Page 23 of Potions and Proposals
“I don’t understand. How could I be doing this?” He was staring at the sky like it would answer.
“Just breathe, and close your eyes,” she ordered, hoping he would listen to her for once.
Benedict’s jaw clenched, but he hesitantly obeyed. With each breath, the rain lessened until the dark clouds cleared and the blue sky returned. Lucy loosened her grasp on him as she felt his heart rate settle beneath his soaking black shirt.
“What the fuck is going on with my element?” he demanded, looking down at her for answers. “Ourelements.”
“Can you let go of me first?” she pleaded, staring at his hands.
His expression softened. Muttering an apology, he released her.
“We need to remain calm. Getting worked up will make you lose control again,” Lucy told him. He grimaced defensively. “Makeuslose control again.”
His shoulders dropped a little as she split the blame, though preventing a fight was more for her benefit. Getting upset risked starting another fire and harming the guests, who now felt far too close for safety’s sake.
“Calm? I’ve got your element, and you started a fire. Why would our elements trade places? What spell were you babbling about? Did you do this to us? Is this payback for what Gwendoline did at the meeting? I had no idea she was going to suggest a binding ritual.” He kept his voice low, but the weight of his words chilled her.
“This isn’t my fault. I didn’t cast any spell,” she said, telling a half-truth.
His eyes narrowed. “Why are you so calm about this? If you didn’t do anything, then why are you here?”
His panic told her he hadn’t done anything to their elements. Lucy’s stomach flipped. That only left one possibility.
There’s no way Benedict is the man Grams’s spell called to! It must have gone wrong. Between the wrong ingredient and our agreement with the coven, we’re technically destined to be together, but by choice. Perhaps both clauses caused the spell to divert from its course. This is why you don’t mess with love magic!
She couldn’t explain her thoughts to him, but she was afraid that if she left him in the dark it would only put them in more danger. She needed to get the Hawthorne grimoire and see what ingredients were in an element swap spell to compare it with what her family had cast.
“Our elements have switched,” she admitted.
“Switched? How? I’ve never even heard of such a thing!” Benedict ran his hands through the damp hair sticking to his temples.
“I don’t know.” Unable to meet his accusing gaze, she pulled at her sleeves. She was terrified that if she revealed the truth, he’d drag her before the coven and reveal what her family had done. If he did, she wouldn’t be the only one banished from Foxford.
His eyes narrowed, scrutinising her guilty expression. “You’re lying.”
“I’m not.” She was, but she wasn’t ready to tell him about the spell. Not when his reaction could get not only her kicked out of the coven, but her mother and Grams as well. She wasn’t going to let their mistake ruin the Hawthorne legacy. They had done it to protect her, and she was going to protect them.
“We’ve known each other since we were born. I know when you’re lying, pumpkin.” He drew closer, and her heart began to pound.
“Don’t come too close! I don’t want to start another fire,” she begged, thinking of the toaster. Even if setting him on fire would solve a few of her problems, she didn’t want to be stuck with his element for the rest of her life.
“You’re not leaving these gardens until you confess.” Benedict folded his arms.
Lucy backed away to the burnt hedgerows to make her escape. “Just give me some time, and I’ll fix this!”
He blocked her path. “You can’t leave me like this without any explanation! Start explaining, or I’ll go to the coven right now! Regardless of whatever the hell caused this, we’re a danger to not only ourselves but the town.”
Lucy knew she couldn’t outrun him, and even if she did it’d make her look guilty. Taking a deep breath, she prayed hewouldn’t use what she was about to say against her. “Grams cast a spell.” She left her mum out of it. If he went to the coven, she didn’t want to see her mum stripped of her position for trying to spare her daughter a loveless life.
Benedict’s gaze darkened. “What type of spell?”
Lucy stumbled through the explanation. “Grams meant well. It wasn’t supposed to swap our elements…You shouldn’t have been affected at all. If anything, it was meant to keep us apart—”
“Pumpkin, stop stalling!”
“I’m trying to explain! I’m only making sense of it myself, so stop yelling at me!” she snapped, trying to ignore the hateful nickname. “Grams heard about the binding ritual. She thought casting a harmless little spell would spare us both from a loveless marriage. The spell was meant to call out to my soulmate so neither of us would have to go through the binding. She figured that if we couldn’t be bound, and with so much time having passed for us to make up for past indiscretions, they’d forget about voting one of us out and we could get back to our lives.”
Benedict stood frightfully still. She’d expected him to yell, pace, or storm out of the garden. Hell, he hadn’t even blinked.
