Liam kisses my forehead, reminding me where I am and with whom.
"Sorry," I mutter. "I was thinking..."
"I could tell. You ignored me and my abs for almost a full minute straight. I'm vexed."
I chuckle and, just to play, I lean forward to kiss him, while running my fingers down those abs... Liam shivers and grabs my wrist.
"Oh, no, no, no, you bad witch... Hands off that area, please."
Bad witch.
...Am I really a Dark Witch? Is it about my magic or my body? Or my actions? I can't begin to understand what that curse was trying to say, but I feel like there's something very important about it. Why has it changed so much since the last time?
"...And there she goes again," sighs Liam.
"Sorry," I sigh, kissing him quickly again as an apology. "That curse just gave me a lot of... food for thought."
"Anything I can help with?"
I hesitate... Well, we do need more honesty, so...
"Liam, do you think I could be a Dark Witch?"
To my surprise, after raising an eyebrow, he clearly hesitates. I see him making little movements with his lips, seriously pondering over the subject. I wait. I know he wouldn't lie just to comfort me, and seeing his reaction, I'm even more curious now...
"To be honest, I'm... not really sure what you are. I always thought you had a totally different vibe from the other witches I've met. I thought it was because we were mates, or because you are half-werewolf... You're kind of a lot of different things, so it's hard to compare with anything I've known, but..."
"But?"
"I don't know," he shrugs. "Mara, you're really... different. You might be the first witch she-wolf in a while too, and you had kind of... an unusual story."
That's for sure. I was basically born from... a curse myself, wasn't I? Clarissa and little Mara converted the energy of their dark curse to create me. At first, I wanted to tell myself they had used Light Magic and created something good out of something bad, but... isn't that too simple? Or just my wishful thinking?
There is no... right or wrong in magic circles. The curse is undoubtedly dark because it is nothing but a bundle of dark feelings, that's a fact. However, what about everything else? Witches aren't born evil, they turn to the darkness because of resentment, anger, envy. They do bad things and use magic in a wrong way, using it to torment others, but... would it make sense that magic itself was evil?
"Mara, Sylviana had mentioned that... Dark Witches use other people's energy to feed their magic. Good witches use their own, and that's how they get the dark markings. They use their own life force, and they sacrifice their lives for it..."
"...I haven't been getting dark markings," I whisper.
"What?"
"During my fight with Ayesha. I mean... since little Mara is gone, there has been no trace of those dark markings, that would say I use my own energy."
Liam gasps, realizing what I'm saying.
Shit, I didn't even realize. I had become so powerful all of a sudden, I didn't even notice I wasn't getting marked by my use of magic anymore. I felt powerful, and tired when I used too much, but something in my body definitely changed. How? What did I do, what happened? More importantly, where have I been getting all that energy I have...?
"Mara!"
We both turn our heads and Kelsi runs in, but she makes a brutal stop once she witnesses our position, and Liam's naked torso. She becomes red and turns around, just as Ben, still in his wolf form, walks in too.
"S-sorry!"
"You're good, Kelsi," I chuckle.
"If you're going to date a werewolf, you might want to get used to that," laughs Liam.
I punch his torso, making him groan.
