Spelled Kiss (Coven Corner Book #2)

by Charlotte French

  Bryony nodded. “That would be good. I’d like that.”

  Sky propped her chin in her hand as she looked at Bryony.

  “Well, as long as you’re staying in Wildemoor, I won’t cry that you’re moving out. I’d be heartbroken if you left.”

  There were witches and warlocks who left the comfort of Wildemoor for the wide open world. But Bryony wasn’t one of them. Magic sizzled and sparked in the air throughout the town, floating like gold dust and fireflies through the trees, frosting the flowers in a bright glow.

  “I belong in Wildemoor,” Bryony said. “I think most magic users feel at home here more than anywhere else.”

  “That’s probably why the O’Hara brothers came back,” Sky said. “Aiden says the air is thinner outside of Wildemoor. Like it’s harder to breathe. He says it’s certainly harder to conjure magic. It takes more concentration and energy. But I won’t be able to test it for myself until Yule time.”

  Bryony went still. Sky immediately realized what she’d said and covered her mouth with one hand, eyes wide.

  “You’re leaving Wildemoor?” Bryony said, her voice a little pinched and tight. Why had Sky kept this secret from her? Were they in the habit of secrets now? Is that what their friendship had come to?

  Sky grimaced in apology. “Only to celebrate Yule.”

  “Oh,” Bryony said quietly. “That sounds…nice.”

  “Aiden only mentioned it last night,” Sky said. “I wanted to tell you as soon as possible but I tried to contact you and you wouldn’t answer.”

  Bryony rubbed at her forehead. Sean. She had been so preoccupied with him—his bruises and broken bones, that teasing word, kiss, floating between them like a challenge or a dare. If Sky had tried to contact Bryony through her crystal ball, she wouldn’t have noticed.

  “I’m sorry,” Bryony said. “Things were…chaotic yesterday. Where is Aiden taking you?”

  Sky hesitated for a moment before finally answering. “New York. He wants to show me a few places he used to frequent during his time as warlock there with high profile clients. You know, restaurants, museums, that sort of thing. But we’ll only be gone for a week.”

  Bryony searched Sky’s face for a hint of understanding but Sky seemed to be taking this trip at face value. Bryony, who didn’t have a romantic bone in her body, could see right through the façade.

  When Sky got back from that trip, she would be engaged.

  It hit like a gut punch, knocking the air out of Bryony’s lungs and causing her hands to shake. How could so much change happen in such a short time?

  “Are you upset?” Sky said softly.

  Bryony put on a wobbly smile and shook her head. She wasn’t upset. She just felt…lost. Like the rest of the world was spinning on by without her in a blur and she was being left behind.

  “No,” Bryony said. “I’m not upset. I’m just…it seems like only yesterday that we were kids at school, turning pennies into pumpkins for Samhain.”

  Sky smiled faintly, fiddling with a bundle of dried lavender on the table.

  “We should do that this weekend,” she said. “Turn pennies into pumpkins. My pumpkins were always covered in a shiny copper sheen and hard as metal. But yours were perfect every time. I was very jealous of you for that ability.”

  “I can’t imagine you being jealous.”

  “Happens more often than you think.” Sky paused and rapped her knuckles against the table. She raised one finger in a staying motion. “Wait here. I have something for you.”

  She rose from her chair and disappeared down the hallway. Bryony could hear her moving around in the sitting room for a minute or two before the sounds of her bare feet on the hardwood floor came padding down the hallway again and she reappeared in the kitchen.

  In Sky’s hand was an envelope on pale pink stationary. She placed the envelope on the table and pushed it toward Bryony.

  “Do you remember coming to visit me last year?” she said. “When I thought I’d accidentally cast that love spell over Aiden and I made a mess of everything?”

  Bryony nodded. “You were frazzled all the time.”

  “With good reason. I read your tea leaves then, too.”

  “Yeah, and you hedged about what you saw in the cup because I didn’t want you reading them in the first place. I don’t care to know about what my future holds. I’d rather it played out on its own.”

