Chapter Thirty-Five
Main Street was eerily empty as I burst out of the forest, golden leaves scattering in my wake.
Some were wet and sticking to my shoes, but I didn’t care.
I was just grateful for the quiet and lack of prying eyes, since everyone was back in the Firewood Forest, making wishes and being with the ones they loved.
It meant I could give into the feeling of panic that was coursing through me – Silas’s ominous warning still hanging over me. I didn’t know how long the autumn moon would hang in the sky, the leaves eventually fading back to green. All I knew was that I needed to get Orion back to Maple Falls.
I needed to get in contact with him, so he could meet me here. Then I’d tell him the truth. The whole truth. I had tried calling him in the forest, but the signal was bad. Now that I’d run on to Main Street, I tried calling him again, only this time it kept going to voicemail.
‘Maya?’
I hadn’t realized how far I’d run. I was back in the middle of the stalls, trapped on either side. Ivy was stood looking at me, her eyes all big and worried. I wondered what I looked like; probably a woodland sprite who got tangled in a bush.
‘Ivy,’ I said, a little breathless. ‘Sorry, can’t stay to chat, I’ve got to –’
Mum emerged from behind Ivy, and it was only then that I noticed that they were both by the Treasure Trove stall.
Mum’s blazer was a ruby-red colour, and she was wearing an old-timey witch’s hat, just for the aesthetic. In her hands, she was holding a white paper bag in an iron-tight fist.
‘What happened?’ I asked, eyes darting between them. ‘Is everything OK?’
‘Where have you been?’ Mum asked, standing shoulder to shoulder with a rapidly paling Ivy.
‘In the forest,’ I said, my voice sounding thick with tears. My mind was still trying to play catch-up with everything that had just happened, and I didn’t understand my mother’s anger. ‘You knew I was going to the festival today. I told you.’
Mum laughed, and the sound was sharper than a knife. ‘I knew, did I? And I was just supposed to trust that you were where you said you were?’
‘Yes?’ I replied, more like a question.
‘Why,’ Mum began, and her tone was lethal with anger, ‘should I trust you to tell me the truth, Maya? When you have been lying to me for the last month about your study sessions. When you’ve actually been working at the Treasure Trove.
Not studying, like you promised. But taking time off your job at the Wishing Well, betraying your employer’s trust, and working for the competition. ’
A weight settled in my stomach. How did Mum know? We were so careful – no one suspected anything. Everyone in town was excited about the new bakery, but no one knew who the baker was. I had been so sure of it.
‘Are you surprised I know?’ Mum asked, but it wasn’t a question I was supposed to answer. I knew that much. ‘Want to know how I found out?’
I stood stock-still, every muscle locked up and unable to move. I didn’t know what to say or do, and I was still trying to breathe through the devastation from earlier. I mostly wanted to pass out and hope for the best.
‘Ivy,’ Mum commanded, and my boss flinched at my mother’s sharp tone.
‘I was admiring the stall,’ Ivy began, quietly. She watched me with those wide, apologetic eyes. Guilt simmered in my stomach; I should’ve been the apologetic one, not her. ‘And I saw these blueberry muffins. I recognized the recipe from the time you mentioned them to me, and I had said –’
‘They were too complicated,’ I finished for her, my tone wooden.
Ivy nodded, her throat bobbing. ‘I had mentioned them to your mother and –’
‘And I recognized them too,’ Mum interrupted, her blazer turning an even deeper red.
‘Because I remembered us talking about them. About how they were too complex for you to make. Then I thought of all the study sessions you were having, and I saw the other baked goods at the stall. The magic was unmistakably a witch’s. Unmistakably yours.’
‘I thought I wasn’t capable of complex magic,’ I said, the bitter words flying out of my mouth without a thought. ‘Isn’t that what you both thought? That I should stick to the easy stuff.’
Ivy opened her mouth to say something, a hurt look flashing on her face. But Mum and her anger were faster.
‘So, you’re denying it then?’ Mum asked, danger lurking in the waters of her voice.
I could’ve denied it. Asked Melodie to take the fall. Raven would step in and probably give my mother some logical explanation that she couldn’t deny. Sofia would stick by my story. My friends would protect me.
But a sudden exhaustion overwhelmed me.
I was so tired of hiding and pretending. Tired of having to deny that I made the baked goods people loved. I was tired of trying to break the curse I’d caused. I was tired of chasing guys who never seemed to like me back. I was just so tired.
‘No,’ I confessed, like a person waiting for their execution. ‘I’ve been working at the Treasure Trove.’
