Destined (The Spellbound Series, #3)

2 | Family Ties

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Chapter 2 - Family Ties

"Are you seriously reading a book right now?"

Diane gave what she hoped was an indignant stare; at least, an indignant glance out of the corner of her eye, seeing as her hands were tightly gripped on the steering wheel of her car, and her gaze on the road before her.

Normally, she was much more confident a driver. Hell, she'd balanced a chocolate milkshake, a lipliner and the wheel before without issue – not advisable in any way, but still pretty impressive. However, there were much less manageable variables affecting her driving this time around. The disappearance of light as late afternoon became evening. The layer of snow that made the roads slick. The reason she was out on a drive in the first place.

Then, of course, there was the matter of Diane's travel companion, whom her failed scowl had been intended for. The boy sat beside her, a few curls of his blonde hair peeking from under his dark hood as he stared with minimal interest at the copy of The Merchant of Venice that lay open across his lap.

"I'm behind on my required reading," Anson murmured, flipping a page over with a slender finger. "Things have been a bit crazy lately, in case you didn't notice."

Diane wasn't sure if that was supposed to be funny. A bit crazy? She was friends with witches. Witches! People with magical spells and brewed potions and creepy rituals – things she could never have believed in her life, had she not seen them for herself. No, her life had been marinated, coated, deep-fried and seasoned in the most quality kind of crazy. And to top it all off, now she was right in the middle of it.

She huffed as she turned on her brake lights, slowing down at an intersection. "Well, you reading a book right now isn't helping anyone."

Anson flicked to the next page without a single upward glance. "And what would you have me do instead?"

She frowned. Was he being serious? "I don't know," she exclaimed. "Emotional support, or whatever."

"Then I'm sorry to disappoint you, dear Diane, but you've got the wrong Blake," he sighed, and shut the book with a loud snap. He turned his head in her direction. "In case you missed the past month or so that we've been somewhat acquainted, emotional anything isn't my strong suit."

She turned to meet his eyes. "Then why did you agree to come with me?"

"Honestly?" Anson said, and shrugged. "I just wanted to get out of the house. With Cameron and Melissa on one side, and Landon and Sam on the other... There's just not enough macaroni in the world for all that cheese."

Diane narrowed her eyes. Anson Blake, the youngest of the three brothers, with his emerald green eyes and his cutting sarcasm. From the day she'd met him, she hadn't cared much for him – as was clearly the case for him as well. But she'd thought there had been something of a courtesy between them that fateful night, when she'd been dragged into a witch's plot of revenge. When her world had seemed to crumble around her, he had been the one to show her that it had only rearranged its pieces, forming into a new one. Sure, he'd been regular old Anson while he'd tried to explain the events of the past month, but at least he'd bothered.

Then again, two people he cared about had almost died that night; Sam from a curse cast on him by his own sister, and Landon from trying to save him. Maybe Anson had just needed a distraction, and Diane's ignorance on the existence of witchcraft had been something he could work through to keep his mind occupied. He had said so himself – emotions weren't his strong suit. Perhaps that was also the reason he was here in her car, instead of at home where the walls dripped with the grief and sadness of all who now lived there.