Page 16 of A Witch for Solstice
She laughs. “Are you a cleaning supply snob?”
“Maybe I am.” I turn up my nose and peer down through my lashes. “There’s nothing like the real thing, but I suppose this will do for flying.”
I take it, practically dancing out the door, unable to contain my excitement.
“Are you ready?” Matty asks as we skip down the porch.
“I think so.” I straddle the swoofer and try to remember everything my flying teacher taught me all those years ago. It’s been so long since I’ve flown, but there’s no way I’m passing up this opportunity.
“Don’t worry,” she says. “I’ll be there to catch you if you fall.”
I close my eyes and turn into my mind, feeling past the walls of the cabin to focus on the fire inside. Using its force, I rise on my toes until I’m no longer on the ground.
My legs dangle above the cabin, and within a minute, I’m high above the snow-capped trees. Matty thrusts upward, flying next to me. “Let me show you around the Capital.”
We move away from the castle, soaring around a mountain peak and into a cozy city. Short stone buildings are lined up on each side of the cobblestone street, candles glowing in their colorful glazed windows. Snow dusts their rooftops like a layer of powdered sugar.
“It kind of looks like a gingerbread village from up here,” I say, doing circles over the street.
We end our tour a couple hours later and head back to the forest. Milky clouds swirl between the stars, a snowstorm moving in. Threads of moonlight shoot through the covering, glittering on a pure white sheet of snow in a clearing.
“Great cauldron spirits, it’s such a beautiful night,” I remark.
“It is,” Matty agrees, but she’s looking at me.
My heart gives a weird thump against my ribcage, and I take off before I start to yearn for something I can’t have.
“Try to catch me,” I call out, cackling with my arms stretched out. I don’t care that I sound like an immature witchling. The cold sky and the faint scent of distant bonfires have me giddy.
I’m happy and whole. This is enough for me. Or it should be, but Matty has spoiled me completely, and now I know I’m always going to want more nights like these.
I race forward, hearing her beating wings. The swoofer breaks at the joint, the bottom half hurdling to the ground. I grab on to the handle and press my thighs together, but it’s no use. The wind rips the metal from my hands.
I’m falling.
A roar sounds behind me, and there’s a rush of heat at my back. A solid form slinks beneath me, Matty’s long golden neck sliding between my legs.
She’s shifted.
I grasp the rubbery ridges of her neck and straddle her shoulders, easily finding my seat between her outstretched wings. The moon glows through the flaxen webbing between their goldenrod phalanges. I lean forward and hang on for dear life as she thrusts upward, carrying me back to safety.
She glides to the pond and stomps through the slush, waiting until we’ve reached the porch before she transforms into her humanoid form again.
“You caught me,” I say, surprised by the lack of terror I felt while I was falling.
She wraps her arms around me. “I told you I would.”
My witchy senses knew she was telling the truth. I bury my head into her chest, letting her hold me for awhile. I’m not sure who starts it, but somehow we’re kissing again as she spins me back into the cabin.
We ditch the robes, snuggling up for warmth beneath her flannel sheets after we’ve made each other come again. She strokes my hair as we talk, and it’s so cozy, it doesn’t take long for my eyelids to get droopy.
“Matty,” I murmur, fighting the heavy blanket of sleep falling over me. “Thank you for everything. You’ve succeeded in giving me the warm fuzzies.”
At some point, I think I hear Matty’s voice drifting into the liminal space between dreaming and awake. “You’re right, love. There’s nothing like the real thing.”
CHAPTER 8
BRIGID
