Now her stomach twisted into a knot so tight, she thought her belly might explode. “Just say it.”
January put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed as she looked her straight in the eye. “You’re surrounded by hatred right now.”
Hatred? Her chest grew tight as her legs grew wobbly. “And?”
“And it wants you out of the picture.”
Now her throat dried up, too, and her heart began to crash against her ribs. “Like, out of the picture move to Canada? Or out of the picture as in it’s curtains for you?”
Now January planted both hands on her shoulders as Rick pressed his hands into her waist. “As in, out of the picture someone wants you dead.”
Chapter 12
“I think I need to sit,” Poppy murmured, reaching blindly for the first thing to support her, but Rick grabbed her around the waist from behind and brought her back to the couch, setting her down and sitting next to her.
He grabbed her hand and looked to January, who’d taken the armchair opposite them. “Do you know the origin of this hate?”
She shook her head, her eyes sympathetic and round behind her glasses. “I don’t. I can’t pinpoint it. I might be able to summon something with a spell, but whoever is behind this won’t easily be revealed.”
Marty slid a cup of tea in front of Poppy. When she didn’t respond, she physically took her hands and placed them around the cup then sat on the side of the couch and wrapped an arm around Poppy, letting her chin rest on the top of her head. “Drink, honey. Drink and breathe,” she whispered.
So in this crazy new society, and in her deep desire to understand these people whom she’d call her own, she decided to face this head on and not only attack it but understand it. “Please explain what you mean when you say I’m surrounded by hate. I don’t understand how you can see something like that.”
“As I said, I’m a witch, Poppy. I can see auras, and your aura is mingled with someone else’s. But sometimes, because I’m certainly not the most powerful witch, I can’t always see the person belonging to the hateful aura unless they’re right in front of me. Like, in your case, your aura is light and breezy. You’ve had hard times, but your passion, your creativity keeps you tethered to the joy of life. You never give up. You have a good heart. You’re loyal and kind, hardworking. You throw yourself into whatever it is you do, and you do it with all your heart. You’re all things good, and when I look at you, I see that—so clearly, so brightly. There is no malice in you.
“But there’s an aura, one lurking in the shadows of your own aura, and it’s angry. So angry. I’d go so far as to say malevolent. It’s ugly, and for whatever reason, it wants something extinguished to feed its anger. I suspect this is why you were launched into the woods the other night. It was an attempt to purge hatred—to appease it. It’s a temper tantrum of sorts.”
A shiver assaulted her, threading throughout her body in tremors. “So what do I do? How do I combat this hate? One I can’t see? Who could possibly hate me enough to want me dead? I mean, sure, there are people who don’t like me. We all have our haters, right? But this is a little extreme, and I’m going to be honest—no one has attempted to take my life until I got here and became one of you.”
“I won’t lie, Poppy. Your new world, Rick’s world and mine, is filled with plenty of good, but there’s also bad, too.”
Yeah. This was so much good. “Which leads me back to my original question. What do I do to stop this? Will there be more attempts on my life?”
“Not if I can help it,” Rick said, his face a tight mask of anger.
“This is my fault,” Calamity said mournfully from her feet. “All my damn fault. I’m sorry, Poppy. So damn sorry.”
Closing her eyes, she reached down and scratched Calamity’s ear. “No blame, Calamity. It was an accident. I know that.” Then she lifted her chin. “So auras and evil on the back burner for a second, how did I turn Rick to stone and tear up his ceiling in his kitchen with just the wave of my hand? I thought you guys had all the power and we were just supposed to advise you? Why is mine so strong?”
Smiling, January leaned forward, her eyes twinkling from behind her frames. “Because sometimes, when a match like yours is made, it’s fated, and you get the double-whammy effect. Rick’s magic, plus your very new, very fragile and out-of-control magic, make for some very solid magic.”
“Hah!” Calamity chirped, jumping to the kitchen island where Nina sat and lifting a paw. “Up top, Half-Breed. I knew it! The two of you together are magic times ten!”
Nina fist-bumped Calamity and winked, her grin wide. “You called it, you pain in my ass.”