Read Magic and Mayhem: Any Witch Way (Kindle Worlds Novella) Online
Authors: Lori Ryan
Chapter Eighteen
Gwen stood and looked around, trying to get her bearings. She was exhausted, utterly drained, but as she looked down, she realized she was still
there
. She was still in corporeal form.
She flexed her fingers and saw bright teal flames shoot from the ends. Well, that was new.
She looked around, confused. Someone should be here with her. This wasn’t right.
Someone
was meant to be here. Try as she might, she couldn’t even figure out where she was, much less
who
she thought should be here with her, but she was sure someone was missing.
And what the hell were those teal flames about?
She was in a field, but she wasn’t alone. There were people nearby. And houses on fire. All around her was destruction, but she seemed to have been thrown clear of it somehow. Her body ached and screamed at her as she struggled to stand.
She could see witches and warlocks at the center of the destruction. Gwen began to walk toward them, and something about that felt right. She knew, without a doubt, the person she was supposed to be with was there. If she could get to him, everything would be okay.
She still didn’t have a clue who he was, but whatever. She’d figure that out later. This felt right.
“Gwen!”
Yes
, she thought.
That’s
him
.
And then she saw him. The most handsome warlock she’d ever laid eyes on, running as hard for her as she was running for him. His eyes met hers and she felt tears come to her cheeks. He was hers. And she was his.
“Gwen,” he breathed, as he pulled her into his arms. He held her and kissed her and the memories came back in a flood. He was Gideon. Her Gideon.
“Gideon.”
“You’re okay. You’re here.”
“Yes.”
“Do we have much time?” he asked, pulling back and looking into her eyes. She knew what he was asking. He was asking if the Goddess would allow her to keep this form for a short while so they could say goodbye.
“I think we do,” she said, her own breath now coming in gulps. “I think we have forever.” As she said the words, she knew they were right. The Goddess had given them forever when she’d severed the connection. To save magic, the Goddess had been forced to let Gwen go, to let her stay in this form.
“There’s a new anchor in my place,” she said, looking into the eyes of the warlock she loved.
“A new anchor?” Gideon looked at her. “But who?”
Chapter Nineteen
Gwen looked at the wreckage around them. It looked like a bomb had gone off in the center of the Komolvo encampment. Gideon held her tightly, his arms wrapped around her. If she was right about what she’d seen in that last moment when she’d split the thread of magic, there would be one witch missing now.
“Where is Tink?” she asked, and when he nodded toward a disheveled form on the ground, she looked away. Pressing her head to his chest, she cried. Somehow she knew Tink had done what he had for love. He loved Minerva, and she wouldn’t have given him the time of day if he didn’t have any power to offer her.
She looked around at the people surrounding her now. Baba Yaga and the others were rounding up the Komolvo. Gwen had a feeling they would have to pay some kind of price for fighting beside Tink, but she didn’t want to think about that right now. Floarea had paid a very high price for defending him.
“Floarea is gone,” Zelda said, coming up to them just as Baba Yaga joined them.
“The Goddess took her,” Gwen said, not at all sure how she felt about that. She knew what a lonely existence it was to be the anchor of magic. “She’s the new anchor of magic.”
Gideon shook his head. “Well, she was loyal to a fault, I’ll give her that. Maybe she’ll make a great anchor.”
“She can’t very well cause any harm there. There’s really very little the anchor can do.” Gwen shuddered. She was almost afraid to believe she was finally free. And the truth was, Floarea had made her own bed. If this was the punishment the Goddess had chosen for her, chances were it was actually a lot more lenient that what the Council might have doled out.
“Gideon,” Gwen cried out, as she watched Harmen raise his arms, preparing to hurl the mother of all fireballs at Gideon. “No!”
Gwen didn’t know what she planned to do. She simply raised her hands to try to stop the next few seconds from taking place. To stop Harmen from hurting Gideon. She never imagined the teal magic she’d seen sparking at the tips of her fingers earlier would shoot out, nailing Harmen dead center in the chest. The Komolvo warlock was knocked back five feet, landing on his ass.
“Look at you go,” Gideon said, pride in his voice and his smile as he pulled Gwen into him, wrapping his arms around her. “My witch has powers now.”
“I guess I do,” she said with a laugh, looking down at her hands. “Oh no!” She looked up at Gideon. “Leeds! The Shifters! We have to get to them. When Floarea grabbed me, she hurt some of them. They fought her; they tried to keep her from taking me.”
“On it,” said Zelda, teleporting out of there with Mac by her side.
“Will she be able to heal them?” Gwen asked Baba Yaga.
“Yes, I think so.” Baba Yaga looked pissed, and Gwen couldn’t blame her. Tink’s actions had been unforgivable. He’d put not only his whole family in danger, but all of magic as well.
Gideon looked to his sister.
“We’ve got this, baby brother. Take her home.” Fabio nodded as Baba Yaga and he continued to round up the Komolvo. In a flash, Baba Yaga’s decrepit warlocks were with her, backing her up.
Gwen looked to Gideon. “Where is home?”
“Wherever you are,” he said, and kissed her again. When he stopped, he winked at her, and she really wished he hadn’t pulled away. “But I think she means
my
home.
Our
home now.”
In a blink they were standing before a cabin set high in the mountains. As Gideon ushered her inside, Gwen cried. Not out of sorrow or anger or fear, this time. But pure happiness. She was truly happy for the first time ever. And the best part was, she knew in her heart it didn’t have to end.
