Page 37 of Magic in the Woods
She stopped, closing the book with her thumb still stuck between the pages. “Learn what?”
“How to be someone’s partner.” I didn’t show it and didn’t verbalize it, but if the Coven was going to force me to choose a partner, if I couldn’t find a way out of here, I didn’t want to make that witch’s life as miserable as mine. Even if I wasn’t attracted to them physically, I could still be a good partner. I had no one to learn from, no relationships to emulate, so I studied up on partnerships and relationships by reading books.
“You’re learning that from these books?” she asked, one side of her red hair falling lower on her shoulder than the other as she tilted her head.
“What else would teach me?”
Her eyes blinked rapidly before she shook her head back and forth, looking back down at the cover of the book. She was coming down from the potion. What would she remember? Would she remember kissing me? Part of me wanted her to.
“These are fairy tales,” she said, still looking down at the book.
I nodded. Those were my favorite. They always had a happy ending.
“What if I also wanted to be someone’s knight in shining armor?” I teased.
Her cheeks turned a light-pink color that I watched travel down the sides of her neck, dipping down beneath her collared white shirt.
“Don’t you think it’d be nice to be a knight in shining armor for the partner I have to choose?”
She looked up sharply, her eyes wide and her mouth open. “You’reGideon?”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Dafni
My surroundings suddenly felt suffocating.It was dark, a lamp cast a soft glow of light around the space. There was a book in front of my nose—a book of fairy tales.How did I get here?I pulled down the book, looking around. I was in a room that wasn’t mine. A large room. It had a big bed and a desk. There was even a rug on the floor. A tall man with black hair and black under his eyes stood staring at me.
Gideon.
He looked at me as though I was a wild animal he’d spotted in the woods. He was still, careful not to move for fear he might make me skittish. His pupils were only slightly darker than the rings around them—the whites of his eyes the only division between the black of his under eyes and the dark color of his irises. As I stared at them, I felt like I was falling into a bottomless pit. There was no end to their depths.
I blinked several times. What was I doing alone withGideon? I stood from my knees quickly, stumbling backward until I hit a desk. I’d put some distance between us, but his gaze made it feel like my skin was burning like it had when he’d been touching me.
He touched me.
Memories from the closet flipped through my brain like the pages of a book. His lips. His hands. His mossy scent that filled the closet. The way I’d wantedhimto touch me.
“What happened to me?” I groaned, pulling the book of fairy tales up in front of my face so I couldn’t see him and he couldn’t see me. Kissing strangers wasn’t something I did. I’d never kissed someone before. I hadn’t known what I was doing. The kiss had been sloppy…but I hadn’t been able to stop myself.
“A love potion happened to you,” he said from where he stood. “I’m guessing you swallowed some during class?”
More memories flashed behind my eyes. The potion drills. The pressure Arcana put on everyone to be the best, to win so thatGideonwould pick them as his partner.
Potion after potion, we had to brew. The warm splash of my potion from Petunia’s rock that covered my shirt, my cheeks, and mylips.Ugh, it was sweet on my tongue and had warmed my insides immediately.
Arcana had instructed me to return to my room and change. I’d stumbled down the hallway, my skin hot. Craving, needing someone’s…anyone’s touch. I’d needed hands on my body, someone’s lips on my lips. Opening the first door I’d found. Findinghim.
I looked down at my shirt—my wet white shirt that was almost see-through.It was all real.I’d found Gideon in the closet and had practically mauled him. That kiss—my first kiss—hadn’t been how I imagined it, and now I wasstanding in front of the man whose lips had touched mine, a book covering my red face and my breasts showing through the thin bra and white shirt I was wearing.
The healing potion.I felt with my fingers between my breasts, immediately finding the tube still resting there. A small part of me relaxed an equally small amount.
I lowered the book to cover my wet shirt, my eyes connecting with his again.
“I’m not usually like that,” I said.
Gideon took a step away from the door, closer to me. “Neither am I.” He took another step toward me, his face now illuminated by the light of the lamp on his nightside table. The closer he got, the more his eyes resembled shadows. Black veins that traveled down his cheeks toward his chin highlighted the black of his under-eyes. I involuntarily tried to take a step back but found nowhere to escape.
“What happened to you?” I asked in a whisper. I’d never seen a face like his. How could something so unpleasant be so oddly beautiful? It looked like someone had swooped a paintbrush under his eyes, the excess paint dripping down his cheeks.
