Read Online Believe: The Complete Channie Series by Charlotte Abel - Free Book Online Page B

event, but it doesn’t count as a sport at Monarch. I can’t even get P.E. Credit for it...so racers aren’t jocks.” Josh laughed, but without humor. “Not even if you’re nationally ranked and sponsored.”
    Channie had no idea what BMX racing was, but she wasn’t about to ask the only kid at school that didn’t already think she was nothing but a stupid, inbred hillbilly to explain it.
    “Eric and I only hang out together as a last resort. When there’s no one else available. Now, can I ask you something else?”
    “Of course.”
    “Why did your parents name you Chastity?”
    Channie’s heart skipped a beat, then jumped into double time. Telling an empty about magic was an unforgivable sin. But so was changing her name. She was tired of feeling isolated and unloveable. She and Josh would never be more than casual acquaintances if he didn’t know who and what she really was. Even if they never progressed past friendship, she didn’t want to hide behind a lie. She took a deep breath and said, “Can you keep a secret?”
    “Sure.”
    “I mean it. You can’t tell a single soul.”
    “Cross my heart and hope to die.”
    Channie gasped before she remembered that Josh didn’t have the ability bind himself with a death-pledge. She looked around to be sure no one could overhear her confession. They were completely alone, but she lowered her voice anyway.
    “I’m a mage.”
    “A mage? Like in World of Warcraft?”
    “Like a witch, but we prefer the term ‘mage,’ it’s less offensive.”
    Josh snickered and rolled his eyes. “I suppose you transferred here from Hogwarts.”
    “I transferred here from Arkansas. My name used to be Enchantment, but Daddy caught me talking to some easily influenced, magically disabled boys the day before school started and decided my virtue was in danger. He and Momma changed my name to Chastity. It’s a curse. If I get too close to a boy that’s thinking impure thoughts, I can’t help it, I zap him.”
    Josh laughed. “You should be in my creative writing class. With an imagination like that, it’d be an easy A.”
    Channie glared at him and said, “I am not making this up.”
    “Come on, Channie. You don’t expect me to believe that.”
    “I most certainly do!”
    Josh’s smile disappeared.
    Channie said, “You remember when you kissed me?”
    Josh bit his lip and nodded.
    “In your note, you said that you didn’t know what came over you. Well, I do. You kissed me because I wanted you to. I cast a come-hither spell on you and it wouldn’t have mattered if I were the ugliest girl in the world. You would have kissed me anyway.”
    Josh’s eyes widened. “You wanted me to kiss you?”
    Channie had just confessed to using illegal magic on him and all Josh got out of it was that she’d wanted him to kiss her. This was so frustrating. “It was a test. I needed to activate Chastity’s power and see what would happen before I started school.”
    Josh looked at his feet and nudged a pebble off the concrete path with the side of his shoe. “Yeah, right. Whatever. If you want to blow me off, just say so. I’ll leave you alone.”
    “I’m not blowing you off. My parents changed my name to Chastity so I couldn’t...you know...mess around with boys.”
    Josh’s smile crept back into place. He leaned over his handle bars and inched forward, mischief sparkling in his eyes. Channie knew she was staring again, but she couldn’t help it.
    “So. How close can I get?” The flirtatious tone of Josh’s voice snapped Channie out of her trance.
    She laughed and said, “It depends. How dirty are your thoughts?”
    Josh stopped and jerked his shoulders back, locking his elbows. “My thoughts are not dirty!”
    The crimson blush on his cheeks and ears indicated otherwise, but it was the prickly rush of magic under Channie’s skin that proved he was lying and warned her to back off. She wanted him to believe her, but she didn’t want to convince him by cursing