Page 26 of Pitch a Witch
“There is no shield against magic, firefly.” I blinked dumbly at him, not understanding. “Not even angels can place a protection against it. You can’t kill a celestial, maybe, but you can definitely hurt them.”
“But … but I saw you …” I stuttered, all the blood draining from my face.
“He just made sure you didn’t hold back, Hazel.” Alex came back, tugging a t-shirt with the right side out this time over his head. “You honor me by giving me your trust. I think it’s time you start trusting yourself.”
“River.” The warning in my tone only curled his infuriatingly kissable mouth.
17
“I’m going to pluck his feathers one by one and feed them to him.” I frothed at the mouth as I told Sissily what happened.
After I refused to speak to the two idiots with a death wish on the way back, I stormed through the house and locked myself in the room Amber gave me for the duration of my stay. My best friend convinced me to let her in, and now we sat on the large, comfy bed while I prattled on and on about River and all the ways I wanted to hurt him. Sissily hummed, ah-ed and ooh-ed at all the right places dutifully, as any best friend should, knowing I needed to talk until I was blue in the face so I didn’t explode.
“I could’ve killed them.” Repeating it for the fiftieth time didn’t make me feel better at all. “Like boom, a pile of bones where Alex and River should stand, anthill style. You saw those shifters in the cornfield. You know?”
“I do.” She tucked one leg under her butt and smoothed nonexistent creases on her pants. Her full attention, however, was on me. “It will be a while before I forget that.”
“You know what pisses me off?”
“Humm?”
“Knowing my luck, River will make the prettiest, panty melting anthill, and I’ll go visit it all the time to pat it and call it cute names. I shit you not, that will happen.”
“You’re so stupid.” Sissily laughed her ass off.
“No, not stupid. I’m fucking angry, Sissily.” Curling the comforter in my fists, I breathed through my nose so I didn’t smack my magic at my friend. “As in fuming mad, spitting-nails pissed.”
“I can tell, girl.” Her hand folded over my fist, and she unclenched it one finger at a time. “But look at it from their point of view.”
“They have no view, Sissily. Both of those jerks are blind as bats, I’m telling you.”
“Blind or not, they trusted you not to hurt them, and you didn’t,” she pointed out after she was done giggling at my bat comment. I wasn’t trying to be funny. I just wanted to strangle Blondie. “To be honest, I kind of agree with River.”
“About?” My narrowed glare said to be careful what she said next, but Sissily had never feared me or my fists. She was born without a self-preservation instinct, the poor thing.
“Every time your magic has manifested so far, it’s when we are in imminent danger because you are too busy staying alive instead of worrying about everyone else.” I already had a hole in her story but waited to hear it all first. “According to what you told me, the same thing happened with Alex because you were freaking out about hurting him until River said he had a way to keep him safe. After that, you lit up like the Fourth of July.” Her shoulder twitched in a shrug. “If you are not preoccupied with us, you are perfectly capable of brandishing your power as a weapon.”
“You do remember the imp, right?” I smirked smugly, kicking the fragile legs of her claims like a pro. “It used me as a chew toy and popped my boob out, yet no magic came to my rescue. Or yours, for that matter.”
“I have a theory about that, too, but you’re not going to like it.” Since I had no appetite, she plucked a cheese cube from the plate she brought with her and popped it in her mouth. Two more followed until her cheeks were puffed up like a chipmunk. “Umm tost ever,” she mumbled through a mouthful of cheese.
“What?” Hunched over, I stared intently at her mouth like a dumbass in hopes of deciphering her words. “What are you? Five? Swallow the damn cheese and speak like a normal person.”
I stewed while she took her sweet ass time and chewed the cursed dairy product until it aged in her mouth. My hair had a few gray strands by the time she pushed it down with a heavy sigh. When she just eyed me warily instead of talking, my hand flopped in her face to hurry it up. I would be an anthill myself until she repeated the mumbled words. Hecate help me, the woman was insufferable.
“You trust River.” Jutting her chin in her usual expression of stubbornness, she dared me to deny it.
I’d always been happy to oblige.
“Are you allergic to fur?” I grabbed her face between both hands and held her firm, and she struggled as I tugged on the skin under her eyes with my thumbs like I was checking for an illness. “You are feverish and probably hallucinating, that must be it.”
“I’m right, and you know it.” She zapped me a smidgen just to force me to release her and glared with those blue peepers while she smoothed her hair. “If you made me look like a raccoon, I’ll burn a hole in your pants in front of River.” Gingerly, she swiped the tips of her fingers under her eyes to check if I’d smudged her mascara.
“According to your insane theory, I can control my magic if I’m not worried about anyone else. We can test it to see who can burn a bigger hole if you’d like.” My syrupy tone earned me an unimpressed scowl. “The last person I trust is Blackman, girl. That’s not it. I saw the white glow coming from his hand, so I trusted my eyes not that pigeon. A lesson learned on that front, too.”
Lesson number eleven: Things are not always what they appear to be in the world of magic. My motto: if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it’s a duck, died a sudden and horrible death. The stupid duck turned out to be a goose.
“Your experience with people is what doesn’t trust River. In your head, knowing you as well as I do, you’ve outlined all the reasons he is not to be trusted. But deep down?” I hated when she slapped me with a knowing look. “In your heart, you know you can trust him. That’s why you didn’t interrogate him for hours before you accepted it as truth.”