Ivy’s mouth turned into a perfect ‘o’, but Mum didn’t look surprised at her theory being proven correct.
In fact, she looked resigned. It made a lick of anger run up my spine – I wanted her to be surprised.
It was strange; I so desperately wanted to meet my mother’s standards, to prove to her that I was capable of complex magic.
The way Rani was. But, at the same time, I also wanted her to realize how little she knew me; how much she ignored me.
How, even though she felt like she knew every part of me, she didn’t.
‘Why would you lie about where you were?’ Mum asked, and I could see she was braced for the answer from the rigid line of her shoulders.
‘Because I’m also the one who accidentally cursed the town with a love spell,’ I said, not caring any more.
I let anger and frustration and sheer sadness drive me.
She would find out eventually, especially now that I couldn’t reach Orion.
She’d need to tell the Coven, because the autumn moon would fade and I would have failed at lifting the curse.
‘I forced Orion into helping me fix it, and all he asked for in return was my help in his friend’s bakery.
You can get mad at him, but I’m pretty sure he’s moving to Rose Glenn, so I’m not sure what punishment you can dole out, really. ’
Saying his name felt like I was swallowing thorns, each of them leaving little cuts in the flesh of my mouth.
Mum stared at me, and there was the shock I’d been craving.
It didn’t feel as satisfying as I’d hoped.
I watched as my mother straightened her shoulders, ignored Ivy and approached me with all the ire of an angry parent.
And then my mother said the words no one’s child – adult, teen or kid – wanted to hear: ‘Wait till we get home.’
My mother monologues like an evil villain in a movie when she’s angry.
She paces too. When I walked into the house, I made a beeline straight for the couch, plopped myself down, shoes still on, and watched as she launched straight into a rant that deserved screen time.
Her blazer couldn’t keep up with the fluctuating emotions – its colours spinning from red to green to purple to blue so quickly that it made my head hurt.
I was also only half listening. A numbness had crept over me from the minute the confession left my blistered mouth.
I felt so utterly defeated, and I resigned myself to when Mum would get to the end of her speech with the age-old declaration: You know what, Maya, just – just leave it.
OK? Just leave it. I’m calling your sister, and we’ll handle it.
And I’d hand over the reins. Maybe Rani would break the spell in a way I couldn’t. Maybe the Coven would finally step in when Mum told them the truth about who caused all this chaos. Either way, this day would end the same: with a third point on my licence.
I’d be magic bound for a year and, at this point, I had accepted it. I was ready to become one with the couch and let my mother and sister handle it. Until Mum said, mid-tirade: ‘Honestly, Maya. I should’ve prepared for this. I should’ve known it was you. Why, might you ask? Because you’re a –’
‘Disaster waiting to happen,’ I finished, my tone frosty.
Mum looked like a cut thread now that I’d interjected. Normally, I wouldn’t have interrupted, except something about this particular insult made my insides burn.
Mum inhaled deeply, like she was trying to find her inner calm. ‘I wasn’t going to say that.’
‘Yes, you were. You said it the last time I got a point on my licence. And you feel it now,’ I said, angrily. ‘Of course, you think I’m a disaster, that’s all you ever see me as. A mess to clean up. The daughter to curb. The witch to put shackles on, right?’
‘Do you give me much choice, Maya?’ Mum asked, genuinely. ‘You got rid of Everly’s fangs, you almost enchanted yourself with a forbidden spell and then you cursed the town!’
‘You’re right,’ I allowed, even though it hurt. ‘But could you for once, just ask me why?’
‘Why what?’
‘Why I did those things,’ I said, frustration so evident in my voice now. ‘Have you ever considered that maybe there was a reason behind my actions? That I wasn’t just doing this to rebel or cause chaos?’
Mum went quiet, because we both knew that she hadn’t. I waited for her to ask me now, but we both shared the same stubbornness.
I scoffed loudly. ‘Of course you wouldn’t ask me.
Fine, I’ll tell you. I wasn’t trying to curse the town – I just wanted to find my soulmate.
It wasn’t an intentional love spell. But Ivy took my cookies and gave them to the town.
Six people got cursed. It wasn’t my intention; I didn’t just do it for fun. It was meant to be a spell for me.’
‘And why would you need a soulmate spell?’ Mum asked, focusing on one detail alone.
‘Because Raven is leaving!’ I burst out, anger spilling with me. ‘Because Rani is at MAC. Because Sofia hadn’t arrived yet. Because I was going to be alone in the town next year and I couldn’t bear it.’