Page 40 of Cursed Love
Chapter 15
“The wards aren’t working…” Ryan told them, and she could feel the change from easy banter to real concern. When they first arrived at the cabin, he had set up a variety of spells to keep unwanted visitors away.
“Who’s messing with them?” Peter asked, his elbows on his knees.
Ryan shrugged. “I can’t figure it out.”
“You’ve been distracted is more like it,” Peter said, looking from Ryan to Brandy.
Brandy sat on the couch next to Peter as they discussed Plan B. She stared at her hands as they chatted. They would go outside a few times a day to give her an open area to work on her fire power. So far, her new ability had come more easily than the last.
She snapped her fingers, and a flame flickered from her thumb. Balling her fist, she smothered it, then she opened her hand again. A small ball of fire danced along her palm. Reaching deep inside her, Brandy willed it to circle the room before she sent it away.
“I think she’s figured it out,” Peter told Ryan.
The men stared at her for a moment. “What?” she asked.
They looked at each other before Ryan finally met her eyes. “You’re the first witch I’ve met who can call an element on command. Most of us rely on spells to use it. I can’t conjure it up like that,” he said, nodding toward her hands.
Brandy glanced down as a small flame formed into the shape of a woman. She danced seductively in the palm of Brandy’s hand. “Why can I?” she whispered.
“We don’t know, babycakes.”
Ryan knelt in front of her. “What you can do… I’ve never seen it before.”
Brandy’s phone rang, and the dancing woman stumbled. Brandy received messages from family and friends, but no one had called after she mentioned having shoddy service. Not until now. “It’s my brother,” she told the men and swiped right. “Hey, E,” she said and sat back.
“Where are you? Are you okay?” Ethan answered, his tone a bit frantic.
The dancing woman walked from Brandy’s hand to her knee, performing for the men as she swayed her hips.
“I’m fine. I’m on a little vacation, remember?” she told him, words she had practiced with the boys.
“Where? Because I don’t see you, Bran,” he hissed into the phone.
The seductive flame extinguished as she sat forward and stared at Ryan. “What do you mean,you don’t see me?”
Ethan cleared his throat and became quiet. “Look, I’m worried. Who are you with?”
“Uh-uh, you don’t get to tell meI don’t see youand then pretend I didn’t hear it,” she told her older brother. Of her brothers, he was the closest in age to her. Ethan was quiet and reserved, the family’s people watcher with a heart of gold. If you needed him, he was there in an instant.
“Are you okay?” he asked, worry dripping from his words.
“I’m fine, E.”
“Is he a witch too?” Peter muttered to Ryan.
“Who was that?” Ethan asked.
Brandy narrowed her eyes at Peter, silently imploring him to shut his trap. “My friend, Peter. E, I’ve got another call coming through. Hold on a second,” Brandy said and put him on hold.
“Who’s calling you now?”Ryan asked.
“No one. If I put Ethan on mute, he’d know. It’s easier this way. Now, what the hell do you think he’s talking about?” Brandy asked, looking back and forth between the men.
“Sweetheart, I don’t think you’re the only one with powers,” Ryan told her.
She thought back to her mother’s letter. “That can’t be. She said none of the boys had gotten any.”
