Chapter Nineteen Lyra #2
“Just great.” I beamed at the cameras. Since the judges had to taste everything we made, if I couldn’t get my magick to work, maybe I’d just make something extra putrid for Nevin and Kelly to choke down. “Everyone has an off day in the kitchen, and I’m excited to see what today’s challenge is.”
“Rabbie, how do you feel going into today? Was it a little off-putting to discover that the supposed professional on your team was experiencing so many issues?” Kelly asked, sidling closer to Rab. Was she wearing an even lower-cut top today?
“Not a problem for me. I thought it was kind of fun, actually.” Rab smiled, and Kelly giggled, running a finger over the neckline of her blouse.
“Oh, you’re so forgiving.”
“Nothing to forgive. This is a friendly Christmas competition, isn’t it? We’re here to try out some recipes and have some good old-fashioned Christmas cheer, right?” Rab asked, rocking back on his heels.
“I’m not,” one of the people from the Christmas elf team muttered, and the cameras swiveled toward them.
“Team Elf! Out for vengeance, are you?” The hosts moved over to their table, blissfully leaving us alone, and I released a long breath.
“Don’t let them get to you,” Rab said, turning to me.
“I’m not.” I was surprised by Rab’s change of heart about the competition, but at the same time, pleased he seemed to be in a more positive mindset about it.
I took my apron from the table and pulled it over my head, bending forward a bit as I tied it.
When I glanced up, I caught Rab’s eyes glued to the front of my dress, as I was still bent over.
As soon as he saw me looking, he quickly averted his gaze.
Heat flushed.
“Marigold. Tulips. Roses. Hydrangeas,” I recited to myself, latching on to the first thing that I could think of that would distract me from Rab. I could only imagine the delight on Kelly’s face if I turned my mixing bowls into hedgehogs.
“What?” Rab hissed.
“Nothing,” I hissed back. “Wheesht.”
“Right, challengers. Today we’ve cooked up something extra fun for you all,” Nevin announced, his eyes sparkling with mischief. “Or should I say… fun for us and our viewers. Not likely so great for you all.”
A murmur of apprehension rippled through the room.
“Today’s challenge,” Kelly said, practically bouncing on her heels, “is the Trust Truffles baking challenge!”
A flurry of glitter erupted above us, snowflake-shaped confetti drifting down like enchanted dandruff.
“In the spirit of the season,” Nevin continued, “you’ll need to trust in your partner completely. One of you will be blindfolded and doing the cooking, while the other has their hands tied behind their back and must give explicit directions to their blindfolded partner.”
The room erupted in exclamations.
“No way,” I said flatly. I turned to Rab. “I can’t do this. I can’t even make toast with both hands and full vision right now.”
“Oh, but wait!” Kelly interrupted, giddy as a teenager on espresso. “There’s more! Your goal is to make a batch of Christmas pudding cookie truffles—with a molten center, a candied holly decoration on top, and a surprise magical moment infused by one partner’s favorite Christmas memory.”
Everyone groaned in unison.
“And the blindfolded partner,” Nevin added with relish, “must be the one to handle the spell infusion at the end.”
I looked up at Rab, eyes wide. My throat had gone dry. It was already bad enough that my magick was going wild, but without full capability? “This is a recipe for disaster.”
He grinned. “Aye. But it could be kind of fun.”
“Fun?” I gritted my teeth. The man had a concerning idea of what fun was.
“You’ll be given an enchanted blindfold, a set of magical binding ribbons, and one recipe scroll. As soon as you pick up the scroll, the enchantment locks in,” Kelly warned, gesturing to the golden scrolls that had appeared on each workstation.
The room went quiet. I looked behind us to see the other teams all eyeing the scroll with varying expressions of concern on their faces.
“You touch it,” Rab said, bumping me with his shoulder.
“I don’t wanna,” I whined.
“Och, let’s just crack on…” Rab reached out and picked up the scroll.
The paper unfurled, like someone rolling out a carpet, and a golden ribbon and red silk bandanna flew out.
I gasped as the gold ribbon darted at Rab, and he dodged, but no matter which way he moved, the ribbon flew the other way until it had wrapped itself around Rab’s wrists with a neat SNAP! behind his back.
“Ow, bloody hell,” Rab said, giving me a look.
I blinked. “Wait, I thought I was going to be the one—”
The blindfold dropped onto my head before I could finish my sentence, plunging me into darkness.
“Time starts now, Rab and Lyra,” Nevin called gleefully. “You’ve activated the challenge!”
“Oh no. Oh no, no, no,” I muttered, patting around blindly.
“Don’t worry, darling,” Rab’s voice rumbled. “I’ll be your eyes. You just be my hands.”
Heat flushed as I thought about his hands on me.
