Rowen nodded, set the book down. “Then let’s begin. I am going to teach you a spell that will help create shapes with water. You won’t need to recite the incantation each time, but the first few times, it’ll help narrow the focus of your power.”
“So, we’re going to brush over the whole she’s going to mate to a bear thing, right?” Laurel asked Rowen.
Rowen rolled her eyes. “Magic first. Mating will come. And we’re here if she needs us.”
My gaze bounced between them as they spoke to each other as if they’d done this a thousand times before. It felt comfortable. As if I’d always been meant to be here.
Laurel raised a brow. “We’re not going to talk about Faith?”
Rowen threw her hands into the air. “What is there to say about Faith? She’s a necromancer. We’re going to find her. But we need to figure out what the hell she wants and who she is.”
“I had never seen her before in my life,” I added.
Laurel nodded. “We are going to find her. All of our trackers are on it, and I’m looking, too. I can’t help you with magic, but I can help you find her.” Laurel growled, and I knew why she was so uncomfortable. She couldn’t do magic. At least, not directly. I didn’t know the full story behind it or why she called herself cursed. I only hoped she would be okay.
“Why don’t you go talk with Trace and Jaxton?” Rowen said softly. “Go over the hunt for Faith and check the wards.” Once again, I saw the exhaustion on the witch’s face. She was using her life-force to keep the town safe. What would happen if or when she used too much?
I needed to help. And that meant I needed to learn magic. So, that’s what I would do.
“Are you sure you don’t want me to stick around to make sarcastic comments, at least? I can’t do much else.”
Before I could say anything to try and calm the storm, Laurel moved away, grabbed her sword, and walked off.
After a moment, my heart finally stopped racing. “I wish I could help.”
“Maybe you will, little sister,” Rowen said. “For now, we need to train in what we can, so you can help her in other ways. I honestly think that it’ll be Laurel who helps herself.” And at that cryptic comment, Rowen began. “I need you to repeat after me. I will say the entire incantation, and you need to repeat it, word for word. You will feel the power of your element within you. All we’re going to do here is make a sphere and hold it within your hands without touching it. Like this.” She reached out her hands.
“Guardians of the west, lend me your strength. Lord and Lady, lend me your ear. Shape this element into a sphere. Great Undine of water and sea, this is my will, so mote it be.”
The hair on the back of my neck stood on end, and magic sparked across my arms as Rowen whispered the words, and a ball of water floated up from the pond in front of us. She created a sphere with it, her hands outstretched as she looked at me and winked before letting the water sprinkle back into the pond.
“Your turn. Now, I mostly use air, so that spell should work even better for you.”
“Will I be able to use other spells?”
“Yes. But first, let’s do what you’re good at.”
“You mean what I should be good at,” I said dryly.
I repeated the words, doing my best not to stumble over any, and magic sparked within me.
My body warmed, and I felt the water beneath me, slowly rising into the sky. I opened my eyes, not realizing I had closed them. A perfect sphere rose from the pond’s surface, floating high into the air until it was almost at chest level. My hands shook, but not from strain, from the power. I could feel the water in the pond, the moisture in the air and earth, the liquid in the bottle behind me.
“Focus,” Rowen murmured, and I did, looking at the perfect sphere in front of me as it twisted, slowly spinning as if it were a top.
“Now, let it fall into a trickle, not a mist. And not too quickly. Slow. Easy.”
“How do I do that?” I asked as the water ball bobbed in front of me.
“Feel the particles and let the magic flow through you. Then, direct it.”
I did as she said, warmth slicing through me as my magic ebbed and flowed. It did as I wanted it to, and the water sprinkled into the pond. At least for a few moments until the rest of the sphere popped like a balloon and splashed.
My face turned red, and I winced as I looked over at Rowen.
She raised a single brow at me and then spun her finger in the air. A wind tunnel appeared in front of us and air-dried her formerly wet skirt and shirt. “Next time we practice, you’re going to stand a little farther away from me.” She studied my face before she smiled widely. “Honestly, Sage, that was amazing. I’m not even sure I did my air equivalent of that spell so well the first time.”
“I splashed you,” I said, even though pride filled me. “Are you sure I did such a good job?”
“You’re only beginning and already surprising me. I knew you had a wealth of power, but wow. Let’s try it again.”
I bounced on the balls on my feet and looked around, feeling the magic in the air. “I’m doing this.”
“You’ve always had it in you. It’s been in every loaf of bread you’ve ever made, and in every hope and dream you put your soul into. You have always been a witch, Sage. It’s only now that you’re truly able to realize who you could be.”
“And who is that?”
“That’s up to you. You are a witch. You could be a great power, but you are of our coven.” She paused. “And you could also be a bear’s mate. Or, you can stand alone but with strength.” I opened my mouth to say something, and she pressed her lips into a thin line. “It’s okay to be alone, Sage. Not everybody can stay with those they are fated for.”
I didn’t say anything and then understood that maybe it wasn’t Laurel she had been talking about earlier. Perhaps it was Rowen, after all.
I might feel connected to these women, feel as if I could call them my friends even if our friendship was still a little new, but I didn’t know everything. I always seemed to be two steps behind—maybe more. I had pulled a sphere of water out of the pond and hovered it in the air today, and I would do it again.
We would find Faith, and we would create our coven.
Because while I might be new to Ravenwood, I knew I belonged here.
Chapter Twelve
Rome
“You haven’t claimed her,” Trace said, and I shook my head.
“No, I haven’t.” My bear grumbled at that, and I swallowed hard. “And please stop reminding my bear that I haven’t. He’s already in a fucked-up mood.”
Trace snorted. “It’s because you’re a gentleman bear.”
That made me laugh. “A gentleman bear? Like that’s an actual thing?”
“You’re making it so.”
Alden came in from the kitchen, beer in his hand. “I’m glad you’re not mated to her yet.”
I raised a brow. “You’re glad that my cock is so hard I can barely think, and I feel like crap? Thank you for that.”