JULY PROMPTLY PENNED

So, here we are with another Promptly Penned. This month the prompt is: Well, apparently, rock bottom has a basement. I decided to head back to my new favorite people Tara and Jace. Hope you like it. And here's what I did with it:

Well, apparently, rock bottom had a basement, I thought gloomily, as I surveyed the scene around me and ignored the stupid joke I’d made. Rock, yeah, so not funny. One spell. I’d tried to do one spell and this was what happened. Okay, yeah, I’d tried spells before and they’d gone to shit, but I thought I was beyond that. I mean, I’d actually made an apple light up. Yeah, even to me that sounded lame. Whatever. A girl had to start somewhere.

This spell was supposed to be equally as easy. Or, at least, it seemed so. And helpful, the spell was supposed to be helpful too. I mean, a small helpful spell how much trouble could it cause? Apparently, a hell of a lot judging from the stranger’s body lying at the end of my driveway.

It wasn’t my fault, I thought, as I hurried toward him. And, I’m sure the cops would totally believe that. Really officer, I was just making rocks float when they got out of control and struck this guy over and over. Goddess, please let him not be dead.

“What the fuck?”

I dropped my head and sighed. Ah, yes, couldn’t forget my spotter. I turned to face Jace and stupidly, tears filled my eyes. Shit, Tara, good job, cry all over him. You’re supposed to be some kind of tough-assed witch and yet your spells suck, you kill some innocent bystander, and now you’re weeping.

“What happened?” Jace said, taking my hands.

He was so handsome and earnest, so earnest. I’d just tell the cops he had nothing to do with it. In fact, I didn’t know him. He was just some stranger that happened by to help.

“Tara, are you okay?”

“Me? I’m fine, but I think I might have killed him. That’s bad, right? What am I asking? Of course, it’s bad. Killing someone is way bad. I don’t even know the guy. He was probably lost and asking for directions and now he’s dead. I’m going to go to prison.”

“You’re not going to prison,” Jace said, dropping down to kneel next to my victim. He placed fingers on the guy’s neck and gave a smile. “He’s got a pulse. Let me call an ambulance and you can tell me what happened.”

I stood quietly as he made the call and I tried to figure out what I had done wrong. I followed all the directions. Every single one. The energy I had gathered felt right and good. I knew, knew it was going to work. Instead, well, it hadn’t.

“Okay, tell me. Then we’ll talk about why you didn’t wait for me.”

“You were busy and I really thought I had it. The spell was working.”

“So,” he prompted.

“Okay, so the spell was to recharge the ward around the property. Apparently, this is something every O’Neal woman does when she comes into her power. I had to pick four really good rocks, that spoke to me, or at least that’s what the spell said. I was to imbue them with power and then, at the culmination of the spell they were to go to the four cardinal points around the property and bingo ward recharged.

“Instead of doing that, all four rocks floated in the air and immediately zipped around the front of the house and struck this guy coming up my driveway. Thankfully not killing him, but obviously injuring him. An injury for which I will go to prison.”

“You are not going to prison,” Jace muttered as the wail of an ambulance siren sounded in the distance. “We don’t know what happened. We found him like this. End of story.”

“We can’t lie to the police.”

“Oh, the fuck we can’t and we will too.” He gave me a hard kiss on the lips. “I am not losing you. So, tell me about the wording of the spell. What did it say?”

I licked my lips, still unable to believe this amazing man wanted me. Me. Tara O’Neal, not tall, not model thin or gorgeous. Just plain old Tara.

“Baby, you need to stay with me,” he said, softly, running his thumb over my lips. “Tell me the spell.”

“I fill these stones with the power of Earth, Air, Fire, and Water. To act as a protective shield over this land and the woman who tends it. Send these stones to where they are most needed and renew the protective bond. So, mote it be.”

Jace blinked. “The spell said to send the stones to where they were most needed?”

“Yes, that’s exactly what it said. See.”

I pulled the small spell book from the pocket of the jacket I wore, his jacket. I didn’t want to admit it made me feel as if he were hugging me. The scent of him giving me confidence. That would sound lame, I was sure. I just told him I liked to wear it because it was comfortable.

He studied the page, then turned back to the man on the ground as the ambulance pulled up.

“I don’t think the spell fucked up. I think it did exactly what you wanted it to do. You said to send the stones to where they were needed most and they came here. To him. A guy we’ve never seen before. Who just happened to somehow make it out here to your property. Property that is fairly hard to find. This wasn’t a coincidence.”

I stepped back as the paramedics hurried up. Jace moved to talk to them as I stared at the man with new eyes. Okay, maybe I was still in the basement of rock bottom, but for an entirely unknown reason. I don’t like unknown. Unknown is no good and sneaks up and kicks you in the ass. I looked down at the book in my hands and wondered if there was a spell that could help me. Or, if I could actually take the chance of casting one without hurting someone else.

Now go over and check out Bronwyn, Jessica, and Kris to see what they wrote.