Winter Fire (The Witchling #3)(19)
“There’s something wrong with me,” he said. “I keep telling myself to walk away. If Dawn found out, Morgan might end up like Tanya, and yet by noon, I had asked her out.” Beck ran a hand through his hair. With Morgan’s warm fire magick fading, he felt edgy, anxious. Her touch made him feel as if he stood before a cozy bonfire.
“It’s like you can’t control it,” Decker guessed.
“Exactly.”
“Like it’s fate?”
“Something like that,” Beck agreed once more.
Decker’s laugh was dark and bitter. “Welcome to my world, Beck.”
Beck looked at his twin, startled. He considered what Decker was telling him and then shook his head.
“No way. It can’t be. I mean, for you it makes sense, because you have no ability to balance your magick, but there’s not a counterbalance for the Master of Light. I’m not going to destroy the world like you,” he said, shifting. “I mean, she’s not even … blonde …” He stopped. “My god. She’s not blonde.” Morgan was the opposite of every girl he ever dated, and yet, he couldn’t get her out of his mind or the effects of her magick out of his blood.
“I didn’t know until I turned eighteen. Mom told me I had a preordained match when she transferred the Master of Dark duties to me. You don’t have Aunt Nora to tell you whatever it is you’re supposed to know.” Decker reminded him. “I’d say, if one of us has a counterbalance, it only seems natural the other does as well.”
“Lame. There’s no way I’m ready for this!” Beck replied. He gave a growl of frustration. “Now? When I’ve got Dawn and the Light receding again? What the hell?”
“You said the Light’s receding?” Decker asked, frowning.
“Yeah. No idea why. Sometime in the past three weeks, something ate a foot of Light. I asked mother, and she said it wasn’t you or her, or the Darkness or even me failing to do my job,” Beck summarized. “Which leaves another source of Dark.”
Decker was thoughtful for a moment. “I wonder if it’s your girl being stuck between.”
“She and her brother both are. But I can’t see that causing a whole foot of Light to be lost in three weeks. Even you killing witchlings didn’t cause that in three months,” Beck said. “There’s no way I’m sending her to the Dark campus.”
“Yeah,” Decker agreed. “You don’t want Dawn finding out about this one, since she might be sticking around.”
“You are not funny.” Beck was starting to panic. Realizing he was attracted to a girl beyond his ability to control was one thing; having a pre-destined counterbalance was another. Not only could he not guarantee he was able to protect her from people like Dawn, but was he ready to settle for one girl for the rest of his life? He had been playing the field since he was thirteen.
“Anyway, I think there might be more to her,” Decker said, attention returning to the two girls. “Darkness clings to her.”
“I don’t sense it,” Beck said, studying Morgan’s shapely body. Her hands were in the pockets of a heavy down jacket. Her slender, toned legs were clad in leggings that hugged her curves and emphasized her perky bottom and rounded hips in a way that made his hands twitch to touch her.
“You wouldn’t, but I do,” his twin replied. “I don’t know what it is exactly. When she passed me the flame, I saw something.”
Beck tensed, not wanting to learn bad news already about the girl he wasn’t able to get out of his head. He and Decker were able to read the thoughts or emotions of another witchling with the same elements that they had. A fire element himself, Decker would be able to glimpse into Morgan’s mind if they were in contact, or if she shared a spell with him, like she did with the flame.
“What?” Beck asked when Decker was unusually reserved.
The Master of Dark hesitated. He seemed -- undecided.
“Dude, talk,” Beck said, pushing his brother’s shoulder. “If she’s another Dawn, and I’m totally missing the signs, you better tell me!”
“Nothing like that,” Decker assured him. “I’d say she’s the only decent girl you ever dated.”
Beck rolled his eyes, accustomed to his family’s digs at his choice of women. After Dawn, he now knew why they had been warning him to think twice before dating.
“Someone Dark hurt her,” Decker said deliberately. “I’m not going to say more. If she’s meant to be with you, then it’ll come up.”
“What do you mean?” Surprised, Beck searched his brother’s face. “Someone hurt Morgan?” Beck rarely felt angry, even dealing with Dawn. He normally just felt frustrated and disappointed.
But the idea of anyone hurting Morgan infuriated him. He was speechless for a long moment, wondering how she insisted on defending him against Dawn, when she herself was a victim of someone else. Suddenly, he saw Morgan’s words and actions in a different light. Her poor performance in school, the instinct that told him she was running away when she turned eighteen, her insistence that she protect him from someone like Dawn. She didn’t back down from anyone, but he’d thought her fearlessness born of na?veté, not the anger of someone who spoke out of experience and didn’t want to see anyone else hurt.