Chapter Twenty-Seven #3
A small, tight knot formed in her chest. She looked down at Bird, but she wasn’t really seeing him any more, her thoughts already drifting somewhere else. Somewhere quieter. Somewhere much colder.
“He told me he went somewhere lonely. Somewhere that felt like a trap. Magic has a price. That was ours, I guess.”
“Well, your guess is better than mine would be,” Roy replied. “You lost me at disappearing wallpaper, I’m afraid.”
Augustine looked up at him. “I wish I could lose myself there.”
“Why?”
“Theo’s dead, Roy.” Her words were blunt.
“Even if I solve this, even if I work out what happened — I can’t change that.
” Her gaze didn’t leave his. “Maybe I’ll figure it all out.
Maybe I’ll get everything back — every memory, every moment, everything we were, everything we had.
Maybe I’ll even understand why someone took it from us in the first place.
” Her throat tightened, just slightly. “But what does it matter when I’ll still have to say goodbye to him anyway? ”
Roy pondered that. “So, why do you have to say goodbye to him? Can’t you just, I don’t know, keep him like he is?”
Augustine shook her head. “I can’t do that. He can’t stay.”
“Why not? I mean, don’t you want him to?”
“Of course I want him to.” She didn’t tell him that she’d already imagined it; thought all too much about Theo in her shop or Theo in her flat. Didn’t confess that she’d pictured Theo beside her on quiet evenings and impossible mornings.
They’d have more time. More conversations. More them.
The fantasy felt so real it almost hurt.
“But ghosts aren’t supposed to linger forever,” she added quietly. “My grandmother told me that. They’re supposed to move on. And if I care about him — really care about him — then I’m supposed to help him move on . . . Not keep him because losing him would hurt me.”
“Well, honey.” Roy sat back. “That absolutely sucks for you. Did you know that Madonna once told Oprah that being in love meant being brave and not expecting anything in return? That’s like you.” He pointed at her. “Except you come without bustiers and back-up dancers.”
“Roy.”
“Right, sorry,” he said quickly, holding up a hand.
“Wrong tone. You’re in the throes of a tragic, existential, and possibly cursed timeline.
Less Vogue, more Evita. Got it.” A beat passed, before he leaned forward slightly, his expression shifting from flippant to more thoughtful.
“You know, I think it’s time you called for reinforcements. The magical cavalry, if you will.”
Augustine stilled. She didn’t even need to ask who he meant. “No,” she said immediately. “Not yet.”
I’m not even sure what I would tell them. I’m not even sure I can trust them. I mean Maddy clearly knew something. She knew about the room upstairs. She lied to me.
Roy continued to study her. “Okay. I know your sisters are . . . a lot, and I know the whole coven situation is complicated. Honestly, it’s a bit cult-adjacent, but in such a wholesome, girl-powerish kind of way I can’t be judgemental about it.
The four of you are like the Spice Girls after Ginger left.
My point is,” Roy went on, “if anyone’s going to understand memory spells, witches messing with your life, secret rooms, all of this—” he gestured vaguely, encompassing everything — “it’s them. You normally tell them everything.”
“Yeah, I do, and they . . .” Augustine trailed off as a thought suddenly grabbed hold of her.
I tell them everything, she repeated in her mind. Everything.
“Maddy,” she whispered. “Maddy was there when I met him. I mean, I even called her before I went on my first date with him to ask her about what I should wear. She knew about him, Roy.” Silence settled again, heavier this time, and Augustine’s thoughts turned inward, circling something she couldn’t quite bring herself to say.
Suspicion was rankling within her mind, hot and awful.
“Maddy knew about the room, too,” she added, and his eyes flicked back to her.
“The upstairs one? Above your shop? Behind the magic wallpaper?”
Augustine nodded slowly. “She told me it didn’t exist. Said it belonged to the office next door . . . She lied to me.”
“Or,” Roy said carefully, “maybe she thought she was telling the truth.”
Augustine considered this, weighing up the idea that her sisters — her coven, her family — had been caught in the same spell she and Theo had.
That their memories had been altered, just like hers.
That Theo had been erased from all of them, cleanly and completely.
It made sense, and would be easier, because that . . .
Well, that meant no one had betrayed her.
But then Maddy had known his name, hadn’t she? As soon as Augustine said Theo Manford, Maddy had reacted. Badly.
Augustine swallowed. “No,” she stated quietly. “There wasn’t a spell. Not for her. She knew.”
When Roy spoke again, his voice was gentle. “Okay. If Maddy knew, then this spell wasn’t meant to fool everyone.” He paused. “So maybe the important question right now isn’t who erased your boyfriend. Maybe the real question is why.”