“Right,” Lissa drawled, rubbing furiously at her arms.“Hey, aren’t you a witch?Can’t you cast a spell to warm us up?”
Ria didn’t miss the teasing in Lissa’s voice, and she was really starting to wish she’d memorized the handcasting for warmth.She could have shut down Lissa’s reluctance to believe in magic and saved her nether regions in one go.Of course, at the rate she’d been screwing up, she would probably light them on fire by accident.“I don’t do that kind of magic,” she replied rather than admitting she lacked the confidence and knowledge.
“Right, of course not.How silly of me,” Lissa joked.“So now that we’re here, what do you want to do?”
Kiss you again,Ria thought.But what came out of her mouth was“Oh, I just wanted to talk.”
Maybe that was a piss-poor excuse, but she couldn’t exactly tell her the truth.
“Talk?”Lissa gaped at Ria.“You dragged me into the freezing ocean totalk?”
Ria swirled a hand over the surface of the water “Yes?”she replied, though she doubted she sounded very convincing.
Lissa blinked a couple times, then shook her head.“Okay, what did you want to talk about?”
Ria had no idea how to respond.Part of her had doubted she’d even get Lissa into the water tonight, let alone what she would give as an excuse for her objectively bizarre actions.“I don’t know.How about you tell me what you’re thinking right now?”
Lissa chuffed out a laugh.“Honestly?Okay, well part of me is thinking you might be the most insane girl I’ve ever met, which is saying something, given my somewhat questionable past.And the other part of me can’t stop thinking about that tattoo on your ass.There’s more to you than meets the eye; isn’t there, Ria?”
Ria cringed, remembering the night she’d gotten the ink and what had led to the permanent marking on her right butt cheek.“Oh, I’d hoped you didn’t see that.”
“Babe, not only do you have an insanely tight ass, but there’s a cartoon sea lion on it.What else was I going to be looking at?”
All the blood in Ria’s body raced to her cheeks.“Yeah, there’s a long story behind that.I’m surprised you don’t have any tattoos, given your…”
“Alternative look?”Lissa supplied.“Yeah, I get that a lot.I think I’ve never had enough conviction about anything in my life to want to make it permanent on my body.I’ve always been a bit of a rolling stone I guess, moving from town to town and job to job.Seacliff is actually the first place that feels like home.”
Ria latched onto the opening, desperate to get the ritual over with so she could curl up in a warm bed.Preferably Lissa’s but she didn’t see that happening once the spell was lessened.“Well then, let me be the first to give you a Seacliff tattoo.”
Lissa raised an eyebrow, and Ria quickly dashed into the shallower water to grab a handful of wet sand.Not as useful as lipstick, but nothing in the spell specifiedhowthe rune was to be applied to her target’s skin.
“Turn around,” she said, twirling her finger in a circle.
Lissa glanced at the mud in Ria’s hand, her eyes narrowing.“Do I want to know what you’re about to do to me?”
No.
“It’s fine.Just roll with it.”
Lissa gave her one last dubious look, then turned around, exposing a large swath of smooth skin to Ria.
Using the sand, Ria quickly drew the rune over Lissa’s back, grateful it was little more than a few lines in a specific configuration.
Glancing up at the moon, she drew upon her will to focus on the image of magic sloughing off of Lissa’s skin and whispered, “May Hecate make you whole once more.”
Lissa stiffened for a second, then asked over her shoulder.“What does that mean?”
“Hmmm?Oh, nothing.It’s a little witchy saying.Like Hecate’s blessings upon you.”She directed that last sentence to the moon, hoping she’d done enough to seal the spell.
“Okay.So how does my new tattoo look?”Lissa craned her neck to get a look at her back.
Ria pretended to analyze her work.She had only one step left to solidify the spell.She just hoped Lissa didn’t hate her afterward.
“You know,” she said, scrunching up her face.“I think you look better as a blank canvas.Lower down a bit so I can clean it off.”
“You’re killing me, smalls.”Lissa let out a playful groan.
Ria grinned at the reference.“I know, I know.But we need to get you clean.”
