Spell bound, p.29
Spell Bound, page 29
Fable made soup on the stove, and I washed the few bowls that hadn’t been broken. There were only three, so I ended up drinking soup out of a large cup. As we slurped, we talked. Rook and I talked about our escape, and sleeping in the forest, and my few days as a cat, and Mavis, and Rook’s grandmother. Antonia told us how they’d caught her unaware, overpowered her with a cadre of sorcerers, and how she’d been unlucky.
“It won’t happen again,” Antonia said with a fierce nod.
“No,” Fable agreed. “It won’t.”
Once the soup was eaten, I pulled the cuffs of my hoodie over my hands. “I have to call my parents,” I said.
Rook nodded. “I know.”
“Don’t worry, Sun,” Fable said, lightly brushing my shoulder with their fingertips. “I’ll explain everything, and, remember, they signed the waiver.”
I pulled my knees to my chest as I balanced in the kitchen chair. “Still, they’re not going to let me out of their sight for a while.”
Rook traced the grain on Fable’s kitchen table. The one I’d landed on that was somehow not broken. “I know. It’s okay. I’ll text you.”
“I don’t have a phone anymore, and neither do you. The Consortium has them.”
Rook laughed. “Right. Um… scrying mirror?”
“Absolutely not,” Antonia said, cutting through our conversation. “In fact”—she nodded toward the covered one across the room—“I know it was unintentional that they heard everything,” Antonia said evenly, “but I don’t want to be near one ever again.”
“I agree,” Fable said. They crossed the room, took the mirror from the wall, and slammed it on the floor. It shattered. “There.”
Wow, I mouthed to Rook with wide eyes. Fable had never openly broken a rule before. But I had a feeling everything was going to change. Everything already had. Maybe even for the better.
Rook took my hand in his. I didn’t mind it at all. In fact, I wouldn’t mind curling up together on one of the beds in the cottage and sleeping for a year, holding hands, touching, kissing. But as it was, I’d take the way Rook laced our fingers.
“I like you,” Rook said. “So much.”
“Even if I’m grumpy and antisocial.”
Rook laughed. “Yeah. It’s kind of my favorite thing about you.”
My face heated. My heart stuttered. And yeah, the situation may have been difficult and tense, and I’d spent a few days as a cat, but things had definitely turned out for the better.
25 ROOK
Watching Sun be fawned over by their sisters was endearing and cute and a little heartbreaking, but I was happy for them. Happy that they had a family who had worried about them and happy that they promised to keep in touch even as their sisters tugged them into their mom’s car to drive them home to their worried parents.
I waved to them from the front porch of Fable’s cottage as the car pulled away, and I stayed there until they were long out of sight, arms crossed over my middle. I missed them already, but it would be okay. Because, as Antonia had said so succinctly in the face of the judge and Evanna Lynne, I belonged. I belonged.
“What about you?” Antonia asked, coming to stand next to me on the porch while sipping coffee. She’d complained of a caffeine-withdrawal headache, and Fable had made a pot that Antonia was quickly drinking her way through.
“What about me?”
“You said I was your only adult. Back there at the Consortium.” She drummed her fingers, her nails clinking against the ceramic. “Is that true?”
“Yes. Yes, you are.”
She hummed. “Okay. Well, I have a place in the city. My home. And I want to go there. Do you want to come with?”
I snapped my head up. “What?”
Antonia held her coffee cup in both hands and looked over the landscape. “As much as I adore Fable’s cottage”—she made a face as she said it—“and the quaint magical woods that are right next door, I have my own apartment. I have plants that need water. And I have an extra room that has nothing in it but a bed.”
A lump formed in my throat. “Are you asking me to stay with you?”
“For a while,” she said. “Or forever. Either. Or. We could try it out, and if you like it and if you want to stay, we’ll make it happen.”
“Are you serious?” I couldn’t take it if she wasn’t. My heart squeezed.
Antonia finally met my gaze. “Of course.”
I nodded quickly. “Yeah. Yeah, I’d like that.”
“Good. We’ll go after I finish this cup of coffee. And we’ll get more coffee on the way there. And then I’ll buy us both new phones. After we have more food and a long nap.”
