by Sarina Dorie
Another injury that had been my fault. I opened my mouth to ask him how his eye was doing, but he giggled and lifted me in a bear hug.
“Clarissa! You caught me again. How do you do it?” His voice was high and nasally for a being so tall.
“Magic,” I said into the muffled fur of his chest. I was so glad he bathed these days. Otherwise the layers of his animal musk in such close proximity would have suffocated me.
He dropped me back onto my feet. Josie shifted from foot to foot uneasily.
“Don’t worry. I’m not going to tell anyone Pinky was in your room,” I said to Josie.
“Not even to your husband, Professor Buttmunch?”
I hated it when she called him things like that. I suspected she still hadn’t forgiven me for marrying him. And she’d never forgive him for breaking her heart.
“I won’t tell Felix. Cross my heart and hope to die. Stick a hot needle in my. . . .” My eyes went wide, and I glanced at Pinky, horrified at my insensitivity.
Josie shook her head at me.
His shaggy brows lifted. “Stick a needle in what?”
From his puzzled expression, I suspected he’d never heard children say that. Maybe he hadn’t. He’d been raised by Fae.
“Never mind,” I said.
“I should probably get going. Three is a crowd.” He winked at Josie.
“You don’t have to go. The more the merrier.” I opened the book I’d tucked under my arm. “Maybe one of you can figure out what I’m doing wrong.”
I showed them the spell and explained my failure at infusing competency into the ring.
Josie adjusted her black-rimmed glasses. “Why do you want a competency spell?”
“Duh. So I can be better at stuff.”
Her eyes narrowed with suspicion. “What kind of stuff?”
“I don’t know. Art. Magic. Anything.”
She twirled a strand of lavender hair around her finger, eyeing me skeptically. “Art. Right.”
Pinky nudged her. “I know what Clarissa wants this spell for.”
“You do?” I swallowed.
“It’s obvious.” He waggled his eyebrows. “You chose to come to us, not Felix Thatch, because you didn’t want him to know. Right? There’s something specific you want to become more competent with.”
I held my breath. He knew. He was going to tell Thatch I was trying to figure out magic he didn’t want me to learn behind his back.
Pinky’s smile turned sly. “You just got married two weeks ago. You want to spice things up between you and your husband in the bedroom.”
I burst out laughing. “Yep. You caught me.”
“Oh gross! Barf!” Josie said. “Why did you have to put that idea in my head? Now I’m going to have bad dreams tonight.”
Pinky chuckled at that.
“Do you think I could try the charm again, this time with you watching, and then you could tell me what I did wrong?” I fished the ring out of my pocket.
“Wait. Is that what you’re using?” Pinky asked. “I can tell you right now that isn’t going to work.”
“Why?” Josie and I asked at the same time.
“It isn’t pure gold.” He leaned in closer, squinting, but he didn’t touch it. “I’d guess from the color there’s copper, but there are other impurities, iron among them.”
Apparently my grandmother had been swindled.
“I don’t think I own anything else that doesn’t have some kind of synthetic materials in them,” I said.
“Okay, so I’m not sure how I feel about this—using my magic for evil, not good—but I could probably help you out.” Josie frowned. “I could weave you a braid out of yarn and you could wear it when you—” She waved a hand in the air in disgust. “I just barfed in my mouth. I’m going to pretend you want competency to do something else like use forbidden magic.”
“Heh.” I tried to laugh, but the remark hit close to home. I hoped my guilt didn’t show on my face.
Josie scrunched up her nose. “Anything is better than imaging you with him.”
“Naked,” Pinky said with a jovial smile. “Anything is better than imagining them naked, consummating their marriage.”
“Stop!” Josie shoved at the mountain of his frame, trying to steer him toward the door. “Get out of here if you’re going to talk like that!”
He strode across her room and made himself comfortable on her bed. The wooden frame creaked ominously.
“Would you make me some kind of braid out of yarn?” I asked Josie.
