Page 35 of Happily Ever Witch
Esmeralda sighed. “Yes. I don’t like it, but I’ll go with your idea. You probably know more about ambushing powerful enemies that I do.”
“Undoubtedly. So, tell me something true, Ez: How is your magic?”
Esmeralda stared up at the hideous red canopy. “Not great.” She admitted, reluctantly. “I told you, it’s twitchy. I can do small things. But, I have trouble controlling it. I always have.”
Trevelyan turned off the lights and crossed over to the bed, naked and gorgeous. Not that she watched him. Much. “Describe the problem.” He ordered. “Because we need to find a way to fix your powers. Quickly.”
It was embarrassing to discuss, but it couldn’t hurt to try. In the dark, it felt safer to say things to him. “Well, first off, I sometimes cast a spell and I get theoppositeresult.”
“That’s easily remedied.” He settled on his side of the mattress. “Just cast spells for the opposite of what you want to happen.”
“It’s not that simple. Swarms of majestic bats become disgusting butterflies. Evil curses somehow help my targets lose weight. I once hexed my ex-boyfriend and the next thing I know the dickhead wins the lottery.”
“Did he work in a record store?” Trevelyan asked without inflection.
“Yep. Now, he owns a chain of them, thanks to me.” She huffed out an aggravated breath. “The Cauldron Societylovedthat one.”
“I’ll kill them all later, if you like. For now, focus on survival.”
“You’ll kill the entire Cauldron Society for me?”
“Notjustfor you. I also like killing people.” He sounded bored. “Go on with your tale of magical woes.”
“What else can I say? My powers are misfiring, more and more, all the time.”
“Probably because you’re focusing on them, instead of just letting the spells happen naturally.”
“You’d focus on it to, if you were the most horrible wicked witch in the world.”
“You’re not themosthorrible.” He assured her in a tone that suggested there were, perhaps, one or two bigger screw-ups in the universe. Somewhere. “You can turn people into hogs, after all. That’s quite an advanced spell for a level one practitioner.” He paused. “You weretryingto turn them into hogs, weren’t you?”
Esmeralda stayed quiet.
Trevelyan laughed.
“Oh shut up, Trev.” Esmeralda muttered, without any real heat.
He had a wonderful laugh, damn it. Dark and rusty sounding, like he didn’t get to use it a lot. But it warmed all the parts of her that she was trying to ignore. She also did her bestto ignore the weight of his body on the bed. Even with the wall of pillows, it seemed oddly intimate to have him beside her.
…But not terrible.
She rolled onto her side, so she was facing the fluffy barrier between them. “Do you believe me?” She asked, wishing she could see him. “About the magic?”
“Yes.” He was quiet for so long, she thought he’d gone to sleep. “You’re forty-nine percent Good and trying to cast dark spells. Perhaps that’s the problem. Wires are getting crossed, so you get butterflies instead of bats. You need to try some lighter magic.”
Esmeralda was insulted. “Absolutely not! I’m awickedwitch!”
“I understand your horror, but this is an emergency. And you’re only half Bad.”
“Fifty-one percent is more than half. And you don’t even know that damn Rabbit is right.”
“I know that you’ve gota lotof Good in you. I can smell it.”
Esmeralda winced a bit at that news. “No one else ever complained about my smell.” She muttered defensively.
“You must not hang around with many dragons.”
“Therearen’tmany dragons.”
