Page 20 of Exes, Hexes, and Strategy
“He’s involved with one of the witches.”
Well, that wasn’t what she’d expected to hear. Morgan grimaced. Romantic entanglements weren’t forbidden among Hunters, after all, she was very much entangled with her dragon, but relationships of that nature could prove problematic. If the couple were on the same team and had a falling out, it would definitely affect performance, cause tension in the team, possibly even a division of loyalties. But separating them, leaving them distracted, pining for each other, was also a sure way to have a Hunter slipping up on the job with potentially fatal results.
DeMarco’s romantic interest being a witch added a whole other level of complication. If Rafe ever got it into his head to try and Turn whoever this witch was…
She tapped her finger on the table. What to do, what to do.
“How involved?” she asked, hoping it might just be a fling and over with as quickly as it had begun.
“Very,” was Cam’s pointed, and deflating response.
“Crap.” Morgan sighed and rubbed her fingers over her forehead.
“Headache?” Travis quietly asked in her ear, his hand rising to massage the back of her neck.
She shot him a grateful smile. Her mate. What would she have done if the Hunters’ Society had swooped in and split them up?
Glancing over at Jeremiah and Keegan who were talking quietly to each other, the mated pair smiling, and laughing, she came to a decision.
“If you know who the witch is, make sure she’s on the same team as Rafe DeMarco,” she told Cam. “Let’s see if they can work together.”
Chapter Twelve
There was a fire in the pool area, though this one was in a portable fire pit, suggesting it had been created on purpose unlike what had occurred yesterday when Ms. Bishop had Skylar working on her light bending. The witch had bent light all right, and that beam had started a blaze in the magic lab that, luckily, had been quickly extinguished before it had done too much damage. Their instructor had called it a smashing success, though she did quickly point out that from now on, they’d run those types of experiments in less flammable areas.
“Put the fire out.”
Nina glanced up to see that Ms. Bishop was looking directly at her.
“What?”
The instructor nodded toward the fire. “Put it out,” she repeated before motioning around with her hands. “This room is full of water. Take what you need and douse the fire.”
Talk about being put on the spot. Nina looked around nervously at the other witches and swallowed hard. Her palms began to sweat.
“You can do this,” Ms. Bishop said, moving to stand beside her. “Clear your mind, close your eyes if you need to. Feel the water.”
Shaking out her hands, Nina shifted her weight from foot to foot, rolled her shoulders, took a deep breath, and closed her eyes. She could do this, she just needed to feel the water.Feelthe water.
But all she felt was everyone’s eyes on her, and the weight of their expectation.
Opening her eyes, Nina blew out a frustrated breath. “Performance anxiety,” she joked, hoping the moment of levity would ease her tension. It didn’t.
“Take your time,” Ms. Bishop said. “You’ve got this.”
Her next try was a bit better. She at least managed to make water droplets erupt from the pool, a tiny little spurt before it died.
“Come on, Nina,” Mel called out. “You can do it. Make it rain, baby!”
Others added their own encouraging words and cheers, but she still was unable to summon the water to her and direct it toward the fire.
Ms. Bishop was looking at her contemplatively and Nina felt like a failure. “I’m sorry,” she blurted.
“No, no. Don’t be sorry,” the woman said with a dismissive wave of her hand. “I think we need to try something else.”
“Okay,” Nina said, swiping her damp palms against her thighs.
“You made it rain before. We all saw it.” Ms. Bishop said. “What were you thinking about when that happened?”
