Page 230 of Castings & Curses

Oh well, Arlo Glenn to the rescue again, I thought before passing out.

* * *

“There you are,”a familiar voice whispered, and I winced at the bright light shining in my eyes. “No concussion. That’s good.”

I blinked slowly, aware that I was face down on a clean, semi-hard surface. My muscles tensed as I tried to turn to sit up, but a firm hand held me down.

“No moving, Jade. You’ll undo all my hard work,” he murmured, and I frowned.

Gods forbid I messed up his work.

“Enid?” I asked, ignoring that petty part of me, and focusing on something else.

“Not a scratch. You took the full force of the explosion. Want to tell me what happened?”

“Not really,” I muttered, closing my eyes so he wouldn’t see the tears in them.

“Do you feel any pain?” he asked, blond brows furrowed.

He looked concerned, worried even. But maybe that was pity on his handsome mien.

Damn, would that suck.

As much as I wanted to dislike him, I could not help how I felt about the wizard. Arlo Glenn was ridiculously cute, and really good at what he did.

“No. No more pain. Just humiliated,” I said, opting for truth.

“Humiliated? What on earth for?” He looked truly baffled, and I barked out a short laugh.

Was he for real?

“I don’t know, for a million things. That’s just me, though, always tripping up.”

“Jade—”

“Crap, I’m sorry. I would blame narcotics, but they don’t work on me, anyway.”

“They don’t?”

“Nope. Earth witch thing. I can metabolize right through anything with an organic origin.”

“That’s really interesting,” he said, and I could tell he meant it. “Why don’t you tell me what happened today?”

“For your chart?”

“Yeah, sure,” he replied, and picked up his tablet.

“Well, my parents sent me a pressure cooker. Now, I know I should never touch those things, but my folks swear by them. My parents are always trying to get me to use modern tech to work my craft, like they use on our family farm. But I’m an old school earth witch. Modern and me don’t really mesh,” I mumbled and moved one shoulder, wincing as I did.

“I see,” he said, tucking my hair behind my ear in a gesture that made the breath catch in my throat. “You know, there’s nothing wrong with explaining to your parents that you prefer to do things your own way, Jade.”

“I know, I just hate to disappoint them, and I don’t want to seem ungrateful. Understanding my element is difficult for them. They love gardening and nature, but I connect to all that on a different level. Canning is a delicate process, and they know I spend a lot of time in the summer doing that. They just wanted to help, I’m sure,” I said, willing myself to shut up.

My magic was not exactly exciting. It wasn’t fire or water. I could not fly. I was boring. And I was embarrassing myself even more, but I felt so relaxed and calm. Still, it was unlike me to talk so openly with someone—especially hot boy healer.

“I understand what that’s like,” he replied.

“You do?”

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