Free Playing with Monsters by Amelia Hutchins

and moved his arm to indicate the yard with a sweeping motion. He was calm, much calmer than someone who had just been holding a bloody body should ever be. His suit was crisp and clean; the white shirt didn’t have a speck of blood on it. My eyes locked with his and I stepped back, away from him.
    “I saw it,” I whispered.
    “Magdalena, we don’t accuse those who seek to help the coven without good reason,” Helen admonished me along with a murderous look.
    I chewed my lip and shook my head. “I know what I saw,” I said firmly as I squared my shoulders.
    “Everyone knows she’s crazy, Lucian, we’re so sorry to bother you in such a way,” Cassidy cooed as she slithered over and rubbed her hand over his shoulder. He didn’t look away from me, and in his eyes I could see anger. “Lord knows she has to be going crazy, just finding out her own sister’s been warming her ex-fiancé’s bed in her absence.”
    My head swung around to meet Kendra’s gaze, and I blanched at the guilt I felt from her. I swallowed and shook my head. “I’m not crazy,” I said softly. “Not yet anyway,” I muttered as I took my eyes from Kendra and settled them back on Lucian.
    “You just called us out of bed because you thought you saw a dead body,” Cassidy said with a poisonous look.
    “Mother,” I said, ignoring the fact that everyone here was looking at me. I didn’t break eye contact with Lucian. It was a battle of wills, and I sure as hell wasn’t losing. I just needed to high-tail my ass out of here.
    “Go home, Lena,” she murmured softly and I glanced to where she stood, looking at me as if I was a stranger.
    I turned on my heel and headed back through the woods. My feet ached from the forest floor, and I could feel bruises forming on my hands and knees.
    “Someone ought to lock that crazy bitch up,” Cassidy sniped loud enough that I could hear it.
    “Enough, Cassidy,” Helen said. “Lucian, I’m so sorry. You know how kids are; their imaginations can be so vivid and wild.”
    “No harm was done,” he replied, and I didn’t bother to even turn and see if my mother was following me.
    I moved through the woods and found Luna safe and in one piece waiting by the door of the cottage. I picked her up just as Kendra pushed through the bushes.
    “We need to talk about this,” she pleaded softly.
    “Not tonight,” I sighed as I pushed the door the rest of the way open and stood in the threshold as she mounted the stairs. The coven exited the forest; all of them seemed to be giving me heated looks. “I’m tired, and Cassidy is just praying we give her a show. Honestly, I don’t care if you were with him. I really don’t give a shit.”
    I walked inside the cottage and closed the door in her face, then set Luna on the floor. I moved through the cottage in a daze, my mind replaying the scene from earlier that I’d walked into. It was a body wrapped loosely in a bloodied sheet; a bloody feminine hand had escaped the sheet, and dangled lifelessly. Lucian had been covered in blood, which according to logic, would indicate she’d been alive not too long ago. Not that I was an expert, but I’d watched enough police shows to know that some of the facts had to match up.
    I flicked off the lights in the front room and headed into the tiny kitchen. I rummaged through the cupboards until I found tea and the old kettle that my grandfather had used when he’d been alive.
    Luna rubbed against my ankle and I looked down and shook my head. “You’re a bad kitty. You know better.”
    She meowed and started purring. I reached down and scratched behind her ear before I lit the stove and retrieved the first aid kit to clean my wounds. When I’d finished with that, I moved to find the valerian root to add to my tea. It would help me sleep tonight.
    I turned off the stove and moved into the bedroom. I slowly turned off the lights on the way while holding the steaming cup of tea away from my body. In the bedroom, I