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He grabbed the horses’ reins and led them away. He dropped Bonanza’s and wrapped Beauty’s around a tree. As docile as she was, she’d never learned the trick of standing still on command.
As he made his way back to Goldie, he saw she was rubbing her hands together in front of the invisible barrier. “This is where the hole is supposed to go?”
“Yeah. There are four gates.”
She closed her eyes, and to his shock, he felt his magic answer hers.
He’d joined with his mother in a Circle like this, but she’d told him it could only happen with family. This strange witch was pulling it out of him on command.
“Whoa!” she said as their magic twined. Her eyes flew to his. “That you?”
All he could do was nod.
“How, when we’re not touching?” she asked.
She thought that was the weird part? Not even his mother could touch his magic without touching him.
She ran her hand along the wards. He held still, pulsing with magic, desire, and lingering amazement.
“Open for me, so mote it be.” She twisted her hands through the air this way and that, but her spell kept sputtering out. He wanted to ask her what was wrong but couldn’t figure out how to phrase the question so it didn’t sound insulting.
She drew more from him as she tried again, swirling faster. “Unlock this gate, so mote it be.”
The magic slipped and slithered from her grasp. Instead of falling into a neat pattern, it leaked everywhere.
She was like Beauty, whose gait had been off from the moment of her birth. Something was wrong with Goldie’s magic.
“Come on, you bastard!” she shouted.
Her magic pulsed again, flying in every direction.
“I was just cussing. That wasn’t a spell,” she muttered as she tried and failed to contain it. The surrounding atmosphere grew tense and still, charged with magic. It felt like the heart of a lightning storm where everything crackled. The horses reeled behind them, sensing the danger or catching his fear.
Her hands slipped, and the wind whipped around them. The trees shook. The ground trembled. She fought the power in her hands, but it could not be contained.
Don’t do it,Aiden tried to say. She couldn’t channel it, not with those spells.
He felt like they were standing on the edge of a precipice. He wasn’t sure what would happen to his magic if she pulled them both over.
Goldie, please…
Maybe she heard him or maybe she saw the writing on the wall, but he could tell the moment she gave up.
“Fine. Don’t then.” She sagged and clapped her hands together.
Nothing happened. It still pulsed on the brink of an explosion.
“Obey me, so mote it be,” she said through clenched teeth.
The whipping, crackling energy didn’t move.
“Now,” he said implacably, throwing his strength with hers.
It suctioned back into her, nearly knocking them both off their feet. The horses reared, and he dove for her, his wolfhowling within him. He crashed into her legs, sending them careening toward the barrier.
She bounced off and landed on the ground.
They both lay stunned in the dirt as the magic rested and the horses quieted.
