Chapter 86
GOLDIE
Trying to make up for how badly I’ve failed Maggie, I stop by Finch & Fable the next morning, intending to buy her a book.
The shop smells of dust and old paper as I drift toward the paranormal section, running my fingers along the shelves as my thoughts churn endlessly around Jasper.
The poetry book he bought me still sits heavily in my mind. So does the look on his face when I walked away from him.
I’ve just pulled one off the shelf when Mercy, the shop owner, appears beside me as silently as a ghost.
“You were seen in the Hex & Hearth with Jasper the other night,” she says, her tone laden with fake innocence.
“Yes,” I reply carefully. “We met there.”
Mercy gives me a knowing smile. “Well, everyone knows why he came back here.”
I stiffen immediately. “What does that mean?”
She lowers her voice theatrically. “There’s history between Maggie and Jasper’s family.”
Cold unease slides through me. “History?”
Mercy glances around the shop before leaning closer.
“Jasper’s grandmother got sick after Maggie tried one of her spells.
” She has an imperious look on her face, head up, staring me straight in the eye as if she’s the only person alive who could impart this gem of gossip. “I’m very surprised you don’t know.”
The words hit me like ice water. “She what?”
“They were close once. People said they were more like sisters than best friends.”
I nod in agreement.
She continues, her voice growing increasingly excited as she gets caught up in her story. “Then Cara suddenly became ill, and everything fell apart. Jasper’s family lost the house not long after.”
My thoughts spiral as I stare at her.
Jasper’s photographs, and the painting of the woman on Maggie’s wall.
Maggie’s strange behavior.
The spells.
Jasper refusing to explain things properly.
Mercy watches me with open fascination now. “I’m surprised Maggie never told you.”
I put the book back blindly and leave the shop in a daze.
By the time I reach Maggie’s house, my emotions are tangled into one painful knot of anger, guilt, humiliation, and confusion.
I feel like an utter fool. I’d convinced myself that Jasper was manipulating me somehow, but I never even imagined something this awful sat beneath the surface. And Maggie never told me any of it.
When I enter the front room, Maggie is sitting exactly where I left her earlier, sewing quietly beneath the lamplight.
She takes one look at my face and sighs softly. “I wondered how long it would take.”
“You knew I’d find out?”
“I was waiting for Jasper to tell you himself.”
“Well, he didn’t…” My voice cracks. “He hasn’t told me anything.”
Pain burns unexpectedly in my chest. Underneath the anger is something worse—hurt. Real hurt. Because I’ve fallen for him. Completely. And now I don’t know what was real.
Outside, Driftwood Pointe is alive with Halloween celebrations. Laughter drifts through the windows. Children laugh excitedly nearby, and music from the Hex & Hearth carries through the streets.
But inside the house, everything feels heavy and quiet.
Maggie lays her sewing carefully beside her. “I’m too old for Halloween this year.” A long pause. “I’ve carried guilt about Cara for most of my life. It’s weighed heavily on my soul.”
“What happened?”
She reaches for the magic book and settles it across her lap. I move beside her on the couch while she slowly turns the brittle pages.
“The original spell was meant to protect her,” Maggie says quietly. “Cara had a man following her everywhere. Watching her. She was frightened.”
Maggie’s voice echoes her deep sorrow. “We were best friends. I loved her so very dearly.”
I glance down at the faded spell page. “A protection spell?”
She nods shakily. “But something went wrong.” Her voice breaks on the words. “The spell affected Cara instead of the man tormenting her. Her legs…” She swallows hard. “She lost the ability to walk for years, until she died.”
Horror washes through me. “Oh, God.”
“Cara’s husband spent everything they had on doctors and specialists. Eventually, they had to sell the house.”
“The house Jasper wants back.”
“Yes.”
The room is unbearably still.
“Why didn’t you reverse the spell?”
“I tried.” Maggie’s navy-blue eyes shine with tears. “But Cara’s husband hated me after what happened. He wouldn’t let me near her.”
