Chapter 54
Chapter Fifty-Four
Siobhan
Sure enough, there’s a vase of water waiting for me on my entryway table, and Hayden’s car is in the driveway. As soon as I set the flowers in the water and untie the note from the vase, they’re there.
I glance at Hayden, then Aury, but neither says a word. Hayden nods to the note, so I open it to find a receipt. I frown and scan the list.
Hillside Public Library, October 23
1. Floriography: An Illustrated Guide
2. Witchcraft for Omegas
3. Energy, Wands, and Mother Earth
4. Mysterious Crystals and More
5. A Green Witch’s Natural Healing Handbook
6. For the Love of Flowers
7. Midwest Foraging
8. The Witch’s Book of Protection
9. Poisonous Plants and Their Many Uses
10. Dear Moon Goddess
11. The Sentiment of Flowers
12. Native Flora and Fauna of Michigan
13. The Hidden World of Mushrooms
Total number of books: 13
Due date: November 20
Hayden holds out their elbow in a clear indication for me to take it, so I do.
Aury bends to press a kiss to my lips, then he steps aside for us to pass.
Hayden walks me out to their car, opens the passenger door, doesn’t buckle me in—which ironically makes me hiccup a weird laugh-cry—then they slide into the driver’s seat.
“Where to, little witch?”
I look down at the receipt. “Um, I think the library?”
“Very good.” They smile and put the car in gear, while I try to ignore the flutter in my heart.
“I missed you yesterday,” Hayden says, the first real words I’ve heard in what feels like ages. “I’m glad I have today off.”
“Why?” I jump on the opening. “What do you have going on today?”
Hayden turns to look directly at me and grins, a delighted smile lighting up their entire face and their eyes twinkling at me from behind those round glasses.
I only barely stop myself from swooning.
Hayden’s hot as fuck on any given day, but when they radiate joy like that?
Moon Goddess help anyone who gets hit by it, myself included.
I think my panties are already drenched.
“Nice try, pretty witch,” Hayden says with a soft chuckle. “Let’s just say today is for you.”
“What does that mean?” I demand, frustrated and more than a little turned on.
They smile and turn back to the road, serene as can be. I huff and cross my arms, glaring out the window until the library comes into view. Only then do I realize it’s a Sunday. “The library isn’t open on Sundays.”
“Isn’t it?” Hayden says. They pull into the lot and park, giving me a look that says not to move.
I debate disobeying, but decide to play along for now.
They stride around the car, long legs eating up the asphalt and powerful body doing nothing to quell my omega urges.
Then they open my door and offer a hand to help me out.
I roll my eyes and accept it, letting them tug me along with them as we stride up to the library entrance. “I’m telling you—”
The doors open, and I snap my mouth closed. Bea is waiting inside with a stack of books in their arms, and they hold them out for me as we walk up to them. The top one has another brown notecard stuck between the pages like a bookmark.
I pull it out and glance up at my friend with narrowed eyes. They pinch their lips together, clearly trying not to laugh. I huff and open the folded notecard, finding a receipt from the local coffee shop taped inside.
Sage walks out from between some of the shelves behind Bea, grinning like a cat who caught all the fucking mice. I sigh, because I simply can’t with her. Everyone knows Sage is the sweetest and it’s impossible to not give in to her bright, happy face and pleading doe eyes.
So when she says, “Come on! I’ll walk with you.” I have no choice but to follow.
Hayden holds their arms out, and Bea passes the stack of books to them. Then they both depart, Hayden back into their car, and Bea deeper into the library.
“What’s going on?” I demand of Sage as soon as we’re out the doors and far enough for Hayden not to hear.
As Aury said earlier, this might be the last warm day of the year, so I don’t mind the walk.
Especially through town with all the pretty trees lining the street.
I ignore the big white truck following us at a snail’s pace, knowing it’s Sage’s alphas being obnoxiously over protective.
Sage mimes zipping her lips, then giggles and leans in to whisper in my ear. “I’m not supposed to tell you, but it’s really stinking cute!”
“Oh my Goddess,” I hiss. “You can’t say that and then not tell me!”
Unfortunately for me, she can. We’re already at the coffee shop and she opens the door, gesturing dramatically for me to enter. Wren is sitting at a table near the door with three drinks in front of her, which I assume match the ones on the receipt I’m still holding.
