Page 18 of Cursed Love
“What?”
“How long have you had your powers?”
Ryan uncrossed his legs and sat forward. “Since I was born. I’m going to make us some tea. It will help you bounce back faster.”
She watched him move to her kitchen with ease. Scooting over, she used the arm of the couch as a pillow. Ryan’s distinct smell marked the fabric. She breathed him in, then sighed.
“Your powers are attached to your emotions,” he said, filling the electric kettle before setting it to heat water. “Once you can get a handle on them, then you won’t have to worry about turning the area around you into a gravity-free zone.”
“That’s easier said than done,” she mumbled. “Are you a warlock if I’m a witch?” She needed to turn the conversation away from herself.
“No. We’re all witches, regardless of our gender.” He opened different cabinets until he found her stash of mugs.
“Can someone who isn’t born with powers be a witch?”
“Can a person be a werewolf without changing forms?” he asked as she heard him tear open a bag of tea.
She thought about it for a moment. “Based on my TV werewolf knowledge, I’d guess no.”
Ryan chuckled. “Correct. Someone can pretend to be a witch, but they won’t have our powers. Sure, they can screw around with enchantments, but they won’t achieve anything except attracting the attention of something they don’t want.”
“Like a tubar?”
“Tubar, witch, or worse.”
“There’s worse?” she asked as he carried two steaming mugs into the living room.
He raised a brow and offered her a mug. “Of course there’s worse.”
She sat up and accepted the tea. “What else?”
Ryan sat with his own. “Tubars aren’t the only class of demons out there.” The tone in his voice caused the hair on her arms to raise. “Every family has a grimoire. In it, you should find more information than you will ever wish you knew about our world. You need to study it if you want to stay alive.”
They sat in silence for a few minutes after Ryan quieted. “Why won’t you explain it to me?” Brandy asked, wondering why he would mention it and not elaborate on the topic. “You can’t just drop a line like ‘if you want to stay alive’ and then shut up.”
“I’m a stranger, Brandy. You should be learning this from your family, but from what I can gather from the texts while you were knocked out, they don’t know. That’s what I can’t understand.”
Brandy thought about her parents and brothers. “Both of my parents are dead. My mother said my brothers hadn’t shown any signs of having powers.”
“How did she tell you if she’s dead?” Ryan asked.
“In her letter.”
“What letter?”
Brandy bit her lip, unsure how much to tell him. He was right. He was a stranger, and her mother did say to keep the grimoire safe, but he had saved her. She didn’t know how to balance it all. Her gut instinct told her to trust him. So far, her internal alarm hadn’t failed her. When the tubar had entered the café, before she knew what it was, her gut warned her of danger.
“I received a package. In it, I found the grimoire and a letter from my mother. She mentioned she bound my powers so I could live a normal life. She also said none of my brothers showed any sign of powers.”
Ryan studied her and ran a hand across his jaw. “None of your brothers received powers?”
“No.”
He placed his mug on the table and paced her small living room. She couldn’t help but admire the way his T-shirt stretched across his back or the way his worn-in jeans fit him. When he stopped and their eyes met, she reminded herself the visit had nothing to do with interests outside of witchy stuff.
“What?” she asked as she squirmed in her seat.
“Every child gets powers. Some may have very weak powers, but they get powers nonetheless. It’s strange your mother would say they have no powers.”
