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Thirty-Four

ELSPETH

M y arm ached with the effort of scrubbing the window. This grime just would not come off. I’d tried different cleaning potions Mama made, tried good old-fashioned soap and water, tried using every bit of strength I had.

We’d cleaned most of the cottage now—except for the windows, which we still could barely see out of.

I looked up at the cottage. “Are you doing this? Are you not letting us clean the windows as some kind of punishment? We’re trying to fix you up, you know.”

In response, the window swung open, letting in a blast of cold air that hit me in the face. I glared at it. “Forget it. I give up.”

I walked out of the cottage into the forest. The chitter of birds and insects surrounded me, along with the gentle rustle of the leaves. I inhaled a deep breath of the pine and cedar scent, which then reminded me of Draven. How I’d smelled him last night at the tavern when I leaned down to say goodnight to him. I might have specifically leaned down so I could smell him, which made me feel like I’d truly lost it.

I rubbed my arms, his words coming back to me .

“But I can think of far more pleasurable ways to get the tension out than by attacking you.”

I’d spent all last night tossing and turning, a throb between my legs that I’d finally had to take care of with my hand. The entire time I thought about Draven, what it would be like to feel him—all of him. That night on the couch had just been a taste, but it had been enough to ignite a hunger that, no matter what I did, wouldn’t subside.

Which was a problem, given what Helena had told me. I chewed my nail as I thought. I could ask Draven about the accusation, but that would betray Helena and possibly put her in a bad position.

Draven was clearly connected to Witch Superior—at the very least through his parents. And that was just another reason I needed to stay away from him. Witch Superior was the one person who could ruin my family, so we needed to keep as far away from her as possible.

I groaned, rubbing my face. This was a disaster.

“What are you doing out here in the cold?” Auggie approached from between the trees surrounding our cottage. “Did the house kick you out? It did that to me the other day, you know. Just opened the door and pushed me right out into the cold.”

I gave her a look. “That’s because you kicked the door and called it a piece of junk.”

“It wouldn’t open!” Auggie said.

I studied her. “Where have you been?”

She raised her nose. “Just out and about. Making friends. Connections.” She brushed past me, and I stared after her as she went inside, slamming the door behind her.

It wasn’t that I didn’t trust Auggie, but she didn’t always make the best decisions. I hoped whatever she was up to, she was being careful.

Rustling sounded behind the cottage, and I wandered around to the back, where Adelaide and Mama were working on the garden, both on their knees with dirt coating their hands and smudging their cheeks.

“What are we planting today?” I asked.

Adelaide looked up, cheeks flushed and eyes bright. I hoped my sister would always be this happy, this alive. “We just planted spinach. I had an idea for a spicy sausage, spinach, and noodle soup.”

My mouth watered just thinking about it. Adelaide hadn’t been this inspired in years. She was always the cook when we camped, but she’d made simple recipes, nothing fancy when it came to combinations, herbs, spices.

“And Mama’s spells are working wonders.” She gestured to the garden, full of tomato vines, peppers, herbs, and a number of different flowers. “Protecting all the plants from the cold weather and pests.”

Adelaide dug a hole in the ground and dropped a seed in. “Mama is working on a new potion to make the vegetables grow faster, and I think I have some ideas for chilled soups once summer comes and it gets hot.”

“I don’t even think we’ll need to get our apothecary shop back up and running,” Mama said. “This soup stand is doing so well, and our to-go soups are starting to take off. Yesterday, old man Veldar came to our house demanding more of that tomato basil soup we made.”

I could just imagine him stomping up here, shaking his cane in the air and yelling for soup. “I guess that’s a compliment,” I said, then frowned, realizing what Mama had just said.

“We’ll need our cart eventually.”

Mama frowned. “Well, yes, we’ll get our cart back, but I think our soup idea is a hit.”

“So you think we’ll sell it on the road?” I asked, trying to understand how that would work. “The problem will be all the ingredients since we won’t have a garden anymore. We could buy everything from the market, but right now our profit is so good because we grow most of our soup ingredients...”

Mama and Adelaide had both stopped digging holes in the soil and were looking up at me with perplexed expressions.

“We won’t sell soup on the road,” Mama said, exasperated. “We’ll stay here in this cottage and sell it at the market.”

My throat closed in on itself, sweat breaking out over my skin. My heart pounded hard, and my chest felt tight.

“Elspeth?” Adelaide reached for me.

I shook my head, crossing my arms and doing my best to breathe through it.

“That’s not the plan,” I said through shaky breaths. “That was never the plan. This is temporary.”

