Grants, Grifters, and Ground Rules

At forty-eight, I finally have a business people actually want to hire, a man who says plainly he's not going anywhere, and a coven who has my back no matter what. So obviously, that's exactly when a charming stranger shows up asking questions no historian should need answered.

Renee Castillo says she's cataloguing old adobes for a heritage survey. My best friend says her paperwork doesn't add up. My gut, which has gotten a lot harder to ignore since I found out I'm a witch, says both of them are right.

I've got three weeks to plan the biggest gala of my career, figure out what Renee's actually after before she torches my hard-won reputation, and keep the whole thing from blowing up in front of two hundred guests and a very good caterer. My coven's in. My love life's finally steady enough to lean on. My magic's finally mine to control, mostly.

Turns out a party can survive almost anything. What I find in the box she leaves behind might be a different story.