Chapter 32
“Oh my God, is this real?” I’d arrived at the boardroom thirty minutes early, and after a moment of deliberation, decided to keep my original seat.
Ethan had followed me in, spoiling my plans to gather myself before everyone arrived.
But since he’d given me the best news possible, I wasn’t too upset with him.
“It’s real.” He pointed to one of the fifty arrow stickers on the stack of papers. “As soon as Brianne comes in, she can witness our signatures. He signed every single page. I made sure of it.”
There was a gleeful menace to his voice that I had to admit I enjoyed, which made me feel incredibly guilty. My marriage of twenty years was about to end. I should have at least been sad about it.
But I wasn’t. We hadn’t spoken since the day he stumbled onto the Magnolia property and Ray chased him away. There was no indication he regretted his actions. He definitely hadn’t tried to win me back.
“How did he look?” I did feel guilty about all the accidental hexes. Even if I’d cleared them.
“Completely normal, Simone.” Ethan squeezed my hand in reassurance. “There was no trace or mention of cursing. He didn’t dare say anything ill about you in my presence.” He paused, his voice heavy. “He didn’t even contest the divorce.”
“Of course he didn’t. I gave him everything in our house and the house itself.” Maybe I was a touch bitter he’d let it go so easily. Even when you’re meant to give up the past, it hurts to see it drift away like a passing storm.
I had to remind myself this was a good thing. He could have all the dated furniture and bad memories.
Everything I needed was here in the Magnolia.
Well. Almost everything.
My throat closed, but it wasn’t a magical constriction.
Whatever magic I had tried when I wrote Gabe a letter hadn’t worked.
Or worse, it had. Either he’d never read it and was still walking around thinking he didn’t have a mother, or he’d read the letter, remembered me, and decided he wanted nothing to do with me.
Both options sucked. And both were out of my control.
I didn’t realize I was crying until Ethan’s fingertip grazed my cheek.
“Don’t cry, Simone. It’s going to work out.”
Ethan didn’t know about Gabe. If he did, he probably wouldn’t be so gentle with me right now. He probably thought I was shedding tears over my marriage ending.
“Thanks, Ethan. You’ve been a really good friend through all of this.” I leaned in to him, wrapping my arms tight around his neck.
He pulled back to meet my eyes, so close to me his breath was warm on my face. The tears still cascading landed on my lips, and I licked the salt off. Ethan’s breath stopped. He inched forward, and in that inch, I forgot everything else existed.
He’d always been a good friend. Nothing more, right? Had I crushed on him in high school? I didn’t think so. But now, whether I was ready for it or not, something new was developing.
He was so close. He smelled sweet, like a crisp soda on a hot day. His mouth was right there. To hell with it. I moved in.
Only the racket of approaching voices from the hallway stopped us. I yanked myself away before our lips could meet, all but vaulting myself to the drink cart for water. When Brianne and Gumbo entered, Ethan pretended to straighten the divorce papers.
“Brianne, good thing you’re here.” His voice had a tremor I’d never heard before. “We’ll need you to be a witness.”
Thirty minutes later, I was officially divorced and poised at the end of the table. When Lauren walked in, Ethan fled to her, and the two giggled at the opposite side of the room. Something flared inside me. Jealousy? I couldn’t be sure, but it was a sensation I was not proud of.
Gumbo was asleep on my lap. I rubbed his chin, straightening his glossy black bow. He yawned and stretched, hopping onto the chair next to me when Brianne set a packet on the table.
“Ready for this?” She whispered as she placed the blank pages in front of me. I hadn’t provided any information for the meeting, which made me curious where the information came from. It was yet another factor on my long list of things to figure out.
In the meantime, I trusted Brianne. She seemed to keep a tight ship, and since I didn’t know what was broken, I wasn’t about to go around fixing things.
“As I’ll ever be,” I answered.
The Twins arrived at the same time, their steps in sync, identical looks of insolence on their flawless faces. The air shifted. Something like a bubble of joy burst in my chest. This time, I recognized it as a spell. With a single glare at Lydia, it disappeared. She shrugged like an innocent child.