Chapter Twenty
Gideon laughed as Gwen landed next to him in the yard outside Zelda’s house with only a little wobble this time. She’d been practicing her teleportation kills and was getting much better at landing gracefully. Aiming her magic at the right thing was another thing altogether.
The woods around his cabin bore the scars of her attempts to aim properly. She rarely hit her target unless he taunted her. It seemed if he got her riled up and angry, she could hit what she wanted. Now all she needed to do was figure out how to control a fireball when she was calm.
Today wasn’t the time to worry about any of that, though. Today was for family and friends, not practicing fireballs. All around them Shifters were laughing and talking or piling tables a mile high with food.
He didn’t see his sister yet, but Zelda and Mac waved from the front porch. Sassy and Jeeves were walking over from Sassy’s house with smiles on their faces that told Gideon he didn’t want to know what they’d been doing. He’d come to expect that from them.
“I don’t see Carol yet,” Gwen said, looking around at the group.
“She said she would be a little late. Something about a Chimera emergency she and Fabio have to handle.” Gideon rolled his eyes. That was another thing he wanted to stay in the dark about. Carol and Fabio’s
Chimera
emergencies.
“Eep!” Gwen jumped toward Gideon as Leeds dropped down out of the sky right in front of them.
“You nearly gave me a heart attack,” Gwen said, swatting Leeds playfully on his giant horse neck.
He put his glamour in place and grinned at her. “Sorry, sunshine. Didn’t mean to.”
Gideon growled. He still didn’t like it when Leeds flirted with Gwen.
“Oh, settle down, tough guy.” Leeds looked out over the group of Shifters and grinned. “I’m not planning to take your witch from you, even though she could do so much better than your sorry ass.”
Leeds cursed as his glamour flickered and disappeared. He gritted his teeth and put it back in place.
“Don’t worry, Leeds,” Gwen said, with false bravado. “You probably just need to get your moolah back.”
“Mojo,” Gideon said.
“Yes, Mojo!” Gwen smiled and nodded.
“It’s scary that you know that,” Leeds chimed in.
“Agreed. Gwen, can you give Leeds and I a minute?”
Gwen nodded and began to walk toward the crowd, but Gideon pulled her back to him for a kiss. He would never get enough of her. They’d been holed up at his house for the last month, and it had been more than he could ever imagine. He’d have to get his ass back to work eventually, but for now, he figured they both deserved a little vacation time. He had two centuries’ worth of vacation time saved up, and Gwen had eons.
She pulled out of his arms with a blush and set off toward Zelda and Mac.
“All right,” Gideon said, turning to Leeds. “Out with it. What’s the deal with the flicker?”
Leeds looked anywhere but Gideon, but he did finally answer the question. “I, uh, might have had a run-in with a witch.”
“Oh, this is going to be good.”
Leeds shoved him, but there was nothing but good-natured grumbling behind it this time. Gideon had been telling Leeds for decades that his one-night-stands were going to catch up to him.
“And?” Gideon prompted.
“She, uh…” Leeds rubbed a hand across the back of his head, shuffling his feet a bit as Gideon laughed. “She cursed me when I snuck out while she was sleeping.”
“You’re shitting me.”
“Nope. I haven’t been able to shake it, and I can’t find her anywhere to get her to lift it.”
“And this is somehow affecting your glamour?”
“Yeah.” Leeds didn’t elaborate.
“Spit it out. What
exactly
did she do?”
“Fine. Laugh all you want. Here it is. If I think about sex at all, even for a second, my magic drops so freaking low, I get weak and I lose my glamour. It comes back a few seconds later, but the damage is done.”
Gideon doubled over laughing. On some level that shit wasn’t funny. Leeds could get hurt if his magic went out at the wrong time, but that was still funny as hell.
“Yeah, yeah, laugh it up. But listen, I’ve been thinking—maybe you could talk to your sister for me? Maybe she can fix it. Surely Baba Yaga can fix something like this.”
“Oh, no,” came Carol’s voice behind them. She was wearing a shocking iridescent yellow running suit with Fabio by her side in a rather ill-fitting pair of yoga pants that made Gideon cringe. She shook her head at Leeds. “You’re on your own, buddy. I suggest you track down that witch and make amends, Leeds. Come on, Fabio. We’ve got brisket and potato salad to eat.”
The couple hit the picnic tables, leaving Leeds frowning in their wake.
“Come on,” Gideon said, clapping Leeds on the shoulder. “My witch has been alone down there for too long. I’ll help you figure this curse out later. Right now I need to go scare off a few Shifters.”
Gwen was surrounded by skunks who didn’t seem to know she was taken. Very much taken. And he planned to keep it that way.
Leeds trailed beside him as he walked toward his future. “So, she’s really the one, huh? Two centuries didn’t change that?”
Gideon didn’t have to question his answer for a second. “The one. Always was and always will be.” As he said it, he knew in his heart it was true. There had never been anyone for him but the witchy woman smiling at him from across the field. He knew he probably had the same sappy, dopey smile he’d seen on Mac and laughed at, but he didn’t give a shit. He was a dope for this woman. And that was okay by him.
*Want to find out what happened to Leeds? Visit
http://loriryanromance.com/sendleeds/
to get his story!
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