Which left her with only one option—go through with the lessening ritual.
You can do this, she told herself again as she waded into the water, choking back a gasp as the cold bit into her skin.So much for not as bad as she’d thought.Apparently her time away from Seacliff had an amnesiac effect since Ria couldn’t remember the water ever being this freezing in the summer.Though, in all fairness to Mother Nature, she’d never gone in after dark before.And never naked.
Damn.She was popping all kinds of cherries tonight.
Moving farther into the sea, she hit the waist-high point and froze.Literally.
Okay, not literally, but it sure felt like her lady bits had iced over.The gasp she’d been fighting back finally escaped, and she was grateful for the crashing waves that drowned it out.She was supposed to be a sexy, confident, skinny-dipping girl.Not a “squeal like a little bitch and dash out of the ocean” girl.
Steeling herself, she pasted on a grin that hopefully came across as sultry and turned around.She could have sworn her eyes cartoonishly popped out of her skull when she took in a naked Lissa strolling toward the water.She’d never been more grateful for a full moon in her life.Lissa was the epitome of the perfect woman, looking like something straight out of a Botticelli painting, only with pink hair and piercings, an improvement in Ria’s mind, given she’d always liked her girls with a little bit of edge.Maybe because she had none herself save for the tiny tattoo on her ass she hoped Lissa hadn’t seen.
Ria’s gaze started to drift a little lower down Lissa’s body, but a sudden flare of guilt had her spinning back around.She had no right to be eye fucking Lissa after putting her under a spell.She was better than that.Now, if after the spell was gone, Lissa didn’t hate her, she would be more than happy to try to win her back under nonmagical circumstances.
She just neededthisspell to work.
Running through the steps of the ritual in her mind, she was pretty sure she had it fully memorized.She’d studied the spell over a hundred times, extremely motivated to free Lissa from her influence.She pictured the page in her mind once more to convince herself she wasn’t forgetting anything.
Ritual of Reduction
To reduce the effects of a ritual that has proven to be cumbersome or overextended its reach.To be used when the original ritual cannot be fully reversed.
Step 1: Conduct the ritual in a place surrounded by salted water.
Step 2: Ensure a full moon shines down unobstructed.
Step 3: Invoke Hecate’s name.
Step 4: Call upon your will to summon the emotions of release and surrender.
Step 5: Seal the ritual with the Goddess’s mark upon the recipient.
Step 6: Speak a closing blessing to Hecate.
Step 7: Submerge the recipient, and let the mark wash away, taking with it the strength of the original spell.
Tossing her shoulders back, Ria summoned the confidence that loved to take frequent naps inside her.She absolutely could do this.
Full moon?Check.
Salty water?Check.
A witch with the will to perform the ritual?Absolutely check.
It would be easy enough to invoke Hecate’s name when the time came, so now all she needed was a way to get the symbol onto Lissa’s skin.Something she was now realizing wouldn’t work given the lipstick she’d planned to use was still in her purse on the beach.
Crap.
It was fine.Everything was fine.She encountered snafus all the time in marketing.She just needed to pivot.Surely she could find something to use… Okay, so obviously, she was in a freaking ocean with literally nothing but water all around her.
Think, Ria, think!Her feet squished into the sand, a piece of seaweed wrapping around her big toe, and she was struck with a brilliant idea.
Soft hands settled onto her shoulders, and she whipped around to see Lissa only inches away from her, the water line hitting right below the most exquisitely full pair of breasts Ria had ever seen.The moonlight glistened on Lissa’s wet skin, and every thought in Ria’s head fled town, leaving only a pulsing in her lower abdomen that made it hard to focus.
Forcing her attention away from those perfect tits, Ria raised her face to look into Lissa’s eyes.Suddenly the water wasn’t so cold anymore.
Lissa must have felt otherwise, given how loudly her teeth chattered.“So is this everything you hoped it would be?”
Ria let out a tiny, slightly embarrassed laugh.“Umm, ask me that in a minute.”
