So that meant by the time her magick had stopped reacting to Jack's ... Realization hit her. That meant what she'd felt for Jack at the end had had nothing to do with their magickal affinity. That's why she'd sensed their magicks brush and then recede the night they'd spent in bed. The magicks had balanced, but the intense attraction had remained.

When they'd made love, that had been all them, not the magick.

Pure Jack. Pure Mira.

"Want to try again, or do you need a break?" Serena asked. "You seem kind of distracted. Thinking about a man?”

Wow, was she that transparent? "Why would you say that?”

Her cousin laughed. "Well, you did just ask about sexual attraction, Mira.”

"Well, yeah." She smiled. "I guess I did.”

Serena looked like her brother only in the respect that they were both attractive. Thomas's sister was light where he was dark, though they shared some of the same facial features, like the high cheekbones and the full, sensual mouth. Her eyes were a pretty shade of blue, rather than her brother's disconcerting near black.

They both had inherited earth elemental abilities, which encompassed many things, including an ability to use herbal concoctions better than any pharmacist could mix a drug. They magickally "tweaked" the potency and abilities of the potion to suit their need.

Earth magick, Mira was coming to discover, was the stereotypical sort of magick. Earth witches dealt with potions and spell casting based on plants. They were what the non-magickal population had come to view as true witches over the years.

When Mira had her period the week before, it had come with bad cramps that had kept her away from training. Mira brewed her favorite lemon balm tea to ease the pain, but not even that had taken care of it all. So Serena had offered her a store of stronger herbals to use for the cramps and told her they also acted as effective birth control without any side effects. Mira had accepted them thankfully, though she didn't know if she had need of the birth control since Jack seemed to be avoiding her quite well.

And why was Jack avoiding her anyway?

"Mira?”

She jerked back from wherever she'd drifted in the big sea of Jack and found Serena frowning at her. "Sorry. I guess your big brother will be upset that I can't access my magick.”

"He's your cousin," she corrected gently, "not only my big brother." Mira still couldn't get used to the idea. "He just wants you to be able to defend yourself if it comes down to that. And anyway, he's more bark man he is bite. Well... most of the time.”

"Gee, thanks. That's reassuring, Serena. What's his story anyway? Why did he take over the Coven instead of you?”