EASY WAY OUT ¹ ➢ spencer reid

VII

I woke up before my alarm went off, stretching my body as I got out of bed and headed to the shower. Despite the time, I got ready pretty quickly, throwing on a fresh pair of slacks and a long sleeve button up. I rolled up the sleeves to my elbows, examining myself in the mirror. I did a quick twirl and tucked my shirt into my pants before deciding to throw on a belt, buckling it up before starting on my hair and makeup. I loved getting ready in the morning, especially when I wasn't being rushed. The whole process felt almost therapeutic. I never understood why, but I never questioned it either. It was hard to find things in life that weren't stressful for me, so when I did I just let them be.

When I was done I put my stuff away and made myself a pot of coffee. I threw in my sugar, giving it a quick stir before taking a sip. It was hot. "Fuck." I winced at the pain on my tongue, sticking it out into the air, while glaring at my cup.

Someone knocked on my door. I walked over, opening it up.

"Why's your tongue all out?" Reid asked, his brow raised.

I sucked it back into my mouth, feeling slightly embarrassed. "I burnt it."

"Okay." He pressed his lips together, flashing me an awkward look.

"What do you want? Work's doesn't start for another half hour."

"I wanted to run some stuff by you," he responded. I could tell he still hadn't gotten enough sleep, because there was a tone of irritation to his voice. I ignored it, letting him continue. It was too early to tease him. "I called Garcia pretty late last night, but I got her to look up potential get togethers of Wiccan practitioners and there was actually an overwhelming amount of covens in the area." He pulled out his phone, pressing the screen a couple of times. My phone buzzed on the nightstand. I glanced over. "I just sent you the names, but I found a pretty significant connection."

"Yeah?" I took a sip of my coffee, wincing slightly at the heat.

"Why don't you just wait for it to cool?" He snapped.

"Because if I don't drink it before we leave I'll be grumpier than you're being right now," I responded sassily. If he was going to keep up the attitude so was I.

"Anyway," he sighed, "one of the leaders of one of the coven's was directly connected to Brian." He scrolled through the list of names, pointing to a particular one.

"Cecilia Rose," I read, "how witchy."

"She's a teen that frequented the centre that Brian worked at."

"And she runs a coven?" I looked at him, slightly unconvinced.

He ignored my tone, nodding his head. "Her and the rest of her coven have postings on various social media sites about it." He pulled up Cecilia's Instagram page, which was littered with pictures of candles and herbs. Every so often a selfie it something different would pop up, but most of her feed were just of objects she used for her spell work. "She's turned her page into somewhat a guide for new practitioners."

"Interesting. Send me that. I'll look into it."

He sent me another message, my phone buzzing once again.

"Anything else or can I go back to my morning coffee?"

He rolled his eyes, leaving the doorway without another word. I peaked down the hall, watching him wander back to his room. I let out a sigh, feeling slightly bad for the attitude. Deep down I knew he didn't deserve it, but the longer I spent with him the more he rubbed me the wrong way. I figured it was partly due to my intense need to win. I needed to be the best and with Reid here I felt like I wasn't. Also, he was pretty annoying.