Page 54 of Charmed

“Regardless of my advice, all the actual magic was performed byyou. In fact, I only hindered you in the healing potion. You can’t give up.”

Earnestness filled her wide-eyed gaze, a look far different than any she’d ever given me before…which made me reluctant to confess just how damaging her unintentional interference had been, especially when her companionship had brought me more joy than I’d ever experienced, even midst my favorite hobby.

I sighed. “It’s too late.” I didn’t need to supply further explanation. Our time together had created deep friendship and understanding, made all the more confusing now that I realized the truth of whom I’d bared my soul to.

Her glassy eyes searched mine. “But even a little help is enough for you to feel as if you’ve cheated. Ever since you entered the competition, I’ve realized how important it is for you to earn your position by your own merits. I’m so sorry, Alden.”

I panicked at the sight of her faltering expression, a look that twisted my heart and made me feel as if the situation was spiraling beyond my control. “Maeve, I—”

But she knew me too well for me to get away with lying, even to reassure her. While I was still working to familiarize myself with her facial expressions, she’d had plenty of time to become intimate with my own, especially during all the moments I’d taken her into my confidence.

“You don’t need to explain; I understand I’ve put you in an unfortunate position. If anyone discovers your apprentice accompanied you…the best thing for me to do would be to leave. Not just for your sake; I need to return home. My brother needs me.”

Her brother. Of course. Maeve had a life outside of me. A wave of sadness accosted me. She hadn’t even left and already I missed her.

Even midst the emotion, sense confirmed that this was the wisest course of action, but despite my desperation to remain in the competition when my lifelong dream was finally close enough for me to almost reach out and touch it, logically I knew she couldn’t remain.

Even so, when she turned to leave, without thinking I seized her hand and gently tugged her to a stop. Her breath caught and her hand twitched in mine, as if tempted to pull away…only for her fingers to curl around mine, causing my heart to give an unexpected leap.

What was happening? This strange dynamic hadn’t been present during her apprenticeship. Was it an aftereffect of the curse being broken through a kiss? As if magic rather than sense controlled my movements, my fingers twitched to caress the warmth of her soft palm, a reaction to our powers that had never occurred whenever I came into contact with my magical mother and sister.

Whatwasthis?

Her eyes widened as she stared at our connected hands before she slowly lifted her gaze. “I won’t hold you back any longer.” She slowly extracted her hold from mine, leaving me feeling empty.

“Maeve, I never thought you were holding me—”

But she talked over me, her eyes looking over my shoulder rather than meeting mine. “You’ve demonstrated nothing but kindness—whether I was a common girl, your apprentice, or a frog. Yet in the end, I repaid your thoughtfulness by hindering your greatest ambition.”

I ached to protest but words felt impossible to form, seemingly held at bay by a curse…as if a charm lingered on her skin to make speech impossible.

When the silence stretched on too long, she turned away with a sad smile. “I have to go.”

I felt as if everything I’d been desperate to cling to was slipping from my grasp beyond my control. I was desperate to seize control over this conversation and steer it back to its proper course, but the dream that had guided me for so long held me back. I needed to win the competition, to prove myself as a wizard, to find where I truly belonged. Without magic…I had nothing.

Yet in this moment, for the first time in my life I felt that I’d finally discovered something else, as unexpected as the day my magical light had been drawn to this feisty yet lovely woman and brought her to me. Her presence had changed me, much like ingesting an enchanted potion.

Whatever she’d done to bewitch me, my heart lifted the moment she paused to glance back. For a long moment she stared before slowly returning to my side long enough to cradle my hand within hers.

“I sincerely hope you find what you’re looking for.”

Magichad always been my purpose, and yet now…

The puzzle riddling my thoughts became a tangle of chaos when she stood on tiptoe and brushed a soft kiss to my cheek in parting that made my heart feel on the brink of bursting. I almost seized her and enfolded her in my arms so she wouldn’t leave.

While my kiss had broken her curse to transform her back into a human, hers had rendered me frozen so that I could only watch helplessly as she pulled away and stepped through the portal I created to transport her quickly back home. The sound of her footsteps against the undergrowth faded as the transporting magic cradled her body to take her to her destination, followed by suffocating silence and darkness as the enchanted light faded, leaving me staring long after she’d disappeared, fighting the urgency to go after her.

CHAPTER17

Iused my magic to arrange the instructions for the next task by weaving the ribbons of enchanted light to form a message in the air, a simpler puzzle than the others, ideal for the distraction eclipsing my focus, elusive even with the unexpected and promising news that I’d advanced to the next challenge. My relief at the success wasn’t as acute as I’d expected in my tumult of emotions resulting from Maeve’s absence.

Exhaustion pressed against my senses from my restless night brought by the absence of my frog companion no longer in her usual place near my pillow. Come morning her absence had only grown more acute, causing my loneliness to escalate into grumpiness that she’d departed when I most needed her, regardless of the competition’s dictates that forbade her presence.

With my near disqualification with the potions challenge, I couldn’t afford my current distraction. Yet though I’d struggled beforewithMaeve’s presence, it was nothing to what I endured now.

I valiantly tried not to think of her…only for thoughts of her to invade at the most inconvenient times. Everything reminded me of the frog companion who was no longer present, causing me to see her in all the places where she’d been only yesterday.

I gritted my teeth and muttered an incantation of concentration, but the spell was halfhearted—the part of me that didn’twantto forget Maeve so easily interfering with its potency. The charm’s effects were at least strong enough to allow me to concentrate enough to arrange the message in its proper order, but deciphering it proved to be a different matter entirely.

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