Page 21 of Cauldrons & Campfires
A thought shot through my mind and landed like a stone in my gut: Maybe Iris wasn’t volunteering out of the goodness of her heart. Maybe she still hadn’t completed her camp requirements because she’d been hooking up with campers every year.
No. I shook the theory away.Dagmar would’ve told me.
Although, that still would’ve made more sense to me than Irisvolunteeringto do this every year.
I let out a little laugh as Gwen plunked down on the log beside me with a grumpyflomp.
“What?” she asked as she looked out over the clearing to the glowing orange lake.
“Nothing,” I said with a shake of my head. “How was your day?”
“Besides turning one of my cabinmates into a toad?” Gwen asked.
“You didn’t!”
“Don’t worry,” she replied. “Faith turned Melba back into her funky, psychedelic self. Melba thought it was, and I quote, ‘Groovy.’”
I stifled a snicker as I wiped a nervous hand down my thigh. “Well, I think our first order of business should be to practice controlling your magic.”
She folded her arms tightly across her chest. “I’m all ears.”
I toyed with my friendship bracelets. “What was the common thread that made you lose control?”
“I don’t know. Every time it happened, I was angry, I guess?”
“You weren’t angry when you turned that minnow at the lake last night,” I pointed out, remembering the way we’d stood in the shadows beyond the light of the bonfire.
“No,” she hedged. “But I was nervous then.”
“It was just the two of us. Why were you nervous?”
The sweetest blush stained her cheeks, creeping across her nose and out toward her neck.
Dear goddess.
I hadn’t been prepared for that response. There was no way someone like her could be made nervous by someone like me, right?
But her blush begged to differ.
I might have made Gwen nervous, but she terrified me. Normally, I knew exactly what to do, what small talk to use, when to make a move—with Maple Hollow locals, that was. But this witch had traveled the world. She had experiences and knowledge far beyond my purview. Maybe I was entirely misreading this situation and I made her nervous for some other inane reason.
I tried to ignore the way my stomach was flipping. “So, heightened emotions, got it. Maybe we should try to change something now? You know, under controlled conditions?”
Gwen’s dark eyes flared. “I don’t want to turn you into a toad.”
“Please.” I let out a sharp belly laugh, clutching my chest. “I have some very sophisticated protection spells on me.” I lifted a quartz necklace from the top of my T-shirt. “You don’t need to worry about that. I was thinking an inanimate object, maybe? Then you could practice changing it back. It would save you having to get the more experienced witches to do it for you every time.”
“Oh,” she said with an adorable amount of snark. “Okay, well, since your magic issosophisticated.”
I grinned. “You really think you could turn me into a toad?”
“I don’t know,” she challenged. “My magic might not be trained, but people keep telling me an affinity for transformation is powerful and wild magic.”
My gut clenched with how badly I wanted to feel all of her wild power.
“Try it, then,” I goaded, wishing she’d unleash herself on me.
“What?”
