Chapter 11 - Sera
The doorbell rings just after noon.
Sitting in the kitchen alone, I’ve been rereading the same passages in my book when the chime startles me, and I freeze.
Immediately, my mind goes back to Luke, wondering if it’s him. But realizing that doesn’t make sense, I shake it off with a huffed breath. Of course, the bond would pull me right back to him again.
He’s been gone since late morning, apparently to meet with his dad or something. The tether between us shifts with a faint current of irritation and barely-contained restraint, but it’s distant enough that I know he isn’t near. That must mean the meeting is going as well as expected.
When a knock reaches me next, I force myself to stand and move to the door, where Eve is waiting with a bright smile.
“Delivery!” she says once the door is open, and she beams with her wind-tousled hair. In her arms, she’s holding a basket wrapped in brown paper. Immediately, she smells like the ocean.
My brows pinch together lightly with suspicion tangled in my words. “For me?”
“Mhm. It’s from Luke.”
My confusion only deepens. “Why?”
Eve chuckles to herself and steps inside, closing the door behind her with her foot. She carries the apparent gift into the kitchen while I follow. “Not sure, he just asked me to bring it over while he’s busy with pack stuff.”
Surprise hangs on tight while I step closer, looking it over and seeing the small bow tying it all together. The basket is fairly big, and I find myself feeling all too curious.
“Go on,” Eve urges gently, as if she’s waiting in suspense just like I am. “Open it.”
Hesitating a beat longer, not knowing what any of this is about, or if I should be bracing myself for some kind of trick, I pull on the bow until it comes undone, and the paper pulls apart.
Immediately, the scent hits me. First lavender, then dried sage, and something sharper like mugwort. Once the contents are sitting there on display, my pulse picks up a beat.
Inside the dark woven basket are bundles of herbs tied with twine, small glass vials containing various oils and powdered minerals, and even a new mortar and pestle made from a smooth grey stone. Tucked beneath it all looks like a leather-bound journal, surely full of blank pages.
I don’t know how long I stare at the package, but I try so hard to wrap my head around it. I glance at Eve. “He…got this for me?”
She peers inside the basket as her smile lingers, and she nods. “He did.”
“How?”
“He has connections,” she says with a casual shrug. “Magic may be outlawed, but herbs and salts aren’t.”
Trailing my fingers over one of the herb bundles, I already know they aren’t scraps or hastily thrown together. Everything’s high quality, freshly dried, and carefully chosen.
It’s…thoughtful.
“Why?” I ask quietly again.
“I guess he wants you to feel at home. Like you have things that are yours,” she answers simply, carefully taking one of the bottles to examine. “You shouldn’t have to give up parts of yourself to be here.”
It’s enough to make my chest ache in an unfamiliar way.
Nobody has ever done something like this for me before. Gifts were rare to begin with, but one so thought out is on a completely different level.
I let go of a shaky breath. “I didn’t expect this.”
Instinctively, I don’t want to let this sway me in any way, but at the same time, it’s an oddly endearing gesture for someone still trying to accept magic himself. Just the other day, he tried scolding me for having a book on magic. Now look at him.
For a moment, neither of us speaks as we pore over the contents, rearranging everything on the table to get a better look. It’s one part taking stock and the other is keeping my hands busy.
Then, I look at her again. “This stuff doesn’t freak you out at all?”
Eve blinks back at me, then shakes her head. “Not really. They’re just plants.”
“But they could be used to bring harm if I ever felt like it, as your pack wants you to think, anyway.”
Surprisingly, she releases a huffed breath that sounds more amused than anything. “That is what they want me to think, but it isn’t. I don’t think you’re a danger to us, Sera.”
I don’t mean to let them, but my eyes soften. “You don’t?”
“Of course not,” she says without hesitation, expression full of sincerity, and not the false kind Naia used to show me. “I know all of this isn’t easy. You being here suddenly, and being bonded.”
“That’s putting it lightly,” I murmur, leaning against the island countertop. “Nobody really knows me, yet they’ve already decided what I am.”
“And it’s wrong, which is why I’m here, trying to get to know you myself,” Eve says, far too gentle for her own good.
“I won’t pretend like I know how it feels to be in your position, but I do know what it’s like to have to prove yourself twice as hard.
Having brothers who excel at everything will do that to you. ”
Even if our situations are very different, sensing the vulnerability she tries to return to me helps melt a little more of my resistance. At the very least, her company doesn’t make me feel quite so alone.
Eve takes a breath, like shedding the thoughts from her shoulders, and she gestures to the items spread out on the counter. “I guess you could consider this a peace offering. I think my brother’s using his brain after all.”
I almost laugh at that. “You’re giving him a lot of credit.”