“That sounds amazing.” It came out watery, a little disbelieving, but earnest, so sincere there was no way Antonia could take it as anything but genuine.
“You’re not going to cry on me, are you?”
I shook my head, frantically trying to rein in my utter happiness. “No,” I said, my voice a rasp, tears burning behind my eyes.
Antonia smiled into her cup. “It’s okay if you do.”
I laughed. My heart soared. And all the fear of rejection that had followed me around since the very beginning, since I’d walked into Antonia’s office all those months ago, that plagued my every step and cast a shadow over every decision I’d made, all of it merely dissipated, fluttered away on the backs of butterfly wings.
26 ROOK
“Hello, thank you for calling Hex-A-Gone. How can I assist you today?” I asked as I clicked through documents on my computer. “You think you might be jinxed? Okay. Can you provide me with some more information?” I listened as the caller rambled about tripping over curbs and dropping their brand-new expensive phone on concrete and walking into a doorframe while on a date. I gathered all the information and typed it into my handy-dandy non-emergent maybe-just-really-clumsy form on the computer.
“Okay. Thank you for your call. I will pass the information along to one of our capable sorcerers and they will return your call before the end of the business day. Thank you.”
I saved the form and emailed it to Antonia and Fable for review. They would decide what to do with it and whether it needed any magical intervention. They’d taken to working together much more closely than before, practically merging their businesses. Apparently, a new understanding had passed between them while locked together in the Consortium dungeon, and while Fable still was more rule-driven than Antonia, both were more prone to being flexible. Antonia didn’t automatically buck at every Consortium-approved practice for magic and curse work, and Fable had taken to breaking a lot of mirrors. With all of us, we were able to repair the damage to the Hex-A-Gone office and to Fable’s cottage quickly enough to be back at work within a week of the whole Consortium mess.
I spun in my chair and went back to studying the open spell book that Antonia had gifted me earlier that week. It was bigger than the field book but much smaller than the one in her office and smaller than my grandmother’s book, which we had retrieved from her home. That one stayed in my room at Antonia’s… our… place. I was still getting used to thinking about Antonia’s home as my own, but since the plan was for me to stay for a while, I would eventually refer to it as such, I’m sure. It felt more like a home than the old apartment, anyway.
I’d been staying there since we broke out of the Consortium’s Spire City office. And the past few weeks had been the best of the last year. Antonia had talked to my caseworker, and it hadn’t been a hard sell for me to move out. We worked well together. She taught me magic and took care of the adult things. I fixed all the appliances she kept breaking.
As for the Consortium, the organization was pretty much in shambles, and reinforcements from the other offices around the world had to be brought in for a massive restructuring. Many sorcerers around the city demanded reform, and some had even taken to just not following the rules. Magic was in a weird state of flux, and the Spire City office scrambled to address complaints and keep magical life stable. It wasn’t going that great for them. But it didn’t seem to bother us much. Other than the addition of Mavis being our court-appointed magical monitor, it was business as usual. Curses still needed to be broken, and Antonia was happy to do it now that she didn’t feel forced. And Fable not only worked with Antonia, but they had been appointed as a lead member of an action committee, advocating for changes to the Consortium’s policies on behalf of sorcerers in the city. They seemed to enjoy it.
“Are you studying that spell book, or are you mooning over Sun?” Mavis asked as she breezed in, hopping over the cursed mat. She’d learned her lesson a few days ago when it tripped her, and she ended up facedown in the reception area. Herb shuffled over from his place in the corner and offered to take her bag, which Mavis declined with a shake of her head. Amazingly, Herb had survived the Consortium’s destruction of the office. Unfortunately, his dislike of everyone but Antonia had also survived.
“Studying, of course.” I had been. I could light the candle so much easier now. And I’d even been able to conjure my own butterflies. They’d been weak at best, but I could do it, and the more I practiced, the better I’d become.
“Uh-huh,” she said, twirling her car keys around her fingers.
“How was the outing? Did that person really accidentally curse themselves to have a lizard tongue?”
