Spell Rewind
an excerpt

“Please. William––“

No such luck. Madeleine was starting to become angry. She was losing patience.

“You listen here,” it was barely more than a sharp whisper now, Madeleine’s voice, and her fingers curled in the air right before the man’s collar, as if she had just barely stopped herself from twisting her hand in his shirt and shaking him. “I am not William. You are not Mary. Just listen to yourself! What sort of person are you, that you can fall apart this easily?”

The look she gave him was disgusted, and somewhere between sentences, she’d taken another few steps closer. The way the man was sinking into his seat, head tipping back to stare up at her, Madeleine was fairly looming over him.

She sucked in a breath and succeeded in making her voice less of an angry whisper, a hiss.

“Now, William, I want you to listen to me. Go get your head checked out the way you were supposed to the night before. Don’t make a nuisance of yourself. Then, go home and get some rest.” Her fingertips felt cool fabric, and before long, she had a handful of the stuff balled in her fist. Maybe if she shook hard enough, he’d actually get it into that thick skull of his that she wasn’t fooling around now. “When you wake up tomorrow morning, you’ll agree with me about how ridiculous all this is.” Her voice brooked no question or challenge; it was close to a command.