Chapter 161

Violet’s POV

“Just try.”

It didn’t matter how many times I explained to Bennett that Auntie had said the baby’s magic would sway my magic toward more innocent manifestations. He wasn’t convinced.

Theo was on the other side of Marcy’s backyard, fists clenched, gaze unfocused, as he tried to complete the assignment Bennett had given him.

“Stop drooling over your hunk of a husband and focus,” Bennett teased. My gaze snapped to his in a glare that somehow only made him chuckle.

Per his instructions, I imagined a knife in my hand. I envisioned the way it would glint in the sunlight, the weight of it in my palm, the coolness of the metal.

A burst of the same damn wildflowers flew up out of my hand. With a frustrated snap of my fingers, the flow stopped, and the blooms disappeared as quickly as they had appeared. I set my gaze on my cousin.

He sighed. “This could be a problem.”

“You think?” I quipped sarcastically. “At this point, the only thing my magic is good for is possibly handing Owen a reason to kick me out of his kingdom.”

Bennett rubbed his chin while he thought. “I wonder if we can work around this. Could you manifest a steak knife to cut your meal?”

I tried and was surprised when a butter knife appeared in my hand. “That’s the first item I’ve manifested that’s not flowers.” I looked up at my cousin excitedly, but he didn’t seem impressed.

“No, that’s great,” he said when he realized he hadn’t responded as I’d hoped. “It’s just I was hoping intent might be a loophole.”

I stared at him blankly.

“Like if the baby thought you wanted to use a weapon, such as a steak knife, for innocent purposes, like cutting steak, would it manifest? But I guess the answer is no.” He motioned to the butter knife in my hand.

With a swish of my hand, it vanished.

“Do you think your baby might one day want to play baseball?” Bennett asked.

I threw my arms out at the ridiculous question. “How the hell am I supposed to know that when it’s currently the size of a peanut?”

“Let’s find out. Manifest a baseball.”

I was getting so tired of all these endless exercises. I could tell by Theo’s sudden pacing across the yard and his frustration down the bond that I wasn’t the only one.

I just had to remember that these minutes and hours of training my magic might save my life in the next few weeks. Or at the very least, it would give me more time with Theo.

I envisioned a baseball in my hand and – poof – there it was. I looked at Bennett with wide, surprised eyes. He smiled at the ball in my hands.

“How about a mitt to go with that?”

I had barely thought of it when a mitt appeared in my other hand. Bennett nodded, taking the mitt from me. “How about a bat?”

A heavy, wooden bat popped into the hand Bennett had just freed. I studied it, swinging it a little to get a feel for it, before making eye contact with my cousin. We both smiled, neither of us daring to vocalize the loophole we’d just discovered.

A baseball bat could do some damage in a pinch.

“Out of curiosity,” Bennett motioned for me to set the baseball and bat down, “how about a frying pan and… a trowel to plant some of those wildflowers you and the baby obviously love.”

I discarded the baseball and bat, tossing them gently on the grass. A frying pan appeared in one hand and a trowel in the other. Both could also be used as weapons if needed.

“It seems to be based on primary purpose,” Bennett observed. “Whether or not you intend it for steak or an enemy, a knife is designed to cut, which is not an innocent act. But playing, cooking, and gardening, are all innocent, even nurturing purposes.”

I dropped the trowel and frying pan next to the baseball and bat, shaking my head at this makeshift arsenal. “My baby is already too smart for its own good.”

Bennett opened his mouth to respond, but he was interrupted when we were distracted by Theo suddenly vanishing into thin air. My cousin and I cheered at the feat he had finally achieved, but our celebration faded as we waited for Theo to show back up – and he didn’t.

“He was supposed to splinter to the back door,” I murmured.

“Eh,” Bennett shrugged, “hitting the correct location the first time is basically unheard of.”

I opened up the connection between me and my mate. Way to go, sweetie! Where did you go?

Frustration trickled down the bond back my way. The enchanted clearing, and I can’t seem to splinter back.

“Would you go get him?” I asked Bennett. “He’s where you picked us up a couple days ago with the High Priestess.”

My cousin’s brows furrowed. “How do you know where he is?”

Oh. Right. “Magical mind-to-mind connection spell.”

Bennett raised his eyebrows and clapped dramatically. “Well, look who’s too good to use a cell phone like the rest of us.”

I opened my mouth to retort, but of course that was the moment Bennett chose to go retrieve my husband. It only took a few seconds for him to return with an arm draped around Theo. My mate took a step toward me to embrace me, but he was distracted by the frying pan he stepped on.

Looking down at my little collection, he raised a questioning eyebrow my way.

“It’s the best we can do,” I patted my belly, “while baby insists Mommy plays nice.”

Theo picked up the frying pan, handing it to me. I took it, feigning a blow with it to his head. He flinched and laughed. “Honestly, I’d bet on you with a frying pan against anyone with a real weapon every time.”

“Fair point,” Bennett agreed. “Alright, five-minute break. Go grab some water.”

Theo smiled at me lovingly, tenderly pulling my free hand to his lips to kiss my knuckles.

“I said grab some water, not some nookie,” Bennett teased. “Ugh, your disturbing level of cutesie love is going to make me vomit.” He made a mock retching noise, then disappeared ahead of us into the house.

“Speaking of vomit,” Theodore interlaced our fingers, guiding me toward the back door, “how are you feeling today?”

I laughed at the gross segue as I dropped the frying pan and snapped my fingers to get rid of the manifested objects. “More dizzy and nauseous today, but it’s been mild enough that I’ve been able to work through it. And this is the first time I’ve had any symptoms since the day you met Lillith, so the bad days are getting better and fewer.”

Theo sighed heavily in relief as he opened the back door for me. I walked into a heated but loving argument between Marcy and Bennett.

“I’m just saying,” my cousin hopped out of our eldest cousin’s reach as she reached to swat him in the arm, “I’m the one out there training them all morning. It’d be nice to come in to some fresh lemonade.”

Marcy plucked a wooden spoon off the counter, angling it toward our baby cousin threateningly. “If you want lemonade, make it yourself, you spoiled brat!” She turned toward me, presumably to persuade me to back her up, but she stopped cold.

“Violet?”

I was probably white as a sheet as Theo closed the door behind us because there, at the kitchen table, sat my mother.