She sorted through her bags of yarn. Not finding what she wanted, she threw open the doors of her wardrobe, balls of yarn spilling out like tribbles in a Star Trek episode. She selected a small sparkly pink yarn and a shimmering white yarn. I watched as she expertly trimmed the sizes of the thread as though she had done this before. Probably she had in her after-school Weaving Club. She folded the strands in half and made a loop at the end she slipped over my finger. She instructed me to hold it as she tied knots.
Josie’s fingers flew through the air so quickly I wondered if magic was at work. Maybe she was using two more sets of hands that she’d glamoured invisible. I glanced at Pinky, who watched with curiosity, though he didn’t seem especially concerned. By the time I looked back at Josie, she’d already finished the first inch of the striped pattern.
A sense of déjà vu washed over me.
“This isn’t a braid,” I said.
Josie smiled to herself.
“What are you making?” I asked.
“You’ll see. It’s a surprise.” She didn’t take her eyes from the strands.
A sense of dread settled over me. A surprise. Missy, my older sister, had once said those same words to me. She’d given me a friendship bracelet with white-and-pink stripes at the Oregon Country Fair before she’d been abducted. It had been right before everything had changed between us. Was this an omen? History repeating itself? Did this mean Josie was going to turn evil and try to kill me?
“Maybe you should make me a necklace,” I said.
“You already have a magic necklace,” Pinky said, grimacing at the amulet Elric had given me. “Plus, that would take way longer, wouldn’t it?”
I hardly heard him speak. I didn’t want her to make me a bracelet that looked exactly like the one Missy had given me. The sight of it opened up the hurt inside me that I had thought was all healed. I wasn’t going to be able to focus on the skills I needed to learn if all I could do was think about the past. The threads even shimmered, though I suspected this was due to a quality of the yarn itself, not magic.
When the striped strand reached about five inches, she stopped. She removed it from my finger and measured it around my wrist. Satisfied, she foraged in her sewing kit for a button.
Unlike the bracelet Missy had given me, this one was removable, the button on one end and the loop on the other, a simple way to take the bracelet on and off. That one change made me wonder if I could change fate as well. Not my past, but my future.
“It’s a friendship bracelet,” Josie said, as if I didn’t know that.
I nodded.
“What’s wrong?” Josie asked. “Did I pick the wrong colors?”
I hugged her. “I don’t have anything to give you.”
She patted my back. “You gave me a painting last year.”
“But I bet Josie wouldn’t mind you painting a portrait of me you could give to her as a gift,” Pinky said.
She drew back and rolled her eyes. “You, shush.”
“Clarissa should paint me naked.” He ran a hand over the chestnut fur of his chest and belly. “In all my furry glory.”
“Pretend he’s not here. That’s what I do.” Josie ignored him and turned back to me.
I knew Pinky liked Josie. I couldn’t tell whether she liked him back or she only put up with him because he helped her with her glamour. Then again, she had drooled over him when Elric had magicked h
is fur away.
“Thank you,” I said, hugging her again for a brief moment before drawing back. I didn’t want my magic to affect her and make it hard for her to control her jorogumo spider magic.
“So are we going to get to see you try the spell again?” Pinky asked.
This time as I performed the incantation on the bracelet, I felt the air in the room thicken like soup. Magic sparkled all around the bracelet, settling into the yarn before fading.
Pinky leaned forward with interest. “Try it out. Let’s see if you’re more competent at something.”
The trigger for the spell was touching the object, rotating it once, and blinking three times. Immediately after doing so, it felt like my brain opened up, and I grew a hundred times smarter. I thought about the complex spell I’d found in the library. I didn’t have it in front of me, but I remembered the list of ingredients.
“I have to go,” I said. “This is only going to last for a few minutes, and then it won’t work for a few more hours.”
