Free 1 Witchy Business by Eve Paludan, Stuart Sharp

mean. I love that place, too. The glass houses are so inspiring to my creative side: art and music and growing things.”
    Anything that touched the emotions. I could believe that all too easily. “Yes.”
    “We should go there sometime. A picnic. A Renoir picnic.”
    “I’d like that,” I said, suddenly shy that he was asking me out on another date when we had only started this one. And it was hard to ignore the fact that it was a date, as much as I tried to deny it to myself.
    “I must have Renoir’s Picnic on the Grass . For my collection,” Niall said suddenly.
    “I think that’s in a museum.”
    “It is. I will have to ask Marie to find out which one.”
    “Better amp up your security before you add a Renoir to your gallery room.”
    He nodded. “Yes. There is that.”
    He took my hand as we were walking and interlaced his fingers with mine. It was such a wonderful feeling that I didn’t fight it, not even in my head.
    Niall’s choice of restaurant seemed like the kind of place that would ordinarily require a reservation weeks in advance. Yet, we managed to just walk right in. Part of it was obviously that he had money and connections, but I got the feeling that it wasn’t just that. This was the kind of place that would have found a certain cachet in turning away the rich or famous.
    In the end, it came down to Niall’s simple charm, at least of the magically enhanced variety, that got us in the door in a sweep of welcome.
    I’d always been taught that warlocks were weaker than witches, but one burst of power from Niall had half the restaurant in the palm of his hand. Waiters rushed around moving tables, making room for us, asking if there was anything they could do to help…
    “That was incredible,” I said, when our appetizers arrived within minutes.
    “I’m sure you could have done more,” Niall replied, which was an answer that made me shake my head.
    “I’ve never had that kind of power.”
    “Never had it, or never used it?” Niall let that thought hang there for a moment or two before switching the subject. “You were brought up within the coven?”
    I nodded. “My mother was quite high up in it. Annette Chambers.”
    “Was it her who taught you to be afraid of your abilities?”
    That earned him a sharp look from me.
    “I don’t mean to insult your mother, Elle,” Niall said. “Truly, I’m sure she loved you a great deal. Just as I’m sure she was doing what she felt was best to protect you. It must have been nice, to be so protected.”
    Ouch.
    I thought of all the tutors my mother had hired, the ones who had been so careful to explain the dangers of my magic, so that I didn’t hurt myself in the ways in which so many young enchantresses did.
    When children with powers are coming into their own, they naturally do crazy things to test their powers and the sad fact was that not all witch children lived through their childhood. For enchantresses though, it was worse. Every day was a battle to keep the world from overwhelming my senses, and as a child? How many enchantresses like me had perished, gone mad or worse because they didn’t have the help I did? I hadn’t thought until then just how much effort my mother had gone to in order to keep me safe and sane.
    “Growing up, you didn’t have that kind of help?” I guessed.
    “I had a teacher, a long time ago, but I have been alone for a while now. I’ve had to work out a lot of things for myself.”
    “Like what you did to get the table?” I looked around at all the other diners. “You have to be careful with that kind of thing, Niall. Using so much power for something like that…don’t you ever worry? About whether it’s right? About whether it’s safe?”
    “You want to know if I have ever hurt anyone?” Niall asked. He didn’t seem angry that I’d more or less just accused him of behaving unethically. “Elle, it’s like any other variant of power. We can use it for good or ill. Or are you telling me that