Page 19 of Chase Me

“Look, you’ve built up a pile of dirt. Now, ask that earth to help you.”

Ciara turned her face away and slowly pried one eye open just in case the flames were doing the dance she’d set them on. Instead she saw dark, loamy earth gurgling up all around her feet.

Mrs. Bohacek nodded. “You’ve got a natural ability with the earth, but your censorship of your passions has been hiding that. We all favor one element in the beginning. I thought maybe you’d be stronger with fire or ice, since you manifested those elements first, but not so much.”

She indicated the pile of dirt that continued to grow and overtake the flames, dousing them as they covered each painting.

“You’re saying I did that? That the dirt is under my control?”

Ciara shook her head while the witch in white nodded.

The dirt continued to pile up until the whole rack of paintings were buried. “Make it stop.”

“It’s doing your bidding, not mine. You make it stop.”

Ciara rubbed at her face. This couldn’t be real.

“Sooner, rather than later would be good, unless you’re ready to ride that earth out of here.”

The dirt towered to the ceiling of the cavern, enveloping all the treasure around them. Shit.

She sighed and closed her eyes. She thought of the way Jakob’s lips had brushed across hers when he first kissed her. The tingle under her skin resurged and she focused her feelings, asking the dirt to go back into the earth with her mind.

When she peeked to see if anything was happening, the dirt whooshed past her and into the ground at her feet.

“Fantastic. You’re well on your way to making nice with the elements. Tea?” The teapot, cups, and snack tray floated back to the table.

She was kind of thirsty. “Are you using wind to move those?”

They sat, and Mrs. Bohacek poured new cups for them both. “Very astute.”

“What emotion controls the wind?” Had she really just asked that? She had. She could hardly believe it, but she was buying into this emotion and magic mumbo Dumbo. If elephants can fly, why couldn’t she?

Because she wasn’t an elephant. She was a chubby wedding planner with no life, no boyfriend, and obviously losing her mental stability.

She wasn’t kidding anyone. Her weeks were spent planning happily ever afters for other people. Wes was probably only being nice to her because she made them both money, and the tight rein she’d learned to have on her emotions at a very young age was the one thing she’d been able to control in her life.

Not so much anymore.

The complete disappointment in herself and her life clawed at her insides and threatened to overwhelm her. She’d gotten great at pretending that nothing mattered, nothing got to her when she made her feelings her bitch.

Now that they were bubbling up, like that pile of dirt, she couldn’t pick and choose which ones she felt. The lust and excitement she’d felt with Jakob came out just as strong as the underlying fear that no one would ever love her, and the weird mix of guilt and anger her mother evoked.

Ciara covered all those thoughts up with a pile of dirt inside of her head. Then planted pretty flowers on top.

Mrs. Bohacek poured the tea but looked sideways at Ciara while doing it. “It’s different for every witch.” Her words were soft, like she was testing to see Ciara’s reaction to them. “I find the wind element with joy and excitement.”

“Ha.” See? See! She’d never disdainfully laughed at anyone in her life. But seriously? Joy? “Ha. I don’t even know what that word means.”

Whoa. Had she said that out loud? It just popped out from nowhere. As did the wind.

It whipped through the cavern, knocking over the paintings she’d just saved, dammit, and making dust devils filled with gold coins.

Dirt and rocks sprinkled down from the ceiling which startled Mrs. Bohacek. She glanced around the caverns and Ciara got the distinct feeling the woman was feeling more than she was seeing.

She folded her arms and spoke, her words cutting through the wind. “Anger works too, but you won’t be able to work with the element quite as long when you use a dark emotion. It’s extremely taxing.”

As if on cue, exhaustion hit Ciara like a Mack truck filled with bricks, sliding down an icy Alaskan glacier. She stumbled back and plopped down into a soft pile of earth that formed around her butt. It snuggled her like a warm blanket. Her vision tunneled and it was really hard to keep her eyes open, or even sit upright.

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