by T. S. Ryder
Chapter One
Ella glanced at her ringing phone, which was sitting on her coffee table. She could have used her magical powers to see who was calling, but she was tired and it was easier just to reach for the device and pick it up. The screen said “Charlotte”. She answered the call, always ready to have a conversation with her best friend. And since Charlotte had started dating the super hot billionaire Jesse Barrett, her conversations had been filled with juicy gossip about her rich lifestyle.
“Spill,” Ella said.
But instead of gushing with joy, Charlotte was sobbing. “Ella—he—he—”
“What’s wrong? Did Jesse do something?”
“Yes—” More sobs and indecipherable words.
“What?”
“He—broke—”
Ah. That was all she needed to hear. “He broke up with you? Why?”
“He—”
“Okay. Stop. Where are you right now, and what are you doing?”
“Home.”
Ella had no idea what Charlotte said next, but it didn’t matter. “I’m getting ice cream and wine, and I’ll be right over.”
She hung up and jumped into action. Her evening had just gone from Netflix in her pajamas to a night of consoling and crying and bad-mouthing another loser man who didn’t know how amazing Charlotte was. Ella threw on her yoga pants and a less-stained shirt, grabbed a few calming potions and slipped into flip flops.
On her way to Charlotte’s apartment, she stopped at the convenience store and picked up the double chocolate chunk ice cream and Merlot that were their typical comfort foods for a night of wallowing. Charlotte pulled open her door with puffy, red eyes and a wadded tissue in her hand. She threw her arms around Ella gratefully.
“Tell me everything.” Ella set the bottle on the table and grabbed two spoons from the kitchen, then joined Charlotte in the living room.
Charlotte held a box of tissues on her lap and she blew her nose one more time before she snatched the potion from Ella’s hand, gulped it down and started.
“He ended it,” she said simply, her tears gentler now. “After six months, that’s it.”
“What happened? Why did he end it?”
“He’s an ass. I should have known. How could I think someone so hot and rich wouldn’t be a complete jerk? Do you have another potion?”
“You can’t drink another one yet. Wait for that one to work. So what was his reason?” Ella asked, pouring some wine into the glasses. “Like, what did he say to you?”
“A bunch of lame lines. I’m not ready for a serious relationship. I don’t think this is working out. Nothing concrete. He basically wants to sleep around.”
“Really?”
“That’s the only thing that makes sense. Why else wouldn’t he want to be in a serious relationship? And if there was nothing specific, then he’s just an asshole.”
Ella took a deep breath. “I’m so sorry. I know you wanted it to be more.”
“I thought I was going to marry him, you know? Have this amazing life of being rich and going to fancy restaurants and events and wearing designer clothing all the time.” She broke into sobs again. “I’ll never have Louboutins now!”
“Does all that really matter, though, if he didn’t love you? I mean, would you want a loveless marriage?”
“Who said it would be loveless? I loved him!”
Ella took a long sip of her wine. “Did you, though? Or did you just love his money? You complained about him a lot. And”—she took another gulp—“you said he wasn’t very good in bed.”
Charlotte shrugged. “I loved him enough. And the sex thing? No one who’s that rich doesn’t have yearly affairs anyway. We probably wouldn’t have sex that often.” She sighed and downed a glass of wine in one long pull. “If I were a witch, I’d just cast a spell on him and make him love me.”
Ella rolled her eyes. “I’ve told you a million times, it doesn’t work like that. Don’t you think if it did, I’d be married by now? Hello?”
“I’m sure you would have been able to cast some spell on him to make him want you. What good is being a witch if you can’t make people do things they don’t want to do?”
“And that would be exactly why the universe made me a witch and not you, dear. It knew you would use magic for evil.”
Charlotte downed more wine and set her glass on the table. “Well, we have to do something. Ooh, you know what would make me feel better?”
“More wine.” Ella filled their glasses.
