Chapter 11 #2
Noble tsked. “I get that usually with new witches you’d lead them in thought, and then use the words to further concentrate and bring forward their magic, but in Ollie’s case, it may be better to avoid pointed thoughts until you have him focused on a particular direction, and instead, let him bring the mental imagery forward when he actually says the words of the spell. It could help him control it better.”
“Probably the best option,” Red agreed, sighing when the stump Ollie had rotted fully collapsed inward. “Let’s switch to fire. Ollie, going forward, avoid thinking about rot at all times, please… At least, until you can recognize when you are actually pulling magic forward.”
Great, he was now at risk of rotting parts of his library! “And fire is going to be so much safer?”
“I’ll be able to put it out. Don’t think, this is the spell: Flickers, flames, the spark of it all; come to me fire, you are mine to call.”
Ollie cocked his head. “Huh, I’m surprised it’s in English.”
Annabel shrugged. “The spell would work in any language.”
“That’s convenient. What would happen if I missed a word, or mixed them up?”
“As spells can be spoken in any language, translations can sometimes be slightly varied, so it likely would work as intended,” she said.
“Unless—” Red chuckled, somewhat evilly. “—you accidentally change the meaning of the spell. Something to be careful of, as the results can be…messy. But this is a pretty simple one, so it's hard to mix up the words. Repeat the spell and try to bring fire into just the palm of your left hand.”
Messy was not the word Noble would use for fucking up a spell. He’d say the results were usually explosive, devastating, dangerous, or even nightmarish. But what did he know; he was a witch hunter, not a witch.
Ollie cleared his throat, and held out his left hand in front of him. “Flickers, flames, the spark of it all; come to me fire, you are mine to call.” The little witch flinched with a squeak as fire sparked to life with a large crackle in his left hand.
Staring at the flames, Ollie suddenly giggled. “I did it!” Spinning, the man waved his fire holding hand. “Look, Noble, I did it!”
“Good job, Baby.” He smiled, even while he began to worry about what else Ollie might set on fire with his flailing.
“Ollie, focus on the task at hand before you accidentally set something on fire!” Red snapped.
The witch turned back around, slumping a little bit as he pouted. “I’m focused!”
Noble watched silently, before realizing he was being stared at. He couldn’t help but sigh when Jahla moved closer.
“Yes?” he asked dryly.
“I know what you are hiding,” she said softly.
He glanced over at her with a brow raised, doing his darndest to stop himself from stiffening up at her words. “Oh?”
“I know, and I’m sure Ollie would realize it too, if he really allowed himself to think about it.
But I don’t think he will, and…I don’t think he wants to know why you know all that you do.
Or why you knew that bastard who tried to kill him.
But I know why. And I’m certain that Red knows, so there must be a reason you are still allowed near him. ”
Noble would say he was surprised she’d figured it out, but he wasn’t.
Jahla had always looked at him a little too closely, not to mention, she’d been asking questions well before this.
The only reason it had taken her so long was that Jahla hadn’t yet had the clues she needed to figure it out. Now, she did.
“And?” He smirked, despite knowing this was just one more step towards Ollie despising him.
“I could ask you for the details, to tell me what you’ve done. I could threaten you to stay away, or even threaten to tell him what I know, but I’m not going to…yet.”
Noble decided to ignore the ‘yet’ part, and just said, “And I do appreciate that. But you clearly want something from me, Jahla, or you wouldn’t have brought it up.”
“You’re not wrong. I do have questions for you, and the answers will determine what I do after this.”
“Ask away.”
It wasn't like he could stop her anyway. As much as Noble would kill to stay in Ollie’s life, he wouldn’t hurt Jahla. And it had nothing to do with her being a woman, and everything to do with her being Ollie’s best friend.
Harming her would hurt his Baby, and that was not something he was willing to do. Noble may have been selfish to stay, but he wasn’t selfish enough to hurt someone Ollie cared about—more importantly, someone who genuinely cared about the man—just to stay a bit longer.
“Are you still with them?”
“No.”
“Are you planning to hurt him?”
“No.”
“Have you ever?”
“If you are asking me if I had, at one time, planned to hurt him, the answer is still no.”
“If it came down to you or him, and only one of you could survive, who would you choose?”
“Him,” Noble said without hesitation.
“Why?”
“As I said before, he saved me. He was the light out of a very dark haze. He is light itself, and I will be damned if any of him is dimmed because of me, or anyone else for that matter.”
She nodded before taking a deep breath. “Okay. Then I will…keep my trap shut. Even though I know this is going to blow up one day.”
“Thank you…”
Jahla grunted in response and looked away as she crossed her arms. The woman seemed to be holding herself a bit too tightly, and it made him think that she wasn’t as fine with this new bit of information as she let on.
Witch hunter—Noble was a witch hunter! Jahla had been right! Why didn’t she feel better about being right?! Oh, yeah, her dream!
But just because Noble confirmed that he was a hunter, it didn’t mean her dream, or rather, nightmare, was real or anything…
Though, if it were real—and it’s not—dream Noble’s hair and outfit would suggest the man was far older than he actually looked.
Should she ask how old he was? No! No…she didn’t need to know how old Noble really was. Wait…was he older then? What did she even know about witch hunters?! Nothing, that’s what!
And it didn’t matter; none of it mattered.
Well, it did, as Noble being a witch hunter, even a former one, while dating her best friend, who was a witch, was kind of a big deal.
But it didn’t matter in the case of those two dreams. Because they were just dreams. Just pure, unadulterated brain nonsense that was made up and definitely not real.
Oh, God, she was starting to sound like Ollie when he was in denial about something…