I stood with a wink and turned to finish setting up the bath. Bubbles first, weed bath bomb second. Once the tub was about three-quarters full, I picked her up and carried her over.
“I can’t feel the temperature, you’ll have to tell me if it’s okay.”
She dipped her finger in and laughed before turning the hot water tap all the way off and the cold to full power.
“It’s like you’re trying to boil my skin off.”
I cringed. “Sorry. Maybe I should have let you do the temperature.”
“You really can’t feel that?”
I shook my head. “I only feel cold unless I’m close to you. That’s why I follow you around so much.”
She grinned. “Well, could you drop a medium sized icicle into the tub please? It’s the temperature of boiling water, and I don’t feel like being Violet soup.”
I laughed. “You got it.”
I summoned an icicle shaped like a medium sized salad bowl and dropped it in the middle of the tub as Violet turned off the water.
“I knew it,” she squealed.
My eyebrow rose. “Care to share?”
She was doing an adorable little happy dance, wiggling her whole body while she grinned like a maniac.
“Take a look, Blondie.”
I stood and turned toward the mirror to find myself with blond hair and…my shadows. They were still hovering, coiling.
“I…” I didn’t know what to say. I spent the better part of a year trying to master using both sides at the same time. And now?—
They vanished, hair still blond.
“Shit! How did I do that? Where— Why?”
She came up behind me, meeting my eye in the mirror. “You’re thinking too much.” She put her hand on my back. “Close your eyes.”
I did.
“Breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth.”
I followed her instructions, her voice so soothing I felt like I was being hypnotized.
“Think about your shadows, summon them back. Have them check the property for any sign of intruders. That’s it, focus on them. Ask them to come back. Just like that, you’re doing so good.”
“Stop talking to me like that.” I groaned.
I was supposed to be focusing on my powers. Instead I was thinking about fucking her again. I liked being in control but—chalk it up to a shit childhood—I had a praise kink.
She chuckled. “No, ’cause it’s working.”
My eyes snapped open to find my blond hair still in place with my shadows coiling—a few missing, out to get the report I’d sent them for. It was so weird to see both sides of myself on full display.
“Frost the mirror,” she whispered.
So I did.
30
