Page 56 of Light Magic

I smiled wide, so dang happy. “Thank you,” I repeated.

Abbie waved me off. “It was fun for us, you know. We love a challenge.” The sisters nodded in agreement. She then turned to Gwen and Britt. “All right, done here. You two, go study.”

Gwen and Britt stomped away, complaining about not being part of all the cool stuff.

Abbie sighed. “And I wish I had more time.” Maggie stared at her, and the two of them shared a look that probably ran deeper than we realized.

As the oldest, they both carried a lot of responsibility for the hall and their siblings.

We heard a ding. Abbie, Maggie, and Lacey checked their phones. I put my gorgeous sword away before reaching for mine.

“It was mine,” Lacey said. She looked at me. “It’s Levi. He said he had something to do and will be back soon.”

Oh.

My chest constricted.

Why did this hurt so much?

I shook my head. Nope, I wouldn’t feel anything. I couldn’t. I had been the one to push him away, and I was glad he had accepted it.

We were getting too close, too attached.

It was better this way.

It was better this way.

It was better this way.

How many times would I have to repeat those words to convince myself?

Abbie reached for a book on the table. “Ariella, should we continue researching about the dragons, maybe find another solution if the dragon shifter doesn’t reach you?”

“Oh right!” A little bit of excitement made its way through my chest as I told them about my phone call with Kaz. “Kaz said that if the council will allow me to go to the dragons, we’ll still need a powerful witch to help us out.” I looked at Abbie. I knew Lacey was powerful too, but Abbie being the hall’s protector had to be more. “Will you go with me?”

She smiled at me, a true, big smile I hadn’t seen from her yet. “Of course. Meeting dragons would be a great honor.”

“Not fair.” Maggie pouted. “I want to go too.”

“When Kaz calls back, I can ask him,” I said. “It isn't up to me but I’ll see what I can do.”

Maggie beamed. “Yay!”

I looked at Lacey and she seemed a little sad. “Do you want to come too?” Her eyes lit up and she nodded. “I’ll ask about you too. Well, at least I can argue that we’ll have plenty of powerful witches to help out.” I pointed to the books spread over the table. “He did mention it would be good if the witches involved knew about dragons.”

Lacey and Maggie reached for books, sat in chairs, and began reading.

I laughed.

And I stopped when my phone rang.

I reached for it, almost dropped it, and answered without looking at the screen, sure it was Kaz.

“Ariella?”

I frowned, recognizing the voice. “Erin? Everything okay?”

“Yeah, probably,” she said. “Sorry, I got your number from Hazel, but I really need to speak with you.”

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