Rainbow Snippets: Barred from her magic

_{^{Rainbow Snippets is a Facebook group for LGBTQ+ authors, readers, and bloggers to gather once a week and share six sentences from a work of fiction–a WIP or a finished work or even a 6-sentence book recommendation.}}

Tracking Trouble will be taking a little break for the next few months as I share snippets from my upcoming novella, Someone Else’s Shoes. It’s a retelling of Cinderella set in the spellster universe.

This snippet continues on from last week, where Tamara tweaked Alla’s sensitive elven ears and left her to tidy up the mess…

Had she the use of her magic, she could’ve done the work in a quarter of the time. And dry myself off. But any thoughts of using her blood-born spellster abilities had been nipped in the bud by her stepmother after the first instance of Alla lighting a fire in the hearth. Even the teeniest flame, no matter the control Alla displayed over it, had been too much for her stepmother.
Alla’s abilities had been neatly locked away for over a decade, kept contained by a chain necklace of purple metal no thicker than her thumb. For my own good. At least, that had been the excuse her stepmother had given when Alla was young. They weren’t afraid of magic—they were spellsters themselves—but letting her have free access? Unthinkable.
Perhaps they were afraid of her inexperience. Certain magics came instinctually, but controlling them took time. Something she had barely begun to manage during the time of her mother’s death. Her father had stressed patience when it came to such matters. Her stepmother had thought otherwise.

Alla will return next weekend with more of Someone Else’s Shoes. In the meantime, check out these other snippets.