Page 26 of With This Witch
“No, don’t do that. Don’t minimize your feelings. What you are feeling and experiencing is valid and important. Sorry, I don’t mean to interrupt, but I don’t like seeing you make yourself smaller. You deserve to take up space.”
Petra blinks at him in surprise. No one has ever said anything like that to her before. She hadn’t ever thought of it that way, of taking up space, of allowing herself to exist in all of the ways she wanted to and should. She feels something within her start to shift.
“Thank you for that.” She smiles and then suggests, “Why don’t we make some tea? This may take a while to work through.”
“Sounds like a plan,” he replies, getting up to turn on the kettle.
“Make it a big pot. We might need it.”
After the water is boiled and the teapot filled, Lachlan brings it along with mugs on a tray and rejoins Petra on the couch, sitting just far enough that she can rest her feet on his lap. One of his hands finds its way to her calves, and he absentmindedly strokes his thumb along her skin as she starts to talk. Her skin warms to his touch as her magic flows underneath his hand, begging for connection. Morris contentedly snores by her head as if he can feel Lachlan’s soothing caress.
“Obviously, you know this started after the visit to the estate. I know that you were talking with Francesca a bit while we were there, and then we had the interaction, let’s call it, with Councilor Grog. You don’t know that I spent part of that horrible evening having a conversation with Sloan and Francesca that was about as fun as a puking spell,” she says.
Lachlan tenses and puffs up his chest, as if he is ready to go into battle for her. He opens his mouth, but she stops him.
“Please, just let me talk it through. No interruptions.” He takes a deep breath and nods his agreement. His hand is like an ember on her skin, slowly heating her from the outside in. Her magic floats inside her, pooling where his skin meets hers.
She takes a sip of tea and then takes a deep breath. “As I was saying, Sloan and Francesca had me cornered at the bar. They did the typical mean girl act and made it appear as though we were having a polite conversation, but it was anything but. Francesca immediately picked up on my fears about my ability to be the Premier Witch. She said I was only considered basically as a favor to Gammy, and to be honest, that thought has certainly crossed my mind on more than one occasion over the past few weeks. They latched onto my ideas of inadequacy, all but confirming that I am incapable of being Premier Witch.” She sighed and took another sip of her tea. “Look, I know it’s stupid and so high school, and I shouldn’t let them get to me. But these past couple of weeks have been rough. I know I am meant to be the next Premier Witch, but there’s that seed of doubt in my brain that seems like a fully grown stalk some days. It’s hard to ignore, and then the added pressure of having to get married to someone I don’t necessarily love to prove a point is… well, it’s gross. On top of all of that, my magic is misfiring because of all this stress, and I don’t know how I can be Premier Witch when I can’t even control my power.”
“What do you mean your magic is misfiring? How?” he asks.
“I swear to Hecate that I went to simply make some tea yesterday and my power decided that turning my entire living room into a field of tea plants was a better idea. Do you know how long it takes to clean that up when you can’t just reliably magic it away? I had to call Daisy for help.”
Lachlan gazes at her, his eyes filled with empathy as he waits to see if she’s done.
“You can speak now,” she says, an amused laugh escaping her lips.
“Thanks.” He gives her a wink. “As I said, your feelings are valid. You’ve had a lot to try and process and make sense of in a short period, and that interaction with them didn’t help in any way. I won’t diminish your feelings by saying just ignore them, because that doesn’t help.”
Warmth pools in her chest as she listens to him. Demons are often perceived as brutal and vengeful, and while that is certainly possible with Captain Shadow here when he is crossed, he’s just such a softy inside. His ability to respect and value the feelings of others is inspiring. How did he get this way? She knew his father, Damian, by reputation was not nice and spent so much energy instilling fear to maintain control. It’s truly a wonder how Lachlan came out the way he did.
“Instead, you need to recognize where you see your strength and power. What impact do you want to have on the community? On the world at large? Yes, your family has a legacy, but what do you wantyourlegacy to be? And, of course, the big question is, do you even want to be Premier Witch?”
“Thewantis the hard part. I don’t know.”
“Then you need to figure that out.”
“But how?” Petra asks, frustrated and exhausted.
“Only you can determine that. But you’re running out of time. The deadline for the thirty days is a little over two weeks away.”
“I know. There’s this ticking clock above my head, constantly reminding me of this life-altering decision,” she says, flopping her head back dramatically and staring at the ceiling.
“I understand. But what do you want to do about it?” he asks.
“I don’t know. I still have a hard time not believing everything the girls said to me. I keep thinking that I’m not good enough, that I shouldn’t be the Premier Witch, that I should just let Sloan have it because she wants it more than I do right now.”
“I promise you that you are more than worthy. I have watched you over the past few years—not in a creepy way,” he clarifies quickly when she raises her head to look at him. “Your compassion and love for the supernatural community speaks volumes. It’s louder than you probably realize. Working with human and supernatural children allows you to build inclusive communities from the ground up, and you’re making an impact already. We could certainly use someone like you as a leader in our world. I believe in you, but you need to believe in yourself.”
Lachlan reaches beside him to the box of tissue on the table and hands it to Petra so she can wipe the tears that have escaped. This man is something else. She uses the tissue to dab away a final tear. “I’m working on it. What do you think we should do?”
“Well,wehave a couple of issues. One is Sloan as a competitor, waiting for you to fail, and two is the conditions set forth by the council to prove your readiness.”
“You mean getting married?” she asks, a heat working its way up her neck.
“Yeah. I’m not trying to pressure you or tell you what to do. But… I think we can potentially solve both problems by addressing the second. If you—we—get married, the council will have no reason not to follow through and deem you the new Premier Witch. Upon doing so, you will gain the Premier Witch power and can use that to help deal with the Wilkses. If you choose not to get married, then, well, that provides an answer to what I asked earlier: what do you want? And Sloan then takes the title, and she’ll join the council and push her own agenda through,” he says. “So it’s really up to you and what route you want to take.”
“If,if, we get married, we need to set some ground rules first,” she ventures. “We need to make sure that we can come out of this unscathed.”