We sit down and she passes out the drinks.
I open my mouth to try to get answers from her, but before I can, her and Sage start chatting about the weather.
I gape at them as they pout over not being able to garden anymore, then talk about which trees are the prettiest and have I seen the one over on—
“Mother Earth and all her slutty creatures!” I say. They both stare at me with wide eyes, as I’m sure everyone else in the coffee shop is also doing. “I cannot handle this. Someone needs to tell me what’s going on.” More silent staring. “Now!”
“Um,” Sage squeaks unhelpfully.
“I think perhaps you didn’t see this,” Wren says, twisting my cup around.
I glance down at it. There’s another receipt tucked into the cardboard sleeve. My heart patters in my chest and a confusing mix of excitement and anxiety swirl through me. I search out Jayce’s side of the bond, but he has it locked down tight.
“Are you not having fun?” Wren asks, her brow furrowed.
“I mean,” I sigh. “I don’t know. This is… a lot. For me.” Emotionally, is what I don’t say.
They both nod, and I’m surprised to see understanding in their eyes. Both of them somehow empathizing rather than judging me for not having fun with this pseudo-scavenger hunt.
“I can see how it would be overwhelming,” Sage murmurs. “But keep in mind who is doing this for you. People who care about you. People who would do anything for you.”
Wren nods. “You’re almost done. We can go to the next stop now, then you’re at the last step. Okay?”
Relief floods my system, and finally I feel like I can enjoy this. Perhaps I don’t do so well with surprises after all.
“Yeah, okay.” I take a sip of my drink, only now realizing it’s a sweetened chai latte that somehow has smoky undertones.
It tastes like all four of us smell, and my heart feels like it grows two sizes in my chest. No one has ever put so much thought or effort into something for me before.
I think that’s why I’m not having fun, because it all feels so big.
But that doesn’t mean I’m not enjoying myself, or that I don’t appreciate this.
Because I do. So much so that I can’t face it right now or I’ll burst into overwhelmed tears.
“Come on,” Wren says, standing and nudging her seat in.
I push back from the table, and Riley, Sage’s beta, bounds up to take my seat. “Have fun!” they say with what I can only describe as a shit-eating grin. Sage tugs them down to sit with her, and I follow Wren out of the coffee shop.
“Well?” she says, turning to me.
“Oh.” I take a closer look at the receipt. It’s from Mystic Market, so I turn left and we head a couple blocks down the road. When we get there, Wren holds the door open for me, and I step inside to be greeted by Claire.
I shake my head and grin.
“You’ve got this,” Wren whispers, then backs quietly out of the shop.
Claire walks up to the counter with me and the woman working the shop grins and passes me a bag. Inside is a pair of gorgeous rose quartz earrings, which I immediately put on. Then I pull out a second item.
“A wand?” I say, looking up at the woman.
She shrugs. “Only the earrings are from here. The alpha requested this be included in the bag. There’s a note in there, too.”
“Oh,” I say, looking back down at the bag. “Thanks.”
I turn away from the counter and wander back to the front of the shop with Claire trailing behind me. I drop the maybe-wand, maybe-stick, for-sure-wooden-object back in the bag and pull the note out.
May this wand lead you where you want to be.
“Huh?”
I look at Claire, but she shakes her head. “I wasn’t told anything about this,” she says. “Only that I should drive you to the next spot.”
“Oh. Okay then. Let’s go.”
We hop in her car and I glance over at her, only for her to already be looking at me expectantly.
“Where to?” she says.
“I don’t know. I thought you were supposed to know.”
“Nope, I wasn’t told where. Just to drive you,” she says. She gestures at the bag with the wand. “The note doesn’t say?”
I look down at it, read it again, turn it over to check the back. “It doesn’t say.”
But… I peer into the bag and a fizzle of energy tingles in the air around me. I pull out what I now suspect is an energy wand and focus on opening my mind to it.
Immediately, I get a strong sense of home.
“I think I’m supposed to go back home.”
Claire grins at me in triumph, and I have a split second to question if she did know where we’re supposed to go, but then we’re on our way and I realize I don’t really care. I’m almost back with my pack, and the whisper in the back of my head about what’s going on is getting louder.
This is it. They’re finally going to be mine.