Chapter 27
Dina couldn’t stay in bed, even with Scott breathing deeply beside her. During the night, he had curled his body around hers, enveloping her in his warm, masculine scent. The hair of his chest tickled her back, his hand splayed out against the softness of her belly. It had been one of the best sleeps of her life, at first. The woods had whispered around them; it was cold outside but the duvet was deliciously cozy with them bundled underneath. She’d slept heavily for a few hours at least.
Until the nightmare came. Images of Scott covered in burns, or Scott lying in a hospital bed unable to remember her name. Scott with his arm and leg bandaged up; Scott with bruises, moaning in pain. Worry infiltrated her dream and pinned her down, making her watch the horror as it unraveled. All of the hurt she would cause him. Scott looking at her, resentment in his piercing gaze, knowing that she was the one causing his pain, she was the only one to blame. Everyone who loves you will be hurt.
It was too much to bear. So as the dawn light began to trickle through the curtains, Dina slipped out of bed, making sure that Scott still slept.
Carefully, she went about the house, putting on clothes, tucking her feet into boots. With a quick spell to muffle the sound of her unlocking the old wooden door, Dina left the cottage.
Thrushes sang in the trees all around her, and even though it was almost the start of winter, the woods were as alive as the first day of spring. Sunlight glinted gold on the trees, and she heard rabbits scrabbling about in the brush. Dina wandered through the trees, not heading anywhere in particular, just trying to clear her head. In the distance she saw the bonfire from two nights before. She would walk as long as she needed to for this feeling to fade.
The hex knew how she felt about Scott. But how did he feel about her? The things he said, the way he held her…it made her wonder. And then there were the signs: the burn from the kettle, the incident in the maze. Were they just bad luck, or was it the hex?
Fear suckled at her like a hungry leech.
If she was smart, she would pack up and go. She would tell Immy that she didn’t want to see Scott again, and she would craft some kind of spell so he never set foot in her café again. He wouldn’t understand why, and maybe that was for the best.
Dina meandered down a path that hadn’t been trodden on for a long time, vaguely aware that she was being led somewhere by the magic of this woodland. It was a shy kind of magic—the kind that might vanish if you paid too much attention to it. So she didn’t, she just continued to put one foot in front of another and see where it led her.
Dina knew that she’d lied to herself when she’d decided that sleeping with Scott would get him out of her system. Clearly, it had had the opposite effect. She couldn’t stop thinking about him, dreaming about what it might be like if they could return to the real world, the world outside of this cottage and the wedding, and still be…together. Would he pop by the café every morning on his way to the museum? No, he’d walk there with her from her apartment (or his), and he’d sit and drink his coffee as she put the first batch of cakes in the oven. In the afternoons she’d go and visit him in his office and he’d show her all the amazing things he was workingon.
Dina didn’t even realize she was crying until the tears began to drip down her chin. She shouldn’t be imagining this future for them; it was too dangerous. But perhaps—perhaps there was a way. If the universe could only give her a sign that she was making the right decision.
Dina looked up and found herself in a quiet glade, though that was the only thing her eyes could make sense of. Sunlight, much brighter than the tepid dawn, beat down through a circle of sky above her, a deep summer blue. Her skin prickled with an awareness that magic was at work here, though she wasn’t sure if it was a witch’s or the woodland itself. The entire glade was impossibly carpeted with bluebells. It was November, they shouldn’t have been in bloom. But there they were, a dense meadow of bluish-purple flowers swaying in the breeze before her eyes. Impossible. Magical.
Dina felt a smile tickling the corners of her mouth. Perhaps this was the universe’s way of telling her what to do. Perhaps, if bluebells could grow in a woodland glade in November, she and Scott could do the impossible too. If it wasn’t in her power to break the hex, then she would do the next best thing. She would find a way to keep him safe.
—
“Was I that bad in bed that you’re already trying to murder me?” Scott asked, grunting as he sat up against the pillows, sipping from a coffee Dina had made him.
“Don’t move, I’m making sure it fits. I’ll get you a longer chain when we’re back in London,” she said. She’d spent the entire walk back to the cottage considering her options. Sage and rosemary were the easiest protective herbs she could get her hands on quickly, and if she could get Scott drinking a tea made from them that would certainly help. But the best protection she could offer him would be her evil eye—her nazar amulet. The chain was a little short for him, but she still clasped it around his neck.
