Chapter Ten #2
It was halfway through a batch of my melt-in-your-mouth brownies, that a new recipe came to my mind.
And it was all because of a single glance to my left – where Melodie rubbed soothing circles on her chest. A gesture that was achingly familiar.
Suddenly, a younger version of myself and Orion, aged six and eight, flitted through my thoughts, a snippet of a conversation slipping through my mind.
‘Why are you always rubbing your chest like that?’ I asked him as Raven dictated how we were going to play Twister next.
She was going through all the rules, not that Orion and I were listening.
We were sprawled on the grass after a game of dragons and witches, where Orion was the silver dragon who’d come to save the witches from the nasty mortals.
‘It always burns a little, after we shift,’ he said, rubbing at his chest. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to go easy on you in Twister.’
I startled out of the memory and Melodie looked over at me with a question in her eyes, but I just gave her a small smile of reassurance.
I grabbed a spare notebook from my box of utensils and jotted down the ingredients and the steps to making flaming fruit tarts. Normally I would’ve painstakingly toiled over this and perfected the recipe. But, for once, I decided to trust myself.
While Melodie and I baked up a storm, I’d forgotten about Orion.
But as I started on my enchanted fruit tarts, he made his presence known.
The dragon shifter sauntered into the kitchen holding two paper bags.
Too focused on measuring out my ingredients, I took no notice until my notebook was snapped shut.
‘Hey!’ I exclaimed. But Orion simply grabbed the book and held it above my head, using his height to his advantage. ‘Give that back!’
‘Not until you’ve eaten something. You’ve been working non-stop since this morning,’ Orion countered, and pointedly looked down at the paper bag. I finally took in the blue-and-green logo that read GREGORY’S. My stomach chose that moment to make itself known.
‘Ooh.’ I reached and unrolled the bag to pull out a stuffed, flaky puff pastry. ‘My favourite.’
‘Everyone’s favourite – so, flaming fruit tarts?’ Orion said, as he finally brought my recipe book down to eye level.
I swallowed a bite of the pastry, savouring the saltiness and crunch, before responding.
‘It’s an adaptation of Ivy’s funny fruit tarts, which gives whoever eats them the ability to crack incredible jokes every time they speak.’
Orion raised an eyebrow. ‘Must be a popular dessert for anxious teens.’
I nodded with a grin. ‘You should see the way they sell out on the first day of the new school year. Especially with the Year Sevens.’
‘So, what’s your adaptation?’ he asked.
For some reason, a sudden shyness had come over me. I never had an issue talking about my recipes before – even the ones that had gone wrong. But in that moment, I felt weirdly exposed.
I cleared my throat, picking at my pastry while replying.
‘My adaptation is, instead of using funny-named fruits, like gooseberries, I use a range of jewel-toned fruits: raspberries, strawberries, blueberries and blackberries enchanted to help dragon shifters after they’d shifted back into their more mortal form.
’ I looked up from my pastry, feeling my cheeks warm a little.
‘I remembered you telling me that you experienced a burning sensation in your chest after shifting. The spell would help soothe your heartburn or, I guess, dragon-burn?’
A look of surprise spread across Orion’s face, and he slid the recipe book back in my direction. ‘You know, your mind never fails to impress me, trouble.’
I felt a blush spread across my face at the open admiration in his voice. ‘It’s just a spell.’
Orion shook his head and pointed at me. ‘Add learning how to take compliments to our list of things to work on.’
I rolled my eyes and finished off my last bite of lunch before turning back to my dessert. I thought Orion would leave, but instead he moved to lean back against one of the counters, hooking one ankle over the other, watching me.
‘So, I suppose we should talk about the second part of our plan – you know, making your werewolf fall in love with you.’
I looked up from my bowl of whipped cream to shoot Orion a sharp glare.
‘How often do you actually talk to the guy?’
Embarrassment flooded through me, but to be fair to Orion, his question was simple.
Still, it felt like an attack.
‘I’ve spoken to him you know, like, a couple of times.’
‘A couple,’ Orion repeated, dubiously. ‘And I suppose you mean “couple” as in, more than once or twice?’
I opened my mouth and then snapped it shut. Instead of replying, I focused on getting my shells ready to bake.
‘If you’ve barely even spoken to the guy, how can you be so sure he’s your soulmate?
’ Orion asked, confusion evident in his voice.
I looked up to see the furrow between his eyebrows deepen.
His arms were folded over his chest, his muscles straining in his leather jacket – honestly, it was cooking in this kitchen, did he really need to wear a jacket in here too?
‘Well, for one, he’s good-looking,’ I said, beginning at the very basic surface level.
‘If you like that kind of thing,’ Orion retorted, and I felt a laugh bubble out of me.
‘What kind of thing, being handsome?’ I shot back, thinking about the way sunlight made Silas’s hair glow.
‘He’s blonde,’ he said, like Silas had something offensive tattooed on his head.
‘Exactly,’ I stressed, my mouth tipping upwards into a grin. ‘Not many guys can pull off being blonde. I mean, if you dyed your hair blonde, I’d think you were going through a breakdown.’
Orion’s mouth dropped open in outrage, and I bit back a smile. With expert care, I dipped each of the berries in a warmed sugar syrup.
‘Fine,’ he replied through gritted teeth. ‘He’s good-looking and you’ve spoken to him twice, so that makes him your soulmate how exactly?’
‘He’s also sweet.’
‘He’s sweet,’ Orion mimicked. ‘What? Does he, like, tutor kids on the weekend or something?’
‘No,’ I replied, and then corrected myself. ‘Maybe he does! But if you must know every embarrassing detail of my life – he saved me.’
‘He saved you?’ Now Orion’s eyebrows were practically up to his hairline. ‘Were you in imminent danger? What, a stray whisk hit you in the forehead and, let me guess – he caught it?’
‘I was being bullied, and he stepped in and looked out for me,’ I snapped back, and Orion’s jaw clicked shut. I tried not to feel smug – we were talking about my childhood trauma after all – but it was nice to see Orion shut up for once.
‘Silas Moon isn’t just a cute, sweet guy,’ I continued into the silence. ‘He’s a good guy.’
And it was true. Silas was a good guy, a great guy – the kind of guy you wanted to be your soulmate.
The silence stretched long between us; I watched Orion from my periphery.
‘There are three steps to making someone fall in love with you,’ he finally said. The teasing tone from earlier was gone.
I scoffed loudly, but Orion remained unchanged and serious. ‘Three steps? You’re saying one of the most profound emotions to ever be felt can be obtained in only three steps?’
‘Yes. Now, one: make him notice you,’ Orion explained, his tone slipping into that easy, understanding voice he used when he was teaching me the summoning spell.
‘Silas is popular, right? He’s surrounded by people.
You need him to see you in the crowd. I mean, we know he knows who you are, but I mean get him to notice you in a positive light. ’
‘Rude,’ I muttered, but hated that he wasn’t wrong.
‘Second,’ Orion continued, ignoring my mumble. ‘Build common ground. Once he notices you, get him to like you. Make a connection with him, find similar interests. That’s how you build a strong foundation in a relationship.’
‘You know,’ I interjected, holding my whisk like it was a wand as I pointed it at him. ‘You’re speaking like a person with a lot of experience. Is there a story there, Hawthorne?’
‘Third,’ he didn’t even flinch at my interruption.
‘Boo!’
‘Third, seal the deal. Once you’ve established that there’s a connection – confess your feelings. You’ll obviously be doing that at the Fallen Leaves Festival when you’re doing the spell. But before that, we need to get through step one. Getting him to notice you. Positively.’