Chapter Thirty Lyra
We didn’t win Bewitching Bake Off.
Henry edged us out with mince pies that formed a fire-breathing dragon, and honestly? I was happy for him. If we had to lose, it should be to Henry. Even so, I couldn’t help but feel like I’d won anyway, since finally, finally, my magick had worked in tandem with me.
And, goddess, it had felt good.
Now I understood how some witches could get drunk on their power. It had felt incredible to have the magick flow through me and actually do what I instructed it to do. Not only was I happy, but my magick was happy too.
We’d stayed after, having a wrap-up drink with the crew to celebrate, though I could tell that Rab was all but vibrating with the need to pull me out of there.
I didn’t want to break up the celebration, though, and I just wanted to relish in the moment of finally feeling like a normal witch.
Eventually, though, production called it quits.
“All right, everyone, thank you so much for your participation on the show,” Vaughn said, raising a glass of whisky to us. “It’s going to be a belter of a special, I’ll tell you that much. Our editors have already started working on the earlier challenges, and we’ll be live just before Christmas.”
We all applauded, and then the crew went into break-down mode and people drifted away.
“Lyra.” Vaughn caught me as I turned. “I just wanted to say, really well done. Truly. I wasn’t sure you’d be able to bring it around, but you had a cracking last round. Well done, you.”
“Thank you.” I beamed up at him, happiness a fluttery little bird in my chest. “I’m really happy with how it turned out.”
“Say, I was wondering…” Vaughn cleared his throat as Rab came up and wrapped his arm around my waist.
“Wondering what?” Rab asked, giving Vaughn a pointed look.
“If the pub will still serve food this late?” Vaughn asked, and I bit back a smile as Rab’s arm tightened around my waist.
“Should do. They’re open until ten.”
“Noted. Best to run, then.” Vaughn checked his watch and waved us away.
“You wouldn’t have gone out with him, would you?” Rab drew me away.
“Honestly? When I first met him, yes, I probably would have.” He’d given me the ick after a few days of knowing him, though.
But that wasn’t what Rab was asking, and I needed to speak into that space.
“His biggest appeal was that he didn’t live here.
I haven’t dated since I came back home.” I sighed, and Rab stopped me outside the bakery, where a brisk wind whipped my hair back from my face.
“You haven’t dated anyone here since you came back? Why?”
“I…” I shrugged, feeling awkward. “Because it’s a small town. People talk.”
“So?”
“And I didn’t want you to hear I was dating anyone,” I admitted. “And, well, I didn’t want to date here. If it wasn’t you.”
“Lyra.” My name on Rab’s lips was soft, as was the lingering kiss he pressed to my lips. The show be damned, I could have stood there for hours, safe in his arms. “I couldn’t even pretend anyone else would ever matter. You’re everything to me.”
“I’m so sorry I was late.” I drew back, my brow furrowing as I looked up at him in the soft light of the lantern behind the test kitchen. “I know how that must have looked to you… like last time.”
“I’ll admit, it ran through my head a few times,” Rab said, turning my hands to press a kiss to each palm.
“It didn’t help that Kelly was pointing arrows your way the whole time, but I knew it wasn’t like all those years ago.
We hadn’t made specific future plans, you weren’t leaving me wondering why you’d left me, and I didn’t have my parents in my ear suggesting I didn’t know my own heart.
It wasn’t the same, darling. I wasn’t as… invested, if that makes sense.”
“Yeah, that does make sense. I was just so frustrated when I realized how late I was going to be and that I couldn’t reach you. I knew you wouldn’t have had your phone on you, too, so I was so worried.”
“We’re okay. My fears might pop up occasionally in the future. I do trust you—I know that now. I think I was rattled because it was so quick after we’d reunited and, I guess, it’s hard to break that pattern of thought.”
“I understand,” I said, taking his hand and tugging him with me. “I have the same issue. I always want to smooth over any conflict, and I’m half convinced that the people I love will always leave me.”
Rab pulled up short at that. We’d just turned the corner onto Main Street, and a few burnished leaves drifted down, nature’s glitter, as a soft breeze shook the trees.
“Because of me?” Rab asked, reaching out to brush a leaf from my shoulder.
“Aye. And my dad.” I shrugged. Though I tried to be indifferent to the traumas of the past, they’d caught up to me more than I’d care to admit.
“I’d never leave you, Lyra.” Rab gripped my hands, his voice resonating through me.
“So long as we just talk to each other. All of this could have been avoided if one of us had been bold enough to reach out. To track the other down. That’s a huge life lesson to us, isn’t it?
