Witch's Brew - Spellspinners 1 (Spellspinners of Melas County) (17 page)

“Yeah?”

“So tell me something about it.”

Surveying his shadowed face I told him. “Your amulet had all kinds of powers—stuff my mother had never seen.”

“Really? My charm has never done anything. The whole time I’ve had it.”

“Maybe it was dormant with you for some reason,” I said. “It was the same with me. Before I met you, it was just a necklace. It never acted magical at all.”

“Perhaps our amulets were switched at birth.” Logan half-grinned, but his brow was still furrowed in thought. “If we’re related, I’m going to kill someone.” He laughed then. An honest, real, laugh. Then felt his fingers on my cheek, tipping my face to look into his eyes. “If we’re related, the universe has a seriously twisted sense of humor.”

I froze under his mesmerizing look. Were his lips always that full? His eyelashes that dark and long? His chin was peppered with new growth. I longed to trace the outline of his black sand jaw.

He was about an inch away from my face. “Maybe you should give mine back so we can find out?”

I sucked in a breath. “I don’t have yours.”

Logan’s shoulders visually tightened, his fingers fell from my face.

“Where is it?”

“Iris…my mom still has it. I’m not sure where she’s keeping it.”

Sitting straight up now, he stared at the stone hanging from my neck. I had both amulets now.

How would this work? A differential power shift. Could he truly be cool with it?

Raking his hand through his hair, he nodded. Once. “Okay. But please ask for it back…and by ask I mean take it back somehow by any means necessary? I need it. Or else you can always give me yours back?”

“Fat chance.”

He blew air out of puffed up cheeks. “Yet again, sweet Lily, we’re at an impasse.”

“Seems to often be the case with us, yes.”

Logan sighed. For a second, I was afraid he was going to get up and leave. Instead, he cupped my face in his hot hands, and pulled my face toward his kissing a line from my forehead down to the tip of my nose, while I quivered all over. Whether he was or wasn’t our chosen Spellpsinner, the way he kissed me and I kissed him back told me he was certainly something.

We were certainly something together.

“Lily?”

“Hmm.”

The muscle in Logan’s cheek contracted. He inched back. “I didn’t say anything.”

We weren’t alone. I sat up straight, shielding my eyes from a bright light.

“You didn’t come back and I thought you might be in trouble.”

“Jonah—oh I’m sorry! I’m fine.” Guiltily, I jumped up, wiping sand off my pants. “We were just…”

Making out?

Totally embarrassing. Not to mention hurtful. I came to the bonfire with Jonah—I shouldn’t be down here in the sand with Logan.

I glanced down at him. Logan. Propped up on his elbows in the sand, a slow stretch of a smirk playing on his lips.
You aren’t helping.

Sorry.

I could so tell he wasn’t sorry, and I flipped him a look to let him know.

“But obviously you’re perfectly fine.” Jonah looked like his cat had just been run over by a semi-truck.

“Jonah, hey. I’m Sorry. Really.”

“It would have been nice if you had told me you were going to be gone all night. Or your sister. She was freezing so I dropped her off at home promising I’d come right back to look for you. But clearly you were fine so I didn’t really need to be scrambling all over the beach with a flashlight like an idiot.”

“You’re not an idiot, Jonah. You’re a good friend.”

He made a noise like pft. I thought he was acting sort of petulant. I mean, I was only gone a half hour at most. “I’m surprised Daisy wanted to go home. It’s still so early…”

“Lil, it’s one a.m.”

“What? Really?”

I didn’t wear a watch. I told the time by watching the sun and moon’s positions in the sky. I glanced up and discovered he was right.

We heard a splash. The spot where Logan had been was now an indentation in the wet sand.

“Guy really knows how to make a splash at the end of a romantic evening,” Jonah said. “Nothing says, ‘Hey let’s do this again’ like an unannounced retreat into the ocean.”

He had a point. But still the pinch in my heart made me defend Logan. “He doesn’t like goodbyes.”

