the sound, his lip curling. Uh, oh. I began to mull over the shapes I knew he could form—fox, gyrfalcon, tabby cat, horse—and an image of Alex being mauled by a house cat came to mind. It wasn’t quite as hilarious as it sounded.

“Is that him?” Boone demanded.

“I…” It probably was, which wasn’t going to help anything.

His scowl deepened, and he strode toward the front door.

“Boone!”

He wrenched it open, revealing a startled Alex on the other side.

“Are you him?” he demanded. “Are you Alex?”

“Yeah…”

“If you’ve come here to win Skye back, you can forget about it,” Boone practically roared. “She’s with me now.”

The fan was spinning at high velocity, and the cac was being readied for a full force splatter.

“Boone,” I said, pulling at his shirt sleeve. I could feel a crackle in the air that had everything to do with his shapeshifter power. “Calm down.”

“Gabh suas ort féin!” he exclaimed in Irish. I didn’t know what it meant, but it didn’t sound good.

“Well, this escalated quickly,” I drawled.

Stepping in front of Boone, who was a hairsbreadth from changing into a fearsome beast and eating Alex for dinner, I smiled sweetly at my ex. “Will you just give us a moment?”

Alex shrugged and backed away. “Uh, sure?”

Slamming the door closed, I turned on Boone and slapped him on the arm, adding a little Crescent whoop-ass for good measure. My palm connected, and my magic zapped, causing him to flinch in pain.

“Ow!” he exclaimed.

“What’s gotten into you?” I demanded.

“What can I say? I’m an animal.”

“Boone, I’m with you, okay? What you and I have is nothing like the relationship Alex and I had. It has nothing to do with magic and everything to do with who you are. And this moody moron isn’t you!”

He pouted—which was a rather sexy look on him—and ran his hands through my hair.

“What’s happening to us?” I whispered. “It wasn’t