Don’t assume the worst of each other when a conversation could resolve so many misunderstandings? ”
“Aye, it is.” I didn’t miss his meaning and glanced down at my arms. “So… I got hurt this morning.”
“Who do I have to kill?” Rab asked, his eyes sharpening, his face going devoid of expression. It was actually quite terrifying, and I shivered at the thought of him defending me.
“Um, well, in this case it would be me, or, I guess, a woman long dead,” I said. At the question on his face, I rushed forward to explain what had happened. By the time I was finished, Rab was pulling me to him in another hug.
“You poor thing. And you didn’t treat your arms?” Rab worried. “Damn it, and I grabbed them by accident. I’m so sorry, Lyra.”
“No, it’s fine. Really. Raven has dropped a salve she swears by at the house, and I can administer it now.
” My arms were in pain, there was no denying that, though I thought I’d done a fairly good job of hiding it during filming.
But now that the adrenaline rush of the challenge was over, the pain had returned, sharper than before.
“I’d like you to come with me, if you wouldn’t mind? I think I need your help.”
“Can you give me ten minutes to feed Merry and Pippin?” Rab asked, and my heart melted as I realized what a good man he was.
“Of course, a quick pit stop.”
I knew the recipe for breaking the curse had called for my sisters’ help, but my magick wasn’t working unless I was with Rab.
The only solution I could see was to use him as my conduit and pray that was enough to change the outcome of the spell.
Now I just had to convince him to let me try it again.
A half hour later, after feeding a delighted Merry and Pippin, we were walking into my house, where Sloane, Nova, and Broca all waited for me.
Ruth was chilling on Nova’s shoulder, arguing with her over something Nova was drawing on her iPad, and Blue popped up from Sloane’s lap when we came through the door.
An old episode of Bewitching Bake Off ran on the television.
“You’re watching the show!” I exclaimed, surprised that my sisters would watch it.
“Of course we are.” Broca sniffed. She was curled up in the lounge chair in a screaming-pink jumper and gray wool trousers. “That Kelly is a real bitch.”
Rab choked on a laugh next to me, and my smile widened.
“Honestly? Aye, she is.” I laughed out loud when my sisters looked at me in shock. It was so rare for me to admit anyone else’s faults. Ruth fluttered over and surprised us both when she chose to land on Rab’s shoulder.
I like this one, Lyra. You should keep him.
My grin widened.
“How’d it go today?” Sloane jumped up and went to the counter, coming back with a small glass jar. “I was really worried about you.”
“She almost didn’t let me come in,” I explained to Rab and pushed my sleeves up so Sloane could take off my bandages.
“Lyra.” Rab sucked in a breath of surprise when he saw the burns. “How on earth were you able to bake for hours with those injuries? You must have been in so much pain.”
Angry welts, some blistering, stood out against my skin, but I just shrugged, too happy with the day to let it worry me.
“The show must go on.”
“Raven swears by this. She says it heals burns so fast you’ll barely notice a mark in a matter of days.” Sloane unscrewed the jar and lightly covered my burns with the golden salve. Instantly, my burns tingled and then cooled, as though the salve was sucking the heat from the skin.
“Wow, I can already feel it working. She’s incredible, isn’t she?”
“The best in the business. And she’s still so young,” Broca said, turning to me. “Have you had dinner? We put some food on just in case.”
“We haven’t, but, um…” I glanced to Rab and worked myself up for an argument of convincing him to let me try the spell again. “I think we should try the curse-breaking spell. Together.”
“Nope,” Rab said, shaking his head. “What if the boiling water leaps at you? I can’t have you getting burned—”
“Wait, just let me finish.” Blue walked across the couch and stretched up so his paws were hanging over the back, his wings tucked down.
I scratched his ears, laughing down at his smiling face.
“Rab helped me today. He’s able to ground me, to act as a conduit for my magick, and we cooked almost flawlessly. With magick.”
“Almost flawlessly,” Sloane said, crossing her arms over her chest.
“Aye, almost. But we have to try. Don’t we?” I looked to Broca. “How’s Iris?”
“She’s much improved.” Relief passed over Broca’s face. “And you’re right. We do have to try. We can’t guard ourselves against a potential hurt when the payoff is so great.”
“If this means you can live without a curse tainting your bloodline, then I’m happy to help,” Rab said, turning me to put his hands on my shoulders. “But I have one caveat… you let me stand between you and any harm.”
“I can’t promise that,” I said, my heart filling. “Because I can’t anticipate where it will come from. But I’ll trust you to do what you think is best.”
“Then I’m fine with it. I’d be more than happy to help you.”
