Page 14 of Potions and Proposals
“Don’t even think about it! If those who wish to see us ousted find out—”
Grams dropped the list into the potion. Mum followed up with the final rose petals.
“I should’ve skipped the meeting and gone to the lake with Rosie,” Lucy grumbled, wishing she wasn’t witnessing this madness. If she were at the lake, she’d have had plausible deniability.
A sharp bang caused the trio to jump, and Mum swished her hand through the rising smoke. Glancing inside the cauldron, they found a piece of paper burnt to ash and the potion gone.
“I hope for all our sakes that didn’t work,” Lucy prayed.
“We’ll have to wait and see. It shouldn’t take long,” Mum said, tidying up the mess Grams had made. Lucy felt like they were hiding the evidence.
“How can you know how long it’ll take to work?” Lucy wasn’t sure if she even wanted to know the answer.
“We added a clause to the spell that if the person you are meant to be with is of magical descent, your elements will call to one other. Elemental power has an incredibly strong call,” Grams informed her.
“Great! Not only did we mess with a love potion, but also elemental magic! What makes you think he’ll be of magicaldescent?” Lucy asked, wanting to learn as much as she could about the spell. “Dad is a magless.”
“We don’t, but it was worth adding just in case,” Grams said.
That brought up a new worry. “What if the coven doesn’t like the idea of another coven leader marrying a magless? Dad was only approved by the coven because he’d been attacked by a vampire when he was younger, and then spent the rest of his youth researching myths and legends until he stumbled upon Foxford and fell in love with mum.”
“You should’ve seen his face when he learnt the true nature of this town. Nearly scared him to death when he saw Broomhilda at the library, sweeping away,” Grams chuckled.
Mum continued. “And yes, such unions were quite the scandal back in our day, but only because many people thought marrying a magless would lessen the magic passed down to the next generation. Pure elitist nonsense. It was also said that marrying a werewolf or vampire would create hybrids, but they are either born vamp, wolf or magless. There is no lessening of power. You might be lucky to marry a magless. He would be of no threat to your position, and the families are far more accepting now.”
Lucy didn’t need a history lesson, but she had been raised not to interrupt her elders.
“If Benedict discovers we’ve been conspiring…” She fidgeted, wishing she’d discovered their plans earlier. She wanted to inherit her mother’s position fair and square, not because she’d interfered with magic.
Grams and her mum exchanged puzzled glances.
“Maybe the line between love and loathing is rather thin between you?” Grams suggested. Lucy rolled her eyes.
“Gwendoline always suspected there might be something between them,” Mum agreed. “I can’t count how many timesthe school called us because you were both too busy making mischief to focus on your schoolwork.”
“I don’t mean that it would hurt the chance of us being together. I meant he could use it against me,” Lucy clarified. “I only agreed to the binding because I didn’t think he’d agree. And need I remind you he nearly got me expelled? I wouldn’t call that mischief.”
“You can hardly blame him entirely for the threat of expulsion. You did cause the lake to burst,” Grams countered.
There’s that soft spot rearing its ugly head.Lucy grimaced.
“Only because he set the trees along the riverbank on fire. Myfloodsaved the woods and spared the coven having to answer to the werewolves who dwell in them!”
“The lad had lost his father,” Grams reminded her softly, putting the ingredients back on the shelves. “You shouldn’t judge him for what he did during that time. Both of you broke the rules by using your elements while under eighteen. Using that much power could have flooded the entire town.” She raised a hand before Lucy could argue back. “Yes, just as he could have burnt it down.”
Lucy rubbed her temples, wishing she’d never got up this morning. “To be clear, there is nothing, nor has thereeverbeen anything,between me and Benedict. Please no more spells for my benefit.” She headed for the door. “Let’s wait and see how this month plays out. We can only trust that the right person will be watching over Foxford when the time comes.”
Grams started to argue, but Lucy interrupted. “If fate says that’s Benedict, and I have to leave, I’ll accept it.”
“It could be both,” she heard her mum mutter as the door closed behind her. She wished they loved her a little less; their good intentions could ruin them all.
On the carpet by her feet, she noticed a scrap of paper with a barely legible list of ingredients. She scanned the words, tryingto figure out the spell they’d used to make her element call out to another, only to notice there was noblack pepperon the list. The cursive readBat’s Blood,not black pepper.She realised Grams hadn’t uncorked the blood she’d brought from the pantry.Grams must have got confused while we were talking and put in the wrong ingredient.
Lucy smiled from ear to ear. Hopefully, the mistake would stop the spell from working. She scrunched up the list of ingredients and put it in her skirt pocket before Grams realised her mistake.
Benedict ran through the woods, failing to avoid the puddles. After being blindsided at the coven meeting, he desperately needed to clear his head, and running through the tall trees listening to the rain pattering against the leaves was his favourite way to escape. He didn’t care about the rain or filth – only about trying to escape the confines of town. His agreement to the proposed binding still rang in his ears. On the winding trails, it was just him and the lawless woods, and no one needed him to be or do anything.
What is Mum thinking, trying to pair Lucinda and me together?Stumbling to a halt, he rested his hands on his knees to catch his breath. He’d thought the proposal was a joke, but Gwendoline had ambushed him outside the temple before he could catch up with Lucinda. With the other coven members hovering close by, he couldn’t argue with his mother. He wishedhe’d taken more care to hide the magazine review; he’d only managed to calm her down about Lucinda’s prank because he’d promised it would amount to nothing. Banishment, a binding ritual, both, either – all far too extreme. However, if the coven wanted to make a point to the rest of the town, they’d certainly warned off any future incident that put Foxford at risk of outside criticism.
