Page 19 of Wildfire Witch

I took out a clean sheet of paper and doodled the symbols for the four elements for him.

“Seth, your affinity is for water. It’s what you can control.” I wrote his name down next to the water symbol. “However, if we cracked open your chest and inspected your magic down tothe grain, we would see that it is not formedentirelyof water. There are minute amounts of earth, air, and fire there to keep you in balance, as long as they maintain a pattern that is entirely unique to you.” I etched in a simple circle around the symbol for water on the page and then replicated it until the pattern resembled two figure eights connected by their middles.

“Huh,” he said.

“Magiclovesshapes. Look at any ritual or spell and you see they come in every conceivable geometric shape. This forms the basic principles of the symmetry of magic. It is the main alchemical theory I worked towards proving, in my first life. I sought to have perfect symmetry, an equal balance of earth, fire, air, and water in a flawless geometric pattern. It would have resulted in me being able to wield all four elements equally.”

“I think I’m following,” he said. Ceridor, who used to listen to me talk in deep lengths about my symmetry, simply nodded.

“Back to present day…the elements crave balance and we can use that,” I said, putting the paper with my newest array back on top of the stack. “My curse ruins my symmetry by taking away the other elements, even though I was born with an affinity for earth as a green witch. Every spell I cast is forced to become fire.”

My fae husband was still nodding along, so I met his eyes as I finished my explanation. “Which means I am chaoticallyunbalanced. The fire within me now, personified as Aodhnait, will latch onto the promise of a new balance with strong representatives of the other elements. They can draw her out of me, if we provide the proper ritualandin the right place, which we have to assume is the site I was cursed, in my shop in SpellsHollow. That would bring the whole thing full circle, and again…magic loves shapes.”

Ceridor’s stare slipped from me to the page. He could’ve burned a hole straight through the array. “You need a third person. A third man,” he muttered. “After all this, we still don’t have everything you need.”

I nodded, not too surprised he’d figured the rest out from what I’d written. “If this ritual is to work, I also need to be more tethered to the other people in the circle than I am to Aodhnait. She and I have the familiar bond and have been together several centuries now…the only way to form a more powerful bond is through mating, handfasting.” I glanced toward Seth. “Finding my anam cara. But don’t worry…I’ll keep working on this. Maybe I’ll find a more sensible solution.”

Something that wouldn’t hurt Ceridor, preferably. He looked like he was trying to swallow a ball of spikes as he listened to me, and quite frankly, I felt the same. I didn’t necessarily want three husbands.

But if I found another man who called to me like Ceridor and Seth, I could be convinced to embrace it as destiny. I would need fate to drop him in my lap so I could break this curse in my current life.

As if it were listening in on my thoughts, fate sent the heavythudof a boot slamming against the front door of their apartment. Or perhaps that was simply the start of the consequences of me staying in one place for too long, catching up to me.

NIX

More than oneperson teamed up to beat down the door, which gave way into wooden splinters. “Shit. They’ve found me,” I muttered.

“Who’sfound you?” Ceridor demanded.

He held out his hand, summoning a light breeze to lift and deliver a length of wood into his hand, from where he’d had it leaning against the wall. It was a staff nearly as tall as he was, made of a lightweight white wood and carved with fae runes for durability and to whip through the air more effortlessly. Chances were it wasn’t the same weapon he’d carried as a guard, but it was similar.

“The Fire Brotherhood. Shifters.” As I spoke, the first shifter rushed in and caught his bearings. His eyes gleamed pale green, already partially giving in to his animal side, though he reached for a gun on his waistband as he snarled with a mouthful of wolf teeth. He had his fire bro tattoo of a flame held in a fist inked low on his bulging bicep, the red color fading into the tan of his skin.

Before he could fire a shot, Ceridor twirled his staff, generating the wind his magic needed to send an invisible blade toward the shifter. The wolf cursed and dropped his weapon when a bloody wound opened from wrist to forearm and gushed blood. “The bitch has help,” he called.

Three more shifters came through the ruined door, guns drawn. While Ceridor attacked, he shouted, “Get her out of here, Seth!”

Seth grabbed my arm, turning towards the balcony. “No, wait. They’ll be out there waiting,” I said quickly. I jerked him along with me as I went to the kitchen drawers, rattling around until I found one layered with wooden spatulas and spoons. Bingo.

A round of gunshots popped and we ducked. I held the handful of wooden kitchen tools and met Seth’s panicking gaze. “Whatever you do, don’t let go of me. I have an idea,” I whispered.

The fire bros would shoot to kill. Theywantedto kill me; I would be much easier to control as a helpless baby than as a former green witch holding the closest thing I could find to a fistful of wands.

“Get these wet,” I said, thrusting them at Seth. He did as I asked when a bullet shattered the faux granite above our heads in a shower of shards.

I had Seth hold my shoulder in one hand and all the makeshift weapons in the other, except for a spoon, which I held in a white-knuckled fist. Closing my eyes, I called upon my magic. This time, I felt the earth element in me try to answer, just to burn and manifest in my chest as heat.

“You’re burning up,” Seth whispered.

“Don’t let go,” I told him again, pulling him to stand and pointing the spoon at the nearest shifter. For the first time in many, many lives, I used the tip of it to trace shapes in the air, leaving behind a trail of flame that lingered in the air for half a second. Instead of writing the symbols of an existing spell, I drew out an alchemical formula as quickly as I could, invoking fire, water, and mercury as instructions for the elements to fuse. I hoped it would function as a direct order for what I wanted my magic to do, aided by Seth’s presence.

A super-heated jet of water shot out from the tip of the spoon, hitting the shifter’s face and exploding into steam and scalding liquid. He dropped, screaming and clawing at his face. Seth gaped in surprise.

I held in a cheer that my idea had worked. Where one shifter dropped, there were three more to take his place. Several bodies littered the front of the apartment, bleeding or dead from the sharp-edged gales Ceridor had called up. My hair tossed in it and anything light that wasn’t weighed down now flew around him to make the cyclone of his wind fae magic visible.

One shifter had changed completely, becoming a massive wolf that was trying to tug-of-war Ceridor’s staff out of his hands. Its shaggy pelt was cut in a couple places, but it persisted with a guttural growl. The wind was weakening without the staff being in motion.

I pointed my wand at the wolf and fused magic again to fire a jet of hot water. It yelped and dropped, fur leaping with spontaneous flames it rolled to extinguish. The spoon caught fire like a match in my hands and I dropped it with a similar sound of pain. My skin pinkened from the heat, sweat quickly saturating my body as my internal heat spiked.

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