“He’s a good one. I’ve been telling you that for ages now.” Broca winked at Rab. He’d been taking her for weekly walks ever since her hip surgery, and the two had developed a firm friendship.
“Let’s crack on, then. I’m hungry,” Nova complained.
Once more, we set the spell up, and once more we sat around the table, but this time, Rab sat next to me and Ruth curled into my neck, where I’d put the dragon-scale necklace on.
It warmed against my skin, as though sensing it needed to be used, and I reached up to run a finger lightly across the petals of the pendant.
“Let me cast the circle,” Broca said. “By salt and flame, by breath and bone, this circle is cast, we stand as one. No harm may enter, none may stay, only light shall guard our way.”
“And let me do our spell.” Rab squeezed my hand when he said the word “our,” and my heart melted a bit. I was head over heels for this man.
“Ready?” I asked when we were finished with Rab’s spell.
“Aye.” Broca nodded. “This feels good.”
Taking a match, I lit the first candle.
And my magick stepped into the light.
I could see it now, though others couldn’t: lovely purple silvery threads winding around the table and those I loved, pulling the magick down through the tapestry of time.
My hearth witch powers bloomed, and I allowed the magick to connect with those who had come before me, endlessly weaving and interchanging, cutting cords and mending broken threads, and by the time the spell was completed, my magick had cut the bad thread and patched a tear in the fabric of our bloodline.
Closing my eyes, I drew in a deep breath, my body trembling.
We’d done it.
I could feel the change in me, the difference in how my magick moved confidently through me, ready at my fingertips.
When I opened my eyes, a single piece of a broken quartz heart was in the bowl.
“Lyra!” Nova gasped, leaning over.
“Sloane, go get your—”
“Wait,” Broca ordered as Sloane moved to stand. “Let me close the circle.”
“Och, right.” Sloane plopped back down while Broca muttered a closing ritual.
The glowing tapestry of magick that lay before me shimmered and dissolved, and then Broca nodded to Sloane. “Go on, then.”
Sloane raced upstairs, and I picked up the piece of pink quartz, still warm to the touch, and turned it over in my hands.
“I could see it,” I said, looking up at Broca. “My magick. It was, like, weaving a tapestry. Of sorts. Cutting and mending.”
“Hearth witch.” Broca nodded. “Of house and home. That’s a lovely manifestation of your powers, Lyra.”
“Here it is.” Sloane bounded back down the stairs with a small velvet pouch, and Blue perked up, clearly hoping she had food. “Not cheese, buddy.”
Blue plopped his head back down with a disgruntled sigh, and Ruth flew to his shoulder to stroke the side of his neck.
Sloane pulled her piece of quartz out of the bag and handed it to me.
I fitted it to mine and put it back in the bowl, and we all leaned over to look at it.
A soft light shimmered from where the stone had cracked in two, and then we all jumped as it flashed brightly once.
“It’s mended itself,” Nova murmured.
I leaned over and picked up the almost-complete heart and held it in the air.
“It’s almost complete,” I whispered, looking to Nova.
“My turn is next.” Nova’s shoulders slumped. She just wanted to open a tattoo shop and work on her art, not be caught up in ancient witchy quests. But I knew her. Nova was solid. She’d come through when we needed her.
“If it’s any consolation, you hopefully have a little bit of time.” Her birthday was still months away.
“And in the meantime, we’ll call an emergency meeting of the Charms tomorrow and see what we can do to refresh the wards and keep the curse from returning for as long as we can,” Sloane said, jumping up to come give me a hug. “I’m so proud of you.”
“Of us,” I said, turning to beam up at Rab. “We did this. Together.”
“Of course we did, love. Now that we’re back together, we’re unstoppable.” Rab leaned down and gave me a lingering kiss.
“I’m too happy to be grossed out,” Nova said, standing and going to the kitchen. “But let the record note… ew.”
Blue, seeing the refrigerator door open, took off into the air, sending Ruth flying across the room.
“Ruth!” I cried, just as Rab reached out and caught her in midair before she could land with a splat.
“Oh, thank goddess,” I said, taking my rattled familiar from Rab’s hands.
I’m going to… Ruth pulled out her sword.
“Nope, you’re not going to hurt Blue,” I ordered sternly, and Ruth tilted her head at me, putting on a beguiling look.
What? Me? Hurt anyone? I was just going to help cut the cheese.
“Help cut the cheese, my arse. You’re a menace.” I laughed. “But you’re my menace.”
“Did someone say ‘cheese’?” Rab asked, and I laughed, moving toward the kitchen.
My happy place.
“Out of the way,” I said, nudging Nova aside. “I’m in charge here.”