“I saw you weren’t home, and I was able to track you. What are you doing here?”
“Oh,” she says. “I’m just going through those exercises again, the ones Sadie taught me. It’s not going very well.”
Sympathy blooms in my chest when I see how upset she is, and how hard she’s trying. I desperately want to comfort her, so I reach out to take her hands. She sniffs a little, tensing up, but she doesn’t pull away.
“I really appreciate you trying,” I say. “But it looks like you don’t have any witch blood.”
“Oh, you think?” she scoffs, rubbing a tear off her cheek. “I’ve never felt as ordinary or useless as I do right now.”
“You aren’t useless,” I say, the warmth in my chest turning into pain. “We’ll figure something out.”
“But what?” she says, looking up at me miserably. “What can we possibly do to help your people?”
A strange feeling rises in me then, and I remember how she said the second we had a cure, she would leave.
I don’t know if she’s out here to help us… or herself.
When I look back up into her beautiful, sea-green eyes, I can’t believe she’d ever do something so selfish. But I also have to admit I don’t want to trap her in a situation with me, either.
Big words from the guy who literally kidnapped her. But I do regret that, especially since it hasn’t helped anyone.
“Okay,” I sigh. “I noticed while I was walking up here that you had your hands slightly wrong, and I think, in the incantation, your emphasis was a little off.”
“How do you know?” she asks.
I shrug. “I just caught it the other day, when I was watching you with Sadie. I’ve also seen Sadie in action a few times. Her magic is awesome.”
“Yeah,” Trina says. “She is.”
I want to tell her that she is, too, but I don’t want to sound patronizing, so I don’t say it.
“Okay,” I say. “Hands up, like this. Then repeat the incantation with an emphasis on the third syllable.”
At first, Trina resists, but after a few minutes, she relaxes, and we settle into a flow. It doesn’t feel like magic, but there isa definite harmony around us, and I think we could be making progress until Trina growls and throws her hands up in the air.
“I can’t feel anything!” she exclaims. “Nothing at all! This is useless.”
She pulls away from me a little, and I can see her holding back tears as she wipes her cheeks again. A light breeze stirs her honey-blond hair, teasing it around her face into a golden halo. With the unshed tears shining in her eyes, her gaze is deeper and even more captivating than usual.
You are magic. I don’t care what you think. You look like pure charm to me.
“Well…” I begin. “We haven’t really gone all the way in other areas. I’m just saying.”
The moment the words come out of my mouth, I feel like a complete idiot. I truly intended to make an objective point, but I’ve ended up sounding as clumsy as a high school kid hitting on his crush.
Did I really just say “go all the way”? Smooth work, Owen.
“What?” she says, very softly.
I shake my head, searching my mind desperately for words, but my mind is completely blank. All the sensations from last night come rushing back to me, and suddenly my body is rock-hard, and my heart starts beating harder and faster.
Even while I was caring for the sick people this morning, the taste of her on my lips never left me. I couldn’t forget the feel of her in my arms, and how desperately I need her—
“Owen,” she says. “What do you mean?”
“Sex,” I answer, feeling even more inept that this was the first word I could find in my tangle of thoughts. “I’m sorry,” I say quickly. “I didn’t mean for it to come out like that. But I did say that Sadie’s powers didn’t fully manifest until—”
Trina groans, shaking her head and looking away from me. “Owen, I’m really not thinking straight. I can’t do this right now.”
