I skipped past several stalls with racks of pretty cotton dresses before lingering at one selling cute candles in glass jars. Some of them contained dried flowers. They were probably easy to make. I could do something similar with the herbs I grew in our small kitchen garden. Add a touch of magic to the candles so that when they were lit, they emitted a calming vibe.
“You want one, sweetheart?” It took me a moment to register the young woman watching me. Her gaze lingered on my simple cotton dress, my unusual violet eyes, and my raven hair with silver streaks. I saw the exact moment myothernessregistered.
She tensed and stepped back.
“You’re one of them, aren’t you?” she said in a low voice, her eyes flicking from side to side. I hated knowing she feared me. Why were the humans afraid of us? The witches I’d grown up with were mostly mild-mannered and gentle.
We made potions, raised livestock, grew crops, and kept ourselves away from the human towns.
“One of whom?” I asked, pretending not to understand what she meant. “I like your pretty candles.”
“The magical folk.”
My blood prickled again. As I turned, I caught a flash of blonde hair. The teenager who’d asked about the love potion had come back. Only this time, she wasn’t alone.
“Freak.” Her lip curled. “You’re all weird freaks.” A tall male stood at her shoulder, his thick biceps bulging. Like the blonde, his aura looked dirty, tainted with wrongness. Was there something nasty in this town’s drinking water?
A hand lashed out, knocking my half-full cup of hot chocolate to the floor. The sweet liquid splashed all over my feet and legs. I could have cried, but I fixed a bright smile to my face instead.
“Oops! Looks like I better buy another drink!”
Willow always said it was better to kill bullies with kindness. I had no real-life experience with bullies, but something told me these two were the bullies Willow meant.
The blonde female sneered at me again. “Are y’all dumb as well as freaky?” She took a step toward me, and her aura turned from gray to a sludgy green black.Strange. I’d never seen one with that color before. Maybe she had some goblin in her bloodline?
I debated asking, but decided it might make matters worse. Adam would not be happy if he heard I’d caused a scene at the market.
“I can read, so not dumb. Thanks for asking, though.” I smiled brightly, hoping to defuse the situation, but she sniggered.
“The dumb freak can read. Wow! Who’d have thought it? I thought all those freaks did was chant and wail around cauldrons!” The male laughed derisively.
“I bet they do it naked.” His beady little eyes slithered down my chest, sending my magic haywire. The amulet resting between my breasts burned like fire.
“Nope, not naked,” I chirped. “Too many snakes and mosquitoes for comfort. Oh, and scorpions. Ever been bit on the ass by a scorpion? No, me neither. But Tally was, and boy, did she scream!” A nervous giggle fell from my lips as I edged backward. Except there was nowhere to go thanks to the trestle table of candles.
Not a single person looked our way. The stall owner had disappeared. I guessed she didn’t want to get caught in the crossfire. From the way she’d acted before, she clearly thought I might smite her into a pile of ash.
If only.
I’d quite like to smite these two idiots. Or hex them so they peed glass splinters for a week.
Both of them deserved a dose of something nasty. Like wart fever. If Adam didn’t lock me in the root cellar again, I’d make up a potion tonight and then find out where they lived. They had to be local. This wasn’t a particularly big market.
“Grab her, Tyler,” the blonde hissed. “I reckon we can have us some fun.”
I choked on a scream when the hulking male lunged toward me. Frustrated tears pricked my eyes.
Why didn’t I listen to Adam? With my streaky hair and violet eyes, I stood out too much among the humans. Willow had honey-brown hair and looked human. So did the others.
No wonder Adam had warned me about leaving the compound. He must have known this would happen.
I tugged on my magic. A small flame appeared in the palm of my hand, hidden from view. When the male tried to grab me, I ducked out of his grasp. While his lecherous eyes fixed on me, a wisp of smoke drifted up from the edge of the floral cloth covering the candle display table.
The human female grinned at my distress.
“Aren’t you gonna curse us, freak?”
At the word curse, the male snorted. He obviously didn’t believe in magic or witches, which wasn’t unusual. Plenty of humans thought we only came to the market to con them out of their hard-earned cash. Those who believed in magic were usually a touch afraid and only sought us out when they needed help.
