The Devil's Ex

Chapter Three - Ash

At this point in her life, Jenny had expected to be settled somewhere, her own Wiccan clan at hand and a sprawling property to boot. What she hadn't expected was to be starting from scratch all over again, not that she wasn't used to it at this point.

Used to a life that could disappear on the flip of a coin, she was nothing if not prepared, which was helping to keep her panic in check.

She hadn't expected to get much from Luca beyond a confession about the house burning down before being told to wait, she'd never have guessed that he'd be giving her a dire warning and making her promise to stay safe.

She shuddered at the memory of the look in his eye. To see Luca with such concern had unsettled her. She paused in her digging and slammed the spade into the ground, leaning on the handle. By this point, she knew her jeans and boots would be ruined and she was pretty sure she'd been wiping soil across her forehead for the last half an hour. She wasn't used to manual labour.

Ordinarily, she'd have had this dug out with a flick of the wrist, but her eternal paranoia had caused her to bury her go-bag and then curse it with a spell that even she couldn't break. So it was dig it out by hand, or start busking on a street corner. Being that her musical ability was sorely lacking, she was here, knee deep in soil. Grave soil of all things, which always stained the most for some reason, just to really make her day.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, she felt, more than heard, a metal box in the dirt. Whistling in happiness she pulled the battered tin from the soil and brushed it off, eyeing the spell bind on the front - sealed and unbroken, just how she'd left it. Smiling to herself she wrapped the box in her coat that she'd abandoned mid-digging and with a painless flick of the wrist, the dirt returned to its original location, the spell no longer protecting the box. She'd always be grateful for her magic.

Taking a quick glance around to make sure she was alone, she disappeared in a cloud of blue smoke, heading for the nearest hotel.

She eyed the neon sign and sucked air in between her teeth. Typical. Absolutely typical. Scowling at the sign she briefly considered trying to find a different hotel, but portalling always took it out of her and she knew she needed to rest, otherwise, she'd have no magic to help her and would probably end up accidentally portalling herself into the middle of the Sahara or something. Rolling her eyes and clenching the metal box closer to her chest, she headed into Reception, haunted by the familiarity of the building. It had been a long time since she'd been here, but it had once been a place that she knew well - though that felt like it was a whole other lifetime ago.

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A/N

More coming soon!

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