Chapter 14 #2
“No. Up until a couple of weeks ago, I thought I was an apprentice witch, and their magic isn’t really powerful enough to need something like that,” Cece said.
“Apprentice witches learn witchcraft rather than being born with magical abilities, and they’re not as powerful as blood witches.
Apprentice witches mostly practice folk magic.
Some blood witches look down on them, especially for the folk magic, but it plays an important role in the witching community.
Folk magic can be powerful in its own right, and both humans and paranormal beings benefit from it.
Lots of witches and warlocks make their living from folk magic spells and potions for humans and paranormals. ”
“Hudson told me that you just found out you were a blood witch. That must have been a shock,” Rosalie said.
“Definitely,” Cece said. “I’d only been an apprentice witch for about eight months, and I wasn’t even a very good one, to be honest. I mostly concentrated on creating potions, which, for simple potions, is basically the easiest magic for an apprentice witch to practice.
I wanted to start my own potion shop someday.
I knew I wouldn’t be able to create really powerful ones like Charissa, but again, there’s plenty of humans and paranormals in need of simple folk magic potions.
Anyway, I’ve learned different spells and could perform some of the simpler ones with a lot of practice and concentration, but that was about it. Until…”
She glanced at Briggs, her cheeks heating up. She’d had a taste of the more powerful magic lurking inside of her when she’d first met him outside the hospital.
“Until?” Rosalie prompted.
“Um…” Cece didn’t know what to say. Explaining what a conduit was and that Briggs was hers would be embarrassing in front of people she barely knew.
“Until she beat up Briggs with a tree,” Hudson said.
Briggs growled, and Rosalie giggled. “Oh my God, that’s right. Hudson told me about that.”
“Do you keep anything to yourself, Hudson?” Briggs sighed.
Hudson shrugged. “Rosalie is my mate.”
“For what it’s worth, she did not beat me up with a tree. I had everything under control,” Briggs said.
“Sure you did,” Hudson laughed.
“It was an accident,” Cece said. “I didn’t mean to nearly crush him with a tree. In fact, I nearly crushed us both.”
Do you want to be fucked, little witch?
Her face went scarlet at the memory of Briggs growling that at her while thick pine branches surrounded them.
She cleared her throat. “Most blood witches go through a type of magical puberty, and it usually happens when they’re going through actual puberty.
Their magic grows stronger, and they have to learn to harness it.
But it can happen earlier or later with some blood witches, and I’ve learned recently through some research that an extreme emotional reaction can trigger it. ”
“You thought Hudson and Briggs were kidnapping your friend Elora, right?” Rosalie said. “Do you think that’s what kick-started your magic?”
“Yes,” Cece lied.
Well, maybe not a complete lie. Watching Hudson carry Elora out of the hospital had brought out the most powerful magic surge she’d ever felt. Until Briggs touched her.
She had no doubt that his touch was what led to the explosion of her magical abilities.
The power that had rushed through her, the heady feel of her magic, still called to her now, and while she could ignore it all she wanted, her need to touch Briggs, to fuck Briggs, was growing stronger by the day.
If she didn’t figure out a way to stop her father’s family from attacking her, she’d end up making Briggs some kind of sexual servant to her, and if she could do something that heinous, whose to say the lure of using dark magic wouldn’t be next?
Her magic pulsed as her fear spiked. Being captured and sentenced to life imprisonment in a magic suppressed cell for practicing dark magic would be a fate worse than death. She’d die alone and -
“Little witch, look at me.”
Briggs’s voice penetrated her growing panic, and she stared wide-eyed at him. “Briggs…”
“You’re okay,” he said. “Take some deep breaths.”
“I’m okay,” she whispered.
“Yes,” he said, his voice low and soothing. “Take a breath, baby.”
She did what he said, sucking air in through her nose and holding it deep in her lungs before releasing it. She inhaled and exhaled, holding Briggs’s gaze until both the panic and the magic in her body eased.
Movement caught her eye, and she groaned when she saw the African Violet plant slowly shrinking back to its normal size.
She turned to Hudson and Rosalie, her shame deepening.
Hudson had pulled Rosalie so close that she was nearly sitting in his lap, and he had one big arm crossed protectively in front of her body.
“I’m so sorry,” Cece said. She wanted to cry with embarrassment. Briggs had done something nice for her, and she’d repaid him by losing control of her magic and scaring his friends.
“It’s fine,” Rosalie said.
“It isn’t,” Cece said, her gaze landing on Hudson’s arm across Rosalie’s body. “I scared you.”
Rosalie tugged at Hudson’s arm before smiling at Cece. “You didn’t scare me at all. Hudson is just a tad obsessive about keeping me safe. Heck, he does this sort of thing when someone walks too close to me in the mall.”
“I… really?”
Rosalie nodded. “Yep. One time, we were at the bookstore, and the next thing you know, Hudson’s got me in his arms and growling at some poor old man just trying to reach for a cookbook.”
“He touched you,” Hudson said. “And he was a black bear shifter.”
“He accidentally brushed against me, and he was, like, ninety years old,” Rosalie said.
“In the grocery store, Briggs growled at an eighty-year-old lion shifter who used a cane just because he talked to me,” Cece said without thinking.
Instead of looking annoyed, Briggs said, “He shouldn’t have gotten so close to you.”
“He wanted potatoes, and I was in the way,” Cece said to Rosalie.
Rosalie laughed. “Man, it must be a polar bear shifter thing. They’re way more protective of their mates than other shifters.”
She made a face. “Not that Briggs is your mate. I know he isn’t. I mean… the two of you are super cute together, and you would make a total power couple, but I know he’s not… that you’re not… oh God, Hudson, tell me to stop talking.”
“Stop talking, Rosie,” Hudson said.
Even though she was a little embarrassed, Cece couldn’t help but laugh as Rosalie sighed. “This is why I only have Maggie as a friend. Sorry, Cece.”
“It’s fine,” Cece said.
“We should get going,” Briggs said. “It’s getting late.”
“We’re meeting Judd and Tori for dinner at the Gallery restaurant. Why don’t you join us?” Rosalie said. “The more the merrier, right?”
“Oh, um, I don’t want to put anyone in danger,” Cece said.
“We’ll be with three bear shifters and a seriously bad ass bunny shifter,” Rosalie said. “It doesn’t get any safer than that. Tori alone could probably kick anyone’s butt who came near you. She’s tiny but tough.”
“I’ve met her, actually,” Cece said. “Her and Judd. Once… a while ago.”
“Small world,” Rosalie said with a smile. “What do you say? Have dinner with us?”
Cece turned to Briggs. She wanted to have dinner and cultivate the growing friendship she felt with Rosalie, but she didn’t want to make his job any more difficult than it already was.
He studied her for a few seconds before nodding. “Sure, we’d like that. We need to drop some groceries off at home, and then we’ll meet you at the restaurant.”
“Awesome,” Rosalie said happily. “I’m so glad you’re joining us.”
“I am, too.” Cece smiled at Briggs, a jolt of lust running through her when he returned her smile. God, he really was so friggin’ handsome.
She leaned toward him just a little, tilting her head and parting her lips. One quick kiss wouldn’t hurt, right?
“Meet you at the restaurant in half an hour?” Hudson’s voice broke through her fog of lust.
Briggs cleared his throat and looked away from Cece. “Sounds good.”