“Well, obviously, but also revenge. We should get back at him for dumping me. There has to be some spell or something.”
“Revenge? Like, make him grow warts or slash his tires?”
“That’s child’s play. I’m talking revenge for real. I want to mess with his head and his heart.”
Ella raised her eyebrows. “What did you have in mind?”
“Well, first, let me tell you his secret.”
Chapter Two
“He’s what?!”
“I know. Can you believe it?” Charlotte said. “The first time I saw it, I was kind of freaked out.”
“I’m surprised he even showed you if he has all these commitment issues,” Ella said. Though it was pretty obvious to her that Charlotte was exaggerating the problems they’d had.
“Well, who knows? So, I think the plan should be that we go and catch him in the act. We take pictures and use that as blackmail.”
“Okay.” Ella finished off her wine and set the glass down, reaching for her spoon and the ice cream. “But what’s the point of blackmailing him exactly?”
“Money. Obviously.” Charlotte rolled her eyes. “I want to hurt him worse than that, though. How can we really mess with his head?”
“Make him fall madly in love, then break his heart?” Ella was feeling a little warm and tipsy from the wine, and after hours of talking about Jesse’s worst features, she was starting to feel the desire for revenge right with Charlotte, as if she’d been the one who’d had her heart broken by him.
“I like how you think.” Charlotte pointed at her with her spoon before diving back into the double chocolate chunk. “But you said love potions don’t work like that.”
“They don’t. But there’s a spell that’ll heighten whatever feelings he has.”
“Then why don’t we cast it on him for me?” Charlotte nearly shrieked at her.
“Umm, hello? It heightens whatever he’s feeling. He just broke up with you. If I did the spell now, whatever negative things he’s feeling towards you would be heightened. Is that what you want?”
Charlotte stuck out her lower lip. “No.”
Ella gave her a mischievous grin. “But, if we convince him to like me, we can cast the spell and make him love me.”
Charlotte leaned forward and dropped her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “And then you can fake a pregnancy and really mess with him.”
Ella scrunched her eyebrows. “There is a spell that does that, but what’s the point? We’ll have the photo for blackmail money and the love spell to break his heart. Why bring my pretend future child into this?”
“Because more than anything, Jesse wants to be a dad. If you get him to love you, then he thinks you’re having his baby, when you tell him the truth, it will shatter him.”
Ella poured the last drops of the wine into her mouth. “Well, I guess that’ll show him that you were the one for him all along.”
“Exactly.” Charlotte stuck a huge spoonful of ice cream into her mouth, then started to cry. “Why did he have to break up with me? I love him!”
Ella patted her hand. “I know. I know. It’ll be okay.”
Charlotte sniffed and wiped her eyes. “Yeah. When we get back at him, then I’ll feel better.”
“And I’m going to make it happen.”
Charlotte leaned forward and wrapped Ella in a tight hug. “Thank you. I love you.”
***
The next day, once she’d slept off her hangover and pump
ed herself full of aspirin, Ella drove to Charlotte’s. She was anxious to see if Charlotte was right and Jesse’s secret was for real. If it was, then that would be huge for the magical world. She was also a bit curious about Jesse. Charlotte had talked about him plenty in the months she was dating him and before. It was enough to make Ella interested in him as a person, and part of her just wanted to know if this was really possible. Could she actually make a billionaire fall for her, fake a pregnancy, then have the freedom to walk away from it all? That seemed like a great deal of power.
She figured the temptation level was low, anyway. She had no interest in the lifestyle Charlotte craved. Ella didn’t need expensive bags and clothing or fancy dinners. As a witch, she had power beyond whatever money could buy. Most witches and wizards had a carefree attitude when it came to money. If she got desperate, she could always turn to alchemy and make some aluminum into gold.
Ella wasn’t used to getting a ton of attention from men. She felt good in her body and didn’t have a problem with her curves, but some men did. She wasn’t the perfect image of skinny glamor that Charlotte was. If Jesse was into that sort of thing, he might not go for her. Maybe she’d cast a spell to appear thinner since he seemed to like that sort of thing.