It was going to take a lot of work to get them on my side.
“Right. Everyone’s ready.” Brianne gestured at the Twins. “Shall we get started?”
Like our first meeting, the clock I’d never actually seen began to chime.
“Lydia Langley, Division Head for Magnolia Medspa.” Lydia could not have looked or sounded more bored. She crossed her arms and placed both hands on the pages in front of her as if a water gun were pointed at her head.
The room lurched around me, the walls warping and extending in all four directions. Apparently their fae powers hadn’t messed with the room. This was House’s doing.
“Lyra Langley, Division Head for Magnolia Salon.” Lyra had all but been a ghost since I arrived. I’d forgotten her voice was a melody. She blew me a kiss then repeated the cross-arm gesture.
The table and our chairs, with us in them, rose from the floor to float in the center of the room. The clock chimed again.
“You got this, Simone.” Lauren whispered from her seat. Then, louder, she continued the ritual. “Lauren Whitaker, Division Head for Magnolia Physical Therapy.”
Maybe roller coasters weren’t that bad. The clock chimed. A strange, new sound followed. A kind of chirping, like a cricket hiding under a couch.
“Ethan Mosely, Lawyer pro tem for Magnolia Therapy and Wellness.”
“Brianne Steele, Operations Manager for Magnolia Therapy and Wellness.”
Gong. Chirp. Gong chirp.
“Gumbo. Ancient Archiver and Mystical Protector of Magnolia Therapy and Wellness.” This time, Gumbo did sound ancient. Like a wise lion, I half expected him to hold his next-of-kin overhead and sing.
My pants vibrated. Why were my pants vibrating?
Around the table, a sea of faces I’d mostly gotten to know over the past thirty days stared at me with expectant expressions.
I could see in them the beginnings of a new family.
A family that wasn’t without its struggles, but that would embrace me.
A family that would celebrate my strengths and forgive my weaknesses.
If only my pants would stop vibrating.
“CC?” Ethan’s wolfish grin filled my vision. “I believe your phone is ringing.”
Oh. Duh. I fumbled my buzzing cell phone from my pocket. It wasn’t ringing. Instead, there were a series of text messages.
From my son.
I only had to read the first one to know everything would be all right. But the second one soothed every piece of my soul.
Hey, mom, I got your letter. Let me know when you have a minute. I thought maybe I’d come visit this new house of yours before school starts again.
I love you.
I didn’t bother to hold back the whoop of joy that erupted from my entire being. It wasn’t everything. But damn it was a good start. I would fix things with Gabe. I’d continue to grow in my powers. I’d embrace all that it meant to be a word witch.
And I’d use everything I learned to help others feel as complete, empowered, and whole as I did in that moment.
For the first time, I noticed not all the chairs floated. A single chair remained on the floor, dozens of feet below us.
Agatha’s chair.
Everyone at the table waited, their eyes on me.
I was ready.
“Simone Bardot, Division Head for Magnolia Mental Health and Supreme of Magnolia Therapy and Wellness.”
Sure, my voice stalled a bit when I called myself Supreme, but I could handle that. After what I’d been through the past five weeks, I figured I could handle anything.
I crossed my arms and laid them on the paper. A title floated to the surface.
Magnolia Therapy and Wellness
Monthly Board Meeting
I turned to the first page. The words that appeared bolstered my confidence even further.
“Okay,” I said to the room. “First order of business is the official transfer of power from Agatha Dupree, who has earned the right to rest in peace, to me.”
The empty chair rose from the floor and rested on the center of the table. I could just make out her form. My heart swelled from her pride.
The air around me swirled like a hurricane, the noise a roar in my ears. A million tiny specks of light floated in the air, tossed like a buoy in the ocean, they danced around me. Bees swarmed in the light, which flashed green and blue.
Electricity lifted my hair to stand on end. I pulsed with it, like lightning incarnate. The sound of my own laughter echoed through space and time.
We landed on the floor with a thud. Agatha’s chair trembled and jerked. Then it disappeared.
“Thank you, Agatha.” I met each face at the table with a confident smile. I smile I felt from the inside out.
“Let’s get started.”
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