When Jonah snorted I felt like he’d tossed my humanity right into my face. A witch shouldn’t be upset if a boy ditches her on the beach. I should be above all that. I could hear Camellia on the subject: “Rejection, inferiority—those are dark feelings created to weaken us. Don’t let them crawl under your skin. Reflect them back into the universe.”

I tried, imagining invisible flecks of Logan’s rejection lifting off my skin, letting each bad feeling float into the darkness like a thin, smoldering ash.

I waited to feel better. When that didn’t work, I kicked at the indentation where his elbows had pressed me into the sand.

Why would he just take off into the sea? Was he trying to tell me something?

As I was asking myself the question, the answer swam into my head. He dove into the water and disappeared to tell me he could Breathe.

Logan

He had to get wet. He didn’t want to attack the barista, and he knew if he hung around watching him pine over Lily, he wouldn’t be able to resist.

Besides, he wanted Lily to know that she was right about him. That he could do things other warlocks couldn’t.

Leaving Lily on the sand, he sprinted down the shore and into the sea.

Diving under a mammoth wave, he swam, with swift strides; so far out he could barely see the shore. He watched her the whole time, of course, never taking his eyes off her. She stared out at him too, her eyes shining like stars before she turned back to the barista and talked to him.

Logan swam out farther and farther until he couldn’t see her anymore, then flipped under the water. In a jealous fit, he swam fervently to the bottom, kicked off the cold sea floor, and jetted back to the surface.

He was never going to get this right.

But he had to.

Had to figure out a way for them to be together without risk.

Impossible.

He had to figure out the impossible
.

Dark, churning water tugged on his body, daring him to go out farther. The feeling of her consumed him. The fragrance of lilies perfumed the sea. Logan’s eyes darted to the left and the right. Nothing. Only ripples.

Then suddenly, he felt a tug on his ankle, and was yanked under the sea like a victim of a shark attack. He flailed, fighting the grip, expecting some malicious sea serpent and seeing a girl, a siren with hair floating around her face like strands of gold.

Her eyes shone like sapphires.
Don’t ever ditch me like that again.

Lily! Where did you come from? I just saw you on the shore with that guy and now you’re…

You think you’re the only one who needed to cool down?
She smiled, drops of water kissing her face.

She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him into her.

You aren’t mad?

You wanted to tell me you had another sign of the Roghnaithe; you wanted to run so you wouldn’t beat up Jonah. No, I’m not mad.

He wrapped his arms around her waist, and felt her body press into his.

“Don’t tell me you can fly, too?” she said, her mouth on his ear.

“Not that I know of. But that doesn’t mean I can’t.”

Lily

Not Even Us.

Not even a witch could breathe underwater.

I told Logan the story of my first breath at sea as we weaved effortlessly together through seaweed gardens, schools of tangerine fish, our legs kicking in unison.

Fingers entwined, I followed him into the shadows behind a pink castle of coral. Under the water, his eyes shone like sapphires as I wrapped my legs around his waist. Felt a fire burn. He pulled me deeper, his lips grazing my cheek as if he was whispering a secret in my ear.

I’m the only warlock who can Breathe too.

It was very hard to concentrate with my arms wrapped around his shoulders and our bodies pressed into each other. I tried to shift the focus from our torsos to my mind. From his hard stomach to my brain. Not an easy task, when his fingers were skimming my spine.
None of the other warlocks?

No. And you’re the only witch?

That I know of. Iris said I shouldn’t talk about it, so I don’t. But if there were others like me, it would come up, you know? You have to stop doing that. I can’t think.

Stop doing what?
He asked innocently.

Kicking off his thighs, I floated backwards, the hair swirling in front of my face blurring the sight of him. Suddenly I was shivering. The absence of his heat hollowed me out and was replaced by this horrible sense of longing—an almost foreboding feeling. I shook off the gnawing emptiness and tried to warm up my goose bumps.

I found a book with a picture of a witch in a ring of stones. She wasn’t young. It must have been before the curse.

Yes.

When did you know you could Breathe?

When I was in middle school and learning to surf, I’d intentionally get knocked off my board just so I could explore under water without the lifeguards trying to rescue me.

I caught the question in his smile.
What?
I asked.

