Page 86 of Love's a Witch
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREESloane
Oh, good morning, Sloane. Don’t you look… rested.” Nova fluttered her eyelashes at me.
Three grinning faces greeted me when I walked in the door with Blue, and I pursed my lips, wanting to be annoyed with all of them. We hadn’t left on the best of terms, and yet my body was sated from two rounds of extraordinary lovemaking, and despite my doubts about finding a solution to this curse, if anyone could do it, it would be Knox. He exuded a quiet, and sometimes not-so-quiet, confidence about handling trouble, and he had somehow managed to kick-start a small spark of hope in my gut.
“I am, thank you.” I lifted my chin, determined to buzz past them and their nosy faces and go enjoy a nice hot shower. Blue launched from my arms, doing a lazy circle around the room, and went to the kitchen to investigate for any leftover snacks.
I slammed into an invisible wall.
“Ow!” Luckily, my hands had caught the brunt of it, and not my face, and I turned to glare at the only witch powerful enough to pull off that little trick.
My darling grandmother, who was dressed in screaming fire engine red today and pointing with one finger at the couch.
“Sit.”
“I’m an adult, Broca. I can do what I want. I’d like a shower, and then I can come chat.”
“Gotta wash all the nasty off her from last night,” Nova whispered to Lyra, and the two giggled while I sucked in a breath, ready to flay them with my words.
“Enough.” Broca continued to point at the couch. “Sit, Sloane. You’ll have time to shower before the festival. We need to sort this out.”
“Also, I would dearly like full details of your night with Knox.” Lyra raised her hand with a cheeky look on her face.
“Is it true you conjured a dragon?” Broca cut right to the chase when I dropped to the couch, arms crossed over my chest, determined not to spill any details about my time with Knox. Embarrassment crept in.
“Aye.” I hung my head. “I don’t even know how I did it.”
“High emotions.” Broca tapped a finger against her lips, her glasses a deep cobalt blue today. “But your mother was never this powerful. I’ve been treating this like you two are much the same, but now I’m seeing you’re anything but. Most witches in total command of their full power would never be able to summon a dragon, Sloane. And you did that without even trying. You need to understand the intensity and severity of your power, and we need to train you to put safeguards in place until we figure out how to reverse this misfiring magick curse.”
It was a relief to know I was nothing like my mother, even if it frankly terrified me to no end to hear how powerful I was. Maybe that would be fun once I was in command of my power, but as of now I felt like my magick was a ticking time bomb.
“This afternoon, you and I are going to work on a containment spell. This is basically a way for you to take your magick, shove it down in a little box inside of you, and keep it under wraps unless absolutely needed. I think it will be the best solution going forward until we figure this out.”
“And if we don’t?” I looked around at my sisters, their faces crestfallen.
“We will.”
“Everyone keeps saying that. And yet.” I waved a hand in the air. “How many generations haven’t been able to break this curse? Why us? Why now?”
“Three sisters, eleven months apart. It’s your destiny.” Broca’s eyes softened behind her glasses. “I’m certain of it.”
“And you think Briarhaven is going to put up with our curse on the town for the next two years until these two come into their magick?” I rolled my eyes. “It’s only been a few weeks, and already people want to run us out of town.”
“Yes, but we can handle this. Like we did last time. We just need to get the Charms on board to help.”
“Yeah, Sloane. Give this a chance. Please?” Lyra begged me. Nova just crossed her arms and glowered.
“Fine.” I couldn’t believe I was saying it, but a part of me that I wasn’t ready to examine too closely yet wanted to stay too. Not just because I’d had some of the best sex of my life last night, and this morning, with what seemed to be a genuinely good guy—but because my wee family seemed to be happy here. Lyra was filming more content than ever for her baking channel, and Nova’s sketchbooks were positively booming with new art. Broca’s face wasn’t as troubled, and she laughed freely in a way she hadn’t when both my parents had been around. She had lifelong friends here who had been visiting her each day.
And then there was me.
I had Blue to think about now. He needed a safe, magickal place to live.
I had Raven, my childhood friend who had forgiven my absence.
And the Charms were even starting to grow on me a bit.
The way we’d always lived might not be the solution anymore. If I was going to appoint myself the unofficial leader of this little factionof ours, then I also needed to learn when to bend. It might not be easy, particularly with the snow that continued to assault our little town, but I was beginning to actually believe that we might have a chance at beating this thing.
