Witch, Please (Not Your Basic Witch Book 1)

by A. J. Macey

  “Sprinkles?” I whispered as well as I could, my mouth only partially working as I continued to wake up from whatever shit magic was pumping through my system. Caspian’s ocean eyes widened, filling with tears as he looked down at me. He shouted over his shoulder before brushing a palm gently over my forehead.

  “Cupcake, fucking hellsticks, you scared the shit out me,” he exclaimed hysterically, his cheeks glimmering with tear tracks, but when I tried to lift my arm up to wipe them away, I felt like my wrist had been broken. Screaming, I stopped moving my arm. “Shh, Cupcake, try not to move, the healers are working through the damage as quickly as they can.”

  “What happened?” I questioned, my throat sore, though the burning had lessened the longer I laid on the cot. The rest of my guys’ faces swarmed my vision, crowding around the bed with worried or angry expressions, but before any of them could talk, I heard Delilah’s psychotic ranting screech over everything else.

  “No! He’s mine! You can’t take my Torry away from me!” she screamed, her eyes bright red and her hair disheveled as she fought the witches who had secured her in power-dampening witch cuffs. When she saw me surrounded by my men, including Torryn, she seemed to completely lose herself, screaming incoherently as she thrashed around before being carted off.

  “Did she… did she just call me Torry…?” Torryn asked in disbelief, his slack jaw and wide eyes making me laugh. His shocked expression turned to me as he watched me struggle to keep my giggles contained to settle the pain that flared. They finally subsided, my guys eyeing me like I had also gone insane.

  “She wanted to be me, so she could have you, Torry,” I teased. “Apparently, I’m not smart enough for you or some other crazy shit.”

  “Well, fuck everyone else. You are it for me, Aris,” Torryn pledged, his seafoam-green eyes sharpening as he looked down at me, warm fingers brushing against my cheek. A round of enthusiastic agreement went up, making me a bundle of warm and fuzzy emotions. Another screech from Delilah had me looking over again, ruining our moment. Apparently, she’d heard what he said, and it didn’t go over well. As she fully faced me, I noticed her face was disfigured, and part of her hair was pink. No, she couldn’t have meant that literally… right?

  “What happened to her face?” I whispered in a horrified tone, trying to peel my eyes away.

  “She meant ‘be you’ literally. She was using dark magic and potions to become you. She only made it halfway there, though I have a feeling the potion was tied to your life force, meaning if she had succeeded, you would have been dead,” Kye explained, his voice hollow, his words breaking with emotion.

  “I’m okay,” I promised, reaching up again and instantly regretting it. “Well… I will be.”

  “Miss Calisto?” A man I didn’t know walked over from where he’d been standing near my cot. He had a healer sigil stitched on the breast of his shirt, so he must have come in with the others.

  “Yes?” My voice cracked, the burn flaring just a bit but nowhere near as bad as before.

  “I’m Healer Verisan, and I just wanted to ask you some questions before we continue our healing, is that alright?” I nodded, happy knowing they could help with the injury to my arm. “Do you remember what happened?” Once again, I nodded. “You were healed at the basic level, which should have alleviated any minor pain, but anything more extensive will require individualized attention. Can you tell me what hurts and if you know what caused it?”

  I recapped what happened, the man scribbling down notes on a small witch’s glass emblazoned with the capital crest. Must be annotating it for the authorities or for records. I purposely refused to look at my guys as their jaws clenched, and their eyes hardened, angry at what had happened but knowing there was nothing they could do about it now.

  “So, the wrist is the worst, correct?” Healer Verisan asked, tucking his notebook away in an inside pocket of his jacket.

  “Yeah, I can’t move my arm,” I murmured. He nodded and got to work using his magic to slowly repair my body. Each injury felt like they started the healing process.

  “Alright, Miss Calisto, that should be everything. We recommend getting some rest and taking it easy over the next few days. Your injuries are healed for the most part, but the more extensive ones like your wrist and the burns will require some time for the magic to fully heal. To help reduce any issues with your arm as the magic continues to heal you, I would wear it in a sling until early next week and the bandages on your wrists and ankles until Monday.”

  “Thank you,” Torryn stated, his professor voice fully in effect as he shook the healer’s hand. Leaving us be, he headed back toward the other officials who were going in and out of the building where I had been taken. We were on the outskirts of the city center in a home that was boarded up, no signs anyone even remembered its existence. It would have been weeks if not months before anyone found my body by pure chance.

  “I have a question.” I turned to look at them all staring down at me, fingers and hands resting on either my legs, arms, or hands. They must be feeling the pull to keep contact. I’m glad the magic isn’t pushing only me. “I just remembered Delilah’s eyes were red. At first, they were normal, then got redder the longer she talked. Was I hallucinating, or did it actually happen?”

  “That’s from her practicing blood magic; the stronger the spell or summoning, the redder the eyes,” Drayce explained darkly before forcing a small smile and changing his demeanor. “Ready to head back to the inn, Angel?”

  “Hellsticks, yes! I need soul cakes and Hex Mix as soon as physically possible,” I said emphatically, my guys laughing in response as I gingerly sat up and got off the cot. “Let’s go,” I smiled, my voice almost completely back to normal. I had no idea what she had given me to burn my throat, but right now, all I wanted was to chill and hang out with my guys.