You’re so cute.

I shot him a look.
I’m trying my hardest not to be. There’s something else hiding behind your eyes. I can see it.

I’m just wondering why you’re the only one with this gift.

Before I had a chance to respond, he grabbed my hand and pulled me under the midnight water. The sensation of our underwater kiss was so deliciously awesome, I felt like we’d float right up to the surface like the charged jellyfish bubbles encircling us.

After we finally broke apart, I heard his voice in my head, sweet and urgent.

I want to show you something.

We swam for a while before he pointed out a wooden skeleton buried nose down into the bottom of the sea. The spaces where windows used to be looked like empty eye sockets of a dead fish. The rainbows and sunlight had vanished. This water here was even colder. Murkier. Dangerous.

A shipwreck.

My eyes asked the next question.

What does this have to do with us?

Logan

Everything.

Logan pointed to Lily’s chest where her amulet was glowing, a prism of lights breaking through the darkness and illuminating the sunken ship.

What do you think would happen if we both had our amulets right now?

If you’re right, we should both be wearing full body armor then, because, man…

Then Logan felt the water shift. A dark power emerging.

Wait. Lil, don’t move.

Lunging forward, he closed his fist around the amulet. Through his fingers, it flashed—streaks of magic lightning shooting through the black sea. Then, like the last sparks of a firecracker, the charm fizzled to black.

Logan felt Lily’s desperation in the dark.
What are you doing? I can’t see.

Trying to pry his fingers from the amulet, Logan felt the panic in her heart, but had to maintain his grip.
Stay completely still.

With his right hand, Logan felt for the knife he kept hidden at his thigh.

There wasn’t just one.

Two, then three eel-like creatures emerged from the wreck. Slinking from hollowed windows, they moved like the traditional totem creatures of ancient warlocks and resembled the oily creatures as well. Only these serpents looked far more menacing. What were they doing down here? Larger than the traditional totem sea creatures in girth and length, their glowing teeth looked sharp as razors.

Logan? What is that thing?

Logan followed its milky eyes through the dark. Finally able to let go of the now-silent amulet, he clutched Lily’s hand tight.
They move by instinct but are blind—if we stay completely still they will swim past us.

He hoped. He hadn’t expected them to be down here.

Logan watched as the serpents circled them. His mind’s eye could See them. Their cloudy white eyes were useless, but their instincts were sharp as cut glass.

Lily winced and the beast bared its fangs, closing in on her neck. Logan was faster. Blade ready, he yanked the serpent into a headlock, reached around and slit its throat.

Fluorescent blood the color of moss seeped from its neck illuminating the other two monsters that were exhaling horrendous underwater moans. A white serpent, a rare albino with pink-red eyes, turned on Logan, its fangs shimmering in the green-blood sea.

Lily. Get to the surface.

He’s right on you! Logan, your knife!

The albino smashed into Logan’s hand, knocking the blade from his fingers. Pushing through the blood-streaked water, Logan watched Lily dive for it, catching it easily. Kicking off the bottom of the ocean, she smashed into the creature just as it sank its fangs into the meatiest part of Logan’s lower arm.

He didn’t cry out, but let the pain burn through him. Punching it in the face with his free fist, he waited for the beast to let go. Cringing under ripping flesh he watched Lily straddle the beast, stabbing it deep in its fatty back. The creature flinched, but still wouldn’t unclench its jaws. Logan knew this about the totem serpents. Like sharks, once they took a bite, they wouldn’t let go.

Slit its throat.

Lily

I knew immediately this was one of the creatures I saw in the ocean when I was a kid. Same inky skin, same otherworldly form.

I didn’t want to kill it. But it was killing Logan.

I dove on its back, scratching my way to its head. Tail slapping at my ankles, I smashed the top of its head with the butt of my knife until I felt its seal-like body go limp between my legs.

Kill it.

Wait.

The serpent unlocked its jaws from Logan and with glowing-pink eyes—met mine. I sensed its uncertainty as he glanced at his fallen brother still floating in a stream of its own blood—twisted in a horrible state of death. How could he see me? Logan said they were blind.