Chapter 14
“ I ’m sorry for how Benedict spoke to you. His family were prosecuted by the Order for generations. Don’t take it personally,” Lucy said to Emerson by the front door. If she were to be honest, she considered Benedict’s reaction better than it could have been. She figured he’d shown restraint because her mother and Grams had been present.
“With the Mathersons’ history, and all that has transpired between his family and the order, I wasn’t expecting a warm embrace from him. I wouldn’t have been surprised if he’d set me on fire – at least you’d have been able to put me out,” Emerson quipped. Thankfully, he didn’t hold a grudge. She didn’t want him to report Benedict’s hostile behaviour.
“Thank you for understanding. I’m sure once you get to know him you’ll see he doesn’t quite live up to their reputation,” Lucy said, taking the topic as far away from elemental magic as possible. Even if they didn’t get along, the thought of the Order coming for Benedict caused a lump in her throat. It made her uneasy that Emerson knew so much about them. She reminded herself he’d passed her earlier tests. And if Grams had sensed anything off about him, she certainly wouldn’t have been encouraging me to date him.
“Leaving so soon? I’ve put on a pot of coffee,” Wilhelmina offered, finding them in the hallway.
“It’s been a long day, and I wouldn’t want to overstay my welcome,” Emerson said, putting on his jacket. He’d taken Lucy’s advice and not reattached the pin. At least he was polite enough to say goodbye. Benedict had disappeared without a word, which did nothing to settle her nerves.
“I’ll see you tomorrow; we open up at eight. Please don’t feel you have to come first thing.”
“I’m used to university hours, so early works for me,” Emerson assured her.
“There’s another meeting about the Autumn Festival tomorrow morning. Benedict told Grams before he left,” Wilhelmina added, her strained expression telling her daughter she had no choice but to attend.
“I won’t miss it. Rosie will still be there to open the library. I’m sure she would be grateful for your help again,” Lucy said, hoping Emerson wouldn’t mind.
“No rush. Rosie invited me for breakfast, so I can walk with her.”
“She does make a great mimosa!” Though it’s more alcohol than orange juice. She silently thanked Rosie for making him feel welcome. Rosie knew what it was like to be new in town.
“I’ll see you tomorrow!” Emerson waved, heading down the path. Lucy waited until he’d secured the gate behind him before she closed the door.
“He is so handsome; that sandy hair reminds me of your grandfather,” Grams sighed, lingering at her back. “If I was forty years younger…”
“Ha. Don’t let that stop you,” Lucy teased.
“Don’t encourage her,” Wilhelmina said.
“I was just saying to Lucy, Wilhelmina, what a lovely young man he is. Exactly what we asked for, in fact.”
“He also held up impeccably well under Benedict’s scrutiny,” Wilhelmina agreed.
“ You can’t think the spell brought him too,” Lucy groaned. There’s no spark between us! Then again, she and Benedict might have spark, but it was more like full-blown forest fires. Maybe her mum and Grams had a point. “Dad recommended him to the university weeks ago. He would have come whether or not the spell was cast.”
“Still, the timing is interesting,” Grams pointed out. “But even if it was the spell, the choice is yours.”
“Don’t you think he’s… too perfect?” Lucy asked, replaying dinner and their earlier introduction. Benedict had managed to get a rise out of him, so she knew there was at least some anger beneath his passive demeanour.
“I’m sure he was nervous, but coming here shows courage. Nothing’s stopping you from getting to know him. Forget about the spell and let your feelings guide you,” Wilhelmina said, echoing what Grams had said in the kitchen.
“What about the binding and my responsibilities to the coven?” Lucy fretted, pulling at her sleeves. “If they even get a whiff that I’m getting close to someone, it could ruin my chances.”
“The world won’t end if you don’t bind yourself to Benedict, or decide against leading the coven,” Wilhelmina said, resting a hand on her shoulder.
Lucy was taken aback. They’d been talking about her taking her mum’s place since she was in nappies. Her palms began to sweat; she really couldn’t handle any more ifs. She resolved to only focus on what she did know.
“I’ll do as I promised the coven unless Benedict changes his mind. Emerson is only here to collect the grimoire and work at the university. That’s all we know for certain. I already have to deal with—” Lucy stopped herself before she said too much. Thankfully, they didn’t catch it.
“Everything seems overwhelming now, but a good night’s rest can make everything better.” Grams wrapped her arms around her granddaughter.
“Let’s see where the next few weeks take you. I’ve no doubt things will work out as fate intended,” Mum said, leading them towards the staircase.
“Do you always have to be so cryptic? I wish you’d tell me what to do,” Lucy whined, hugging her mum goodnight.
“It’s my job to let you find your path, as we chose ours.” Mum looked at Grams with a soft smile.
“Are you speaking as a mum or High Priestess?” Lucy asked. They might understand what it was to be a High Priestess, but they’d inherited their seats, whereas she was meant to either marry Benedict or face an election. It was a totally different set of stressful circumstances.
“Both.” Mum winked. “Get some rest.”
Lucy nodded, before heading upstairs to her room.
“Please don’t jump!” Benedict appeared from the shadows by the balcony as Lucy stood by the circular window seat.
