Free Awakening by Cate Tiernan Page B

he and I had done tàth meànma , the intense sharing of minds I thought of as the Wiccan mind meld.
    I wanted to feel Hunter’s mouth on mine, his arms around me. I wanted to kiss away that sadness, all that had happened to him before we’d met. To tell him that his father would be proud of him if only he could be here. I could feel him wanting to do the same for me; I could sense his aching to stroke my face until he had wiped away all the tears I’d shed over Cal.
    Then I blinked. What was I thinking ? Here I was, talking to my ex-boyfriend’s half brother and fantasizing about making out with him. Was I insane?
    “I—I’ve got to go home,” I said.
    A faint flush had risen under Hunter’s clear, pale skin. “Right,” he said, standing up. He cleared his throat. “Wait just a moment. I’ve got some books for you.”
    He strode into the hallway and began pulling books off the shelves. “Here,” he said, his voice back to its usually proper tone. “An advanced compendium of runic alphabets, Hope Whitelaw’s critique of Erland Erlandsson’s numerolog ical system, and a guide to the properties of stones, minerals, and metals. Start with these, and when you’ve finished them, we’ll talk about them. Then I’ll give you more.”
    I nodded, not trusting myself to speak. When I took Hunter’s books, I was careful to not allow our hands to touch.
    Outside, the late afternoon sky was a harsh, glaring white. I drove home in a daze, my mind whirling, barely noticing the cold at all.

9
    Almost Normal

    Thursday and Friday, I worked really hard on keeping things normal. I went to school. I talked to my friends. I worked at my mom’s office—I’d made a deal with my parents in which they’d front me the money for my car repairs in exchange for my getting all my mom’s real estate listings entered into the computer. I cheered when the news came that Aunt Eileen and Paula had closed on their house and that they would start moving in over the weekend. I tried not to think about Cal. Or Hunter. Or the bad news about Practical Magick. Or dark forces that might be out to get me. I made it through the days like other teenage girls.
    On Saturday, Robbie picked me up in his red Beetle. By now everyone in the coven had heard about Practical Magick closing, and Robbie had suggested a trip over there to see if there was anything we could do to help. I didn’t think there was, but I was glad to go, anyway.
    “So, how’d it go last night?” I asked as I buckled my seat belt. I knew that Robbie had gone out with Bree. It was a new direction for their age-old friendship.
    Robbie shook his head, gazing through the windshield. “Same as before. We hung out, watched a video. Then we made out, and it was great. Fantastic. But the second I tried to talk about how I felt, she got all squirrelly.” He grinned. “But this time I had the sense to shut up and kiss her again before she kicked me out of her house.”
    I laughed. “Quick thinking.”
    The fact was, Robbie had been in love with Bree for years. But Bree was gorgeous, while Robbie . . . well, he’d been a pizza face. It had made him afraid to approach her. Then, in trying out my newfound power, I’d made a potion to clear up the acne that for years had obliterated his looks. The potion had worked and kept on working in an almost frightening way. The scars had disappeared completely, and then his poor vision had improved, to the point where he no longer wore the thick glasses that he’d had ever since I’d known him. Without the acne or the glasses, he turned out to be amazingly good-looking and was now considered a major hottie at school.
    With his new looks, Robbie had found the courage to go after Bree. But the results so far were uneven. They weren’t exactly seeing each other but were definitely more than friends. On Robbie’s side, it was love. For Bree . . . it was impossible to tell. Even back when we told each other everything, she’d always been hard