Chapter Eleven
HAZEL
I remember waking at dawn, and watching a ladybug meander across the tent’s window screen, but I don’t remember getting up or getting dressed.
I remember the way Jamie’s soft snores rumbled in his chest, and how he held my hand as he slept, but I have no memory of the drive home.
I remember having the most incredible sex of my life, and feeling so connected and real with this truly singular man, but I can’t for the life of me remember what day it is.
All I know is that I need to see Jamie again and I also need to open my shop and find a way back to reality.
“Look what the cat finally dragged in.” Skip shuffles into the kitchen. “You going to get that?”
I realize the kettle’s been whistling while I stand absently at the stove. I pour hot water into my teapot and set the tea to steep. My dog sprawls out on the tile floor in the square of sun by the window.
“Thanks for helping me get to sleep last night, Skip.”
“A lot of good it did. You bolted right out the door only an hour later.”
I feel a flush rising on my face as I sit at the table. “He needed me.” Well, I thought he needed me and it turned out he did—we needed each other—only not in the way that I thought.
“He? Who is this mysterious he?”
“Jamie. Gertie’s grandson. The one who came by yesterday morning.” Thinking of him makes me feel bubbly inside.
Skip rolls onto his back. “Did you just sigh out loud?”
I stop and think about it and realize I don’t care. I shrug. “So what if I did?”
Skip rolls back to his side and watches me. “Is it breakfast time? I am starving.”
“You know? I’m hungry, too.” I get up and open the fridge and pull out a couple of eggs and cheese, milk, tomatoes, and spinach. Then I head over to the pantry to get Skip’s bowl and load him up.
“Um… Hazel?” Skip calls.
I have my head in the pantry, looking for black pepper. “One sec!”
“Take your time, by all means. I’ll wait,” he says, pretending to be insulted.
I find myself humming as I locate the pepper. Then I see the salt and grab that too. Thyme and sage sound great today, ooh, and garlic powder and old bay, and chives… I pile the jars of various spices into my arms and stand up.
When I turn around, I come face to face with a floating mixing bowl, a whisk inside beating eggs for me.
And there’s a knife chopping tomatoes on the cutting board—by itself—and a pile of spinach waiting for its turn.
The frying pan floats down from the hook and sets itself on the stove as a low flame pops to life on the burner.
Tears well in my eyes at the sight of my magic working. It’s only been a couple of weeks, but weeks without any working magic feels like an eternity. Hope blooms inside me.
“Don’t you dare drop those jars!” Skip warns.
“You haven’t barked once today,” I say. I hurry to the counter and shove all the jars to safety as I try to make sense of what I am seeing. Is the curse finished? Can it be? But Marissa said only true love could break it…
The thought is like ice in my veins. “Oh no. No way. That’s not possible.
” I don’t love Jamie. Goddess knows I barely even know him.
Sex—even if it’s the best sex in the universe—isn’t love.
Maybe something like love is possible in time, but…
“No.” I slap my hand on the counter and all the magic stops.
The plastic bowl and whisk hits the floor, spilling eggs and milk everywhere.
The whisk rattles as it bounces across the kitchen.
“Why did you do that?” Skip demands. “I thought for sure some bluebirds were going to fly through the window any second now to serenade you.”
“It’s not funny.” I turn off the stove and get a towel to clean up the eggs.
“It’s kind of funny. Admit it.”
I spend the rest of the morning poring over my Book of Shadows, looking for a clue to the curse Marissa set. There are so many ways to build spells, but I find no reference to any method to cause “true love” to end a spell.
But this wasn’t a spell; it was a curse.
That’s dark magic and I don’t have anything to do with that stuff.
I head into the front of the shop and to the counter that still has the items from Marissa’s totem laid out.
I hold my hands over the items and ask for guidance, but nothing comes.
When I say the incantation meant to send the curse back to its maker, I picture Marissa’s sneering face in my mind’s eye and push the spell to her.
Nothing happens. It’s as if the items have lost their power.
My mind races. If that’s the case… it must mean that Marissa’s curse ended when Jamie and I got together. But, I don’t believe in love at first sight, and I am definitely not in love with anyone at the moment.
“Gah!” I clench my fists and shout at the ceiling, the truth of my frustration coming to the surface. “And she isn’t that good a witch!”
“Now there’s something we can agree on. So, if she isn’t that powerful, or that smart… maybe the curse isn’t a curse at all. Maybe it’s a spell and she got it wrong?”
“Got what wrong?” I ask.
“You know as well as I do how difficult it can be to translate the older spells. It’s not unlikely that she stumbled onto a spell and thought it was a curse.”
“But that doesn’t make any sense. Whatever she meant to do, she succeeded in breaking my magic.”
“True. But I was just reading in Gertie’s notes the other day about this… There are many spells that can interfere with the subject’s powers. There’s one type in particular that is known to wreak havoc whenever it is cast.”
Skip’s words send a zing of dread through me. “You don’t mean…”
My dog nods. “What if she thought she was cursing you—but instead she cast a love spell on you?”
“Oh my god. That could be it. Skip, you’re a genius and the best familiar a witch could ever ask for.”
“Thank you, I do try.”
I run through it to see if it feels right.
“So instead of breaking my magic and making true love the cure, Marissa cast a spell that would bring my true love to me? We know that love magic messes with everything until it’s resolved.
It’s why love potions are such a pain in the ass. ” I pace the floor. “But that means…”
“Mazel tov,” Skip says. “You know where to send my wedding invitation.”
My mouth falls open and I watch as Skip steps out the back door into the garden without a backward glance.