Enchantment by Nikki Jefford Read Free Book Online Page A

brief
hallucination spell. It was only fair after the confusion spell
she’d placed over him back home.
    Home.
    Adrian snorted. He wouldn’t be returning to
Washington any time soon.
    Adrian studied his nan’s weathered face right
down to the deep frown lines that tugged on her lips. “Why don’t
you like Spain? You married a Spaniard.”
    “I no marry a Spaniard! I marry an
American.”
    Adrian thought that would be the end of it,
but then she said, “My Evardo give me two strong sons, and they
give me three powerful grandchildren. Now all but one taken.”
    Whose fault was that? Adrian had stepped off
a building’s ledge and taken his entire family down in one
leap.
    Lili’s voice echoed through Adrian’s head. And now I present to you the world’s greatest magician:
Montez!
    He blinked rapidly and set his fork down on
the cold marble. “You’re right, this food is no good.”
    Why was it that Nan only smiled when Adrian
frowned, as though they were two interconnected weights? When one
was down, the other went up. It usually wasn’t a good thing when
Nan smiled. Nor was it good when she chanted in Latin.
    When she finished speaking, their plates of
paella turned into platters filled with caprese salad, quiche
Lorraine, crêpes, baked brie, tapenade, and sliced baguette. Maybe
the waiters wouldn’t have noticed right away if it weren’t for the
puff of white smoke that exploded simultaneously from their
tabletop.
    A pitcher of sangria shattered at their
waiter’s feet and a rover pf red rushed across the floor. He went
bug-eyed as he cried out, “ ¿Qué
pasa? ”
    Now Adrian remembered why he didn’t take his
nan out in public. He gave her a look, but it was nearly impossible
to reprimand the woman when she displayed her rare girlish smile.
Besides, at her age, it’s not like Nan was going to
change—something Adrian understood all too well.
    He lifted a finger to lock the front door of
the café then twirled it around. The sign on the front window
flipped from ABIERTO to CERRADO .
    Adrian had learned to bring a candle set
whenever he took Nan out: three red and three white—all the
necessary ingredients to perform a memory wipe. These were cut down
almost to the nub so they’d burn out quickly. Even so, there was
still plenty of time to spread a warm layer of brie over a slice of
French bread and top it with a slice of apple.
    Nan dug into the quiche. She looked across
the table as she chewed, and this time they smiled in unison.
     
     

CHAPTER SIX
     
     
    “S eñorita Perez, Señor Ortega will see you now.”
    Finally.
    Gray had been seated in the warlock’s waiting
room for nearly an hour. Who did he think he was? A doctor?
    Ortega’s collection of sailing magazines had
certainly done nothing to help pass the time. Not that Gray would
have processed a word of any reading material on the planet at the
moment. She was still too furious. Whatever spell Adrian had placed
over her during his performance had made her feel like her body was
being ripped in half by the steel teeth of the saw blade. The pain
was like nothing she had ever known or cared to experience ever
again.
    But that wasn’t the worst of it. He’d
humiliated her. Once she’d escaped the box of torture, it had been
all she could do to get down the stairs leading into the audience
without stumbling. It was a small miracle she hadn’t fainted.
    After she collapsed into her seat, she’d been
forced to endure the remainder of Adrian’s show clutching her
stomach.
    The moment the curtain fell, Hannah’s mouth
had flapped on and on about how brilliant the spectacle had been,
especially Gray’s part in the show. Marco had teased her for
screaming, and Will asked how the trick worked.
    When the theater was well behind their backs,
Gray began to cry so suddenly she was more taken off guard than her
friends.
    Hannah had draped a hand over her shoulder
and patted her gently. “No sense keeping it in. You’ll feel better
after a good