  Sky ducked her head and fiddled with the envelope. A sudden sinking feeling took root in Bryony’s stomach.

  “Sky,” she said. “Why are you bringing this up now? It was over a year ago.”

  Sky tapped the envelope on the table. The paper smelled faintly of rose perfume and Sky’s favorite jasmine soap.

  “How did you know I hedged about the tea leaves?” she said.

  Bryony snorted. “Give me some credit, Sky. We’ve known each other almost our whole lives. Besides, you can’t lie to save your life. And if you wrote down what you saw in that cup last year, I don’t want to read it. I don’t want to hear it.”

  “I think you should,” Sky said quietly.

  Bryony frowned. “Is it bad news?”

  Sky shrugged. “Depends on your viewpoint.”

  Bryony didn’t like predictions of her future. It made her feel helpless, powerless, as if she had no choice in the matter. She was destined for something and she couldn’t stop it, like a collision with an oncoming freight train.

  But there was something in Sky’s eyes now that made Bryony wary.

  “What is it?” Bryony said. “You’re…worrying me here a little bit, Sky.”

  “Sorry, I just…I didn’t tell you everything at the time because I was…well, I was jealous. And I didn’t think you would want to hear it.”

  She opened the envelope and pulled out a sheet of paper in her curly handwriting. She flattened the paper and pushed it toward Bryony.

  Bryony picked it up and scanned it quickly. Her heart thundered in her chest and heat flushed up her neck.

  “You will fall in love,” Sky recited from memory. “An all-consuming, fiery love so deep and so strong that nothing will break it. You will never be abandoned. You will never question his loyalty.”

  She paused, scrubbing at the middle of her palm with her thumb.

  “And you know him already,” she added, barely above a whisper, knowing the impact those words would have.

  A pause of silence settled over the kitchen.

  “Sean?” Bryony burst out, incredulous. “You can’t be serious.” She shoved her chair back and stood so fast that her chair clattered to the floor.

  Sky rushed to put a hand on her arm.

  “I didn’t say that,” she said. “I only meant that he’s an active part of your life now.”

  Bryony pushed the paper away from her with the weight of that prophecy in black ink, as if it burned her or disgusted her to have it so close.

  “This can’t be true,” she said. “I don’t…I don’t want this.”

  Sky bit her lip. She clasped Bryony’s hand.

  “With the right person,” she said. “You might enjoy falling in love.”

  “Or I wouldn’t.”

  Bryony pulled her hand away, shaking her head. Golden light spilled into the kitchen as the sun rose. She would be expected to help out with Sean today. Samhain was only two days away now and there was twice as much work to do than before. She needed to head back to Pagan Posies.

  But she couldn’t leave Sky in a rough spot like she had before. Bryony put out a hand in a soothing gesture, palm downward.

  “Are we good?” she said.

  Sky raised her eyebrows, surprised. “I am if you are…but that doesn’t seem to be the case.”

  “I just…I need to go fly for a while. Go for a walk or something to clear my head.”

  Sky nodded. She moved to the counter and retrieved a nut brown tea tin. She pressed it into Bryony’s hand.

  “To help you sleep tonight,” she said. “With everything that’s going
on, I’m sure you need a good night’s rest without worrying about the future or the past or anything.”

  Bryony released a breath of relief and managed a shaky smile.

  “Thank you, Sky,” she said. “You’re a good friend. I don’t deserve you.”

  Sky leaned in and kissed her cheek.

  “It’s the least I can do,” she said. “And remember I always have a couch you can sleep on if you need it.”

  “I appreciate that.”

  Bryony stowed the tea tin in her pocket and picked up her broom again. She would be needed at Pagan Posies within the hour. Until then, she planned to lose herself in the trees and the air until her heart wasn’t pounding so fast and so hard with the unknown that awaited her in the future.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  What should have been only one hour turned into two hours. Then three. Then four. Bryony fled to the woods that covered her property, wandering among fat, old twisted oaks. She finally stopped and sat with her back against a tree, tilted her head up and closed her eyes, listening to the wind rustling the leaves overhead. Small animals and insects skittered through the dry underbrush.

