Page 74 of Witches of Dubious Origin
He tucked in to the dessert and we were quiet as we savored the subtly sweet, velvety-rich goodness.
“This has been the longest day ever.” Exhaustion had me slumping in my seat even as my brain was churning through everything that had happened and trying to parse out who had murdered my mother with a Waning Curse. Had they done the same thing to Mamie? And had it been the same witch or mage who had sent Moran to kill me so they could raise me from the dead and make me their Donadieu grimoire–wielding bitch? Weren’t they in for a surprise when they discovered I couldn’t even read the book.
“What are you thinking about?” Jasper put his spoon down and the intense look he gave me made my pulse skitter. I suspected he was using his innate charm and attractiveness to distract me.
“My potential as someone’s undead magical minion when I don’t even know how to use my magic for anything more than levitating myself or a book off the shelf. I can’t even make a decent light orb.” I tried to keep the panic out of my voice. I failed. “Everyone around me has effortless magic. Iwatched you move dirt, Olive shoots blue flames out of her fingers, and Tariq can make a potion for anything. I don’t even know what Miles can do, but I bet it’s significant.”
Jasper pushed back from the table and stood, holding out his hand to me. “Come with me, love.”
I felt my insides flutter at the endearment. He looked so calm and steady, standing beside me with his wavy black hair and stupefying good looks. Without overthinking it, I put my hand in his.
“Where are we going?” I asked.
“Where we won’t be disturbed.”
Well, that sounded hot. I cleared my throat. He couldn’t possibly mean…nah.
Jasper led me out of the penthouse suite and into the elevator. He hit a button and we zipped down to the first floor. He never let go of my hand. I tried not to read too much into that, but my awareness of him—the bergamot-and-coffee scent of him, the warmth of his fingers around mine, the desire I felt to push him back against the wall and scale him like a mountain—was overriding my common sense. I shook my head.
The doors opened and Jasper and I stepped into a deserted hallway. The lights were dim and I could smell the astringent scent of…chlorine? We walked down the hallway to a pair of frosted glass doors. They were locked, but did this stop Jasper? No, it did not.
He let go of my hand and slipped his arm around my waist. Much like we did with the magicked doors at the BODO, we stepped forward, but instead of slamming into the glass, we were enveloped into a dark mist and my senseswere muffled, almost as if I were underwater. When Jasper let me go, we were standing beside the hotel’s indoor pool.
I glanced at him and said, “Fancied a late-night swim?”
“Ha…er…no.” He ran a hand through his hair. “I thought you might appreciate some tutoring.” I lifted my eyebrows in surprise. “Not to be too obvious with the metaphor, but you’ve been thrown into the deep end of the magical realm and I thought a quick lesson might help you…”
“Keep my head above water?” I said.
A laugh rumbled up inside him. “Precisely.”
“And you chose this place because?”
“It’s closed, dark, and very private.”
Did I imagine that his voice dropped on that last word? Was the sudden sweat coating my skin because of the steam from the heated pool or him? Him. It was definitely him.
I cleared my throat and said, “Clearly you’ve forgotten about the exploding orange, but if you’re willing, I’m all yours, Teach.”
A small smile tipped his lips and I felt a flickering heat in my core at the same time a rivulet of sweat trickled down my neck.
“Let’s start with something fun,” he suggested. He took my hand and led me to the edge of the pool. “You mentioned how I moved the dirt at the grave. Water is the same principle.”
He dropped my hand and then held his hands out over the water. I watched, entranced, as the water in the pool rippled as if awakening. He made a spiral with his right hand and the water started to spin. He lifted his left hand and a spout of water rose from the surface.
“How?” I whispered.
“The same way you retrieved Freya from the bookshelf and ripened the orange. You have to feel the magic inside you. You have to trust it and then focus on the outcome you want.” He held his hands still and the water dropped and stopped moving. “You try.”
I put my hands out over the water and closed my eyes. I thought about the warmth that infused me whenever I concentrated. Uninvited, an image of Jasper filling the grave with dirt flashed through my mind. I shook my head, trying to clear the image of him, but my brain was fixated as it flashed to the memory of him holding me after we contained the Viking. The attraction I had felt for this man from the moment I’d met him seemed to swirl up inside me, refusing to be ignored.
“Um…Zoe…” Jasper’s voice broke through my muddled thoughts and I opened my eyes. And there he was, hovering over the water right in front of me, as I had obviously, albeit unintentionally, used magic to bring him to me. I gasped, breaking the spell, and he plunged right into the pool with an enormous splash.
“Jasper!” I pressed my hands to my mouth, horrified by what I’d done.
Jasper broke through the surface of the water, tossing his sodden hair out of his face. His gaze, when it locked on mine, had a mischievous glint. “So that’s how it is, is it?”
He raised his hands in my direction and I felt my body rise and drift over the water. I held up my hands and said, “No! I didn’t mean it. It was an accident.”
