Chapter Fifteen #2
I rack my brain to figure out what he’s talking about exactly and veer off in a very dirty direction. He smirks at me, so clearly, I’m not doing a good job of hiding my inner pervert.
“I was talking about the sparks.”
“Oh…Ohh. What about them?”
He huffs. “Well, I have some questions.”
“Okay, shoot.” I pat the bed for him to sit as I towel dry my hair. “The food can wait a minute. I didn’t freak you out, did I? I mean, you didn’t seem freaked out, but of course any normal person would be freaked—”
He covers my mouth with his hand, his grin in full effect. “You need to take a breath, Opie. I’m not freaked out. I’m curious.” He lets go of my mouth but leans in close to give me a soft kiss, helping the tension ease out of me.
“Sorry.”
“It’s cute.”
“Only you’d think it cute that your girlfriend has witchy powers.”
“Girlfriend?”
“Well, not—”
And that’s when I find myself flat on my back, a very dangerous look on Riggs’s face, hovering over me.
“No, don’t take that back.”
“Okay,” I whisper, raising my hand to stroke his face. “I’ve never been someone’s girlfriend before, so I might mess it up.”
“Can’t tell you how fucking happy it makes me to be yours, Opie. I don’t care how many times you fuck up. I’ll fuck up too. We’ll learn together, and we’ll figure it out along the way.”
“Promise? I don’t want to guess what I’ve done wrong.
And I really don’t like the cold shoulder.
When my dad wasn’t yelling at me, he would go days without talking to me at all.
Most people in town wouldn’t speak to me either, and I hated it.
I guess I’ve found a way to navigate most of my triggers, but that one still hits me hard. ”
“I would never do that to you. There may be times I need a minute to process something, but I’ll tell you that. I won’t leave you hanging, I swear.”
“Okay.”
“You know how adorable it is that you’re more worried about how I’ll react to a handful of sparks than you planning to kill your dad.”
“You make a valid point,” I mutter, making him laugh.
“Glad you think so. Now, tell me more about these witchy ways.”
I search his face to assess if he really is cool with this, but I don’t find anything but open curiosity.
“I’m connected to the house.”
“Connected how?”
“I’m not sure. I can sense things about it.”
“Like when someone’s coming up the driveway.”
“Exactly. I’ve always been aware of the house, if that makes sense.
I could feel it sometimes, and I thought it knew how I felt in return.
I came into my powers, or started to, the night everything went to shit.
I can’t be sure if it was my childhood trauma that brought it on early or if it was always destined to be that way.
When I was arrested, the house wasn’t as connected to me as it is now.
It tried, but everything was too new, and I was too weak.
After I was dragged from the house and the initial evidence was collected, the house shut itself down the moment the last person left.
And it didn’t open until I returned home. ”
“Wait, you’re telling me your dad, after everything, couldn’t get inside?”
I shake my head as he cracks up laughing. “Oh, that’s fucking beautiful. That had to piss him off something bad.”
“It did. You should have seen his face when the door swung open for me.”
“I’m surprised he didn’t try breaking in or setting fire to the place just to stop you from having it.”
“The man is spiteful enough for sure, but he had to give up his life in order for his plan to work. I think that’s why he’s even more bitter now than he was before.
Back then, everyone was scared of him. He ruled this town with an iron fist, mostly because he controlled a lot of what came in and out of town.
He had the most successful ranch this side of the county, and he loved nothing more than to rub people’s faces in it.
The only person who didn’t seem to care was Austin.
He controlled the other part of town. Don’t get me wrong, my dad was involved in a lot of shady shit, but he couldn’t admit that.
He had to appear legitimate, at least on paper, and that meant toeing the line.
Austin had no such holdbacks. I suspect he had things on both my dad and Sheriff Andrews because Austin was blatant in his dealings, and neither of them did shit to stop him. ”
“Hmm…”
“What does that mean?”
“Nothing, just trying to get a better picture of this Austin guy. He’s older than us by a decade, give or take. What was his interest in a teenage girl?”
“I think he found me intriguing, that’s all. Nothing happened between us back then. He just felt sorry for me and tried to help me out when it was clear I was struggling.”
“He knows what you can do?”
“It’s complicated.”
