Chapter 8
S tartled awake, Lucy found herself in a room styled as though it was still the 1800s. Had she somehow gone back in time? Then she saw the engraved M at the centre of the mantlepiece across the room.
How the hell did I end up in Matherson Manor? The room spun as she attempted to recall the previous evening. With her mouth furry and head foggy, it started to come back to her in pieces. The lake… Rosie… Luisa’s tea? Stars? The last thing she remembered was being surrounded by countless stars. And the smell of chlorine?
Her stomach grumbled loudly; she was starving. She went to move, only to realise an arm rested across her lap. Bringing a hand to her mouth to silence her cry, Lucy gently eased it off, resting it on the pillow wall between herself and—
Her heart stopped as she saw Benedict Matherson, her nemesis, fast asleep.
Her only relief was that he was fully clothed. Slowly, she eased herself off the bed and made it into the bathroom on the other side of the room. Only then did she take note of her bare legs and a raincoat that was certainly not part of her wardrobe. She didn’t need to check to know there was only her underwear beneath it. She hung her head in her hands, mortified. She guessed she had him to thank for the jacket.
Did he see me half-naked? Oh God, not just half-naked but on that damn mushroom tea! I should have just gone to bed as I planned. Why did I let Rosie talk me into going? She wanted the black bathroom tiles to open up and swallow her whole.
“What was he even doing in the woods?” she asked herself, leaning on the gold-coated sink.In her desperation, she even considered waking him, needing to know what the hell had happened and how they had ended up in the same bed. Which one of them had built the pillow wall? Either way, she was grateful for its presence.
As much as she wanted to jump into his oversized shower – filled with more products than she’d ever thought a man could want – and wash away her humiliation, she wanted to get out of the Manor before he woke up and lorded her crazy night over her. The shame of him witnessing it was too much to bear. Quickly, she replaced the raincoat with a navy robe, only to see his initials over her breast. She rolled her eyes as she let her fingers graze the gold embroidery.
Staring at herself in the mirror, she was instantly thankful to find she hadn’t lost any of her several earrings. Some were handed down through the family, and to lose one would have been devastating. However, her eyes were bloodshot and sore from leaving her contacts in for far too long. She removed them, still able to see up close, to give her eyes a break. She only wished she hadn’t lost her clothes… she let out a groan, reminded of the fact that Benedict had seen her semi-nude. She would’ve preferred it if Hades himself had found her and dragged her back to the underworld.
She was getting off track. What if he uses this against me with the coven? I suppose I could argue that if I was out, he was too?
She tried to use her element to fill the sink with water, afraid the sound of running water through the old pipes would wake Benedict, but nothing happened. She steadied her breathing and tried again. “The tea must have weakened me,” she muttered, but she’d tried Luisa’s tea before when they were doing a seance, and she didn’t recall it having any effect on her element.
Putting it down to the stress of the last twenty-four hours, she told herself she’dbe fine in a bit. Thankfully, the clock on the bathroom wall showed that she had some time before dawn, but someone was bound to notice if she walked through the hotel in Benedict’s robe. She sat on the edge of the tub, contemplating what to do. She’d left her phone at home before she’d gone to meet the others at the lake.
I could try teleporting, but it might not work. If my element isn’t working, my teleporting skills might also be weakened. She considered putting on a brave face and waking Benedict, demanding he take her home, but when she opened the door a crack, he stirred and she quickly closed it again. There was no way she could face him.
Praying her magic would still work, even if her element was off, she squeezed her eyes shut and pictured home.
The warmth of the heated tile was replaced with the damp feel of the porch beneath her feet. Lucy couldn’t help but jump for joy as she found herself at her front door. If she hadn’t been afraid of the neighbours seeing her in a Matherson robe she would have kissed every inch of the porch, damn the splinters.
“Strange… the tea allowed me to portal, but not to use my water magic. How does that make sense?” she murmured to herself.
She didn’t have a chance to think about it before she spotted her neighbour coming out across the street with their dogs. Lucy darted inside before she could be seen. Avoiding the creaky floorboards, having mastered them as a teen, she made it to the attic without incident. Taking her first calm, deep breath of the morning, she turned on the ornate lamp by her desk, careful not to knock off the pile of annotated books. She didn’t have time to tidy up, and she desperately needed to wash up before her mum or Grams saw her in Benedict’s robe first thing in the morning only hours after agreeing to his proposal.
An image of him on his knee, with her foot on his lap, sprang to mind. It couldn’t be real, but his smirk in her memory seemed all too real.
Chaos, her grey cat, climbed out from the many pastel cushions on the unmade bed and stretched out her claws.
“Morning, girl,” Lucy cooed, reaching for her furry friend, in desperate need of a cuddle.
To her surprise, Chaos jumped out of her reach, arching her back as though Lucy were the enemy.
“What’s wrong with you?” She followed the cat, who quickly hopped on top of her antique wardrobe and out of her reach. “Fine, stay up there!” Chaos had never run from her before; this morning was getting stranger by the minute.
Her old alarm clock told her she had an hour to open the library. She didn’t have time to worry about her element being off or her cat ignoring her.Grabbing a pair of sheer spotty black tights and a dark green sweater dress which hugged her curves, she shoved them under her arm in a bundle, picking black ankle boots to keep her warm. Her feet were a little sore after going barefoot through the forest. Taking her phone from the nightstand, she grimaced when she saw she had twenty missed calls. Hopefully Rosie had her clothes and wasn’t too mad at her for running off.
Why did I have to take off my clothes? I’m never drinking anything Luisa gives me again. She made her way down the attic stairs, listening to Rosie’s panicked voice note once she reached the bathroom.