  Delilah might have kidnapped me, hurt me, and tried to steal my body with dark magic, but I was going to be okay. I had my familiar, my guys, and a chance to start fresh with no more threats looming in the distance. With them surrounding me as we walked, it turned out to be a pretty good Samhain after all.

  It’s the positive things in life that matter, right?

  November 3rd

  Sunday Afternoon

  Aris

  I made my way slowly to the headmaster’s office, my arm cradled in the cloth sling to refrain from using it as the magic finalized its healing. The rest of me was sore, but the salves and other healing the witches had done during the Samhain festival seemed to have worked since my wrists and ankles were no longer burned. Mr. Stripes clutched tightly to my head, his fluffy tail swishing back-and-forth against my back and arm as we walked. He hadn’t left my side after he was let out of that fucking cage, whether too scared about another incident or worried about me, I didn’t know, but I couldn’t complain. Honestly, I felt safer with him on my shoulder.

  As I neared the headmaster’s office, I found myself reflecting on the last couple of days. It had been rough as the healers had said it would be as my bone, wrist, throat, and burns healed, but my guys never left my side. Even Torryn had taken it upon himself to practically stand bodyguard outside my tower door. We had spent the day after everything had happened locked up in our rooms at the inn as I recovered before heading home yesterday. As soon as we were here, we resumed our relaxing, loungey behavior up in my tower, knowing it was now safe from Delilah and her crazy schemes.

  I knocked against the wood, my tired body buzzing with nerves as I waited. Finally, after a few moments, I heard him give me the go-ahead to open the door. Taking one last steadying breath, I entered his office. Headmaster Tallis was seated in his office chair, a worn leather high back, as he eyed me with a glint in his eye I couldn’t place. He looks like a Summoner who had snared a Will of the Wisp, and that alone is enough to set me on edge.

  “Ah, Miss Calisto, please have a seat,” he hummed boastfully, his hand gesturing toward the chair in front of his large, gaudy desk.

  G
iving him a small but polite smile, I did as he asked, Mr. Stripes climbing down from my shoulder to my lap before making himself comfortable in my arms.

  “I would like to personally apologize for how we weren’t able to stop the threat to you before it escalated. I want to assure you, we were working as hard as possible to catch the person responsible for these previous incidents,” he cooed.

  My smile widened until I felt like my plastic and fake grin would crack my face, but I didn’t let my disbelief at his act slip through. Yeah, buddy, that’s exactly what my guys said.

  “I’m sure you did. Sometimes, things like that can’t be predicted,” I responded cheerfully, hoping this awkward meeting would be over soon. Something about him had me sitting straighter and more on edge than usual, although that could have been from the fact I had been strapped down and nearly sacrificed by a crazy witch only a few days earlier. He flashed me a smile before standing, making his way around the desk to sit against the edge of the ugly piece of furniture in front of me.

  “Is, uh, that it, sir?” I questioned uncomfortably, his eyes sharpening as they looked down at me. His smile threw up a giant red flag, and Mr. Stripes shifted until he was back on my shoulder, in case I needed to leave abruptly.

  “Miss Thana has been very talkative since she’s been detained,” he started, his lips quirking up in a friendly smile, but the vibe he was giving off was predatory. My adrenaline built in my body until I was buzzing with the urge to run.

  “Well, I’m sure a witch as... unstable as her would probably have a lot to say,” I attempted to be diplomatic, but it was a struggle. As he leaned forward, his fingers brushed the top of my shoulder briefly in a way that had me nearly shivering as my blood turned to ice.

  “Aris, let’s just cut the pretenses. I know about you and a certain member of my faculty,” he murmured, his fingers brushing against my cheek. “And I called you here to see what exactly we can do to keep that little tidbit... secret.”

  Oh, shit.

  Resting Witch Face

  Book 2 of the Not Your Basic Witch Series

  Coming December 2019

  Acknowledgments

  Our husbands who supported us and cheered us on even when we were doubting our work!

  Our PA Katie for keeping us sane when things got overwhelming!

  Our alpha/beta readers—you guys are awesome!

  Ash for dealing with our crazy and reading all of our stuff!

  Finally, for all of our readers, this wouldn’t be possible without you.

  Also by A.J. Macey

  Best Wishes Series:

  Book 1: Smoke and Wishes

  Supplemental Point-of-View Stories: Between the Wishes

  Book 2: Smoke and Survival

  High School Clowns & Coffee Grounds

  Book 1: Lads & Lattes

  The Aces Series:

  Book 1: Rival

  Book 2: Adversary

  Also by Jarica James

  Broken Silence (YA stand-alone RH)

  Fae Knights Series

  Book 1: Fae Bound

  Book 2: Fae Sight

  Book 3: Fae Strength

  Book 4: Fae Eternal

  Fae Knights Box Set

  Master Reapers Series

  Book 1: City of Souls

  Book 2: Realm of Shadows

  Obsidian Cove Supernatural Academy Series

  Book 1: Call of the Siren

  The Spirit Vlog Series

  Book 1: Haunts and Hotels

  Co-write with Chloe Gunter

  A Pinch of Sass

  Co-write with Rowan Thalia

  Book 1: Into the Shadows

  Book 2:Through the Woods

  Coming soon: Monster (Academies of the Realms: 1)

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