Page 85 of All's Fair in Love and Magic

“Are you sure my mom’s okay?” I asked.

“Positive.”

“Alright. Let’s go home.”

Liam kissed my forehead as we continued on our way.

When we made it back, he helped me settle on the couch. Stepping outside, he grabbed clippings from a few plants around the outside of the building while I tried to clear my mind. My thoughts were a mess, and exhaustion weighed heavily on me. Liam’s magic had helped, but he couldn’t create this spell.

I was the only one who could.

Closing my eyes, I focused my magic.

I’d spent so much time with Liam’s mother’s bubble spell that recreating one the same size wasn’t as impossible as it would’ve been otherwise. I was definitely copying her magic, but considering her son was also protected by it, I knew I’d have her blessing.

The first brick was the hardest.

It took a serious amount of effort to wrangle my magic, blood, and the anchor plants to do what I wanted. Building magic in that way was far from my specialty.

But after my past few weeks spent focused completely on spells crafted by an expert, it was doable.

The second piece of the wall went much faster.

The third was faster than that.

With every additional bit of magic and the spell, it all came together just a little easier.

Brick by brick, I slowly built a bubble ward like the one Liam’s mother had left.

Sweat didn’t drip down my back.

I sipped water when I needed to, and ate when Liam put small snacks in my hand, wordlessly telling me I needed to eat them.

My mom’s whispers almost brought my entire spell down when my eyes started stinging.

She was there. She was fine.

And she had a better chance of staying that way if I focused on my magic until my spell was finished.

So, I built the wall.

Brick.

By brick.

By brick.

It was the middle of the night when I finally slumped against the back of the couch, panting with the effort of sealing the magic with one final piece.

It was done.

It wasn’t going to keep anyone out yet… but it was over.

And for the moment, that was enough.

“That wasincredible,” my mom exclaimed, dropping onto the couch beside me and throwing her arms around me.

My eyes stung again as I hugged her too. The feeling of her beside me was absolutely surreal.