Page 9 of The Witch and The Blood Oath

“Control, cowboy,” she purred.

“You can’t even keep control around me,” I reminded her.

She rolled her eyes. “I should’ve never said that. Your ego has gotten out of hand.”

With a hand cradling her neck, I pulled her in for a kiss. Freya didn’t resist, but the gentle touch quickly turned desperate. I tried to imagine keeping my magic calm, but it was impossible. Freya—her delicate, strong body, her hushed gasps—eclipsed everything.

Electricity crackled in the air, and wind swirled around us. I barely registered it. All I felt was Freya’s tongue dancing with mine, and our hips locked in a rhythm entirely our own.

“I see the training went well,” an old, familiar voice said.

Freya leaped out of my arms, and I scrambled to cover the evidence of what we’d doing that was very prominent in my lap. It didn’t matter that we were two consenting adults or that the old witch had already caught us. Gloria had that effect. I was certain she could shame a priest.

“You’re following me now?” Freya snapped.

“I sensed magic and came to investigate,” Gloria drawled and crossed her arms.

Instead of her usual Elder robes, she wore a simple gray dress. Most the witches looked prepared to fight at all times, except for the older ones. Freya had told me it was because their magic was seasoned enough, if the Elders were caught unawares in a physical battle, shit had already hit the fan.

She didn’t quite say it likethatbut that was the gist.

“I suggest you go home to your sister,” Gloria said with a pointed look in my direction. “Her training is wrapping up, and I need a moment with our Coven Mother-to-be.”

I hesitated. I did need to get to my sister, but I wouldn’t throw Freya to the wolves. Hell, Gloria was scarier than the actual wolves we knew.

Freya nodded at me, and I rose to my feet.

“I’ll see you later,” I told her but her attention was already back on Gloria.

As I walked out of the gazebo and back to the apartments, guilt gnawed at me. Freya barely spoke about it but becoming Coven Mother weighed on her. I regularly saw dark circles under her copper eyes. When she didn’t want to think about something, she always clenched her jaw and lately she’d been doing that more often than not.

I hated being her biggest problem. Though her coven no longer treated me like a lepper, most of them eyed me with distrust. Thea was the exception and Gloria too, though the old crone certainly didn’t like me. She just wasn’t as eager to put me down as the others. I couldn’t, however, blame any of them for their wariness. Every time I lost control of my magic, I flamed their fears. Ihadto get it under control.

I just wasn’t sure how.

As I emerged from the woodland trail and approached Hecate’s fountain, I wondered if she had something to do with it. Her three faces were immortalized in stone, and each one was as judgmental as the other. Maybe the Goddess of Magic didn’t see fit for a cowboy from a dynasty of witch-hunters to wield even a drop of her power.

I didn’t have time to ask her. Cadence would be out of training any minute. I hurried across the white cobblestones and past the shiny, black apartments. No one had gotten around to renovating Josephine’s designs, though I’d heard whispers about it.

Beyond the apartments were the witches’ training grounds. The mowed fields sprawled up the mountain andcurved around the western side of the western apartment building. The fields were shaped to be hidden completely by the buildings from the road’s viewpoint.

Young witches, from six to eighteen, launched various spells at each other. Weapons were strewn about the groomed grass. At least ten witches practiced across the field. As per usual, I spotted Cadence in the patch of plowed dirt that operated as the garden. Some days, it flourished with various plants, trees, and vegetables. Some days, it was vacant. Today, a giant sunflower towered over my sister.

Good. She’ll be in a good mood today.

Cady sat with her knees pressed into the dirt, and her tiny hands squeezed the rich soil. She’d grown again because her once too-long bodysuit now reached above her ankles. Her back was to me, but I knew her eyes glowed with unnatural radiance.

Just like mine did when I used my magic. Well, when my magic used me.

Still weird.

“I don’t know, Cady-Cat,” I said as I approached. “I think it could be bigger.”

“Spoken like a true man,” someone behind me purred.

I jolted, and Azula, Cady’s instructor, laughed. My sweet sister joined in her amusement but rushed out of the dirt to give me a hug. Despite the mess, I hugged her back and eyed Azula warily.

The witch wore her usual black bodysuit, and her dark hair was swept into a tight bun. Her face was perpetually pinched, like something left a bad taste in her mouth, and it never dissipated.

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