“But it doesn’t have to be,” Adelaide said. “We are happy here, and no one is suspicious of us.”

Yet .

“So have you told Elm?” I asked, arms still crossed.

Adelaide swallowed.

“I hope when you do tell him that he is gracious and kind and supportive,” I said slowly. “But I think there’s a reason you haven’t told him, and it’s because you know there’s a risk.”

Adelaide’s brows bunched together. “There’s always a risk, Elspeth. There’s a risk no matter if you’re cursed or not. That’s love.”

I stepped back. “You love him?”

Mama smiled and patted Adelaide’s hand. “Of course she does. And he loves her too. I just know it. I see the way he looks at her.”

“I’m happy for you, and I hope you get everything you want, Adelaide, but that doesn’t change things for the rest of us. If you and Elm get married and you can finally access your magic, Prue, Auggie, and I will still be magicless.”

Adelaide’s face fell.

“Am I interrupting?” a low voice said, and I whirled to see Draven Darkstone standing there in our garden. I hoped he hadn’t overheard anything.

I was about to tell him that he was interrupting when Mama stood and bustled past me. “Not at all. Are you here to see Elspeth?”

Oh, for witch’s sake. Mama’s meddling was the last thing I needed.

“I am.” Draven didn’t take his eyes off me. “I thought you might accompany me on a walk?”

I stared at him, mouth agape. A walk. He wanted to take a walk with me?

“Elspeth was just saying how she wants to go on a walk. What a coincidence.” Mama clapped her hands together.

I glared at her. “I was not?—”

She grabbed my arm and practically shoved me at Draven. “Our Elspeth just loves her daily walks.”

I hated walking, and Mama knew that, but arguing with her would just make this situation more awkward than it already was.

Mama shooed us out of the garden. “Now you two have fun. Keep her as long as you’d like!”

“Mama,” I said through gritted teeth as she continued to shove us out of the garden .

“Bye bye now!” She waved as Draven took my arm and led me out toward the forest.

I sent one last backward glance at Mama that spelled murder, and she just smiled brightly and mimed for me to smile as well. I was going to kill her when I got back from this walk. I was trying to stay away from Draven, stay away from trouble, and now here I was, stuck with the man.

We walked in silence through the forest. Vines hung from the trees, and our boots crunched on fallen leaves. Plenty of leaves still peppered the branches, but winter would be here soon, and the trees would be bare.

I stepped over a thick green tuft of moss.

“You have quite the impressive garden,” Draven said finally.

“It’s all Mama and Adelaide. They cleared all the weeds, planted the seeds. Mama cast some clever spells, and, well, now it’s flourishing.”

“So why do you sound upset about it?” Draven asked.

“Did you want to bring Georgie here?” I asked abruptly.

“What?” Draven shot me a confused look.

“Did you want to leave your old life behind and bring Georgie here? Did you want that for yourself?”

Draven ran a hand through his hair. “No,” he said finally. “I didn’t. I liked my life. I liked creating powerful spells, living in the capital.”

So he did work for Witch Superior. That answer confirmed it.

“But I brought her here because it was best for her.”

I wondered if he truly believed that or if Helena was right and he’d just done it to get Georgie away from the vampire and their grandmother. When he talked about Georgie, it didn’t seem like he spoke with any kind of ulterior motive or jealousy. He spoke with tenderness, with love. It was in these moments that I was most confused, that I had a hard time believing Helena’s story to be true. But it still wouldn’t make sense why she’d lie about such a thing.

“Well,” I said, “I don’t think this place is what’s best for my family. But they’re all acting like we’re going to be here forever. We have a business. We have our cart. Our potions. We were never supposed to be here forever.” My hands clenched into fists by my side.

We both ducked under a vine that hung from a branch, then rounded a knotted tree, the trunk thick and twisted .

“And why do you think this place isn’t what’s best for you?”

I squeezed my eyes shut. I’d said too much. “Because we’re nomads. We always have been.”

“Does that mean you always have to be?” he asked.

“You don’t understand.” He couldn’t, not without all the information.

“Maybe not,” Draven said softly. “But I know what it’s like for life to change suddenly, to have to adapt to a new normal.”

“And do you like your life here now? Has anything changed?”

He paused. “Yes and no. I do miss the excitement of creating spells that would make a difference in the world. I miss the excitement of helping others. But I need to create a safe, stable home for Georgie.”

He must’ve been a spell caster then. They often worked to make spells for Witch Superior, spells that could help with any number of things in the witch world. Those spells were guarded closely, not the kind that would ever be released to the public.

“But you’re making a difference here,” I said.

