Wolf & Witch III: Oracle's Path

Ch. 16

"Nothing I haven't already told you. And I didn't even say anything about the girl."

Sean's heart leaped into his throat. "Then why would he be upset?"

"I was asking him questions about their coat colors...when they're in their wolf forms."

The only way that the combination of those things would upset Kaiden was if Anna had implied a connection between them..."The wolf you saw me with wasn't black?"

"No, it wasn't."

"That might not mean anything, though!" Sean huffed, rubbing his left eye since he was pretty sure it was twitching.

"Look, to be fair, I told him I could've been reading things wrong," Anna said, one of her hands moving around animatedly as she spoke.

That wasn't something Anna did. She was always very confident in what she gathered of things, but still... In this case... "You are reading it wrong," Sean corrected.

"Hey, at least I use my magic," Anna said with a slight jut of her chin while raising both hands briefly in surrender. "You don't have to be afraid of yours."

"I don't?" Sean countered, sounding way more incredulous than he meant to, but the point he wanted to make still stood. "Look at how the coven responded when I did use my magic."

"That wasn't your magic. That was Tobias's kinda shit, not yours."

Sean shook his head. "That was what came naturally to me."

She snorted.

"I'm serious, Anna. Just because I'm more attuned with a different type of magic, or flow of energy, or whatever, doesn't mean I'm freakin' evil or something. Or that I'm using it for messed up things"

"Of course it doesn't, but-"

"And-"

"Hold up," she said with an edge to her tone. "Cheating death isn't natural. It's not the kinda thing witches should be screwing around with, and you know it."

"I'm never doing that agai-"

"And curses...? Summoning shit you can't control or don't understand? C'mon, Sean... It's dark magic. It fucks with free will, and that's wrong."

"S'not that different from what you did..."

Anna blinked as though she'd been popped in the head. "Excuse me? Do explain, 'cause I'm not following."

"Kaid's upset because you put doubt in his head about his and my relationship, based on visions you've seen and interpreted."

"Not the same."

Sean sighed. "Look, I don't wanna argue about this..."

"Same-"

"I just wanna do my relationships, my magic, my life my own way..." Sean ached for someone close to him to understand that... Not the wolves...they weren't the issue. He wanted his family to understand where he was coming from with all of this... Even if he was still a little confused by it himself...

Fortunately, Anna did seem to understand. Or, at the very least, respected him for voicing what was on his mind. "You wanna ground with me? I was just about to anyway, and I'm sure we both could use it," Anna said, reaching for one of the crystals she'd placed around her to reposition it.

Sean shook his head. "I think I'll take a rain check."

She gave him a dramatic frown.

"...Scoot over," Sean suddenly said, squatting down, and nearly nudging Anna out of her own circle while they both snickered.