Page 69 of Cursing My Cheating Husband

For the second time in only a couple months, I felt the distinctive magic of a curse channel through me.

Curse magic was different from regular spells. It felt like being the floodgate at the base of a dam, with an entire massive lake straining against me. The force of it was ancient and vast, and so much larger than myself. I was just the channel it passed through.

The last time this happened, I’d had no control at all. This time I felt… not control exactly, but influence. Some ability to shape the magic as it moved through me.

The power cascaded out of my hands, swirling tight around the screaming Gwen. What a small, contemptible person. She decides when it’s over? Let’s see how that would turn out for her.

I realized I’d been screaming too, my voice so deepened by magic it was unrecognizable.

Gwen began to shrink under the force of my onslaught.

At first I thought she was just falling to her knees… but no, she was actually shrinking! She was shriveling away and getting smaller.

Oh gods! Was she dying? I wanted to curse her, not kill her.

I tried to throttle the magic, pull it back, but nothing happened. It continued to surge through me with the same ferocity as before. If anything, it was gaining in force.

I began to panic. I had lost control.

Again.

And once again, there was no telling what would happen.

I’d been trying to convince myself that my mom and Brie were right, that I had skill and insight and potential beyond what I thought. But look at how quickly the foolishness of that was exposed. They had just been trying to build me up, but it wasn’t real. The minute I accessed true magical force again, my amateur status was undeniable. I was instantly drowning in it, utterly outmatched.

I felt that panic and self-doubt… for a second.

But then I stopped. And remembered all I had learned about myself recently. About my abilities, and my talent, and my tendency to fall into unwarranted self-doubt.

I could do this. All I had to do was believe that I could.

I pushed away the fear and the doubts and the sense of inadequacy. They were lies, and I didn’t need to listen to them any longer.

I already had everything I needed.

Marshalling all my focus and all my confidence, I imposed my will on the magic. Enough. Time for this to stop.

And the power cascading through me obeyed. It tied itself off smoothly, the floodgate closing against the force pressing against it.

The blinding white light I had been generating faded, revealing a harried Brie and Maddox at my side.

“Callie, are you okay?” Maddox looked terrified.

“What happened?” Brie asked anxiously.

We all turned to where Gwen had been standing a moment ago.

She was gone.

But where she had been, a glittering pink snow globe sat on the ground.

“What the fuck,” Maddox said, hushed. “Did you… did you turn her into a snow globe?”

I approached it and picked it up. The globe itself was opaque, blocked by iridescent magic swirling along the surface of the glass. I couldn’t see what, if anything, was inside.

“I think she’s inside it?” I offered tentatively. “I’m honestly not sure what happened.”

“Well, I’m just glad to get a break from her shrieking.” Brie glared at Maddox, who shrank under her hateful look. “You sure know how to pick them, don’t you?”