He scoffed. “Right. With my flying mugs that almost kill people?” He raised an eyebrow, and I laughed.

“You’re running a tavern that creates community. That brings people together. Every time I’ve come into the tavern, all I’ve felt was joy from the people there. You don’t have to wield all that power to make a difference.”

He paused and turned. “I never thought of it that way.”

I shrugged, and we continued walking. “That’s what I always told myself about our potions. That we made a difference to each person that stopped by our cart, even if we weren’t changing the entire world.”

“Is that what you want for yourself?” he asked. “To make potions?”

I’d never been asked that question. Not even by Johanes. He assumed I just wanted to be his wife, follow him wherever he’d go. Truthfully I’d never thought about it. My only focus was on our survival, on keeping my family in the Witchlands where we belonged. I had no big dreams for myself. No grand goals.

“I always dreamed of going to the Institute and studying herbal remedies,” I said.

He stayed quiet, so I went on .

“I liked the idea of growing herbs, using them to make something that could heal a wound or ease a cough.” I shrugged.

“You didn’t attend the Institute?” he asked, and I winced, once again chiding myself for revealing too much.

“It was too expensive,” I said. “We couldn’t afford something like that, not after my father left.”

He shot me a look filled with anger. “Your father left you?”

Damnit. What in the world was happening between my brain and my mouth? They couldn’t connect, and I just kept blurting things out I hadn’t meant to. I was normally so guarded, so careful, but something about Draven cracked me wide open, all my secrets spilling out.

“He decided we weren’t what he wanted after all,” I said quietly, remembering how gutted we’d all been when we discovered he’d left.

“Scum,” Draven growled. “I know it doesn’t make it better, but he never deserved you. Not any of you.”

I sniffled. “Thank you.”

The sound of rushing water echoed in the distance.

“It doesn’t surprise me that you wanted to go into herbal remedies.” Draven stopped in front of a wall of vines and parted them.

“Why is that?” I asked as I walked toward the vines.

“Because you take care of people,” Draven said. “You’re a natural at it. And you would make an amazing herbal healer.”

Tears sprung to my eyes. “How have you gone from always saying the wrong thing to always knowing exactly the right thing to say?”

He gestured for me to walk through the vines, and I did, my breath catching in my throat when I saw where we stood.

A waterfall rushed down a tall cliff, feeding into a pond where steam rose in the air. The warmth of it beckoned me. The entire area was enclosed by tall trees and wide-spread canopies, making the air so much warmer. The chill lifted from me, and I turned to face Draven.

For the first time since we’d started our walk, I wondered where we were and what we were doing out here.

“Is everything okay?” I asked. “With Georgie?”

Draven’s eyebrows drew together. “Why wouldn’t they be? Do you know something I don’t?”

I shook my head. “Why else would you ask me to accompany you on a walk unless you needed something from me? ”

He cocked his head. “Because I like you, Elspeth, and I want to spend time with you.” I stopped, mouth agape. Draven hooked a finger under my chin and closed my mouth. “Is it really that shocking after the other night?”

“Th-that was just lust,” I stammered. “It was something we needed to get out of our systems.”

“And is it?” he asked. “Out of your system?” He stepped closer, so close his warm breath grazed my cheek. “Because it’s not out of mine.”

I stared at him, heart pounding.

“I brought you here because you said you hate the cold. I thought you might like this place. A way to get outside but still stay warm.” He gestured. “Or take a dip in the pool.”

The gesture was so unexpectedly kind. “When did I say I hated the cold?” I asked.

He rubbed his stubbled jaw. “You said it at my manor, the night we...”

I didn’t even remember saying that. But he did.

“Do you like it?” he asked, and I nodded.

“It’s amazing.” I looked longingly at the steaming pool.

“Well, I’ll leave you to it.” He turned to go.

Before I could think through all the reasons why it was a bad idea, I reached out and grabbed his arm, stopping him.

He went deathly still as I watched him, taking in this man who I’d somehow gotten all wrong. I didn’t want him to leave. And I didn’t care about what Helena said, my fight with Mama and Adelaide, all the reasons why this shouldn’t happen.

I untied my apron, letting it fall to the ground.

Draven stared with rapt attention.

I reached up, tugging down the shoulders of my dress and pulling it down my body until it pooled around my ankles.

Draven’s eyes went black as he took me in, only in my bra and panties. I held his gaze as I unclasped my bra and let it drop.

He sucked in a sharp breath. I tugged down my panties and turned, walking into the warm pool.

“Well?” I asked over my shoulder. “Are you coming?”