Page 29 of Witch You Weren't Here

He narrowed his eyes at her. ‘You’re kidding, right? Are you trying to tell me you never knew that?’

Instead of her cheeks flushing, for a nice change she could feel the blood draining from her face. ‘Witches don’t have more than one gift, you’re talking rot.’

‘That’s what they used to tell us. They’ve done research on it now. Magical affinities are often multiple, across different designations. There’s usually one dominant one but … You seriously haven’t heard about that?’

No. She wouldn’t have heard about it because she rarely talked about magic with her family. Rarely spent time with other witches apart from family visits and never consulted the witching news these days.

And as for her having an effect on everyone around her, making their feelings more obvious to them …

‘How would you even know that?’ she challenged. ‘About me having another gift to make people more aware of their feelings?’

‘I’m a person, in your vicinity, Kay. It’s pretty obvious.’ A touch of pink highlighted his sharp cheekbones and he shook his head vigorously like he could shake away whatever emotion it was she was making him more aware of. Probably how irritated he was with her, since he’d definitely been snappier today. That smarted. She was literally bringing out the worst in him. ‘Why do you think people are always reacting so extremely towards you? Like Dean—’

‘Oh, I see.’ She poked him in the chest, pushing him over to the other side of the tiny toilet, so his back was bowed on the curved wall, inadvertently bringing his head down close to hers. ‘This is just some way of blaming me for him pestering me, right? I’ve influenced him to not take a hint, is that it? I encouraged him subconsciously with my magic. The witches’ equivalent of “what was she wearing?”’

‘No! Of course not.’ His exclamation made her glasses fog up for a second and she felt his weight against her finger press, then lighten as he shifted on his feet. ‘How he behaves is still his choice. Why do you think I stepped in? He was out of order.’

‘So your solution was to make him find me repellent? Is that your only solution to deal with someone’s unwanted interest, make them hate the object of their affection?’

Harry swallowed, his gaze flickering down to look at her poking finger, but she didn’t even pause. Just the idea that he thought it was fair to treat a teenage girl with a crush on a boy who’d acted like her friend for the best part of a year, in the same way as a grown man who wouldn’t leave a very obviously reluctant woman alone was making her heartbeat pound in her ears.

‘If I wanted a man I wasn’t interested in to act like a dick towards me, I could have just told him to leave me alone. I was trying to be tactful. What you did was unnecessary and reckless. He looked like he was ready to run screaming from me. That’s dangerous. What if he gets completely paranoid and accuses me of something? Or panics and thinks he needs to defend himself from me—’

‘All right. Yes. You’re right. It was messy, clumsy magic. The best I could come up with in the moment but he’d …’ he shook his head.

‘He’d what?’ She dropped her hand but didn’t bother to move any further back.

‘He asked me about us when I spoke to him. And said things. About you.’

‘What things?’

‘I don’t want to repeat them.’

‘Well, that’s convenient.’

He finally looked at her again. ‘Do you really think I’d lie about that?’

She didn’t. That was the annoying thing. The thing that made her want to slap herself. Why couldn’t her hormones get the message? She couldn’t even accuse him of influencing her – at least not now – unless she counted the way the consuming blue of his eyes could still seem to reach down inside her and stir everything up into a flurry. She felt utterly empty and full of unbearable pressure at the same time.

The plane jolted up again and she fell forward, erasing the last tiny gap between them. The heat of him soaked through his shirt, the firmness of his chest sending waves of weakness through her body. Her stomach was careening all over the place and it was only partly to do with the turbulence.

She scrabbled back, trying to stand upright again, and he put a hand on her waist to steady her. She wanted him to tighten his grip. To pull her closer again. So she tried to take another step back, bashing her hip onto the sink.

Focus. She needed to focus. ‘Whatever your excuses, you need to undo it.’

He tucked the hand he’d put on her waist into his pocket so violently, she swore she could hear the stitches tearing. ‘I’ll try.’

‘Try really hard.’

‘I will.’

She nodded. There. That was the end of the conversation. She turned towards the door to unlock it and jumped back as someone started banging on it from the other side.

‘Sir? Madam? The seat-belt light is about to come on. You need to return to your seats.’

Kay’s face immediately erupted into flame as she realised the flight attendant had seen them coming in there together. And was probably drawing their own conclusions. ‘Oh my God,’ she choked out.

Harry actually laughed behind her. ‘Saying things like that won’t help if you’re worried about what they’re assuming.’

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