I went straight for Thatch’s most-difficult-to-get ingredients in his supply closet. Priscilla wasn’t in her cage, so that probably meant he was still out with her. Many of his supplies weren’t labeled, but I’d sat in and helped in the herbalism classes with Grandmother Bluehorse. Much of her class was teaching students how to make healing tonics or potions using herbs. With perfect clarity, I remembered what each of those ingredients looked like.
I recalled everything I needed for the spell to make any affinity into a Red affinity. It was what Vega called her “do anything” spell. If I could turn Maddy into a Red and solve her fertility problem, then I could make anyone fertile. I could solve the Raven Queen’s problems and give her what she wanted. Probably I needed more competency than a three-minute spell to do so, though. I needed a real competency spell, like the one Thatch had created previously.
I scoured Thatch’s pantry with renewed vigor.
Wouldn’t you know it, I’d almost finished gathering what I needed when I heard Thatch’s voice behind me.
“What are you doing?” he asked. “Really, isn’t it bad enough you go through my desk searching for paper and ink to steal, but now you break into my supply closet as well?”
I clutched the jars to my chest, staring at him with wide eyes. I held up the ring of keys. “I didn’t break in.” I’d known exactly where he kept his keys on a hook by the door of our room.
Priscilla rested on his hand. He wore a leather glove. Apparently he hadn’t felt like cutting himself up and drawing magic from the pain tonight.
“Well?” Thatch asked. “Are you going to tell me why you’re pillaging my supplies?”
My competency was so complete, I knew exactly what to say to the undeterrable Felix Thatch to get him off my back.
“I’m just collecting ingredients for a spell to fight menstrual cramps.”
His pale complexion flushed pink. “Oh. Well, then. Carry on. I’ll be in my classroom.” He lifted the dome of the wire cage and set Priscilla on her perch. She watched me with suspicion.
Thatch didn’t even look at me.
Too bad the spell didn’t last. By the time Thatch left, I couldn’t remember the rest of the ingredients or their quantities. I grabbed everything I’d pulled from his closet and carried it up to my classroom, realizing later I’d forgotten the powdered unicorn horn.
My magic lessons had once consisted of sitting in a hard metal chair in Thatch’s office while he’d induced me into a meditative state as the chair worked its fear magic on me. I had never been a natural when it came to controlling my affinity, and those torture sessions had been a way to learn how to numb myself to pain, to recognize the difference between fantasy and reality, and to not hurt myself or others with magic.
The lessons that had progressed to the bedroom had been to learn how to control my affinity through pleasure. They’d been more fun to learn than pain magic. At least they had before my wedding night when Derrick had abducted me. Now with every lesson I was filled with mild dread, knowing my true weakness wasn’t the opposite of my affinity, but what fueled it.
A small part of me worried Thatch would use my magic against me as Derrick had.
If I was going to successfully rescue my fairy godmother from the Raven Queen, I would need full command over my powers. I needed to be able to resist pleasure and keep a level head. I had to advance more quickly in my magic lessons. I would use my competency charm and learn faster.
On the other hand, I also knew Thatch didn’t want to teach me. He didn’t want me to go to the Raven Queen. He’d been sullen and withdrawn at dinner. I had no doubt that finding me crawling across the floor to try to go to the Raven Court without him had angered him. Sex magic was probably the last thing he wanted at the moment. In truth, it was the last thing I wanted.
It also was what I needed, which was why I intended to seduce him into teaching me.
I took extra time readying myself for recreational activities, dressing in a lacy slip so high and sheer it left little to the imagination. I rarely wore makeup and when I did, I certainly didn’t wear it to bed, but tonight I applied eyeliner, eyeshadow, and a waterproof lip stain that was supposed to last through kissing. Thatch hadn’t ever forbidden me from using his magic hairbrush, so I used it to fluff up my hair and make it lustrous. When I opened the door to the bathroom, I lounged seductively in the doorframe.
I thought he would see through the thin veneer of sex appeal for what it was—an attempt at manipulating him into teaching me. I felt no excitement or passion. Only longing for all the things I couldn’t have.
