Page 49 of Oh No! There's an Incubus in my Hot Spring
I laugh and she scoffs playfully.
“I’m going to see about flights in the next few weeks. Will there be a place for me to stay? I want to see this hot spring.”
“You can take my bed. There’s a couch,” I say.
“No, you’re getting too old to sleep on the couch. I’ll get a hotel,” she says.
I grimace. “I’m not that old.”
“Thirty-six is too old for a couch! You deserve to sleep in your bed. I love you, hija, I’ll call you soon with my flight information.”
“Love you, Mom. Bye.”
She hangs up and I set my phone aside with a sigh of relief.
“That sounded as if it went better,” Apollo says.
“What’s with the fear of sage and crystals?” I ask.
“Your mother is undoubtedly a natural witch, like you. While she couldn’tbanishme from the mountain with her sage, it would make existence very uncomfortable and dampen my power for many weeks until the effects subside. And her crystals, if properly charged, could permanently disable many of my spells.”
“Huh” is all I manage through my dumbfoundedness.
“Sylvia, are you all right?” He grabs the back of my neck and turns my face up to his.
“I’m just…” I pause, closing my eyes. “The world is just not what I thought it was.”
“Don’t fear, my witch. Let me be your guide. Your teacher. Your power.” Apollo says the words with conviction, and I feel them deep in my chest where the geode thrums too. Are we connected more than he told me?
I meet his gaze and he holds it with so much intensity I feel as though I might combust. Being the sole focus of his attention, so raptly kept despite being, well, just me, is unnerving and exhilarating.
“Your heart is thundering,” he murmurs. “Are you all right?”
Don’t fall for him.
Don’t.
Fall for him.
“Are you going to hurt me, Apollo?”
The tension in his shoulders melts, and he sighs.
“Never.”
thirteen
Just Witchy Things
We clean up Apollo’s bloody chest and then fix up the things displaced by my power.
“So, what was that?” I ask him as we right a fallen chair.
“I’m not sure if you summoned the wind, or if you moved Turtleneck with something stronger, like telekinetic manipulation. I’d like to experiment with you.”
“Okay, but I’m not even sure how I did what I did.”
“I felt the surge of power through you. You borrowed my energy,” he says, pointing to my bare feet. “With your spell word, you made your intent known to that energy and then manifested your desire.”
