Chapter Twenty-Four
Blair slept in Luke’s arms that night. It was the first time she’d ever done it, and she slept more soundly, more comfortably than she had in a long time.
An unfamiliar feeling stirred in her when she woke.
Luke’s arms were around her and his phone alarm went off.
He let go of her to hit snooze, then wrapped his arms back around her, humming with contentment.
Blair nuzzled into him. He was warm and solid, and Blair was .
. . happy. Not fine. Not okay, but truly happy.
All her fears were still there. She was still worried about her business, about keeping her sisters safe, and worried they wouldn’t stop Hecate from destroying the festival.
But the worries seemed more manageable with Luke’s arms around her.
It was as if his optimism had cocooned her, wrapping itself all around her, telling her everything would be okay because she and Luke were in this together.
She knew it was a temporary feeling, though.
But Luke did eventually have to get up, as he had suppliers coming with baking equipment this morning.
When he got out of bed and looked for his clothes, Blair had a fleeting thought that he might have forgotten their declarations of love last night, but the lingering kiss he gave her after pulling on his pants told her that he remembered it all.
‘Love you,’ he said after pulling away from the kiss. ‘Last night was amazing. Wish I could stay but it’s going to be a busy day. We’ll talk tonight, okay?’
Blair nodded. ‘Okay. Love you, too.’ Blair was really bad at keeping an emotional wall between them.
The smile on Luke’s face as he left Blair’s bedroom made her feel like the most horrible of horrible human beings. If she ended this, she was going to destroy this man. And doing it was going to destroy Blair.
* * *
Blair was busy at the café that day. It was a beautiful day, and the whole town was abuzz with the upcoming festival.
Travis was in, so Blair focused all her energy on the preparations for her festival stall.
The festival was still at risk but if Blair and her sisters were able to stop Hecate, then Blair would need a lot of syrups and supplies.
Today she needed to make at least three batches of all of her syrups, plus pre-portion her custom tea into little bags.
She also had to inventory her nut milks, regular milks, cream, sugar and coffee beans, plus make sure she had enough cups, lids and stir sticks to get through the festival.
Luke didn’t come into the café all morning because he was busy with his own preparations. He did text a few times, though. Short messages, telling Blair what he was up to, which she responded to similarly. Midway through the day, she got a longer text from him.
luke: Can’t stop thinking about last night. I know it was chaotic and intense, but I don’t want you to think that I said what I said because of the intensity. I love you. Honestly.
blair: I know. And I love you, too. Truly.
luke: I’m the luckiest man in the world. I’ll try and squeeze away tonight so we can talk.
Blair stared at the texts for several long seconds before slipping her phone in her apron to continue filling teabags with her chai blend. What was Luke going to say when they talked later?
Was he going to ask Blair to come with him to Toronto now that they had admitted they were in love? Or was he going to tell her that he was going to stay in Moonbeam Hollow with Blair? And what would Blair say to that?
Luke loved her. That smart, sexy, loyal man loved Blair.
And she loved him, too. They fell in love as teenagers despite clashing at school for years.
They’d planned a future together and were incandescently happy before fate pulled them apart.
But Luke came back. And he was an even better person now than he was then. And he loved her again.
Why exactly was Blair going to walk away from this?
Belinda said she’d seen in both hers and Luke’s futures that they were going to be together. That they were soulmates. And Belinda’s prophecies were never wrong.
But how could Blair be with Luke without lying?
Maybe she could stop practising witchcraft.
Lots of witches did it – they stopped using magic or spells so they could be with the person they loved.
But Blair didn’t think she could give up a huge part of who she was, even for Luke.
Blair loved being a witch. Loved making people happy with her potions and loved the memories she had of learning spells from her parents as a girl.
After everything her parents had done, had sacrificed for her, giving up witchcraft seemed like a betrayal to her mom and dad.
Not to mention, she couldn’t ask her sisters to give up magic.
And Blair couldn’t not have Belinda and Bianca in her life.
But maybe Blair wouldn’t have to give magic up.
No one in town had figured out the Briarwoods’ secret.
Luke hadn’t discovered it when they were a couple for seven months when they were eighteen.
And Luke and Blair had been back together for three weeks now, and again he hadn’t discovered her secret – even after she’d given him an agreeableness potion and fed him magic spinach that caused him to be possessed.