“I’m a smart guy.” He rolls us until he’s lying next to me.
“Austin knew I was a witch before I did.” I lift my arm and show him my wrist. “It’s not a tattoo, it’s a birthmark. Once that turned black, my full powers came in. Austin recognized it. Though I may come from a long line of witches, he comes from an equally long line of hunters.”
“Hunters?”
“Witch hunters.”
He freezes solid at my words. I reach over and slide my arm around him. “There is no love lost between Austin and his family, as you can tell. He went into a very different kind of business.”
“That doesn’t mean he isn’t plotting something.”
“His dad killed his mom. It turns out the hunters, at least the local ones, didn’t hate witches.
They hated women. Austin’s dad and his friends visited a cabin in the woods, where Austin rigged the fire so they died from carbon monoxide poisoning.
Trust me when I say he wants nothing to do with that life.
He even gave me back the family grimoire. ”
“The what now?”
“It’s a book filled with potions and spells, recipes, and antidotes.
There are sketches and annotations left in the margins from my ancestors.
I haven’t had a chance to read it all, but he didn’t have to give it to me.
He could have kept it. That thing is old.
He could have sold it for a pretty penny.
” I look away for a moment as something settles within me.
“What is it?”
“Something Austin said without realizing, I think. He was telling me that it’s always the female descendants who have power, not the sons. They might have immunity to some of the powers used on them, but that’s as far as it ever went.”
“Okay, but I’m sensing there is more to it than that.”
I bite my lip. I could be very wrong, but I trust Riggs more than anyone. He won’t share what I don’t want him to. “Austin is immune to my powers.”
He rears back. “Wait, what?”
“Yeah, but from what I could gather, for him to be immune…”
“There must be a witch in his lineage. Holy shit. Might explain why his dad was such a prick toward both his wife and women in general.”
“Yeah. Don’t say anything, though. If he wants me to know the specifics, he’ll tell me.”
“It’s none of my business anyway.” His eye closes for a moment as he sighs. “That day out in the field…I was trying to figure out what the hell happened. I wasn’t buying Willow throwing you—that horse is as protective of you as you are of her. It was Austin.”
“It was me. The house doesn’t sense him either, so when he appeared beside me as if he’d stepped out of my nightmares, I lost my shit.
I was so fucking angry at him, Riggs. It just kept spilling over until, eventually, it was pouring out of me in an onslaught of fear and anger and disappointment.
I wanted to hurt him. Hell, I tried to, but nothing affected him.
I ended up draining myself dry. If he hadn’t gotten me help when he did, I’m not sure I’d have survived. ”
“You scared me shitless that day. I never want to come that close to losing you again.”
“I didn’t know I could drain myself like that. But now I do, so it won’t happen again. I’m figuring everything out as I go along. Most witches learn from the rest of the women in their family. But I have to figure it out alone, so I’m going to fuck things up sometimes.”
“What else can you do? I know about the house, though I won’t even try to understand how that works. The sparks—what else?”
I hold up my hand and concentrate on the feeling of the air around me. I imagine it as more solid, and then it feels a little sticky, like cotton candy. When I’m done with that, I swirl my finger on my free hand, my intention clear. When Riggs gasps, I open my eyes at the mini tornado in my hand.
“Since the hospital, I seem to have gained more affinity with air. You know about the sparks, and I have a way with earth, too. I don’t know how to put it so it makes sense.
You know how I can get a feeling from the house?
Well, it’s a similar kind of vibe from the earth but in reverse.
I can push what I want into it, and it will comply, which is why my land is prospering while others aren’t doing so well.
I wouldn’t say I’m feeding it—more like I’m healing it.
It likes my energy, and it wants to do my bidding. It’s been waiting for me to come home.”
“Wow.”
“Yeah, it’s a lot.”
“I mean, my girlfriend is a real-life superhero. I’m not really seeing the downside here.”
I snort as the idiot gets up and pulls me into a sitting position.
“Not a superhero. Just a regular witch.”
“Oh, honey, I hate to break this to you, but you are anything but regular.”
“Says the sexy pirate cowboy,” I say with a grin as I press a kiss to his eyepatch.
“Hmm…I’m sensing some role-playing in our future.”
“Well shiver me timbers.”