Spells Trouble, Kristin Cast [books to read in a lifetime .TXT] 📗

is what I ask of you…” Mercy bowed her head and pressed her forehead against the Thuja as she whispered her request to the line of trees.

Again, her palms tingled with excitement that was so real it reminded her of wriggling puppies. She didn’t speak her thanks. Instead, she pulled the pulsing power up through the earth. The heat of it rushed into her body and through her hands to cascade into the wall of trees. They swayed as they accepted her offering like ballerinas tethered to the earth.

She stroked the thick, leafy Thuja branches and murmured, “Thank you, my friends,” exactly as Abigail had trained her to do. The wall of trees swayed once more in response.

Satisfied the spell was set, Mercy rubbed her hands on her jeans skirt and headed to the break in the fence and tree line, just in time to see Kirk jogging away from the coach and the JV team, as he headed for the refreshment stand. Mercy lifted a hand and waved at him.

As soon as he saw her he grinned and changed direction, running straight to her.

“Babe! You stayed! Damn, you look good.” He bent to kiss her, but she pushed against his chest with both hands—this time actually keeping him from getting close to her.

“We need to talk,” she said firmly.

Jarod Frazier, the Mustangs’ senior linebacker, leered at them as he crushed a Gatorade bottle in his meaty hand. “Oooh, damn! Trouble in paradise? You need some help handling her, bro?”

Mercy didn’t wait for Kirk to respond. She spun on her heels and marched back through the break in the fence, leaving Kirk to jog after her—much to the jeering delight of the rest of the team.

Mercy turned to face Kirk when she reached the exact spot she’d stood earlier, hidden by the wall of trees from the view of anyone on the football field.

“Mercy, what’s—”

She lifted her hand, stopping his words.

“You told Jax about what we did yesterday!”

Kirk frowned. “What the hell did he say?”

Mercy put her fists on her hips. “How about you tell me what you said instead?”

“Nothin’. Really. Just locker room talk. You know.” He reached for her and she sidestepped him.

“You talked about me—about us—in the damn locker room? You mean the whole team knows our business?” Mercy felt her cheeks flame. Her anger was so intense she felt dizzy.

“Mercy. Babe. All us bros talk about our girlfriends. It’s, like, a compliment.”

“A compliment? Telling the ‘bros,’” Mercy air-quoted, “personal and private things about our relationship is only a compliment to douchebag misogynistic pigs like your father! To normal guys—decent guys—it’s a betrayal—an invasion of privacy.” She shook her head, super pissed that tears had started to leak from her eyes down her cheeks. This really wasn’t going the way she’d planned. To herself more than Kirk she said, “I’m such a fool. I thought you were different.” She cried brokenly. “I can’t believe I was so stupid.” She wiped at her eyes and started to storm past him, intent on touching the trees and ending the spell, but Kirk surprised her by grabbing her wrist. As he stopped her he dropped to his knees and stared up at her.

“You gotta believe me,” he begged from his knees. “I didn’t mean nothing. I promise. Just—just tell me how to do better and I will.”

Mercy looked down at him. His blue eyes were huge. His face had paled and he was truly upset. Had she overreacted? Kirk seemed genuinely sorry. She wiped her eyes and shook her head. “Kirk. What you did was really bad.” She crossed her arms over her chest and waited for him to make it right—for him to be the guy she believed he was.

“Babe! Like I said, I just didn’t know. But I totally get it. I’m not gonna say shit about us again. Seriously.” He reached out for her and Mercy let him take her hand. He kissed it and smiled up at her. “You know I’m an idiot about this kind of stuff. Sorry, my witchy woman.”

Relieved, Mercy pulled her hand from his as she started toward the line of trees. All she needed to do was to touch them to close the spell and then she and Kirk could—

But before she could reach the trees Kirk had snagged her wrist and pulled her around to face him. “No, please, don’t walk away!”

Mercy meant to shake off his vise grip and touch the trees, but when she looked down at him what she saw had her frozen with shock.

He was on his knees again.

Oh, shit! He totally misunderstood!

And he was crying.

Really sobbing.

“Kirk.” She spoke as softly as possible. “It’s okay. We can talk about it.” Her eyes darted from him to the trees as she tried to shift her body to bring herself within reaching distance of one of their sticky branches.

“Mercy, I mean it! I didn’t get what I was doing. I was just happy! I wanted to tell everyone so they’d know how much you love me, and how much I love you.” On his knees, he lurched forward and wrapped his arms around her waist. He pressed his cheek against the softness of her stomach as his sobs made his voice hitch. “Y-you know h-how much I n-need you.”

Mercy felt the beginnings of panic. She’d expected him to apologize—to have a good excuse for what he’d done—to reassure her and react like a sweet guy who’d made one stupid mistake.

She hadn’t expected him to be so clueless, and then to fall apart and cry.

Mercy tried to break the hold he had on her waist so she could get around him and be close enough to the trees so that she could close the spell, but Kirk was too big, too strong. The harder she tried to pry away from him—the tighter he clung to her.

“Okay, okay,” Mercy tried to soothe. She stopped pulling at his arms and instead stroked his sweaty hair. “I—I overreacted.” Her eyes darted from