“Okay, so where are we going?” Ella asked.
“This is where he does it.”
Ella nodded and continued to follow Charlotte’s directions until they reached a part of the highway with a deep shoulder.
They parked and started walking, coming to Jesse’s car about a mile down the road.
“See, I told you he would be here!” Charlotte pointed at his car. “There’s something about Wednesdays. He always comes on Wednesdays.”
They walked farther into the woods until any hint of the road was obscured from sight. They followed a worn path for a long way.
“Shh. We’re getting close,” Charlotte said. “Get your camera ready.”
Ella took out her phone and opened the camera app. Charlotte crept along, making her movements slower and quieter. Ella did the same. They came to a flatter patch of ground, something of a clearing with fewer trees than the surrounding woods.
And there, in the middle of the clearing, was a huge silver dragon. He stood tall, eating some sort of green plant. His long tail, covered in spikes, lay behind him. He held the plant in large paws with long, clawed ends. He was a little scary. From this angle, they could just see his razor teeth chewing the plant.
Ella snapped several pictures. “Aren’t dragons meat eaters?” she whispered.
Charlotte shrugged and whispered back, “Did you get the photo?”
Ella nodded and turned her phone to show Charlotte the best shots.
“Let’s go.”
“Wait,” Ella whispered. “This isn’t proof that it’s him, though. We need to see him change.”
Charlotte thought for a moment. “I’m going to run out there and get his attention. If I say I need to talk to him, maybe he’ll change back. Just start a video and keep it going, okay?”
“But then he’ll know it was you,” Ella whispered.
“So? If I’m the one blackmailing him, obviously he’ll know it’s me.”
Ella shrugged and held up her phone, ready to record.
Charlotte charged through the brush in a hurry. “Jesse!”
Ella hit record and watched in awe. Jesse, in dragon form, turned suddenly, almost whacking Charlotte with his massive tail.
Charlotte yelled at him, “I need to talk to you! Right now! Change back so we can talk.”
He stared at her for a long while, then finally seemed to melt. His long tail drew back into his body and the spikes on his spine receded. His arms and legs and neck shrank as his scales morphed back into skin. Then he was Jesse Barrett, dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, looking quite unhappy.
“What are you doing here, Charlotte?” he demanded.
“We need to talk. You can’t end this. What we have is too good.”
“You shouldn’t have come here. This is a private place, you know that.”
“That’s why I came.” Charlotte put her hands on her hips. “You won’t take my calls and your assistant asked me to stop calling you.”
“Yeah, because we broke up, and I have no reason to talk to you. Please leave.”
“Jesse, stop this, please.” She started to cry and went to him, trying to hug him. He pushed her back.
He stepped back and changed again into a dragon. Then he leaped into the air and flew off, vanishing from sight as he neared the clouds. He must have used a spell to hide himself.
Charlotte ran back over to Ella. “Did you get it?”
“Both changes.” Ella tucked her phone into her pocket and they took off at a run.
When they reached the place where Jesse’s car had been, it was gone. They hopped into Ella’s car and drove back to Charlotte’s.
“He’s refusing your calls?” Ella asked as they drove.
“Yeah.” Charlotte shrugged. “I’ve called him a lot, though. It was to be expected.”
When they got back to Charlotte’s, they watched the footage over and over.
“This is perfect,” Charlotte said. “It shows everything.”
***
Later that night, Ella stood in her bedroom, gazing at her body in the mirror. She spoke the words of her spell and watched her stomach swell. She struggled to hold the vision, though. She’d need to work on this spell and perfect it if she was going to convince anyone she was pregnant, especially Jesse, who she would presumably be sleeping with if things went as planned.
She worked on it all that week, tweaking her incantations, practicing the strength needed to cast it. Finally, after a few weeks, she thought she could do it well enough.