Thankfully, her room was protected with a sound-proofing spell, so Lucy’s squeal shouldn’t disturb the rest of the house. However, Chaos – peacefully asleep on her cat tower– jumped as much as her owner with a hiss.
“How did you even get in?” Lucy snapped, before noticing the balcony door by the right of her bed was open. However, the smell of smoke distracted her. What’s burning?
Benedict rushed past her. She gasped in horror as he ripped her smoking curtains from the window and stomped out the sparks.
“Damn it, Lucinda, you’ve to be more careful!” he barked, gathering up the singed material. “You could’ve set the house on fire.”
“It’s a pity it wasn’t you,” she grumbled, glad he hadn’t used her magic to put them out and accidentally flooded her room.
He tossed the curtains under her desk to conceal them from sight and straightened his jacket. Seeing him rattled, cheeks flushed, was new and worth nearly setting her room on fire.
“I didn’t do it on purpose, and I wouldn’t have set them on fire if you hadn’t surprised me!”
Chaos stretched before leaping down from her tower. Lucy tried to pick her up, but the cat only hissed.
“We need to fix this before one of us gets hurt.” The worry in his voice arrested her. In the silence, she looked at her ruined curtains and hoped the fabric shop still had some of it left. She loved the silver-threaded florals.
“I can’t believe you broke into my room,” she said, frowning at Chaos and trying not to be upset about her furry friend’s snub.
“I didn’t break in. I climbed the tree and your balcony door was open,” he explained.
Lucy usually left the door ajar so Chaos could get in and out, since her favourite spot was the tree outside. She tried to picture Benedict climbing the tree in his long coat and expensive shoes. How could I have missed that? The mental image made up for the jumpscare.
“Well, feel free to climb back down,” she said, turning on her bedside lamps.
“I wouldn’t have had to come at all if you’d answered your phone!”
To Lucy’s intense irritation, Chaos weaved herself through Benedict’s legs, purring.
Benedict bent to stroke her. “Strange. Didn’t she use to hate me?”
Chaos climbed into his arms, purring happily. The only satisfaction Lucy got from the betrayal was that his immaculate suit would be covered in cat hair.
“I think she senses our elements switched. She won’t let me near her, and that’s the only thing that’s different,” she sulked.
“Speaking of our elements, why didn’t you answer your phone?”
“I meant to get back to you! I ended up sleeping in the vault last night going through everything, and I found the curse-stripping potion in the Hawthorne grimoire, but I don’t know if it’ll remove our elements altogether or swap them back,” Lucy said, crossing her arms. “Our best option is to try the original spell again and hope it’ll cancel out the mistake in the first attempt. Now, if you wouldn’t mind leaving, I’m tired.”
“When can we try? The sooner we get back to normal the better,” Benedict insisted, following her around the room as she cleaned up. “Can you please stand still for a minute? We need to talk.” He put Chaos back on her tower.
“We talked at dinner. And please don’t refer to me as your fiancée to others. It gives people the wrong impression about us.”
“Afraid your new friend will be scared off? We’re to be bound by the end of the month,” he reminded her.
She stopped cleaning. Two things she couldn’t believe: one, that Benedict Matherson was seeing her mess of a room, and two, that he sounded jealous.
“Why would he be scared off by our… whatever it is?” she scoffed. “If anything, he’d be scared off by your antagonism. I don’t think either of us want him to report back to the Order that a Matherson is rather outspoken about his hatred towards their members.”
“I won’t be hostile if you don’t invite a stranger into your home,” Benedict countered, flipping through a botany guide on her desk. She wished he wouldn’t look through her things; it felt far too intimate.
“I invited him to dinner to see how he’d hold up against Mum and Grams.” Not that she owed him any explanation. “He passed the tests in the vault; any ill intent would have caused him serious harm.”
Benedict snapped the book closed. Lucy cringed, wishing she’d kept that part to herself.
“You brought an Order member into the vault?” He acted more hurt than angry. “Why do you trust a man you’ve only known for a few hours, but treat me like I’m the enemy?”
“I don’t treat you like an enemy! And if I did, it would be because of all that’s happened between us over the years.” She put herself between him and her crowded desk so he’d stop prying. It was distracting.
“You played a part in our past. If that Order member learned that my fire flows through you, you can be sure his attitude would change.”
“Stop throwing the swap in my face. It wasn’t my fault, and he won’t find out,” she snapped, feeling flames swell in her chest.
“You don’t know that, and I’ll stop when you stop throwing my family’s past in mine,” he retorted, closing the gap between them. “That was a low blow at dinner.”
Exasperated, Lucy took a minute to breathe.
“I’m sorry for bringing up your family,” she said at last. “I wanted to distract you from arguing with him. The thought of you ending up on the Order’s list…” She cut herself off, not even knowing how to finish the sentence. “One petty victory isn’t worth getting tangled up with the Order.”
“Are you sure you weren’t just protecting your new friend?” Benedict asked, narrowing his eyes. Testing her.
“Protecting him ?” His refusal to understand made her want to set the whole damn attic alight.