I stare at her in disbelief, trying to absorb her words.
“They became desperate for money, so I bought the house, and they left Driftwood Pointe as quickly as they could.”
“Why did you buy it?”
Maggie suddenly looks ancient. “Because it was the last place I was happy. And it was all my fault they had no money left.”
Her sadness cuts through me.
“Cara never forgave me,” she whispers. “She stopped writing, stopped calling. When she died years later, it was without ever having spoken to me again.”
Onyx jumps onto Maggie’s lap and purrs loudly, as if to comfort her.
I look at Maggie properly then, not as the sharp-tongued old woman I’ve always known, but as someone who’s spent decades punishing herself.
“And Jasper knows all this?”
“I think he suspects.”
“And when he came back here…”
Fear flickers across her face. “I thought he’d come to punish me.”
Everything suddenly clicks into place: the repellent spells, the embroidery cushion, her obsession with driving him away.
“You made Jasper sick,” I say quietly.
Maggie closes her eyes. “Yes.”
Shock ripples through me again. I had my suspicions, but…
“I cast a repellent spell to push him away from you,” she admits. “But it backfired. Instead, he became even more attached to you. So, I tried again, and this time, it… hurt him.”
I don’t know what to say. This all seems so tragic and surreal.
A movement catches my eye, and I look up.
In the small, dark window beside the stairs stands the woman in the green coat. Here. Watching us. Watching Maggie.
There’s no anger in her expression, only sorrow.
Beside me, Maggie stops breathing. Neither of us moves. A chill settles over the room.
Then Maggie’s face crumples.
“I’m so sorry,” she whispers brokenly.
The woman vanishes.
Maggie and I stare at each other in stunned silence.
Onyx, who has been motionless on Maggie’s lap since Cara appeared, lets out a single low sound—not quite a meow, but something quieter—and tucks his head beneath his paw as if the matter is settled.
The Halloween noise from the street below seems very far away.
The room feels washed clean of something, lighter and heavier at the same time, the way the air does after a storm finally breaks.
Neither of us rushes to speak. Some moments don’t need filling.
“We both saw her,” I finally say.
Maggie nods slowly, wiping her eyes. “That’s the first time I’ve seen Cara since the spell went wrong.”
My pulse pounds. “That was Cara?”
“She’s been following you. My cards warned me.”
I stare at her. Cara is the woman I’ve been seeing?
“I kept meaning to ask you who she was. But why me?”
Maggie studies me carefully. “Because you have the gift.”
I laugh weakly in disbelief. “No, I don’t.”
“Yes, you do, Marigold.”
My mind flashes to Jasper’s cottage. The elecampane. Knowing instinctively what I needed without being told.
“Oh my god.” I think she’s right.
“You’ve always known things,” Maggie murmurs. “You just never noticed.”
The realization rocks through me. Everything suddenly makes terrible sense.
I think of Jasper again, of his grandmother, of the photographs. “You still let everyone think Jasper was a villain trying to steal your home. Why would you do that?”
Maggie lowers her eyes. “I was ashamed.”
“You could have killed him!”
“I know. I didn’t know how to stop any of it once I started. It was like the time with Cara. I’m so sorry.”
The quiet misery in her voice drains my anger, leaving only sadness.
Onyx suddenly hisses, sensing the tension between us.
I stand slowly. “You have to give Jasper the house back.”
Maggie nods. “I know.”
For a moment, neither of us speaks.
Then Maggie glances toward the glowing Halloween lights outside the window. “You should go to him. Tonight, of all nights.”
Maggie picks up her embroidery again, her hands trembling around the scissors.
I turn toward the stairs, knowing there’s nothing left to say. Still, I pause and look over my shoulder.
Maggie is unpicking the embroidery on her cushion, stitch by stitch, as though she can unravel the past the same way.
I descend the stairs and step out into the Halloween night.
I need to find Jasper.