Witch-locking was a name for two people with magic getting married, but that’s not what Sage meant. She was talking about a far older term, one that referred to a permanent magical bond.
Witches and warlocks did not have mates like shifters or vampires, but this was something similar. It was called witch-locking because once two people were locked together, the powers of those two could not be separated. They were locked together as one forever. It rarely ever happened, but when it did it was powerful, more so than what occurred between witches and warlocks when they fell in love. Friendship could add to one’s power, and love could multiply it. But the bond of a witch-lock? That was exponential.
It also meant their very life forces were tied together.
“We can’t be locked yet,” Malcolm said to Sage. “We would know…wouldn’t we?”
“You would know,” Sage agreed. “But you are very close. You could bond at any time, so be careful.”
Calli stood up behind him and moved to stand beside him. His loose flannel shirt on her body looked right somehow, and it made the primal, possessive part of him proud to see her in his clothes. Right now, he wanted to see her in that shirt and nothing else. She had rolled up the sleeves and tucked the front of the shirt into the front of her jeans loosely. She glanced up at him, confusion and worry in her face that he knew matched his own.
“It’s not possible, Sage.” Calli said. Malcolm could feel tension vibrating off her. He instinctively reached for her hand, tucking it his own.
“It could be, that’s what I’m saying,” Sage pressed gently. “If you don’t want to be truly locked, you’d better do something about it now.”
Malcolm knew what that something was. He would have to leave Moonstone Falls. But he didn’t want to.
Figures. For the first time, he had been open to his magic. He wanted to learn more about it. Rather than pull away from him, Calli leaned into his shoulder, tightening her grip on his hand as she lifted her head up to look into his eyes with a silent question. In just the last half hour they’d become even more connected, more in tune with one another. He could feel that to his core. He studied her as she gazed up at him.
Calli was beautiful, and it wasn’t simply the tumble of her hair down her shoulders, even though he was having fantasies about the silken tendrils tickling his body as she kissed him all over. It wasn’t just her honey-colored eyes that held both pain and longing, yet glowed with a childlike wonder that made him feel as though he was home. It was the way she searched his face, the openness of her soul that made this woman the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen.
“What do you want?” He cupped her face in his palm. Her lashes lowered as she drew in a breath.
“What do you want?” she asked.
He smirked. “I asked you first. This is your home”
She didn’t immediately answer, but he didn’t pressure her to respond. He waited, knowing Sage hovered at the edge of their private world just then, but he didn’t care. This was an important question, and Calli deserved time to think it through.
“If you stayed and this keeps happening, we would end up locked. I don’t know how I feel about that. When I’m with you, it feels wild, out of control… but I don’t want it to stop.”
Her words stroked the new fire burning inside him. She wanted him to stay.
“I feel the same. I don’t know where this will lead, but you’re right, if we choose to stay together, we could end up bonded.” He chuckled dryly. “I tried to leave Boston to escape a future with magic, but my magic brought me here… to you. I’d have to be a fool to deny the truth of that. Maybe…maybe we trust each other and see where this goes?” He didn’t tell her about the binding spell his father put on him. He’d figured out a way to break it… or he’d eventually have to tell her, but not now. This was too important to him, to both of them.
It was the most terrifying thing he could do, to put himself out there like that when she had the power to send him away. It also scared the hell out of him to think he might end up in the equivalent of a marriage but even deeper if he stayed.
Calli’s lips parted as she studied his eyes. Whatever she seemed to be searching for, she seemed to find. She nodded.
“Stay, Malcolm. Stay and let’s see where this goes.”
Malcolm felt something sharp dig into his leg, but this time he didn’t react.
Calli’s familiar was using her little claws to scale his leg like a tree. When she reached his stomach, she leapt up to perch on his shoulder, her loud purrs making him smile. Persephone and Hades. Bound together in myth. It seemed their familiars had known what he and Calli hadn’t yet. Such clever creatures.
Sage came over, stepping carefully over the books that covered the floor. Calli remembered the mess they’d made and waved a hand. All the books floated upward and tucked themselves neatly back in place once more.
“Just so we’re clear, if you guys do this, you could end up fully bonded. Life forces tied together as one, one’s magic affecting the other’s, and you won’t be able to be apart for long.”
Calli looked at Malcolm again. “You’d have to give up New York, or I’d have to give up Moonstone Falls.”
“The only reason I loved New York was because it had less magic in it. But you need to be here. You’re a hedge witch. You need the woods, the soil, the clean air.” He could never ask her to leave her home, her friends. Certainly not for him and he didn’t care about New York. All he had in New York was a tiny little apartment.
“So… you stay with me. And we figure this out, wherever it leads,” she said, her tone holding the seriousness of that statement.
She wants me to stay.
The relief and excitement hit him all at once and he pulled her into his arms, whooping like some excited teenager. Some part of him remembered that just a day ago he would have been kicking and screaming to escape a town like this. The thought of getting witch-locked then would have terrified him. But now? Now he wanted to try. Because of Calli.
