Free Serpent's Kiss: A Witches of East End Novel by Melissa de la Cruz

formidable had happened: Freddie had fallen in love. There was no other way to explain it. Hilly was different. She made him wait. Unlike the other girls who appeared at his doorstep after one posting, she had only told him her real name after they’d been e-mailing for a few weeks. She was reserved and cautious, and he didn’t think she was playing hard to get. The strangest thing was she didn’t even have a picture of herself on her profile, only a shadowy illustration of a silhouette. He didn’t even know what she looked like, but he was certain she was gorgeous. He could just feel it. He couldn’t explain it, but he was drawn to her from the beginning.
    <> he typed.
    <>
    <> he wrote.
    <> Hilly responded. After a few minutes, she typed again. <>
    Freddie paused, staring at Hilly’s words on the screen, putting his hands behind his head as he stretched his back, which was sore from sitting. He exhaled, then typed <>
    Three knocks sounded at the door. Freya’s signal.
    <> Freddie wrote.
    <>
    <> he typed and on-screen, in the chat box, Freddie’s heart icon turned red, then swiveled upright, and Hilly typed one out for Freddie on her end, and he watched it do the same thing, smiling to himself. You had to love technology.
    Buster nudged his calf as Freya continued to knock.
    “Freddie, you there?” she whispered from outside.
    “Coming!” He closed the laptop and opened the door a crack.
    Freya stood at the doorway, looking wind tossed and holding two shopping bags full of groceries. She stared at him. “Are those … pajamas? Have you been wearing them all day?” Behind her, the sky was gray, and it was almost evening.
    “So?” Freddie asked, annoyed with the sisterly nagging. “It’s not like I go anywhere.”
    “But that’s your fault. I’ve told you so many times to come home.” She shook her head. “Well, aren’t you going to let me in? I brought you healthy stuff from Mom’s garden, some nuts and dried fruit, instead of all that junk food you’ve been eating.”
    Freddie took the bags from her, poked his head outside, looked each way, and then fully opened the door. Freya walked in past him. “You seem distracted,” she said.
    “A little,” he said. He put the bags down as she crossed the room and sat at the end of one of the beds. “Some of those girls won’t leave me alone. I wanted to make sure none of them was out there.”
    Buster scuffled over to Freya, and she kneeled down and pet him, then tickled his snout. “I thought you liked all the attention. Don’t tell me you’re here alone. What happened to the harem?” She observed him with genuine concern and wondered if her twin had truly lost it. He looked a real mess: tousled hair, dirty pajamas, unshaven. He shouldn’t be living this way. She looked around and noticed the computer on his desk.
    “Ooh, you have a Mac!” she said, sauntering over to inspect it.
    “Don’t touch it!”
    “It’s not a bomb!” “It kind of is,” he retorted. He moved the grocery bags on the desk, put a hand on the laptop protectively.
    “You’re acting so weird,” she said, squinting her eyes at him. “Are you going to tell me what’s going on?”
    “All right.” He sighed. He realized he was dying to tell Freya, so it all gushed out: the social media sites and how he’d met someone special—a girl named Hilly Liman. After that he couldn’t say her name enough times.
    As Freya listened, she finally understood how Freddie had kept his loneliness at bay. He’d obviously gone delusional. She was reluctant to burst his bubble about this Hilly girl, who was probably just some slutty college chick, not that