“You jumped between us, grabbing my hand. You think I’m dangerous.” He held out his hand, and she saw the raw pink marks where she’d burned him.
“I didn’t mean or want to hurt you. I was protecting you from him.” She kept her voice low, needing him to know she hadn’t done it on purpose. “You’ve lost your brother, your dad. I wasn’t going to let you get in a fight with him on Foxford soil!”
“I can handle myself, with or without my element.”
Lucy sighed, taking his hand so that he’d listen. “You so much as scratch Emerson, do you know what they’d do to the person who hurt someone acting as their representative?”
Benedict stared down at their hands.
“They’d call for you to be handed over for breaking our neutrality clause. Is that what you want? For your mum to hand you over to the Order like she had to do with your father? You can be damn sure I wouldn’t be there to watch it happen. Grams has defended you in the past. Even my mum deemed you worthy of claiming her seat – and you wanted to throw all that away because Emerson spoke without thought.”
He let the words settle between them in silence, his thumb running over the back of her hand. Lucy decided she preferred it when they were squabbling.
“I’m sorry for mentioning your family,” she said again. “No matter how much we fight, I don’t want to see you hurt.”
Benedict let go of her to run his hand through his hair. She wished they’d kept talking about their elemental problem.
“I shouldn’t have antagonised him. I… need you to know that my dad was trying to help those creatures.” Her chest tightened at the thick edge of sadness in his voice. “The creatures were infected with a sickness no healer could cure.”
She’d heard the story from Grams, but never from Benedict himself. The creatures had come to Foxford several years ago to be healed, but Grams had been unable to help them. Benedict’s dad had found a spell that was said to cure all ailments.
“He really believed that spell would be able to help them. I know it seems unlikely, but what you have to believe is that Dad didn’t know it would end their lives,” Benedict explained.
That had been the cure: death, a merciful end. When the Order had found out, they’d called for his execution. After that, Lucy had become obsessed with translating old grimoires meticulously. She’d wanted to prevent such a mishap from ever occurring again. Maybe if his father had understood it wasn’t a healing spell, but a mercy spell, Benedict would still have a father, and a brother who hadn’t died trying to resurrect him after the sentence was carried out.
“You don’t need to defend him. Your dad was a good man who wanted to help,” she said quietly.
Benedict tilted his head back, as though trying to stop tears from spilling. She’d never seen him so vulnerable. The element spell going wrong must’ve been triggering for him.
“Peter just wanted him back. It was his grief…” He’d never spoken like this about his family to Lucy before; in spite of herself, her own eyes filled with tears. “He was only sixteen.”
Peter’s fate haunted her. The penalty for necromancy.
“You try to cheat death, and you become it.” He shook his head.
Lucy sat on the edge of the bed. Had he spoken to anyone about this before? The pain in his voice added to her guilt.“You don’t need to justify their actions to me. I never should’ve brought them up tonight. I didn’t want you to get involved in my work with the Order. My work doesn’t involve you, and Emerson’s arrival couldn’t come at a worse time.”
He grimaced. “It does involve me.”
“The library and all it contains is my responsibility. How has that got anything to do with you?”
“Because it’s your responsibility.”
The words seemed to surprise him as much as they did her.
“You’re worried about me?” she asked, as he suddenly found his feet very interesting.
“Yes! You’re….” He cut himself off, standing over her.
“I’m what?” she pressed, seeing a trace of concern in his gaze.
He hesitated. Maybe Grams was right; maybe he did have feelings for her. Her stomach knotted, and she wasn’t sure if the sensation was altogether unpleasant.
“You’re holding my element and working with a member of the order. If that’s exposed, we aren’t just going to be judged by the coven for reckless use of magic,” he said eventually.
Silence crowded them. Lucy pushed aside any thought of feelings and hoped for a truce. “How about we both agree to react less and think more?”
“Agreed.” He nodded, offering her his hand.
She smirked. “Really? We’ve got to shake on agreeing to be reasonable?”
“Need to make it official,” he said. “We’ve agreed to do much worse.”
Lucy rolled her eyes. He clasped her hands, and this time they both stared down at them. The coolness of her water mixed with the heat of his fire made her breath catch.
He released her, and she told herself it was just their magic trying to return to their rightful places.
“Now, what are we going to do about our elements?” Benedict sat unexpectedly close beside her.
“There’s no time like the present. Grams and Mum are probably asleep by now,” she said, looking at her desk. “We’ve got the ingredients in the brewing room.”
“You want to try to redo the potion tonight?” He sounded nervous.
“Got some other pressing matter to attend?” She picked up the list of qualities and the potion ingredients from her untidy desk.
He shook his head. “You’re my number one priority.”
“Good. This is the potion Grams used, and here is the one I found in your family’s old grimoire.” She handed him the notes, only to regret it when he immediately began to read the list of qualities aloud.
“Loyal, kind, capable, passionate… to think your element choose me!” He failed to conceal a smug grin. “How highly you must think of me.”
“Don’t flatter yourself!” She snatched the list out of his hand before his ego ended their truce.
“I don’t have to– your element did it for you.”
Lucy headed for the door. “Let’s get on with it.”