Thatch sat in bed reading a book by candlelight. The curtains of the canopy bed were swept back just enough for the candle to illuminate his peaceful expression. He wore a white T-shirt, the snug fabric hugging his lean frame. The white lace of tattoos decorated his pale arms, the lattice reminding me of delicate snowflakes.
I cleared my throat. He didn’t look up. I coughed louder.
He turned a page of his book. “If you need a cough lozenge, I have some I made located in the desk in my office.”
“I suppose I could go to your office, but what if someone sees me when I’m so . . . underdressed.” I batted my eyelashes at him.
He glanced up. “True. You can wear my robe if you’d like.”
I didn’t dress in his robe. I swayed my hips as I walked toward him. If he noticed, he was doing a good job pretending he didn’t.
“Don’t forget to pick up your clothes and put them in the hamper,” he said, not looking up from his book. As if I needed to be reminded.
I sat down on the bed beside him. The fabric cover of the dusty tome was so worn and threadbare I couldn’t read the gold letters that had once marked the title.
“Good book?” I asked.
“It is a truth universally acknowledged that a married man in possession of a good book must be in want of a wife interrupting him from the escape of literature.” His face was an expressionless mask. “I don’t suppose you’d settle for a bedtime story and snuggling tonight?”
“No.” I removed the book from his hands and tossed it toward the floor.
He sat up straighter, hand outstretched toward the book. It didn’t thud onto the floor as one would have expected. I turned my gaze to watch as it slowly drifted down like a leaf wafting on an autumn breeze.
“That Jane Austen novel is a first edition,” he said stiffly.
I leaned forward and kissed him on the lips. He swept my hair out of my face, his fingers moving tenderly over my jaw.
“I haven’t managed to vex you yet?” he asked.
“Is that what you were trying to do?” Coming from the man who knew Vega had eaten everyone’s prophecy chocolate but told everyone he did it just to make them hate him, the idea that he simply wanted to irritate me should have been no surprise.
His gaze swept over the lacy slip, his eyes a gloom of melancholy.
“Are you mad at me ab
out earlier?” I asked. “Is that why you want me to be angry with you? So you can be mad at me?”
“You’ve caught me.” His expression remained morose.
I planted kisses across his face, trying to cheer him up.
“I wasn’t lying to you about your mum,” he said. “She is safe. I asked Pro Ro to scry it.”
“Great.” I didn’t want to think about Abigail Lawrence right now. I wouldn’t be able to focus on learning magic if I let despair sink into my heart.
“Clarissa, you do understand I worry about you. I want to keep you safe. I’m not trying to be a tyrant.”
I placed a hand on his heart, the regular rhythm reassuring. “I know.”
Here he was being genuine and considerate—traits I’d always wanted. I was the one who was being manipulative and deceitful. I wanted this to be the marriage I’d always dreamed of, but it was difficult to focus on us when I felt so much pressure to rescue my mom.
He scooted away from the edge of the bed, circling an arm around my waist and drawing me closer. “You truly do look lovely.”
I leaned in and kissed him again. I shifted onto his lap. He hugged me to him so tightly I could barely move, let alone kiss him. I attempted to squirm back, but he wouldn’t let me.
He kissed the top of my head. “I would do anything for you.”
“Except teach me what I need to learn.”
“If I teach you what you need, you’ll resent me.” He threaded his fingers through my hair. His fingers massaged my scalp.
I closed my eyes, relaxing under his touch. “No, I won’t. I’m asking for you to teach me this magic. Why would I hate you for that?”
He loosened his hold on me. I lifted my chin and kissed him again.
“You know what I would like?” he asked, a sorrowful smile playing across his lips. “I would like a honeymoon with my wife. I would like for us to go somewhere far away from here after the school year ends and to not think about magic for at least a little while.”
“You want me to read you Little House on the Prairie? And Little Women? You want bedtime stories and happy endings with rainbows and sunshine.” He wanted to whisk me away and make me forget the Raven Queen had my mom. I wasn’t about to let that happen.