Page 40 of Tricky Magic
Flickers of that hot dream flashed before her. That man had called her princess… She shook the thought and continued to glare at thenotman of her dreams running next to her.
“Nah, I think I like ‘princess.’” A thoughtful look glittered in his eyes. “I will save Ellea for special occasions.”
“There will be no special occasions,” she said. Her harsh tone only made him smile more. She would just actively ignore everything that he’d said yesterday. “We just happen to share a lake, and for some reason you like to insert yourself into my life.”
“Or are you inserting yourself into my life?” He looked at her fully, not breaking his stride. He wasn’t even sweating. “I was here first. Plus,youwere the one that snuck onto my property in the middle of the night.”
“Don’t worry, I won’t make that mistake again.”
“Liar! I bet you can’t wait to find another reason to come on to my land. Like using your familiar as an excuse.” His brow rose.
“That was all her,” she replied with her hands up. “I was enjoying my time away from you.”
“I doubt that. I know you enjoyed that night in the woods.”
“You know nothing about me or what I enjoy.” Red dotted her vision. “And you won’t ever find out.”
How dare he think he knew her or what she wanted, even if it may be true. Yes, she wanted him, but her magic was saying something totally different. She couldn’t imagine what would happen if she acted on any of those feelings.
“What are you thinking about right now?” he asked as though he could read her thoughts. Dammit, she didn’t know if he could or not. Ellea either needed to learn more about him or stay completely away.
“No, I am not reading your thoughts, if that is what you are thinking. I can smell it on you. The power. And other things.” A devilish smile crossed his tan face.
“I am thinking about how fun it was to kick you in the balls, and I’m wondering how soon I can do it again.”
“If you want to get close to my balls”—Ros smiled—“you only have to ask.”
“The only thing getting close to your balls is my foot,” Ellea said. “Or my magic if I learn how to detach them from you.”
Ros slowed down, and Ellea took that as an opportunity to pick up the pace, hoping to leave him behind. But she wasn’t ever that lucky.
“Could you do that?” he called after her, seeming too curious. “What other things could you do to my manly bits?”
“Ugh.” She gagged. “What’s wrong with you?”
Ellea had never encountered anyone like him before. He enjoyed talking of violence so much, even receiving it. He’d clearly enjoyed the other night, and her powers tingled under her skin at the memory of it.
“So many things are wrong with me,” he said in a way that showed he was fully okay with that statement. “If you’re lucky, you will get to learn all of them.”
Ellea didn’t respond. She didn’t know how to. Her responses only seemed to fuel him more, so she just ran, and ran, and ran. Not once did he break pace, and he was barely sweating after forty minutes of running. Her driveway was getting closer, and she couldn’t wait to put distance between the two of them. She had so much shit to figure out.
“Same time tomorrow, princess?” Ros asked as she ran down her long driveway. Ellea flipped him off over her shoulder in response, and the deep laugh he answered with went straight to her core. Ellea ran right to the greenhouse; it was time she figured out her magic beyond small illusions.
The mess that she’d left yesterday was completely cleaned up. All that was left were two chairs and an old potting table. The home seemed to care for this building more than it did for her.
“Okay, I can do this,” she said to herself. “Start small. An apple. I will form an apple.”
Getting herself ready, she imagined it, how it felt in her hands, the taste, and the smell. It would be easy, it had to be. Her power had begun to crackle as soon as Ros appeared on her run, but now she could feel the pull to create. She focused that energy on the small table a few feet in front of her.
An apple, a red, shiny apple will appear on that table.
Pushing that energy out, she kept that image in her mind. Then the table exploded into tiny shards of wood.
“Fuck, this is going to be harder than I thought.”
18
Ellea
