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Jay disappears, and I’m left alone with the stranger in my coven lands.
I stare at the floor and debate how to approach this. I don’t like being in charge of other people. Everyone should be allowed to do whatever they want.
“Eyes up,” Brynn snaps.
My gaze latches onto her and narrows.
“Excuse me?”
“You heard me, Violet. Don’t drop your eyes when we’re talking. It’s rude.”
Her gaze burns into me. It’s intimidating and aggressive, and I have to tamp down the thrill it shoots up my spine because there is no circumstance where I’ll be giving in to that temptation.
Brynn might be fun for a quickie, but I am not interested in someone that aggro.
“Oh, fuck you very much,” I spit. “You don’t decide where or how I look.”
“No? Even when it’s to ogle my chest?”
“I wasn’t ogling!”
“But you admit you were looking.”
“Are you saying you don’t want me to look?”
A slow, knowing smile spreads on her full lips, and one corner tips up. She approaches and, despite being only a few inches taller, seems to tower over me in a way that leaves me edgy.
When she speaks, her voice is low and sinister.
“You’re acting like a weed and not a pretty little flower, and I’m a very good gardener.”
A weed and not a . . . what? Does that mean she wants to kill me?
She’s welcome to pick me however she likes.
No, none of that, Vi. Get this night over with.
I dismiss her with another wave of my hand and respond.
“Now that we’ve gotten the hobby portion of our introductions out of the way, can we start the patrol? My feet already hurt a little and I’d like to be able to watch the last episode of Survivor before I fall asleep tonight.”
She harrumphs but motions to the door.
The cool night breeze brushes over my skin like the skies themselves have blessed me.
I love walking our land. It’s unpolluted and idyllic, and there’s nothing better for the mind or complexion.
The dense woods break occasionally into clearings and meadows, but mostly the ward line runs in an oval down the mountain. It encircles the tents and stone rings so that all of our ceremony spaces are protected along with the repository at the cabin.
It isn’t difficult terrain exactly, but the craggy surface can get so steep that we have to climb at places.
My shoelace has come undone again, but I don’t bother to retie it. The laces are too thick and I can never knot it right.
Brynn and I walk in an awkward silence. We can’t see the line itself, only the gently glowing stones indicating its presence.
Still, her head swivels this way and that, like she’s constantly scanning for dangers that can’t exist on this side of the ward line.
She must know this if she’s an experienced witch. Even animals inside the boundary are unable to attack those connected with the land.
