Page 52 of Magic in the Woods
We were both thinking about kissing each other.
“I can see the way you look at me,” Gideon said.
I made the mistake of looking into his eyes. They captured me, and I couldn’t look away.
He tilted his head as he stared. “You want to kiss me again, don’t you?”
I looked down, too slowly, my eyes stopping too long at the space between his legs. I heard a chuckle from somewhere deep inside his body. Immediately, I turned to face the work bench. He didn’t need to see how red my face could get.
“Fine, fine, I won’t tease you anymore,” Gideon said. “But you really should practice. Make that love potion antidote I just mentioned.”
I could do that. My fingers tingled as I looked around the room. There were more ingredients here than my grandmother ever had at her cottage. I started a circle around the room, glancing at the different bottles and their contents. I recognized most of the materials, although I’d never seen them in such large quanities. It must’ve taken years to gather everything here.
I grabbed jars and bottles off the shelves as I went around the room, collecting what I needed for the potion.Jack pine needles, thimble berries, oyster mushroom extract, deer’s blood, and wild licorice root.I also grabbed a jar of wild bee honey from the shelf. It didn’t add anything to the potion except to help it taste less bitter.
Gideon watched from the middle of the room near the workbench, arms crossed in front of him, his body turning as he followed me around the room. I could feel his gaze on the back of my head. I pulled down the back of my skirt just a tad, suddenly aware of how it had ridden up as I walked.
My arms were full when I came to the workbench, and I dropped my ingredients on the tabletop. They clattered, some rolling to the edge, threatening to fall on the floor. I caught them, setting them upright.Thanks for the help, Gideon.
I set a clean cauldron on top of the burner, looking around for matches to light it with. In classes, the matches were in the drawer next to our workstation. There were no drawers here.
The whoosh of the flame catching had me turning back to the burner. Gideon was leaned over, his index and middle fingers pointing under the metal grates.
I took a step back. I’d only seen it once, when Gideon was made to perform at the last evaluation. Males were the only witches that had fire magic. I couldn’t help but to be impressed.
With his other hand, he fiddled with the gas, twisting and turning it in such a way that I wondered if he’d ever taken a potions class. The burner suddenly lit, the flame reaching a foot into the air. He stood, backing away from the flame.
“Jeez, Gideon.” I bent over the burner, taking the knob that controlled the flow of gas in my fingers, and turning it down. “Don’t you know how to work these things?” He could’ve started a big fire. There were so many flammable thingsin the room.
“There isn’t really instruction for my element,” Gideon said, his arms once again crossed in front of his chest.
I stared at him for a moment.No instruction?He shrugged.
I returned my attention back to the cauldron that was growing hot. I popped the cork of the flask of deer blood and poured it into the cauldron. It hit the hot metal, sizzling for a moment. Next I added the thimble berries, grabbing a wooden spoon from the crock on the workbench. I smashed them into the blood, the berry juices mixing in. A tart smelling steam rose from the cauldron. Time for the mushroom extract and licorice root. I stirred them in, letting the liquid come to a boil before I sprinkled in the jack pine needles.
Glancing in the cauldron, I turned down the flame until the liquid was simmering but not boiling. It needed a few moments to cook. Only when the potion turned a pink color, the same shade that my cheeks continually were around Gideon, would it be ready. My grandmother had made this exact potion many times for my mother to bring back to the Coven. Witches training in potions never got it right on the first try. Bad love potions were part of the territory.
I turned around, looking around the room. There were so many new-to-me ingredients and texts. Gideon put his hands on his hips as he turned his head sideways, reading the labels of the jars on the shelves, his broad back pushing against the white button-up shirt he wore. My heart pattered in my chest. The fast beat had me gulping air.
What was happening to me? Every time he was near, I reacted that way. My heart rate increasing, my breathing going heavy, an odd tingle between my legs. I’d been raised by women, exposed to only women—until recently, when the unfortunate series of events found me here. It couldn’t be that all men made me feel this way, could it? I had spent a year with Luke and hadn’t felt this way. I’d spent a terrible string of dayswith Wilder and his roommates and had never felt like this. Was it because Gideon and I had kissed?
Gideon turned around, and so did I—as quickly as I could, so he didn’t catch me staring. I could hear his footsteps coming up behind me. I could feel his body heat against my back.
“You know I get whatever I want at this Academy.” His voice turned into a purr.
I turned around to the cauldron and peeked inside. The perfect shade of pink. I took the wooden spoon, giving it a quick stir before scooping some up. I turned slowly, careful not to spill. Gideon was within striking distance.
“And I want?—”
I didn’t think, just acted, as I pushed the spoon between his lips. His hands clenched as the liquid slid down his throat. He bent over, sputtering and coughing, letting out a litany of curse words, some I’d never heard before, between breaths.
“What thefuckwas that?” he gasped.
“The love potion antidote,” I said, still holding the spoon in my hand, watching him.
“It’s supposed to taste like asshole?”
“If you’re referring to an anus, then you’ll have to let me know how you found out whatthattastes like.” I turned around and scooped another spoonful of the antidote from the cauldron. I eyed the bottle of honey I’d grabbed but forgotten to add. It probably did taste likeasshole, whatever that tasted like. “You’d better try a couple more spoonfuls just to make sure it’s right.”