“I know my brother,” she returns lightly, just barely nudging my arm with hers. “He can be stubborn and infuriating at times, and he thinks he can fix everything…but he’s not careless. He wouldn’t do this for no reason.”
“He’s still trying to convince the pack to accept magic. It could just be a political move to make me less resistant.”
Eve cocks a brow at me, like she isn’t sure if she should be surprised or amused. “I’m not so sure dried lavender and sage are political maneuvers.”
When I don’t say anything, knowing she’s probably right, she sits down on one of the stools and props her chin on her palm. “So…are you going to show me what this stuff does?”
I pause. “You want to know?”
“Of course I do. It looks like Christmas morning in here, I’m curious.”
She says it so warmly, and like I should already know. It catches me off guard, but at the same time, I realize how rare this is. Someone wants to learn more about magic, and not to exploit it, or to twist it into something to be feared.
Then, feeling a little more relaxed, I allow a small smile to settle on my face and start explaining as best as I can. I give her enough information so she can make sense of it, but I don’t indulge too many secrets.
She listens and asks questions with genuine curiosity, and not once does it feel forced or like she’s just humoring me.
We spend a while talking, and I share more than I expect to. Rather than being a spectacle, everything about this seems so real. When she leaves, Eve gently squeezes my hand, leaving behind a spark that feels like a promise of friendship. I don’t remember the last time I had that.
“I’m glad you’re here,” she says, with a warm smile lingering even as she goes.
On her way out, I don’t know if that’s true for anyone else, but knowing she is changes more than I want to admit.
***
Luke returns just before sunset, shutting the door behind him with tension in his shoulders like something is still clinging to him even now.
His gaze finds me where I’m sitting on one of the couches with the journal in my lap, having copied down a few notes from memory that I don’t want to forget about. Then, he takes in the few items from the basket I have around me, too.
Whether he means to or not, his spine relaxes fractionally as he enters the room. “I see you got the gift.”
“I did,” I murmur, slowly closing the journal. My body locks up slightly in his presence, but I try not to make it so obvious. “You didn’t have to…but thank you.”
“I know,” he says simply, as if he had given me something far more innocent than materials used in banned practices.
I watch his every move closely, trying so hard to get a read on him through his casual demeanor. “This could’ve caused you a lot of problems.”
“I’m aware.”
“Then why?” I ask, carefully rising to my feet and dusting my hands off. “Nobody said you had to do this for me.”
Luke’s gaze holds mine, still too schooled to let me in on any of his thoughts. “I did this because it matters to you, and because you shouldn’t have to hide your practice while I’m trying to get everyone used to it.”
“So you did this for you?”
“No,” he says without missing a beat, shaking his head faintly like the thought is ridiculous. “I did it for you. Nobody else.”
Those words send something warm and oddly close to satisfaction through me, catching me off guard immediately. I don’t know why I react that way to such a simple declaration, but it makes me hesitate.
Luke’s brows just barely shift in a flicker of surprise, almost like he felt my reaction too.
The bond. Christ.
He takes a small step closer, just enough for the space between us to feel more charged now.
“You thanked me,” he says quietly, looking me over.
I blink back at him, trying to keep the sudden flush out of my cheeks from how traitorous my body and the connection are being right now. “What?”
“For the gift…you actually thanked me.”
As hard as I try, the heat moves higher, and I avert my gaze with a huffed breath. “Don’t make a big deal out of it.”
Though Luke smiles with a humored gleam in his eyes. “I might just a little. In my head, at least. I take it you liked it?”
Reluctantly, I fold my arms over my chest and nod. “Yes, I liked it.”
“Good.”
A beat of silence lingers between us, and as much as I want to keep that wedge between us, something about this feels softer. Not completely, but enough to feel less frantic.
I glance at him again as I find my words. “You act like it’s nothing. Like you didn’t take a risk.”
“It’s nothing,” he replies lightly, tilting his head slightly while he looks down at me. “But I’m trying.”
Swallowing harder than intended, I can’t ignore the strange warmth curling in my gut, like the tether is magnetized now, and it won’t let me pull away.
My rage made it so much easier to face him before, but right now, I’m disarmed, and I know it. It’s making me notice the way he looks at me, as if he wants to be closer, and wants to trust this foreign thing between us.
“And I…appreciate it.”
Those blue eyes soften, looking more receptive and open. Rather than pushing, he nods. “Then that’s enough for now.”
Luke stands there, close enough for me to feel the heat of him, but far enough that I can breathe and keep most of my sanity intact. The bond quiets, as if it doesn’t want to disturb this rare peace.
More surprisingly, I don’t feel like I’m bracing for impact, or waiting for the next awful thing to be thrown into my lap.
I still don’t forgive him, and I’m a long way from trusting him, but looking at him now, I can see that he really is trying.
For now, I’d rather that over an argument, or the pain of isolation.