Chapter 5
CALLIE
My body heaved with the force of my crying.
But this time, I was crying with laughter.
Brie and I had combined our magic to place a spying enchantment on the largest mirror in my house. When she had first suggested peeking in on Maddox and Gwen, I had felt bad for a half-second about violating his privacy, before realizing I was more than entitled, given the circumstances.
What a relief that I had pushed past my doubts.
If I hadn’t, we wouldn’t have been treated to this hilarious “live feed” of Maddox stumbling around his mistress’s bathroom, tripping over the boxer briefs around his ankles, frantically tugging at himself and begging his “buddy” to respond.
I savored the pleading tone of his voice as it grew more desperate with every word.
In our entire relationship to date, I didn’t think I’d ever seen any kind of distress from him.
Normally, you looked into those eyes, and they were so cool, powerful, and dominant.
Maddox was a man very aware that he naturally commanded every room he walked into.
He had the alpha energy of a born leader in all respects.
Or, he used to. As I watched him flail about in enchanted mirror-vision, his eyes were terrified, wider than I’d ever seen them.
It was so nice to see.
Our laughter was finally subsiding. It had been going on so long that I was out of breath. I halted the flow of my magic, and the Maddox live feed vanished, returning the mirror to normal.
As I wiped the amused tears from my cheeks, I was surprised to see in my reflection how genuine my smile was.
Brie turned toward me with satisfaction. “Aren’t you glad I suggested that?”
“Yes! That was exactly the right idea.”
I was obviously still hurting intensely, but I was also experiencing an exhilarating sensation of the scales falling from my eyes.
I was only hours past the implosion of the life I thought I’d have forever, and as painful as that was, intellectually I knew I would be better for it.
That life had been a mirage, and a dying one at that.
I’d been laboring so hard to save a lie, and thinking it was all my fault when I couldn’t.
Maddox’s deceit had prevented me from understanding what was really happening.
Now I saw the truth: the only thing I’d done wrong was marry a man who simply didn’t deserve me. And that was not the end of the world. People recovered from much worse mistakes all the time.
It wouldn’t happen overnight, but I could put Maddox behind me, move forward, and still get everything I wanted out of life.
I couldn’t imagine I would have been even slightly hopeful about the future if Brie hadn’t teleported over at a moment’s notice to help me. How could I put into words the enormity of the gratitude I felt? “Brie, I don’t know how—”
“Not necessary,” she interrupted. “I was glad to help. And it was so nice to do some magic with you again.”
“Better than nice. It was amazing.”
“But what are you going to do now?” Brie’s brow furrowed. “He’ll be on his way back here any minute. Why not let him find an empty house? Teleport back with me, crash at my place tonight?”
“Thanks, but I don’t want to hide from him.” I was surprised at my decisiveness. “I’m going to tell him I know the truth, and I’m done with him, and I want that conversation to happen as soon as possible.”
“You’re not wasting any time. I’m so proud of you.”
I gestured at the mirror that had so recently displayed Maddox’s misery. “Honestly, watching that really helped. And reading all his disgusting texts. He is not the man I thought he was. What’s to hold onto?”
Brie’s eyes brightened. “Before you kick him to the curb, are you going to let him know where his performance problems came from? Or just leave him oblivious?”
“Oh, I’m absolutely telling him.”
“Are you going to let him think it’s permanent, or will you tell him what he’d have to do to break the curse?”
“I don’t know,” I answered hesitantly. Brie had explained the terms to me, and I was still processing what I’d done.
Curses were heavy business, and I had never even thought of attempting one before.
What did it mean that I could curse this well the very first time, with no practice, no planning, and no conscious intent?
A flicker of doubt crossed my mind. “You really don’t think the curse went too far?”
“Not at all! I was at your wedding. I witnessed him promise to be faithful. All this curse does is enforce vows he made.”
“Still…”
“Callie, you’ve been living under human rules for too long. A promise is a promise, and there should be justice when a promise is broken.”
“I guess you’re right. I wasn’t really seeing it the coven way anymore,” I admitted.
Brie brightened. “Well, that’s an even better argument for you to come and spend a few days at my place soon. You haven’t been back since Astrea’s 250th!”
My mother’s quarter-millennial birthday blowout had been nearly two years ago now. She would have teleported me there against my will if I’d tried to skip it. “That wasn’t the best visit.”
“The Cove’s changed a lot since then.”
“I’ve heard.” The recent rapid expansion of Nightshade Cove had been a big story for months, though I’d been doing my best to ignore it.
I found it impossible to visualize the hidden and repressive enclave of my childhood transformed into a sprawling tourist town “where every night is spellbinding,” as the latest commercial claimed.
But now, the thought of returning to a home so altered from what I knew was both thrilling and terrifying.
I had never made my way in the world publicly as a witch.
My relationship with Maddox had started so soon after witches revealed themselves to the wider world.
I had lived in a secret world with my coven into my twenties, yearning to escape it the whole time.
Then I had gone straight into living a different kind of secret existence among humans with Maddox.
Witches may have just become public, but in the first days, all that meant was more open prejudice and bigotry against us.
There had always been some part of myself I had to keep hidden away.
Not anymore. For the first time, I was going to get to be fully myself. No more hiding. Anxiety and excitement roiled within me at the prospect.
But I shouldn’t get too far ahead of myself. There were matters that needed attending to first.
“You’re right, a visit is overdue. I’ll be there soon.” I smiled. “But first, I have a cheating husband to dump.”
I couldn’t believe how devastated I had been just an hour ago, feeling like I’d lost everything. Now I was practically vibrating with anticipation. Soon, I’d get to reveal to my scumbag husband that he was the one who’d actually lost it all.