“Toilet paper. Paper Towel. Dish detergent. Hand soap,” I recited, forcing my mind away from any hedgehog-spawning thoughts.
“That’s not quite what the recipe calls for,” Rab said, his voice sounding worried.
“I know how to make truffles,” I said, annoyance lacing my voice. “I’m just not sure that I can trust you.”
“Och, it’s trusting me that you’re worried about?” There was a note in Rab’s voice that I couldn’t decipher.
I opened my mouth to lay into him about just why I couldn’t trust him, but then snapped it shut as I remembered the cameras, all aimed in our direction.
“Having trust issues already?” Kelly’s voice drew near. She sounded gleeful, and I stiffened.
“The man eats beans straight from the can.”
“Beans are a perfectly respectable source of protein,” Rab protested.
“Not cold, they’re not.”
“Och, Rab. You’re breaking every chef’s heart who is watching this.” Kelly chuckled. “But I’m sure there will be more than one viewer who’d happily sign up to help teach you how to… heat your beans.”
My mouth dropped open. I couldn’t help it. Was she really openly hitting on Rab, fully knowing he was my ex-boyfriend? I was going to—
“That’s all right. Lyra will sort me out. Now, not to be rude, but time’s running out,” Rab said.
I took a deep breath, trying not to imagine the cameras capturing the flustered flush on my cheeks. I was blindfolded. Rab was helpless. The recipe was already listing itself aloud in a floaty, enchanted voice.
“Step one,” the recipe intoned. “Crack three eggs into the large mixing bowl.”
I put my hands out.
“Okay, Lyra, there’s a bowl to your left. No, your other left. Now go forward… little more… not that much—you’re about to hit the—”
I knocked the bowl off the table and it went flying to the floor with a loud clang.
Mandy’s laugh rang out behind me.
“Found the bowl,” I muttered.
“That’s okay, there’s another just next to it. Go slowly.”
I fumbled around until I found the bowl, but this time managed to keep it on the table.
“There you go—that’s a good lass.”
“Rosemary, marjoram, pink peppercorn, cayenne pepper, sage,” I recited, desperate to push the thought of being blindfolded with him saying those words to me in a very different environment out of my head.
“Nope, not going to need any of those. Eggs are up next,” Rab said, sounding slightly confused. His voice was nearer to me now. “Now, the eggs are to the right. No, farther.”
I edged my hand slowly across the table, terrified to knock anything else off. My hand closed around the carton of eggs, and I breathed a sigh of relief.
“Eggs seemed to be a particularly difficult step for you yesterday, weren’t they, Lyra?” Nevin’s voice boomed nearby, and I jumped, almost dropping the carton.
“Bloody hell…” I whispered, shaking my head.
“That’s just fine. We’ll take the eggs slow today.” Rab’s voice was reassuring. I knew what he was trying to tell me. He was going to use his magick to help me. Now that he knew what the problem was, maybe he’d be able to counteract it.
I felt for the rim of the bowl, put the carton of eggs down next to it, and eased the top open. I’d done this a thousand times before. Breathing in, I held up the egg and cracked it on the side of the bowl.
Sticky wet slapped my face and chest, and I gasped.
“Right, that was not the plan.” Rab sounded dangerously like he was trying not to laugh.
I turned my head toward him, egg dripping down my neck, steel in my voice. “No, it wasn’t part of the plan, was it, Rab?”
“There’s a hand towel just inches from your left hand.”
I moved my hand slightly to find the towel and then carefully wiped the yolk from my face.
“Right, shall we try again?” I said brightly, knowing the cameras were watching us closely.
“Why even bother? It’s clear your magick doesn’t work,” Mandy called.
“Eyes on your own table,” Rab said, his voice sharp. “That attitude must be why you got kicked out of your coven.”
Mandy’s gasp almost made me laugh, and I pressed my lips together while I felt for another egg.
“Now, Lyra. Focus on me. My words.” Rab’s voice wrapped around me, cocooning me as I focused solely on his words and the task at hand. By the time I’d cracked the egg and it had landed successfully in the bowl, I was thoroughly under his enchantment.
“I did it!” I exclaimed and turned to him in excitement. I’d been reaching for… well, I’d meant to high-five him, completely forgetting his hands were tied behind his back. Instead, my hand landed on his rock-hard abs.
Holy hell.
No, Rab was nothing of the boy that I remembered. He was all man now.
“Challengers… stay focused. Time is ticking,” Kelly shouted, surely louder than was necessary, and I jumped, pulling my hand away from Rab and turning back toward the table.
“Let’s muscle through this, shall we?” I said, and then winced, since muscles were clearly on my mind.
“Aye, lass. We’ll get it done.”
Turns out, we were an absolute mess at this challenge.