She knocked on Charlotte’s door. Charlotte opened it and her jaw dropped.
“What…?” Charlotte asked.
Ella rubbed her stomach lovingly. “Due any day now. Oh! The baby is moving, do you want to feel?”
Charlotte reached out her hand hesitantly and placed it on Ella’s stomach. When she felt the movement, she yanked her hand back and jumped.
“That is freaky,” she said. “Well, come in, put your feet up or something. Are your ankles swollen, too?”
“Oh, good idea.” Ella sat down, put her feet up on the sofa, then made her ankles swell. “This baby is killing me.”
Charlotte stared at her for a long moment. “You’re good. I mean, it’s still freaky. Don’t get me wrong, you make a beautiful pregnant woman, but it’s weird to see you like that all of a sudden.” She shook her head.
“Well.” Ella sat up and dropped the vision, letting her body return to its normal curvy but non-pregnant state. “This means we’re ready. How are we going to do this?”
Charlotte stretched her mouth into a wicked grin. “I’ve got it all worked out. Jesse has this dog walker, Lynn. It just so happens that Lynn is going to quit and leave him stranded.”
“How did it ‘just so happen’?”
Charlotte shrugged. “Money can buy anything.”
“Well, okay.”
“Too bad Lynn isn’t good looking. Then you could just pose as her. I guess you’ll have to be yourself.”
Ella threw a pillow at Charlotte as she sat beside her on the couch. “So, you know him. How do I become his new dog walker?”
“You take a flyer to his house the day Lynn quits. We’ll time it just right with her. She calls him and quits and, just a few hours later, you show up and save the day. And if you act like your cute self, he’ll fall madly in love.”
“Let’s hope.”
“One thing, though.” Charlotte twisted her mouth to one side. “I don’t want to sound like a bitch or anything, but Jesse usually goes for skinny girls.”
Ella took in a breath. She had been thinking the same thing, but hearing it come from her best friend wasn’t easy. No matter how comfortable she was with her body, others weren’t. Was it worth it this time to pretend? To be w
hat everyone wanted her to be instead of being herself? She was already pretending. Did one more lie matter in the end?
Charlotte put her hand on Ella’s knee. “I don’t mean anything by it. You’re perfect as you are. Remember that Jesse is an ass, and that’s why we’re doing this.”
“Right.” Ella let out a breath and stood, running her hands down her now size two body.
“Dang. It’s better than plastic surgery. Are you sure you can’t teach me some spells?”
“Won’t do you much good without having magic.”
“Sigh,” Charlotte said dramatically. “So unfair.”
“When are we going to do this?”
“When do you want to start?”
“I guess right away.”
“I’ll call Lynn,” Charlotte said. “Tomorrow we begin!”
Chapter Three
Ella pulled up to the mansion’s gate. It was hard to believe that just one man lived in this huge place. She buzzed the gate intercom and, when someone responded, she said, “I was wondering if Mr. Barrett had a dog and was in need of a dog walker? I’d like to leave him a brochure with some coupons.”
There was a long silent pause, then the response, “Please come up to the house.”
The gate swung open and she drove through it. A large white building sat before her in the middle of an expansive green lawn. She’d never seen a lawn so perfectly manicured or so beautifully landscaped. She climbed up the marble steps to the front door, bypassing tall topiaries and flowerbeds of bright blooms. She knocked and, a moment later, someone opened the door.
“Are you the dog walker?” the woman asked. From what Charlotte had told her, this was probably Marla, the housekeeper.
“Yes,” Ella grinned and handed her a brochure.
“Are you able to wait a few minutes?”
“Sure!” Ella smiled again, trying to seem as bubbly and friendly as possible.
The housekeeper disappeared into the house, leaving Ella standing in the entrance hall. From here, she could see long halls with marble floors leading to enormous rooms. The sheer size of the house overwhelmed her. How many bedrooms and bathrooms did it have?