Three Witches #1: Magnus and Magnolia

Chapter 39 (Magnus): Never Hurt Your Witch

Copyright © 2024 by GroveltoHEA

"Being in love with a witch in no easy task," Boone said. We were walking along his property, the world's biggest dog walking alongside us. The beast took off after two squirrels, and Boone called him back with a quiet Twitch.

Twitch came  running back immediately, tongue hanging out, looking completely innocent. Just stretching my legs!

After Magnolia and I had met with Butcher and he'd consigned Lamia to the dust she came from, we'd headed for Rosemary and Boone's that Monday, leaving early.

We'd driven a few hours before pulling up to a house in the middle of cornfields for as far as I could see. Boone and Rosemary had come out to the car to meet us, and they'd been welcoming despite knowing that I'd cheated on Magnolia and had sent her here in the first place.

We'd gotten a tour of the  house, obviously for my benefit, and then Rosemary and Boone had made us lunch. We ate, and Rosemary and Magnolia carried the conversation and Boone and I jumped in when necessary, but I was content to listen to the two witches. Rosemary's husband felt the same way, and he followed every word and gesture of his wife with the expression of a lovesick puppy.

The same way I watched Magnolia, I suspected.

After lunch, Rosemary and Magnolia wanted to head into town and Boone suggested a walk.

We 'd been walking for a bit when he'd told me about loving a witch not being easy.

"Figured that out pretty quick when I saw her the first time after she got back."

"That first time is never good," he agreed. "A witch with a broken heart and newly-discovered powers is not a good combination."

No, it hadn't been. "But it was amazing to see. Had no clue what the fuck was happening, but it was still the most incredible thing I'd ever seen up to that point in my life. She was breathtaking."

Boone nodded.

"You see her with a fairy?" I asked. "Like real time video of her being with him?"

"Kessem," he bit out and there was enough bitterness to know he felt like I did about the blonde fucker I'd seen Magnolia with. "No right to feel that way given that I cheated on her with her cousin. But...those assholes...they're magical beings. You can't compare to that."

"I think we deserve that. Knowing we can't compare. We were already lacking since we cheated. Maybe they're brought into their lives to emphasize just how we failed them."

"But they're not real," Boone protested mildly. "Rosie gets this look in her eyes sometimes -- not often, fortunately -- and I know she's fucking remembering her time with him. I have to work to get her focus back on me. And I make sure I replace her memories of him with me, with our life, with our real life, not some fairytale fantasy."

I didn't think we could compete.

"The kicker is that she loved me wholly and completely before I cheated on her. She was entirely mine. Then I broke her heart, and when she came back, a part of her belonged to someone else. A part I've never been able to take back."

"Kind of like we gave a part of ourselves away to another woman and they had that burned in their brains since they walked in on us with the anti-witches."

"That's one way to look at it, but where the women didn't matter to us, those fairy fuckers meant something to them." Stopping on  the path, Boone turned to look at me. "You need to know something, and maybe you already do, but the way you're talking makes me think you don't."

"What is it?"

"Once the witch definitively decides to be with you or not, if she decides to be with you, those three motherfuckers come back. Give her a choice. Right in front of us. No chance to talk it out. They just pop in and lay it out to her and demand an answer. And you have to stand there like a helpless idiot and listen as she chooses."

"What's the choice?"

He frowned. "The witch has to choose whether or not to take back the piece of her heart she'd given to the fairy fucker."

"Tell me exactly what that means." I had a sinking feeling I knew, but I needed to hear it.

"She can choose to remember the fairy fucker or she can say good bye to him, let him go. If she says good bye, she won't remember him going forward. She'll remember her training, learning about being a witch, even remember him helping with her training, but she won't remember having sex with him, just how much he meant to her."

"I get it."

"If she chooses to remember him, he will always own a small sliver of her heart. That piece she withholds will never be yours. It belonged to you once, you had every part of her heart, and you never will again. You'll see a soft look in her eyes sometimes, her gaze focused on something far away, and you'll know she's remembering him. Their time together. What they shared."

"And Rosemary chose to remember him."

"She did. But the fae insist on balance, so after she makes her choice, you get a choice. Walk away from the witch or stay."

"You obviously chose to stay."

"It was never really a choice. I would rather hold most of Rosie's heart than none of it. I'd rather be with her knowing that someone else claimed a small part of her heart than live a life without her. I would happily take from her whatever she was willing to give me."

Twitch came up and nudged Boone's hand and Boone scratched him behind the ears.

"Gotta tell you, most days it's not a problem, but sometimes it cuts deep. And on those days, you're reminded all over again, as if you could ever forget, what the witch saw and what you did to her. She lives with her pain and I live with mine."

"You  don't regret it."

"Hell, no," Boone said. "Rosemary is everything to me. She's my life, and I thank God every day that she came back to me. I know she loves me. And she knows how much I love her. But now we carry our scars with us, and we've come to realize that love isn't perfect and unblemished because our scars became part of our story. We fought for it and now it's ours, perfect in some places and imperfect in others."

That struck a chord with me. Perfect. Imperfect. Fighting for something.

"I don't know shit about perfection because that hasn't been my life, Boone. But I know about carrying scars, and I'll gladly accept her feelings for the blonde asshole if I can still have some part of her. Even if he held the majority of her heart and I only got the sliver, I'd be like sign me the fuck up. I want Magnolia in my life."

"Your job becomes easier, then, if you accept it so readily. Rosemary and I had some growing pains but we worked through them. Once you commit to a witch, you become her support, her protector, her guard."

We were getting down to what I  wanted to know.

"That's what I wanted to learn from you, why I needed to pick your brain, so I could learn how to best take care of Noli, support her powers, be what she needs me to be so she can focus on doing what she was put here to do."

"It's important to think that way. You always have to keep in mind that the witch will always be the star of the show, and you're a supporting actor. She is more powerful than anyone you know, and your role is to free her to work her magic, so to speak."

Apparently Boone wasn't aware of Oberon and Butcher.

"I'll do whatever I have to for Magnolia."

"You need to. You can never hurt your witch again."

"I would die before I hurt her again."

"Also true because when the fae give you the final choice, they also promise to end you if you ever hurt your witch again."