  The sun rose, bathing her upturned face in warmth. In the back of her mind, she knew she should get back to Pagan Posies for work. Her family would be worried that there was no sign of her.

  But she couldn’t bring herself to move. She was paralyzed by that reading rolling around in her head over and over.

  You will fall in love…An all-consuming, fiery love so deep and so strong that nothing will break it. You will never be abandoned. You will never question his loyalty…And you know him already.

  Bryony buried her face in her hands. This is exactly why she didn’t want to know her future. She couldn’t stop wondering who she would fall so hard for. She didn’t have that many men she was familiar with. And if it was Sean…

  She couldn’t imagine loving Sean like that. She couldn’t imagine him loving her like that either.

  A sliver of denial wedged its foot into the door of her thoughts. Sky’s readings weren’t always accurate. They always came true, but they were open to interpretation. Sky might think Bryony would fall in love. But what if she had interpreted the tea leaves wrong? It was easy to get a reading wrong if you weren’t clear-headed and ever since Sky had met Aiden, her head had been in the clouds.

  The crunch of a footstep in the fallen leaves made Bryony startle. She sat up, her shoulders rigid, and twisted around to look behind her.

  Sean raised his hands in a gesture of surrender. A red and gold plaid fleece blanket was draped over his arm. He wore a dark brown leather jacket with the collar turned up against the chill of the morning.

  He was the last person Bryony wanted to see and she frowned as he approached.

  “What are you doing out here?” she said.

  “Don’t worry,” he replied. “I’m not staying.”

  He came to a stop behind her. A pause settled over the forest and Bryony held her breath, waiting for his reason for being there.

  A moment later, he draped the blanket over her shoulders.

  “There’s a cold front moving in tonight,” he said. “And if you’re going to sit here for hours, you might want something to keep you warm.”

  Bryony considered refusing but the blanket was soft and her coat hadn’t been fending off the chill like it should have.

  “How did you know where to find me?” she said.

  Sean shrugged. “In school, you were always hiding in trees, climbing them, sitting under their branches. You loved trees. Makes sense that when you want some time alone to get away from everything, you would come here.”

  Bryony had no response to that. She didn’t think he had noticed that detail. She thought he only noticed the things he didn’t like, such as her splotchy brown freckles or her frizzy red curls.

  “Stay as long as you like,” Sean said. He retreated a step, sliding his hands in his pockets. “I’ve made excuses to your family. You’re covered until dinner.”

  “Why would you do that?”

  Another shrug. “Because I’ve been a pest to you all week.” He scrubbed at the back of his neck and jabbed a thumb over his shoulder. “I’ll get going now.”

  He turned away but before he left, he stopped and placed something on the tree root by her elbow. When he removed his hand, a shiny, golden brown acorn was resting there.

  “What’s that for?” Bryony said.

  “Everything I was never very good at saying.”

  Then he left her there and walked back through the trees to the house. Bryony didn’t touch the acorn. For all she knew, it was a prank.

  ***

  Bryony stayed in the woods until sundown and Seline’s shrieking call for dinner echoed through the trees. She gathered up the blanket with a sigh and the acorn caught her eye.

  She stopped and stared at it.

  What’s that for?

  Everything I was never very good at saying.

  Bryony poked at the acorn with a tentative fingertip but the nut didn’t explode or do anything strange. It simply sat there, dull and unimpressive.

  Carefully, Bryony picked it up, pinched between two fingers.

  It appeared to be a perfectly normal acorn.

  Seline screamed again for dinner. Bryony sighed and stowed the acorn in her pocket, forgotten already.

  She hiked through the trees up to the house. But when she stepped onto the porch, she caught a glimpse of the kitchen through the glass door.

