Magic In The Storm by Meredith Bond Page A

his task as
Kat continued caressing the foal and murmuring words of
comfort.
    Finally she said, “Morgan, how did you put a
suggestion into Adriana’s mind?”
    Morgan stopped what he was doing and looked
at Kat. “I did what?”
    “You put a suggestion into her mind. Didn’t
you know?”
    “No... are you certain?” A small fire sparked
into life inside of Morgan’s belly.
    It only grew as Kat related to him the events
of the previous evening—how Adriana hadn’t been able to speak his
name or mention that she’d met him.
    He couldn’t speak for the excitement, the
thrill, that was welling inside of him. The doe shifted, reminding
Morgan of what he had been doing. He set to work once again, but he
hardly paid any attention.
    He had put a suggestion into Adriana’s mind!
He had performed magic! But how? And how could he have done it
unintentionally? It didn’t make sense. He almost wished that he
could just accept this as fated, but it was too important to not
examine. He needed to know more. Did this mean that he now had his
powers—the powers he should have had his whole life? It took all of
his willpower not jump up and try something—anything!
    “What were you doing when you put the
suggestion into her mind? Where were you?” As always, Kat was
thinking along the same lines. Yes, he thought with a sigh, this
had to be explored before he could try anything new.
    Morgan remembered the day before and the
incredible time he had spent with Adriana—it didn’t take much to
think back to it since it had hardly left his mind. “We were
sitting outside. I was making the potion to cure the animals.”
    He replayed the wonderful scene again in his
mind, but this time tried to look for any magic that might have
taken place, or for anything... different. There had certainly been
sparks between them—that had been magic of a sort. But it was
surely not the kind that could put a suggestion into Adriana’s
mind.
    His hands paused their work, and he shifted
uncomfortably on the ground before saying nonchalantly, “And I
kissed her.”
    Kat jumped as if he had just touched a flame
to her skirts. “You kissed her?” she nearly shouted.
    The doe startled, nearly knocking over the
pail of milk. Morgan calmed her, and then looked to see if there
was enough milk. He could hardly see it. All he could see was
Adriana’s green eyes sparkling with unshed tears when he had told
her he knew what it was like to have no one care for you. All he
could feel was the burning of her hand in his and the knowledge
that she, too, felt the deep loneliness that perpetually resided
within him.
    He shook his head to clear his mind, and then
truly did look at the amount of milk he had collected. It would be
enough. He set a cloth into the pail so that he could feed it to
the foal.
    Morgan could sense Kat watching him closely.
Finally, he couldn’t delay answering her any longer. “Yes, I kissed
her,” he said, straightening his back but not meeting his cousin’s
eyes. “She’s very beautiful and I... I’m attracted to her. I told
her she was very pretty and then I kissed her.”
    He tried to hide his smile as he remembered
Adriana’s soft lips and her sweet scent when he had leaned forward
and pressed his lips to hers. She reminded him of a field of wild
flowers on a warm summer’s day. She had that same fresh smell and
made him feel warm and happy.
    “I hadn’t intended to kiss her—it just
happened,” he admitted. “It was incredible,” he added very softly.
He didn’t tell her how shaken up he’d been by the kiss. How she’d
touched him something deep inside both his body and his mind. How
heat had flooded his nether regions, but that it was the sparks in
his mind that had really... There was no way to explain something
like that to Kat, and even if there was, Morgan wasn’t entirely
sure he could, because he didn’t even understand it himself. He
just knew that being with Adriana made him happier than anything
else