Page 93 of A Spell for Midwinter's Heart
“Well, you see, there’s these wonderful inventions called timers…”
Her mother laughed and scowled simultaneously as she pulledthe dry goods out of the cabinets. “Who raised you to be so snarky?”
“I don’t think you want me to answer that,” said Rowan as she traveled to the fridge for the perishables.
“It was your dad.”
“Dad barely talks.”
Together they combined all the old familiar ingredients—sugar and butter coming together with chocolate and vanilla in a strong boil over the licking flames of the stove. They chopped up walnuts in a steady rhythm of knife against block, leaving a fine nutty dust in the air, and sprinkled them across the surface of the fudge after it had been transferred to a pan for cooling.
Liliana raised power as she moved, and so Rowan did the same, bringing into the recipe all the best things she could remember about her grandmother—her cunning, her tenacity, her wit—and the hard parts too. The unnecessary harm that she had done, in particular to those she had loved, and how the myriad of spells she’d cast to keep her safe had isolated her in the end.
It was not a future Rowan wanted for herself, but it was clear that her old solution, to deny herself and cut herself off, had brought about similar enough consequences.
There had to be a middle ground, and she would find it.
When Rowan and Liliana sat down to sample the finished product, a wind whistled through the house, and a door shut in the far hall. It was the door to her grandmother’s room.
“Hi, Mom,” whispered Liliana. She reached out for Rowan’s hand, and they sat and stared in the direction of the room, remembering and grieving not only the loss of Madeleine Midwinter but of who they had been to Madeleine Midwinter.
Until Rowan glanced at the clock and, noticing the time, scrambled out of her seat with an “Oh, shit!”
“Hmm?” Liliana hummed around a mouthful of fudge.
“I’m supposed to go to this party at Gavin’s house tonight. It’sa swanky dinner, and I have no idea what I’m going to wear. I guess I’ve got the dress from the fundraiser? But it’s dirty and dry clean only.”
“I think,” Liliana offered, raising a finger, “I might have something that’ll work.”
Her mother’s solution was the red dress of Midwinter lore. Rowan was certain there was no chance of it fitting, given that her grandmother had been thin as a whip in the way of all women who lived off cigarettes and spite, but Liliana shook it free and held it up high for inspection, and the shape of it slowly expanded in her hands, so that when Rowan slipped it on, the fit was perfect.
More hearth magic at work.
“I don’t have to be back by midnight or anything?” she had asked, admiring the way the vintage A-line shape flattered her curves.
Her mother scoffed. “Did you hear ‘bibbidi-bobbidi-boo’? Go—enjoy the party.”
35
Her father’s truck lumbered over a long gravel drive. The heater labored to keep the cab above freezing, and the radio was fuzzy with static. As the McCreery house came into sight on a distant hill, Rowan was struck with the dizzying memory of the last time she’d looked at it from this perspective.
She’d never felt more alone, or confused, than in the moment she had stepped back into consciousness on this very hillside.
The truck rolled to a stop out beside a collection of much nicer cars. It seemed like too many for one man and his visiting son, but then, she didn’t know what Dennis McCreery spent his money on—maybe it was cars? That he left outside in the middle of winter?
Gavin met her at the door. He was wearing a black suit tailored to show off the breadth of his shoulders and the trim torso below them. His eyes swept her from head to toe as he stepped out to meet her on the doorstep, a reverent look in his eyes.
“You look incredible,” he said in a low voice. His fingertips skimmed the exposed flesh of her shoulders before tripping down her back to loop around and pull her against the rigid line of hisbody. He kissed her once, twice, a third time, the attentions of his tongue leaving her breathless with anticipation of what they might sneak off and do once they’d finished their business.
He took her by the hand and led her into the house. Golden tinsel wove through the handrail of a wide staircase. Glossy silver, pale blue, and white balls dangled from beams overhead. Their Christmas tree was straight out of a catalog, stretching at least fifteen feet toward the vaulted ceilings of the living room and decorated with icy perfection.
She stared at it a moment longer, and déjà vu struck again. It left her head swimming, and she held Gavin’s hand a little tighter to steady herself. She had never been inside this house, had she? Something slithered up her spine, the uneasy sensation that something wasn’t right.
Gavin’s forehead creased with tension. “Everyone’s out back.”
Her heart dropped. “I thought I was getting here early so we could pitch to him.”
He wound up his words slowly, gently, clearly expecting that what he was going to say would upset her. “There were other…early visitors. It’s not a problem. We’ll catch a lull and pull him aside. Look, there’s more, though. I didn’t realizetheywere coming…I didn’t realizeshewas coming.”
