Page 212 of Castings & Curses

“Wait a minute. Let me get this straight. You don’t want to kill me?” he asked.

I was finished with that cup of tea and said, “Read those leaves. If you dare.”

Out of my head, out of my senses, I stood up and began walking around the little area where our lunch was. I hadn’t eaten a sandwich, scone, or biscuit. I only drank the tea that made me…free. I did a little twirl and that made me feel dizzy in a new way. A fun and exciting way. I began moving, dancing to the sound of the wind through the trees. Like in a movie when the music makes its way to the foreground of sound. “I want to dance. With you. My warlock professor. Taste the bittersweet darkness of your secrets.”

I didn’t feel embarrassed, or the least bit concerned about my grades, my status, anything other than the simmering need that did not fully abate just because of the tea. If anything, my inhibitions were lowered enough I could no longer lie about how I felt. The driving need and urges I had no familiarity with.

When Professor Roark touched my hand and pulled me closer, I looked up and into the kaleidoscope of colors and started to ask a question, but he leaned in and placed his lips to mine. Silencing me.

CHAPTER5

“Miss Wilder.”How was he talking and kissing at the same time?

“Ahem.” My eyes flashed open.

“Oh shit.” I dropped the pencil.

His dark brows went up and his handsome face held just a hint of blush on those cheeks. “What are you doing?”

“Falling under a spell.” I frowned and picked up the pencil. “Is this your magic stick?”

Oh, I was far from a poet.

“If you’re asking if the pencil you took without asking from my desk has a spell on it, the answer is yes. Everything in my office has a security feature.” He crossed his arms and waited. “Well, what did you see? That particular pencil grants wishes. At least in the mind of the holder. Not in reality. What did you wish for? A different mentor?”

I gulped. Sheesh. “I saw us having lunch together. Somewhere in the woods where you read my tea leaves and…” I was insulting him with that last part if his expression was any indication. “We were discussing the problem I have with motivating students.”

“Are you hungry?” he asked and looked at the clock on the wall. “I’m done for today. Your wish may actually be granted. You seem to have control of your siphoning urges at the moment, so this may be a good time to communicate in person rather than through email.”

Maybe my wishes would come true after all.

“Are we going to the woods?” I asked.

He picked up his bag and opened it. Multiple items jumped inside before he closed it and slung it over his shoulder. “No.”

“Oh.” I couldn’t help the disappointed tone in my voice.

“We are going to my house. I need to be somewhere I can defend myself and not look as though I’m assaulting a student should your appetite for my magic increase. We have much to discuss and the conversation is long overdue Miss Wilder. Don’t you agree?” He indicated the door.

“Absolutely.” I smiled and nodded. I was probably going to lose control at some point and murder him. Solved my problem with motivating students if I would have to pack up my things and escape to another realm. Maybe I’d find another succubus there. Maybe I’d be alone the rest of my life just jumping from one place to the next as a criminal.

I thought of a life on the run as we walked through a portal and stepped into a relatively secluded clearing where a rather large castle stood proud as the focal point. “You live in a castle?”

“It’s a family heirloom.” He indicated the path, and we began walking toward the modest castle.

I looked around, noticed there was nothing else in sight as far as my eyes could see. “You’re alone out here?”

“We.” He looked over at me and was certain his eyes did some kind of swirl of color.

I gulped. Did I just willingly follow a warlock to his castle? Yes. I sure did. Does this warlock know I am a danger to his person? Sure. He does, yes. I tapped into my calm that had settled over me since handling that pencil and tried to just inhale a little bit of the area’s magic.

I stopped walking as I coughed, choked.

“Oh. Yes. That. You don’t want to eat that. Quite rancid for your kind if I understand correctly.” He smiled and then said, “Come along.”

I snorted, coughed, made five different sour faces as I followed him because I also realized the portal that brought us here, was gone. Closed. I was going to his castle one way or another and if I might have just flipped my scenario from being the predator to being the prey, then I was going to give him a good fight. Or at least try to.

Once inside, he hung up his bag and indicated I could do the same. I held the strap and he said, “Really, Miss Wilder. I’m not going to hurt you. And here, you are definitely not going to hurt me.”

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