I flew around another street corner and replied icily, “It doesn’t matter if you were asking or not. I’m not interested. Leave me alone, Abe. I mean it.”
A flare of darkness wafted in his aura, roiling around him like a demon and completely overpowering his earlier jealousy. “There’s no reason for you to act like a witch to me.”
“Awitch.Did you seriously just call me that?”
He scoffed. “Well, you’re acting like one.”
Magic heated inside me. It was so tempting to put him in his place once and for all.Sotempting. But then my uncle’s teachings from my childhood reared up. The teachings he and Gwenery had infused into me over and over until it became so automatic that I sometimes forgot I even possessed the extraordinary magic that I’d been born with.
“You must never control another, Prim. Never. Free will is every fairy’s right. You must respect that and subdue your temper. Always.”
I took another deep breath and released my ire, then said in a calm tone, “Go away, Abel. I don’t know how much clearer I can be. Leave me alone.”
I commanded my carpet to veer right. I shot into an alleyway so abruptly that the beverage Verin had packed for me tumbled right off the carpet. Abel’s curse carried through the air, but I didn’t slow to collect the bottle. I needed to lose my neighbor.
But my swift maneuver didn’t deter the soddy bastard. I’d only just reached the next street when his shout came.
“Goddess Above! Stop, Prim!”
I clenched my teeth together and commanded my carpet to go faster.
I shot forward. Wind flew over my cheeks. Yells from fae I passed along the busy streets rang through my ears. I wouldhave called out apologies to them, since I was speeding and going much too fast for city streets, but that would only distract me from getting away.
Shoulders hunched forward, I zoomed around corners, soared close to rooftops, and veered down each new lane I encountered. I was determined to lose Abel once and for all, and if speed was needed to do that, then so be it.
Yet, each time I glanced over my shoulder, eyes watering in the fierce wind, it was only to see a distant Abel valiantly trying to catch up.
Muttering beneath my breath, I pulled on a stream of my telekinetic magic. Using one’s magic on others was illegal, but if I didn’t use my magic on him directly and instead used it on objects...
Behind me, boxes stacked in the street toppled into Abel’s path, and flags hanging from homes and shops reached out to try and snare him.
“Prim! You . . .” Abel roared.
But I didn’t stop, and I drowned out his reply since he was likely calling me a witch again.
Luckily, my new attempts began to work, and Abel fell farther and farther behind me.
A smile bloomed across my face. “Thank the stars.”
I zoomed around another corner, wanting to put a few more streets between Abel and me before I slowed to a normal pace. Behind me, my supplies heaved, shifting beneath thecarpet’s magical bands and groaning when they rubbed into one another. But I didn’t slow.
Keeping up my dangerous pace, I dared a final glance over my shoulder.
Abel was nowhere to be seen.
Grinning, I turned back around and began to whisper a slowing command to my carpet, but my stomach shot into my throat.
A male was standing directly in my path, and I was less than a second away from hitting him.
Even though my carpet would have done something to avoid the collision—since its magic didn’t allow them—the carpet’s magic didn’t fully protect me.
Like Verin’s bottle, I’d made the fatal error of not securing myself to the carpet as diligently as I’d done with my supplies, so when my carpet came to a jolting stop, I didn’t.
I flew through the air, limbs twisting, eyes wide. The wall of a house neared.
Oh shite.
I squeezed my eyes shut and braced myself for a bone-crunching impact.
