Page 19 of Hexual Healing
The house made its agreement creak again, and I could have sworn the remaining walls stood a little straighter, a little prouder.
My magic had brought a building to life, and that building had chosen violence.For me…
For us.
I probably should have been terrified.Instead, I found myself patting the nearest wall.“Good house.Very good house.”
It purred.
The house purred.
What the hell have I done?
* * *
“Nobody move,” I said, which was ridiculous because Garyneverlistened to me, and Baz was bleeding all over his destroyed living room.“The house is purring.Houses shouldn't purr.”
“Your wards shouldn't have a vendetta either, but here we are,” Gary observed from his shelf.“I, for one, welcome our new architectural overlord.”
The purring intensified, vibrating through the floorboards like the world's largest, most disturbing cat.I took a step back and immediately regretted it.The floor beneath my foot turned spongy, almost cushion-like, as if the house was trying to make me comfortable.
“Oh no,” I whispered.“It likes me.”
“Of course it likes you,” Baz said, pressing his hand against the weeping claw marks on his chest.“You gave it consciousness, and its first act was violence.That basically makes you its mother.”
“I am NOT a house mother!”
A cabinet door swung open gently, revealing a first aid kit inside.The house was trying to be helpful.That was somehow more frightening than when it was attacking Illanya.
“We need to tend to that wound,” I said to Baz, grateful for the distraction.It was also the least I could do for him, after he’d not only taken care of me but put his life, and home, on the line to defend me.I grabbed the kit and walked back over to him.“Sit down before you bleed out.”
“It's not that bad.”
“Sit!”I commanded as I pointed to a cushion on the couch and glared.
He sat.The couch, which had tried to eat Illanya what felt like all of five minutes ago, cradled him like a concerned grandmother.I knelt in front of him, opened the kit, and immediately realized I had absolutely no idea what I was doing.
“Just clean it,” he said softly.“I heal fast.”
I dabbed at the wounds with antiseptic, trying not to notice how my magic reacted to being this close to him.Every touch sent little spirals of light between us, purple and gold mixing in patterns that made no sense.I could somehow sense the curse was confused, caught between wanting to punish me for feeling safe and wanting to explode because Baz was hurt.
“Your magic's showing,” Gary commented.
I looked down.He was right.Light was literally leaking from my pores, pooling around my knees like luminescent fog.As I watched, it spread across the floor, and everywhere it touched, something changed.The broken furniture started repairing itself, but wrong.The coffee table grew legs, actual legs, with knees and everything.A lamp sprouted leaves.The throw rug developed what looked suspiciously like eyes.
“I can't control it,” I said, panic rising.“It's been getting worse.”
“Define worse,” Baz said, then sucked in a breath as I cleaned a particularly deep gash.
“Worse, as in every emotion triggers a magical explosion or fire.Worse, as in”—I gestured around the room—”I accidentally gave your house feelings, and now it's adopted me.”
The ceiling creaked affectionately.
“That doesn't sound worse,” Baz said.“That sounds useful.”
“Useful?”I stared at him.“I turned your coffee table into a centaur!”
We all looked at the coffee table, which was indeed prancing around on its new legs, looking deeply confused about its newfound mobility.