  The table was full to bursting with Torres family members. Sean was there, too, of course. And sitting beside him was an old woman Bryony didn’t recognize. She was thin and frail but when she looked at Sean, she smiled like she was seeing the sunlight for the first time.

  She must be Sean’s mother.

  Poppy wiggled onto her lap and Sean’s mother kissed the top of her head.

  Bryony always did that before—sat at the dinner table with Poppy on her knee, feeding her bites of stew and pumpkin.

  Bryony slipped around to the back door and tiptoed up the stairs to her room. She fished a box from her closet and started packing.

  It was high time she found a place of her own.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Bryony made her announcement on Friday morning at breakfast.

  “I’ve decided to move out,” she said.

  The chaos of the kitchen went silent. Everyone froze and turned to look at her.

  “I’ll wait until after Samhain, of course,” she added. “There’s too much to do—”

  “You’re leaving?” Olive whispered in a trembling voice that made Bryony’s heart clench.

  “Just to the other side of town probably,” Bryony replied. “I’ll stay in Wildemoor. I won’t be very far away.”

  But it was too late. The damage was done.

  Poppy started to cry. Seline slouched in her chair and crossed her arms. Basil, who had been practicing levitating his spoon into his tea and stirring it, broke his concentration and the spoon clattered to the floor.

  Worst of all, Sean kept staring at her. He had arrived early that morning and he hadn’t stopped stealing glances at her, as if he was…waiting for something. Expectant.

  But now his expression had changed. Closed off with frustration.

  “This is the worst Samhain ever,” Seline said and shoved away from the table, stomping through the house to her room. She slammed her door shut so hard that the entire house rattled.

  Bryony sighed. She had known the news wouldn’t go over well. She just didn’t think her family would take it this hard.

  The rest of breakfast was silent. There was no customary chatter or jokes passed back and forth. Basil hardly touched his food and pushed to his feet.

  “I’m not really hungry,” he mumbled and darted out the door before Bryony could convince him to stay.

  “Bryony,” Naomi ventured in a careful tone. “I know I talk about wanting you to have a life of your own and I’m happy that you’ve dec
ided to make this decision. It just seems…so sudden. You haven’t mentioned it before.”

  Bryony shrugged, poking at her food.

  “It feels like the right time. With the twins coming, you could use the space my room would offer.”

  Naomi placed a hand to her stomach. “Available space isn’t a problem, Bryony. You know that.”

  Out of the corner of her eye, Sean was still staring at her hard. The muscle in his jaw twitched and he gripped his spoon like it was a weapon. Almost as if he was…angry.

  She had never seen Sean angry before.

  Bryony volunteered to clear the breakfast dishes and Sean slid in beside her. She could feel more than see the rigidity throughout his body, the heat boiling off of him. Neither of them spoke, standing side by side as they cast spells to plunge the dishes into soapy water and scrub them dry. It wasn’t until the last person had finally filtered out of the kitchen before Bryony said something.

  “Go ahead,” she said.

  “What?” he replied in a tight voice.

  “You’ve clearly got something on your mind. Spit it out.”

  Sean huffed and let his hands drop to his sides. His enchantment snapped and the towel he’d been using to dry dishes landed with a plop on the counter.

  “Are you leaving because of me?” he said.

  Bryony scoffed. “Don’t flatter yourself. It’s my decision and my life. I’ve needed a place of my own for a while now. It’s long overdue.”

  “But you don’t seem like you really want it. Like you’re just doing it out of…” He floundered for the right word, hands spread wide and palms open, helpless and empty.

  “Doing it out of what?” Bryony replied, a challenge in her tone.

  Sean’s gaze flicked up to her face. “Spite,” he said.

  The dishes Bryony had been cleaning plunged into the water and didn’t rise again. She turned toward him, chin jutted out.

  “You just know everything, don’t you, Sean?” she said.

  “No,” he said. “I don’t. But I know you. I know you like to use your grudges and your prejudices like a shield. I know—”