“LUCY! Call me when you get this! How could you run off like that? You scared us to death. I tracked you to Matherson Manor, but the gate was locked. How did you end up there? I’ve got your clothes – please, please let me know you’re okay. I’m never letting you drink Luisa’s tea ever again.”
Thank goodness Rosie hadn’t tracked her inside the manor and caused a scene in the middle of the night. Not wanting to wake her friend, Lucy decided a text would be best.
I’m fine, please don’t worry. I’m home safe and sound. Thank you for keeping my clothes and no I will never drink any of L’s tea again! Sorry for scaring you all. I’ll see you later and we can talk. X
In the shower, she untangled a cobweb from her mess of dark hair. The night came back to her in vague flashes. Staring up at the stars by a pool, the manor rooftop. As she washed dirt from the random parts of her body, she could have sworn she remembered Benedict washing her feet. She groaned in humiliation, letting the hot water burn away the memories.
She didn’t remember how she’d got to the room. Only the warmth of resting her head against Benedict’s chest, the sound of his heartbeat. How she fitted perfectly in the crook of his arm.
N o, no, no. I didn’t fit perfectly anywhere. It was the tea. He was just being a decent human being. Oh God, did I ask him to stay with me? He has to know it was the tea. There’s no way he thought I was in my right mind last night.
Steam billowed around her, and she darted out of the path of suddenly scorching water. What the hell is up with the water? She stared up at the nozzle. The dial was on her usual setting; she hadn’t bumped it or anything. Did I somehow heat the water? No way! It might be the boiler acting up again. She got out, afraid more memories of the previous night would surface if she stayed in any longer.
Dressed, she swept her hair up into a loose ponytail. At least her fringe helped conceal her tired eyes, still red from having worn her contacts too long. Her glasses would also cover the less-than-perfect job she’d done on her eyeliner – something she wouldn’t attempt again while hungover.
Leaning against the kitchen counter, Lucy stared at the toaster, waiting for it to pop. Her fringe had dried quickly, though the ends were a little damp. She pulled her sleeves over her hands; the house was always a little chilly in the mornings, thanks to all the old windows and stone walls. She hoped she wasn’t getting a cold after running half-naked through the woods last night.
Without warning, the toaster burst into flames, filling the kitchen with black smoke.
“Holy hell!” she cried, yanking the plug from the wall before summoning her water magic to extinguish it. To her amazement, the flames only grew as she tried to use her element. She froze. The flames licked at the counter, threatening to spread.
“What in the goddess is going on?” Grams hurried up behind her in her floral robe. Her pink curlers were still in her white hair.
“I don’t know! I tried to stop it, but I couldn’t—” Lucinda stammered.
Grams clapped her hands. The fire disappeared, leaving only smoke behind. Lucy opened the windows above the sink, letting it escape, and wiped her steamed-up glasses, stopping when she realised her hands were shaking.
Grams took hold of her hands, trying to soothe her, only to snatch her hand away as though she’d been scalded. “You’re burning up!” she exclaimed.
“What do you mean?” Lucy touched her hand to her cheek; it felt cool. “Feels normal to me.”
“How did the fire start?” Grams asked, tightening her robe around her waist.
“I don’t know. I was thinking about the binding with Benedict,” she lied, unable to explain that she’d been remembering how her sort-of-fiancé had found her wandering in the woods in her underwear. “I can’t explain it.”
“How did you feel in the moment before the flames burst?”
“Overwhelmed? Then the toaster was on fire!”
“Could you have set it on fire?” Grams asked carefully, raising her fair eyebrows.
Lucy shook her head. “That’s not possible. It was an old toaster. I probably put the setting up too high. I was preparing Chaos’s breakfast; I could have hit the dial.” It must have been a mistake. Why did her grandmother’s questioning gaze make her so anxious? “Don’t look at me like that! I can’t be channelling fire! No one in our family has ever done that. Also, it’s far too late for another element to show itself.” Once the brain was fully developed at twenty-five, so did the possibility of developing another element.
“There’s a first for everything. I think we should talk to your mum about this,” Grams said, rocking back and forth on her slippered heels.
If it was just the fuse, why did Grams think my skin was burning? Lucy remembered the boiling water in the shower this morning. Had she caused that too? She needed to escape the conversation. She forced herself to smile, to conceal her concern so that Grams would let her leave.
“Later. I’m sure it’s nothing to worry about. It was an old toaster – we’re probably overthinking this.” The last thing she wanted was her mum asking what she had been up to in the last twenty-four hours. There was still the chance it was the tea, and she didn’t want her mother to think she wasn’t coping with the Benedict and coven situation.
“Okay. If you think it’s nothing,” Grams said, still looking as uneasy as Lucy felt. The smoke might’ve cleared, but the smell of burnt toast lingered.
On the counter, Chaos distracted them by kicking her breakfast bowl off the counter.
“I want you to call me at the tarot shop if anything else happens. I’m doing readings in the afternoon,” Grams said, stroking the cat, who hissed at Lucy as she grabbed her bag from the counter.
“What’s up with you?” Grams asked, picking Chaos up with ease. She snuggled into her shoulder. Grams frowned. “Odd. She never usually cuddles in like this.”
Lucy rolled her eyes. “I don’t know, she’s been like that all morning.” She kissed Gram’s cheek, careful not to touch her, just in case. “I’m going to work. I’ll see you tonight.”
Closing the door behind her, she stared at her hands for a minute, but she didn’t have time to think of who she’d woken up with this morning or last night’s coven meeting if she was going to open the library on time. She grabbed a smoothie and a bagel on the way to the library, careful not to accidentally use her magic.
Gram’s words played on her mind. What if she had set the fire?
Suddenly it hit her. Grams had mixed up the last ingredient of last night’s makeshift love spell. What if the mistake altered the meaning of the spell? She figured the only place she would find answers was the very place she was headed.