Page 39 of Pushing Daisy
“Go suck a fucking hex,” Daisy says flatly as she snatches her underwear from Sloan and stuffs it into her bag.
“They aren’t my preferred thing to suck, unfortunately. Though from what I hear, you seem to enjoy sucking lots of things.”
Daisy’s face reddens.
“Have you called Barker yet? It seemed like he was more than eager and could probably use a good… sucker.” Sloan knows she’s poking a burning ember, waiting for the right amount of oxygen before it ignites. Yes, she’s being a giant bitch, but Daisy needs to get over herself and deal with whatever her issues are with Sloan. She needs Daisy to acknowledge that she is the one holding this partnership back. She needs her to communicate. To open up. To let Sloan in. And what better way to do that than to provoke it out of her?
She may hate herself for going down this path and being the person she’s tried so hard to distance herself from over the last little while, but Sloan doesn’t think there is any other option. She’s spent so many years being apathetic and turning her nose up at others around her because it was what was expected of her. Now, though, now she’s going to fight.
CHAPTER 22
Daisy
Daisy’s insides burn with fury. Magic sizzles down her arms to her fingertips and she can’t stop herself from turning and facing Sloan head on. “Fuck you and the shit-stained broom you rode in on.”
Sloan smiles. She fucking smiles at Daisy.
“You have no fucking right to talk to me like that and to basically call me a whore because your magic found a goddess-damned vibrator in my bag. You violated my privacy, and you stand here like the prissy witch you are, thinking you’re better than me? No.” Violet sparks shoot from her fingertips to Sloan’s feet, causing her to dance away as she avoids being set on fire. Thankfully, the sparks magically go out on contact with the floor, avoiding an embarrassing conversation with the inn about how she set the room on fire. “Also, why do you care about Barker?”
“I don’t.”
“Really? Because it seems like you’re jealous, and frankly you have no right to be. We’ve made out, what, twice? That doesn’t make us a couple. What it makes us is a mistake. A line that never should have been crossed.” Sloan flinches.
“Or maybe you needed to test out what it’s like to be with someone with actual power.”
This witch has got to be kidding.
Power surges inside her, electrifying every ounce of her being and making her head swim. The strength of it is intoxicating. But the fury-formed magic quickly grows too much for her, and as much as Daisy tries to call it back, Sloan has hit a nerve and set it off beyond her limits.
She thought she had been doing well managing it. The evening walks have been helpful as a way for her to let go of tension and let sparks loose. That need for release was why she denied Sloan’s attendance this evening. The thought of Sloan seeing how little control she has makes her stomach roll with embarrassment. However, despite having released power into the earth, Sloan’s words have created a hurricane seeking destruction, and she doesn’t have the ability to hold it back.
Violet currents explode from Daisy’s hands, rocketing around the room, bouncing off the desk, and ruffling the curtains. A large spark bounces off the bed, singeing a hole into the comforter and sending feathers poofing into the air.
“Holy shit!” Sloan bounds forward, flicking her hand and putting out the tiny flame on the bed. With another flick, the feathers are contained, and the bedding is fixed, looking as if it had never been burnt in the first place. She steps toward Daisy, arms extended, trying to pull her into a hug.
Power pours through Daisy like a broken dam, and she can’t find a big enough rock to plug the hole. She begins to shake, burning out to exhaustion, and as her knees start to buckle, Sloan’s hands catch her. They slide under her arms and help guide her to the wooden floor, cool and comforting against her burning skin.
“You’re okay. I’m here. You’re okay,” Sloan soothingly repeats over and over again, wrapping herself around Daisy. The pressure of Sloan’s arms around her, holding her tightly, helps. The swirling hurricane of power softens to a tropical storm and then continues to dwindle as the power flows to Sloan, absorbed by her like before. Before long, the flood is nothing more than a trickle, and Daisy no longer feels like she is being consumed by magical energy. “You alright?”
Daisy’s head rests on Sloan’s shoulder, her nose touching the crook of her neck. As Daisy breathes in deeply, her nose fills with the smell of freshly baked cookies, and it’s like she’s back home with her parents as a young child, watching her mother pull a fresh batch out of the oven before school. The memory is a spark to the heart that burns a hole into her chest, igniting the pain she’s been ignoring. Tears form in her eyes, and before she can try to lie to Sloan, they burst and open a new dam. A bigger one. A dam that feels impossible to stop once it starts to flow.
“Oh, Hecate!” Sloan says, placing a hand on the side of Daisy’s head as she burrows it into Sloan’s shoulder. She caresses Daisy’s head, running a hand from the top of it down to her back. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry I was such a bitch. I didn’t mean to cause all that. I was trying to get you to admit that you were being a troll about us working together. I’m so sorry.”
Daisy sucks back the snot in her nose with the most unattractive snort imaginable and awkwardly laughs. “Well, you fucked that up royally, didn’t you?”
“Apparently so.”
Daisy pushes herself away, missing the heat of Sloan’s embrace. She wipes her tear-stained face with her sleeve, trying to find her words.
“You don’t need to say anything. I shouldn’t have pushed you like that.”
“No, you shouldn’t have,” Daisy says. “But you’re also not wrong.”
“Oh?”
“Don’t try to sound so surprised. Look, I know I’ve been miserable and avoidant. It’s been a rough couple of weeks, and I’ve been barely holding myself together. We aren’t, or weren’t, friends. And frankly, aside from our history, I’m not happy with how things went between you and Petra last year, and I… have a lot of pent-up… personal stuff.”
“Oh. I didn’t know,” Sloan says.
