Page 243 of Castings & Curses

“Don’t you, as well?”

“I will do everything I can to help, but we both know that’s not much. My role is tea maker, friendship glue, or something like that. Ugh. I really hate saying this stuff out loud. But you know what I mean. My magic isn’t the same—”

I shrugged, exhaling sharply. I didn’t know why Arlo was being obtuse about all this. My magic was fine and good for growing things, moving some rocks, and maybe forcing my friends to listen to each other, but that was it.

The fate of the world was not in my hands.

“I think you are selling yourself short, sweet Jade.”

When had he crossed the room?

Arlo’s fingertips lifted my chin, and I shivered at the warmth I saw there in his singularly focused stare. His lips were a dusky shade of pink, plumper and more defined than any boy’s mouth had a right to be. I recalled how it felt, kissing him, and I wanted it again with everything inside of me.

My body swayed toward him, and I had to steady myself with my palms flattened on his chest. He was lean and muscular, handsome as sin, and I could not recall a single person I’d ever been more attracted to. I waited for him to make the next move, but just as I thought he would, he stepped back.

Disappointment flooded my system. I may have even moaned aloud as my hands dropped to my sides.

Maybe I’d read him wrong.

Maybe he was not as attracted to me as I’d thought.

“I have to get back to the infirmary to check on some patients.”

“Oh, yeah. Okay,” I muttered idiotically.

“I’ll check in with you tomorrow. Goodnight, Jade.”

“Sure. Goodnight.

I tucked my hands into the pocket of my dress, smiling tightly as he walked to the door. At the last minute, he turned, and I thought maybe he’d changed his mind. He walked back to where I stood.

Hope was such a fickle, cruel thing, as it sprang to life inside my chest.

The halo of his blond hair framed his face, emphasizing each feature for the perfection they were. The wizard never had a single strand out of place. Odd for a man who worked so hard, but even when he ran his hands through it, his luscious locks simply fell back where they were. Something wicked inside me wanted me to reach out and mess it up good.

“I almost forgot. Here, you’ll want to put some on before bed,” he murmured, handing me a jar of salve.

“Oh,” I said, frowning for a moment before I recalled my manners. “Thanks.”

He nodded and turned back to the door, leaving without another word with his hands fisted at his sides. I don’t know why, but it felt like I’d done something wrong.

A few minutes later, Enid and Mabe returned with her meager belongings. We sat down for a little while, trying to figure out how to divvy up space. With three of us mated, and having regular sleepovers, that left one room for the other three.

“Hmmm,” I began. “Okay, so, this suite has a common room with a mini kitchen, breakfast nook, tv area, and four bedrooms, one of which is a double. But there are three of us now.”

“I can just crash on the couch,” Mabe said, but I was already devising a plan.

“Actually, I have an idea.”

And that was how I added construction witch to my list of not so impressive magical talents.

CHAPTER7

“Miss Montrose,you wish to apply for a permit to do what now?” Clyde Pierce, head of the Office of Magical Residence Life at Westwood Academy, asked.

Mr. Pierce had been employed at Westwood for more than a hundred years, as the framed clipping on his wall, showing him hefting a pickaxe toward the ground on what would later become Greenhouse Two, suggested.

I cleared my throat, tucking my curly hair behind my ears—a nervous habit of mine. Smiling, I offered the plate of caramel brownies I’d baked, infused with an amenability enhancing spell, to the burly half-troll.

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