Page 114 of How to Flirt with a Witch

I furrow my brow, trying to grasp what he’s saying. “Explain.”

He pulls over in front of a blue ranch-style house. Cars are parked along the street, their windows frosted. On the opposite side, a woman in a knee-length parka walks her Golden Retriever and tows a kid in a wagon—life carrying on as normal.

“I want you to understand what’s going on,” Freddie says. He puts the car in park and turns around in the driver’s seat to face me. “Witches curse objects to hide the real magic underneath.”

I stare at him, my heart thudding. I didn’t consider that curses are there to protect something, but it fits. CSAMM is trying to regulatemagic, and what better way to stop someone from accessing it than by hiding it beneath a curse?

“What kind of magic?” I ask, skeptical.

“All of it.”

When I keep staring in confusion, his thick eyebrows shoot up. “Wow, Nat hasn’t told you anything, has she? Katie, witches aremade, not born.”

“That’s not…” I trail off, my mouth dry. Did Natalie ever actually say she was born with magical abilities?

My pulse quickens. The urgent need to escape the vehicle fades, replaced by a burning desire to understand what Freddie brought me here to tell me.

I swallow, finding it harder to sound unconvinced as my voice trembles. “You’re telling me every time I’ve laid hands on a cursed item, I’ve been holding the ability to become a witch?”

The purple gemstones flash through my mind’s eye. Is that real magic appearing after a curse is neutralized?

Freddie nods, his mouth a thin line. His blue eyes are piercing against the drab, wintry sky. “They’ve been lying to you. They’re making you do their dirty work without giving you the option to have the magic you’re helping to destroy.”

Doubts crash through my mind like waves in a storm. I feel small, pathetic, a tag-along on all these assignments. Is Freddie right? Have the witches ever thought of me as one of them, or am I just a workhorse?

“But why would they want to destroy magic?” I ask.

A car approaches, and Freddie snaps his gaze ahead. But it’s just a red minivan. As it passes, he lets out a breath and continues. “It’s in the name. The oath. The Coven of whatever forManaging Magic.Their whole goal and purpose is to stop anybody but themselves from using it. All that means is they’re hoarding it.”

“They’re keeping the public safe,” I say—but I’m spewing what they’ve told me. Do I really believe this? A knot forms in my stomach, twisting tighter with each word Freddie speaks.

“You agree with the oath, then? Do you think nobody, even yourself, should have the right to magic?” His voice is gentle, his cheeks rosy, his eyes bright, reminding me of when we met on New Year’s. I thought he was nice before his intentions became clear. He’s like a shapeshifter, one minute a terrifying criminal, and the next, this normal guy trying to explain his cause.

I grind my teeth, unsure how to respond. A pang shoots through my temples, like my brain is working too hard to try and sort through this information. How am I supposed to work for CSAMM when I don’t know the full truth about what they stand for?

“You’ve been fighting against me and my family without understanding why,” Freddie says. “We just believe the coven has had an unfair monopoly over magic for long enough. Don’t you think anybody should be free to use magic? Yourself, even? This is about equality.”

I don’t know what to say. Yeah, I’d like to be a witch. I’d love to be able to move the earth the way Natalie can.

My brain feels like a wasp nest, and I suck in a breath, trying to calm my racing thoughts. Is CSAMM creating a class system by hoarding magic? Do they have the right to decide who can and can’t access it?

A new kind of pain hits me, a betrayal so deep my chest aches. When I came to CSAMM with a skill the witches desperately needed, they could have granted me magic. Instead, they’ve kept me on the outskirts, dangling scraps of information while taking advantage of my ability.

My nails dig into my palms as the truth bubbles through me like lava.

Freddie opens his door and steps out. Through the window, he walks around to the back. He swings open the trunk door, and a blast of cold air hits me.

He stands there with his arms at his sides. I don’t move.

“How do you access the magic once the curse is neutralized?” I lift my chin to look up at him, my voice trembling.

Freddie crosses his arms over his broad chest. “That’s what we’ve been trying to answer for years. We can never do it before the curse’s full power takes hold and…” He trails off, and I think of the lackeys Natalie mentioned. The people they send in to grab cursed items. Each one they acquire must be a race against time—a desperate quest to figure out what to do with it now that they have it.

“But you know how to neutralize a curse?” I ask.

“Those vials they always whip out?”

“Yeah.” Between Natalie telling me nothing and the fact that CSAMM won’t let me be on everyone else’s level, rage simmers inside me, and bile creeps up my throat. “I don’t know anything more than that. I’m lucky she even showed me Alchemy 13.”