Page 24 of Potions and Proposals
“In other words, our souls wouldn’t bond during the ritual because you’d have already found your soulmate. Essentially, forcing an election.” He sounded far calmer than he should.
She nodded at the unveiled truth.
“Are you crazy? Love magic can be lethal, unpredictable—” He paused and turned sharply. “When was the spell cast?”
“After the coven meeting. Why does that matter?”
“Last night, I burnt my running shorts… it doesn’t matter. In the woods, I was dizzy just before I came across you…” His disjointed thoughts made it difficult for her to keep up. “I could barely create a flame when we went through the wine cellar. The spell must have been starting to take effect. The timing fits, and it explains my lack of control.”
She considered that. “When I woke up at the manor, I couldn’t summon my element,” she admitted. She should have known the tea could never have had such a profound effect.
“I can’t believe you would be daring enough to get mixed up with love magic! Love is one of the most powerful forces – you can’t trick or entice it. Now we’re stuck like this, our elements trapped in the wrong body!”
“But it wasn’t meant to swap our elements. Grams used the wrong ingredient, which must’ve altered the spell. I’m going to go through the love spells in the library and see how the ingredient altered the potion’s chemistry. There were some mentions of elemental spells in the grimoire I recently received from the Order. I can double-check and see if I can fix this before anyone finds out,” Lucy told him, hoping that all would be sorted before the day was out.
Benedict’s glower told her he was unconvinced. “The spell worked. It called to your intended.”
“When I agreed to the binding ritual,Ibecame your intended. Even if there was a mix-up in the ingredients, the spell did what it was meant to do, bring you closer to your intended. What’s a better way to do that than to swap our elements!” He paced back and forth, his hands on his hips. She had never seen him so flustered.
“But our agreeing to be together can’t hold the same weight as those who are fated to be together, surely? Like you said, love is a powerful force. I don’t think an agreement could alter our fate, just like that.”
He stopped pacing. “If anything, it could hold more weight. We decided against what our fate might be, and chose for ourselves.”
“But we chose out of necessity, not out of any true desire to be together!”
“We’re going round in circles,” he huffed.
“Let’s simplify this. How about we focus on the wrong ingredient for now? I’ll do some research and see if I can find a reversal spell,” Lucy said. She couldn’t take any more of his ands, ifs, or buts.
He arched a brow. “And if it wasn’t the wrong ingredient?”
“Then maybe our elements have a sense of humour and decided to pull a prank on us,” she quipped, trying to ease the tension.
His scowl erased her smile.“There is nothing funny about this. We’re both ill-equipped to handle each other’s element. This is dangerous.”
She’d have been entertained by his discomfort if she weren’t so terrified about setting the town on fire.“I’m only trying to lighten the mood! Yelling at each other isn’t going to make getting through this any easier. Our other magic doesn’t seem to be affected by the swap. We just need to try and refrain from using elemental magic.”
“That’s not going to be easy, but I suppose we have no other choice,” he sighed.
The ensuing silence could have lasted five minutes or fifteen, both getting used to the idea of being stuck with each other’s element until further notice.
“If you were willing to go this far to stop our binding, why did you agree in the first place?” he asked eventually.
“I didn’t cast the spell! I’d never have gone so far.” Lucy squished a soggy leaf under her foot, avoiding his gaze. “I hate the idea of the coven thinking I was trying to deceive them.”
“Doesn’t explain why you agreed to the ritual.” He tilted his head so she’d look at him.
Lucy wanted to ask him the same thing, but shehadagreed first. She didn’t want him to suspect what her family had– that she had some love for him buried deep, deep,deepdown somewhere.
“I thought we could buy ourselves some time. Push out the vote so that the coven would’ve time to see that the town needsbothof us, and to see who’d make the best leader,” she reasoned.
He nodded, but stayed silent. She would have given anything to know what he was thinking.
“If anything, my agreeing helped both of us. There’s no way of knowing which of us they’d have picked if there was a rash vote that night. Now we’ve time to prove ourselves,” she added, needing him on her side.
His sudden low laughter unnerved her. It wasn’t the reaction she had expected.
“Only a Hawthorne could look on the bright side right now. We might have time to prove we deserve to stay, but that’s only ifyou don’t set the town on fire, and I don’t flood it.”
