Chapter 33 Rosie #2
“You used pink salt for a salt circle?” Vi asks, and I shrug.
“It was all I had!”
“Rosie—” she starts, but our mom raises her voice to refocus us.
“We’re getting off track. Who did it end up summoning if not the warlock who cursed us, since that man does not exist?”
I look to Jack, who smiles. “I didn’t choose my words carefully,” I say with a shrug. “I asked to find the person who could take the heartache away and help me find my true love.”
“And it summoned my grandfather,” Jack explains.
“That’s me,” Phillip says with a gleeful smile. I glare at him.
“Your grandfather?” our mother asks, aghast.
“A warlock who died a year ago who loves to meddle,” Jack explains. “He saw an opportunity and ran with it.”
Before we get too far off topic, I rush to tell her the rest of the story: needing the flask, bumping into Jack (breaking and entering, as Jack corrects, though my mother smiles wider when she hears that detail), enlisting his help with collecting the ingredients, the kiss bond…
all of it, knowing that if I left anything out, Poppy would absolutely be conned into telling her.
“Hold on. A vessel held by the ghost, three a.m. moonflowers, tears of a vampire, hair of a powerful man…” A smile spreads on her lips. “He didn’t want to pass on, did he?”
“No, ma’am,” Jack says, and this whole ma’am business is absolutely winning her over. “He wanted to taste solid foods again.”
“Sounds like my kind of man,” she says with a wide smile.
I also realize in that moment I need to do everything in my power to keep the two meddling beings as far away from each other as humanly possible. It would be a power dynamic that would result in world domination, or, at the very least, all of us being completely miserable. Forever.
She crosses her arms over her chest, assessing.
“Let me guess: you two fell in love while on this mission.” A blush burns on my cheeks.
“So you thought you were cursed to never find love?” she then asks with a soft face.
“A cruel curse for a witch meant to help others find their soulmates.” I shrug, though I’m not sure how long it will take for that deep bruise to heal fully.
“You should know by now magic would never be that cruel. How did you actually believe it?” she asks, confused, and I sigh.
“I don’t know. It was a sore subject, and I guess I was just desperate for an explanation.
” Since finding out the truth, I’ve noticed half a dozen small signs that I wasn’t cursed, that it was just the natural order of things.
Things I ignored and excused as the curse doing its thing, but really, it was just men who weren’t right for me.
Mostly because they weren’t Jack. “Plus, you never dated when we were younger, and Dad…” I had always assumed my dad’s sudden death when we were young was part of the curse, a repayment for her getting to have the love of her life, if only for a handful of years.
My mom’s eyes water just a bit before she reaches across the circle for my hand.
Unlike when Phillip touched me that first night, it’s not cold.
Instead, it’s warm, the touch feeling just like it did when she was alive.
I wonder if it’s because we have the same magic or the same blood, or if it’s just because she’s my mom. Either way, I don’t complain.
“Your dad and I weren’t cursed, Rosie. It was a tragedy.
And we were very much in love, and I mourned him until the day I was reunited with him in the afterlife.
” My heart pounds, wondering just how mad she would be if we summoned them together next time.
Vi squeezes my hand, and I turn to her, giving her a small smile as we’re on the same page.
“You know, magic like yours couldn’t come from anyone else, after all. ”
My brow furrows. “What do you mean?”
“Love magic is rare, Rosie. It’s not some talent that any old witch born to any old parents can possess.
It has to be someone born from a perfect match, like your dad and me.
That’s also why you, the eldest daughter, have the power you do.
It’s a blessing and a curse, as you know, since your magic would never let you fully settle in with anyone who wasn’t your perfect match.
” I look to Jack and give him a soft smile.
“It also means you care deeply for everyone in your life and never want them to suffer, even if that’s at your own expense.
” She gives me a long, knowing look. “Isn’t that right, Miss Refuses-to-ask-for-help-and-does-everything-for-everyone? ”
I open my mouth, but Jack speaks instead.
“I’m working on that,” he says low. Mom perks up, head tipping and taking in Jack with a new light. “Working on getting her to accept help more often.”
“Well, well, well, looks like the magic really did get things right, didn’t it?
” Jack and Mom share a conspiratorial smile that makes me roll my eyes before her attention comes back to me.
“You were never cursed, Rosie. You were just waiting for your perfect match to come along.” Her attention shifts back to Jack.
“Now, tell me all about yourself, Jack Haggerty. You run a business?” And to further prove that the universe picked well, he steps out of his own salt circle with a smile, then into ours, lifting me and settling me into his lap.
Then he tells her everything there is to know about him and his family, and he answers even her almost-too-personal questions.
That’s when I know for sure that Jack Haggerty is meant to be mine.