Read To Love A Witch (A Novel Nibbles title) for Free Online Page B

head again and finished off the
last of her cookie.
    Little girls could be persistent. “So what kind
of witch are you?”
    “How do you know I’m a witch?”
    Jolie looked confused. “Well, you work with
Jake, don’t you? Oh, wait.” She looked chastened. “Sorry, I think
that’s a future something, not a now something. I get confused
sometimes.”
    “I don’t work with Jake,” said Romy. “I’m just
his friend, and he wanted me to meet you. Can I have another
cookie?”
    Well now, thought Jake, putting his hand out for
another cookie, too. That was an interesting tidbit to tuck into
the back of his mind. Plenty of Sentinel monitors worked in pairs.
He would be more than happy to spend a little more time with his
redhead.

Chapter 9

    Romy grumbled as she lurched up a sad excuse for
a trail. No one had bothered to mention that there was a mile-long
hike to get onto Tabletop Rock, and most of it was uphill.
    Kids who spent their formative years in juvie
tended to either love or hate being in the outdoors. Give her a
good theater any day. She appreciated wide-open spaces, she just
preferred to navigate them with motorized assistance.
    Or a cute guy and his flying bike… She hushed
her traitorous mind. Jake was a lot of the reason she was hiking up
some forsaken rock in the wee hours of the morning to throw around
fireballs.
    The trail suddenly leveled, and she could see
Carla waving. “Good morning, did you enjoy your hike?”
    Romy tried to sound more cheerful than she felt.
“Nice view. I didn’t see you on the trail; how long have you been
up here?”
    Carla laughed and handed her a bagel. “Oh, I
didn’t hike up. Jake flew me in just a few minutes ago. I have
coffee to go with these bagels; it should still be hot.”
    “He flew you?” Romy spluttered. “How come I had
to walk up—what is this, witch boot camp?”
    “I’m sorry, mia cara, but he said you weren’t
comfortable on his bike right now.”
    Romy tried not to whine, and then gave up. “If
it was a choice between that and a crack-of-dawn hike, I might have
chosen the flying.”
    Carla looked up at the mid-morning sun and
handed her a coffee. “Not a morning person, I’m guessing.”
    True, but she wasn’t usually an uber-grump
either. “Sorry, this whole magic thing has me nervy.”
    “You’ve spent your entire life trying to make
the magic go away. You’ll see how much easier it is to work with what’s inside you, instead of against it.”
    Romy pictured weeks of early morning hikes and
groaned. “And how long will that take?”
    Carla shrugged and patted the rock beside her,
motioning for Romy to sit. “Oh, an hour or two. No more than that
unless you’re outrageously stubborn, but even then, we’ll be out of
here in time for lunch.”
    For the first time in her life, that whole
jaw-dropping-to-the-floor thing made literal sense. “You can teach
me how to control my magic in a couple of hours?”
    “It’s not really teaching,” Carla said, looking
sad. “It’s just helping you to access what you already know. That’s
part of why Jake is so angry about what happened to you. It would
have taken so little help to prevent it.”
    “I know he’s angry so many kids were abandoned.”
It was easier to think of Jake’s temper kicking on behalf of
someone else. Lots of someone elses.
    “Oh, they all make him mad. But Jake isn’t one
of those people who tends to rail against the system on principle.
This is personal for him. You made it personal.”
    Romy opted for naked honesty. “I don’t really
know how to feel about that.”
    “I know, mia cara. And that’s just one of many
things we need to fix. But first things first. I don’t want you
sending my boy up in flames the next time he flies you in a loop or
tries to kiss you.”
    There had been far too many people talking about
her kissing Jake lately. And her still traitorous head thought it
sounded like a fine idea. Sure, let’s kiss the sexy witch—there
were so