Eleri Stone - Witch Bound

“Christian tells us you’re not a witch.”

“I am a witch.” Maybe not the caliber of witch they’d ordered but...

“You failed your initiation.”

She nodded. “That’s the truth. I have the power and the training but not the control. Kathy, our clan witch, says it’s something like a spigot—but there’s so much pressure on the one side, it makes it...difficult to release the valve.” Impossible was actually the word Kathy used, but Raquel had never accepted that, still didn’t even now. “It doesn’t mean that I won’t ever be able to pass the initiation, just that I can’t yet.”

“You’re calling yourself a late bloomer?” Lois spat. “ You’re twenty-five years old. Most people begin to learn to control their gift at puberty.”

With no good answer to that, Raquel remained silent. She wasn’t certain why Christian had insisted she come here. She’d explained her problem to him and this was a decision for his clan to make. She’d given him an out. If he didn’t want her...if he’d only agreed to the wedding so his clan could have their witch, then this was his chance to run.

“There was never any guarantee that she’d be able to fix the problem with the portal,” Fen said into that tense silence.

Aiden’s expression flickered. Worry not anger, she realized. Worry tamped down tight and hard. “We’ll need to replace the wards one way or another. Lois said you have an idea that will buy us more time?”

“Yes.”

“And you’re sure you can manage it?”

“Yes.”

“Then we’ll contact a few of the nearer clans and see who we can borrow that will be able to do the job,” Aiden said, not sounding happy but not sounding murderous either.

“Kathy will come if I ask her.” Kathy hadn’t wanted her to leave in the first place. She’d pleaded with Raquel’s parents to contact the Odin and postpone the wedding.

“Good, I know Kathy. She has a good head on her shoulders.” There was a hint of Why didn’t Kathy warn me about this? in the statement, but Raquel let that pass too.

“Or we can find a new witch,” Lois suggested. “Even if we manage to stabilize the portal, we need a witch. It’s past time I start training my replacement.”

A ripple of unease passed through the room, followed by complete silence. Everyone’s attention fixed on Christian, who leaned against the counter, hands gripping the edge to either side of him, head bowed.

He looked up, into Raquel’s eyes, and her breath caught at the intensity. For the first time, she couldn’t see the pretty face or the charming smile, only the battle-hardened warrior. Christian didn’t truly want her , he only wanted to fulfill his duty. She knew that. But his expression, full of determination and possessiveness, made her heart beat faster.

“I’m not backing out,” he said.

Nothing but challenge in that look and she’d never backed away from a challenge.

“I’m not backing out either.”

Fen parked in one of the angled spots on Main Street and stared at Lois’s shop for a moment before turning off his truck. He shouldn’t have volunteered to come. But Aiden wanted the rune stones placed as soon as possible and Christian was working. Fen thought the real truth was that Christian wasn’t particularly anxious to see Raquel again so soon after their travesty of a first date.

Nothing like a little interrogation and public humiliation to romance a girl. For such a smart man, Christian was sometimes incredibly dumb. He depended too much on his looks, wealth and position when it came to his dealings with women. Not that any of those things had failed him yet. Raquel, Fen thought, might be the exception to that rule.

She wasn’t quite the little mouse he’d first thought she was. She was...nice, easy to be around. Part of that was because she had the worst poker face he’d ever encountered. Every thought and emotion was right there for all the world to see. Last night when Christian had dragged her to Aiden’s house, Fen had thought she’d burst into tears. But she’d pulled herself together and held her own against the leaders of their hunt—the angry and desperate leaders of the hunt. And he’d felt a weird mix of pride and disappointment, which was stupid. She wasn’t his to be proud of, and the only reason he’d been disappointed was because he’d wanted to be her champion again.

And wasn’t that a bitch of a revelation.

He’d been attracted to different women through the years—of course, he had—but it had always been a purely physical thing and while not easy to resist, it was bearable. This felt...different. Maybe it was just time, like Grace had said, to consider finding someone he could trust to bind himself to. He’d made a good run of the whole celibacy thing, but if he was starting to lust after every new woman to enter his social sphere then it was time for a new strategy.

The song ended, shaking him out of his reverie, and he climbed from the truck. His breath puffed white in the air as he jogged up the steps to the sidewalk and pulled open the old wood door. A bell above his head jangled a welcome and warmth surrounded him, like walking into a summer day. The scent of flowers almost overpowered the other assorted herbs Lois kept here, but not quite. Such an interesting mix of earth, magic and living things—he could have spent hours trying to sift through it all.

Raquel stood behind the display counter, a worn mortar and pestle beside her, a thin scrap of paper folded between her fingers as she tapped powder into a clear glass jar. As he crossed the room, she glanced up and smiled.

Christian was an idiot.

“Hey, Fen. I’ll be with you in just a minute.”

He came to the counter and tilted the pestle. “Valerian?”

“A tonic for insomnia.”

He examined the other items spread across the countertop. Skullcap, hops, what looked like a clip of human hair. He wrinkled his nose. “They have pills for that you know. Ones that don’t involve body parts.”

“This will work better. It’s gentle. No side effects and no chance of developing a dependence on it. And besides, there are always the purists.”

Mostly the elderly who didn’t want to let go of the old ways. Of course, it was impossible for any of them to completely give up on the old ways—it was what kept them alive. But Fen had always thought it was a sad way to live...no modern medicine, TV or internet. Their society was insular enough.

“I’ve never understood the hair thing,” he said. “It seems like that should be an old wives’ tale.”

“Well, I say that the hair works and I’m not an old wife.”

“Not yet.” When she raised her eyebrows, he added, “You’re not married yet.”

She leaned over the counter and her scent enveloped him, sunshine and magic. His gaze dropped to where her hand rested on the glass display case. Slender fingers and short, perfectly shaped nails. The large, very expensive engagement ring Christian had bought her looked gaudy on that pretty little hand.

“It’s a DNA sample,” she said in a low voice, like a spy imparting state secrets. “The hair. It ties the magic to the physical plane. Well, all of the ingredients do. They each bind some aspect of the spell to this world. The order is important. For example, you wouldn’t want to mix a crow feather—or any death avatar—with water unless you wanted to drown yourself or call a flood. But if you bind the feather to a specific person first...”

“You have a death spell.”

She nodded and a strand of hair fell from her shoulder, curling down to rest on her breast. He lifted his gaze to her face.

“It’s all about the DNA. Hair and nails are easy because people shed them constantly, but saliva would work, or semen.” She smiled and pointed at him. “Don’t tell Lois I’m giving away our secrets. She’s the kind of purist that holds them tight.”