Page 16 of Wildfire Witch

“I’m looking forward to it,” I said.

Then he left, shutting the door at the end of the hall behind him while Seth plated up a hearty breakfast for us both. “He wanted to give us a chance to chat,” he said, setting the plates on the table across from one another.

“Oh yeah?” I asked, distracted. I wasn’t sure why Ceridor wanted me to spend any one-on-one time with another man.

“I do,”Aodhnait volunteered.

Seth had made eggs, sausages, and hash browns, practically a feast’s worth. “Cer doesn’t want any of this?” I asked.

“Not today, apparently. More for us.” Shrugging, he dug in, and I did the same.

“When we were just figuring out our curse in our second and third lives together, we delved into a concept attached to the symmetry of magic unique to our curse. Our magic is unstable, prone to killing us,”Aodhnait explained.

“Horrifically so,”I agreed.

“The earth element in your green magic is being forced into a transmutation loop to become pure fire.”

I chewed thoughtfully. All my experimentation with fire had resulted in failure. It often left me with burns, rather than any closer to controlling it. It made sense that it continued to be that way, though now it triggered an overload of heat, which led tous inevitably burning to death. The curse had ruined my internal symmetry.

“Correct. To work magic that you can control, you have to transmute all this fire into a different element and then cast your spells. Otherwise, we grow hotter and hotter.”

“That makes sense. But how will I do that?”I mused.

“And there is where Ceridor and Seth come in. We theorized that, if we had a connection to a person aligned to a different element, we can borrow stability from them.”

It was coming back to me, now that she mentioned it. We never got to test the theory before we forgot it, due to the nature of the curse. A mate bond with a person who drew on earth, air, or water would balance out my unstable magic.

“And a mate bond with one of each would make us fully stable,”Aodhnait added.

I nearly choked on my matcha, spitting it back into the mug and coughing. Seth reached over to pound on my shoulder. “You okay?” he asked.

“Yeah,” I sputtered, while demanding of my phoenix,“What? I can’t just marry three men! It’s unheard of.”

“It’s not. Melisande had nine men, and the supernatural community allows mating circles and polyamory with no judgment.”

She wasn’t wrong. But I’d been alone for so long, I’d assumed I wasn’t a powerful enough witch to be able to forge a mate bond with more than one man.

“You’re the Alchemist of Spells Hollow, a learned woman of science and nature. Why wouldn’t you have more than one partner?”Aodhnait reasoned.

Being overlooked for those traits in my first life came to mind. But it wasn’t the 1600s anymore; women were allowed to be smart, driven, and a little sarcastic now. Some men liked that, even.

“I’m sure the man in front of you would, if you’d just look up and talk to him,”Aodhnait suggested. Seth was picking at his meal, glancing over at me occasionally as my face followed the emotional path of my internal conversation with her. He probably thought I was a weirdo.“Just talk to him, Nix.”

“Um, hey,” I said, waving across the table. He smiled a bit and waved back.

“Smooth,”she commented dryly.

NIX

“So,let me get something out of the way. I’m cursed,” I said.

He nodded, looking completely unsurprised. “Trust me, I know. Cer and I have had plenty of conversations about it.”

I sucked on the inside of my cheek, eyeing him. “Why?” It was unlike the fae to bring someone else into our business. Seth knew too much about me.

He didn’t quite meet my eye, his lips taking an embarrassed slant. “I’ve got something to show you once we’re done eating. It’s in my room. You can use my shower too, if you want,” he offered.

“Okay.” I was just about done, anyway.

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