Blair smiled, warmth filling her body. It was time for some blind faith. Belinda’s soothsaying gift said that with Luke’s help, they were going to stop Hecate. And it said that Blair and Luke were going to be together. Blair wouldn’t be lying to him, just keeping a little bit of herself private.
And just maybe, Blair was going to get the chance to wake up happy every day.
* * *
At around two, Bianca and Belinda came into the café and found Blair in the tiny back room inventorying sugar. Both looked pale. ‘What’s wrong?’ Blair asked.
‘Bianca discovered something.’ Belinda glanced at the door. Clearly whatever they’d learned needed to stay between the three of them.
Blair closed the door. ‘I can put a soundproofing spell on.’
Bianca huffed a laugh. ‘Like the useless one you did last night? Let me do it.’
‘You guys heard us?’ Blair asked, wide-eyed. She was secretly pleased that Bianca was back to her sarcastic self, though.
Belinda shrugged. ‘You were slightly muffled.’
Blair sighed. Bianca said the soundproofing incantation, then Bianca and Belinda sat on upturned milk crates while Blair sat on her desk chair.
‘Okay, what’s going on?’ Blair asked, concerned.
‘We know why Hecate was able to possess Luke,’ Bianca said.
‘Wasn’t it the spinach?’ Blair was confused.
‘It was the spinach but . . . remember I said that Lotta told me that the only times a possession happened after eating it, the spirit was related to the person possessed?’
Blair’s hand went to her mouth. ‘Holy crap. Are you saying—’
Belinda nodded. ‘We think Luke is a descendant of Hecate Stormvale,’ Belinda said.
Blair’s eyes were wide. ‘How do you know?’ It was very difficult to research genealogy on witch families because they moved so many times and often changed their names.
‘I had a hunch, so I took the cloth that we used on the cut on Luke’s forehead and did an ancestry test on it, comparing it to the magic marker I found on the pumpkin blight,’ Bianca explained.
‘It’s a magical test, and it doesn’t always work on human genetics, just plants.
But there was a direct relationship. Luke is descended from whoever created the pumpkin blight. ’
‘I looked him up on one of those ancestry websites,’ Belinda added. ‘The records are very sparse and vague. Lots of people and names missing, but I’m pretty sure Luke’s father was Hecate’s grandson.’
This was huge. ‘Hecate said her baby was murdered,’ Blair said. ‘I assume in the fire.’
Belinda shook her head. ‘Luke’s father’s grandmother is listed as S.
Caldwell, an orphan, who was born a year before Moonbeam Hollow was incorporated.
She was adopted and lived not far from here.
We think S. Caldwell was Hecate’s daughter.
That newspaper article said two children died, but Hecate clearly said she had a baby, not a child.
Maybe the children who died in the fire were her sisters’ kids?
We can’t be positive because you know how unreliable genealogy is, and one of the children who died in the fire could have been a baby, but the dates make sense. ’
‘The ancestry test can’t lie, though,’ Bianca said. ‘Luke is descended from whoever left that death marker on the pumpkins.’
Blair didn’t know what to say. Did Luke know he was a descendant of witches?
‘It doesn’t mean he’s a witch,’ Bianca said. ‘Only that he was descended from one through his father. It usually takes two witch parents for a person to have powers strong enough to practise witchcraft. But that’s why Hecate could possess him.’
This was . . . huge. Blair thought back to everything she knew about Luke. ‘He has never mentioned his father to me. Ever. I’ve never asked him, because I thought it was a sore spot for him and his mother.’
‘His father’s name was David Caldwell,’ Belinda said. ‘Date of death says he died when Luke was a year old.’
Oh. That was heartbreaking. Did Luke have any contact with his father’s side of his family at all? ‘So, how can we use this information?’ Blair asked. ‘Is there some magic to stop Hecate that needs a relative to complete?’
Belinda shrugged. ‘I don’t think so. Honestly, we have no idea what to do with this; we just thought it was important that you know.’
There had to be a reason why Luke was a descendant of Hecate. There were no coincidences. This could very well be how they stopped this whole mess. But how?
Blair pulled out her phone and read the prophecy again. ‘The festival is theirs. The three sisters. Witches. They want to destroy it. They want revenge on those who took their lives and legacy. It is justified. Trust must be earned again. Go to he who makes tall buildings. He is the key.’