Dina wished there was a way she could tell if it was working, but if nothing bad happened to Scott then that would show her. And if she read his tea leaves carefully every evening then perhaps she could stop him from doing anything that might cause him harm. It would be laborious, keeping Scott safe and protected from the hex, but she was willing to put in the work. For the first time in a long while, Dina felt like she could fight back. The walk in the woods, and probably the multiple orgasms she’d had last night, had reinvigorated her spirit.
Scott pulled her onto his lap, and she wrapped her legs around him.
“Why am I wearing your necklace?” he asked.
“I want to keep you safe.”
“Why wouldn’t I be safe?” As he spoke, Scott planted kisses along her collarbone, almost absentmindedly. His mouth was warm against her skin.
For a split second, Dina considered telling Scott the truth about the hex, about everything that had happened to the people she’d cared about romantically. But the happiness in Scott’s eyes stopped her. This was still new, their relationship blossoming but still in those fragile, early stages. She didn’t want to do anything to push him away, not now that she’d realized how much she cared for him. Was it a selfish decision? Undoubtedly. But she was determined that with enough protection charms, she could keep him safe.
“No reason. Just keep it on please, for me?”
Scott frowned, then nodded, patting the evil eye around his neck.
“It feels strange to ask this, but when can I see you again?” he said.
Dina agreed, it was odd. It felt like they’d gone from not knowing each other at all, to…well, to something that was feeling awfully like love. All Dina knew was that she felt at home around Scott, and that he made her giddily, incandescently happy.
“I’m going to be staying in Little Hathering until tomorrow.”
“So am I,” he grinned. “Is it totally weird if I introduce you to my parents? After all, I’ve already met yours. And they…” He paused.
Dina frowned. “They what?”
“Let’s just say they’ve given me their seal of approval.”
She groaned, rubbing her face. This was mortifying.
Scott kissed her until the embarrassment faded.
“I’d like to meet your parents,” she said. “I probably owe them for stealing you all weekend.”
—
It was bittersweet to leave the cottage. So much had happened since they’d arrived here only a few days before. Dina whispered a silent thanks to the woods around her as she walked back to the main house hand-in-hand with Scott.
The first thing she noticed in the breakfast room was her mother surreptitiously pouring an anti-hangover charm into the freshly squeezed orange juice. From one glance at the table where Immy, Eric, and Rosemary sat, she understood this to be a necessity.
“Why do you look so fresh?” Rosemary groaned, both hands wrapped around a giant mug of coffee. Her eyes flicked down to where Scott and Dina’s fingers were intertwined.
“Oh, I see,” she said, raising an eyebrow and smiling knowingly.
Immy and Eric must have caught on, because they both let out a whoop.
“Fucking finally, mate,” Eric said, clapping Scott on the back as they sat down.
Immy leaned across Rosemary, and whispered, “Was it as good as you imagined?”
“Even better,” Dina said smugly.
“You’re a couple then?” Rosemary asked.
Dina glanced over at Scott, who was doing a very good job of pretending he wasn’t waiting to hear her response.
“He’s my boyfriend,” she said, loud enough so that he could hear. “What about you guys? How was the rest of the night?”
“We were so tired I nearly fell asleep in my wedding dress,” Immy said. “Thankfully Eric made it up to me this morning.”
They both looked at Rosemary.
“Nothing to report here,” she said. “Although I did get an email from my agent telling me they’ve cast the role of Alfred in the movie they’re making from my book.”
“Who is it?”
Rosemary pulled out her phone.
“This guy.” She showed them a picture of an objectively stunning man. Black hair, piercing blue-gray eyes. He had a classic old Hollywood vibe that reminded Dina of Gregory Peck and Gene Kelly.
“Um, is that fucking Ellis Finch? He’s smoking hot,” Immy said.
“Only one day married and she’s already looking elsewhere. What can a man do?” Eric chuckled, kissing his wife’s knuckles.
“He’s not the right choice,” Rosemary said. “He’s too—”
“Muscular? Charismatic?” Immy interjected.
“Yeah. All of those things.” Rosemary looked at the photo of the actor on her phone, and Dina noticed her cheeks were pink. That was an interesting development.
After breakfast, guests began to trickle back home. Scott and Dina stayed for a while to help Eric and Immy bundle all the wedding presents into the boot of their car.
“You’re so in love,” Immy said, watching Dina watch Scott as he threw a stick for Juniper across the field.
“Head over heels,” Dina replied. She prayed the charms would do the trick.