Mavis full-body shuddered and crinkled her nose. “Yes. It was weird. But easily fixed, and they paid in cash.” She winked. “Got any more for me?”
“A few more came in today,” I said, clicking through the documents I’d saved on the calls. “I’ve sent them all to Antonia already, but let’s see. A cursed game controller that won’t allow the person holding it to rest until they beat the entire game. A person who may just be really clumsy. Oh, and a person who wanted their dog to like their new boyfriend and now the boyfriend can’t go anywhere because they attract every dog in the vicinity.”
“Oh! Give me that one!”
I nodded and emailed her the file, and her phone pinged in her pocket. Mavis had left her job at the library and had moved back into magical work full time. I had to admit that I was glad she was on our team, since she was able to balance that tight line between Fable’s and Antonia’s personalities. It also helped that she remembered my grandmother—it was nice to have that connection again.
“Good choice on the dog file, Mavis,” Antonia said, emerging from her office. She wore a black tailored pantsuit and high heels, and her fingernails were painted a light blue, like the sky outside. “I’m more of a cat person myself, so I will gladly yield that job to your expertise.”
Mavis laughed. “You? A cat person? I never would have guessed.”
“I don’t know how to take that, so I’ll ignore it.” Antonia opened her hand. “The cash, please.”
Mavis pouted but handed over the envelope of money.
“Don’t even,” Antonia said. “I know you’re being paid by the Consortium to monitor our activities and you’re being paid a generous hourly rate by Hex-A-Gone for your services.”
Mavis smiled. “Gotta love a good old conflict of interest.”
“And capitalism,” I added.
Antonia crossed her arms with a snort. Then she eyed me, tilting her head to the side. “Rook,” she said, “isn’t it date night?”
“Yeah.”
“Don’t you think you should get ready?”
I checked the time on my phone and oh! It was already close to five. “Crap.”
Antonia sighed and reached over to ruffle my hair. “Clothes are hanging in my office. Use the attached bathroom to freshen up.”
I jumped out of my chair. “Thanks, boss.”
I ran into the office, grabbed the clothes hanging from the back of the door, and changed in the small bathroom. It wasn’t much of a change. I still wore jeans, but I replaced my T-shirt with a button-up and styled my hair. Antonia had put a black skinny tie in with the clothes, and I didn’t know if I wanted to go that far. It was just date night, and while I was taking Sun to a fancy restaurant in the magic district, I didn’t know if that warranted a tie.
I walked out of the bathroom to find Antonia standing by her desk.
“Put on the tie,” she said.
“Really?”
“Sun is already here. Put on the tie.”
Oh. “Um.”
Antonia strode forward and looped the tie around my neck and expertly tied it, leaving the knot slightly loose. “There.”
“Thanks.”
“Use the credit card I gave you.”
“Antonia, I have money. You’ve been paying me to work for months now, and I’ve banked most of it away.”
She shrugged. “Consider that your college fund. Use the credit card. Be home at a reasonable hour but not too early. It still is the summer. And make sure to walk Sun home.”
“Sun’s sisters will torment me.”
“It will be good for your character.”
I laughed. “Fine.”
I walked into the main office area and found Fable and Mavis talking. Sun was with them, hands in their pockets, and okay, I understood why Antonia had me put on the tie. Because Sun looked amazing. Well, Sun always looked amazing, but they had styled their hair for date night and wore dangling silver earrings.
“You,” I said.
Sun looked at me and grinned. “Me,” they replied.
Sun held out their hand, their signal that it was okay to touch, and I immediately took it, threading our fingers together. They leaned in, pressing close along my side.
“Ready to go?” I asked.
“Yes, let’s go before one of them does something embarrassing like taking pictures.”
“Too late!” Mavis singsonged, holding up her phone. “You two are too cute. I can barely stand it.”
Fable nodded. “Sun, be sure to text your parents, and be back before your curfew.”
Sun muttered under their breath about being smothered. They were still very much under restrictions due to being missing for several days, which was understandable. But at least they’d been allowed to continue as Fable’s apprentice. And they were permitted to go on the occasional date night because they’d scraped a passing grade out of their summer math class. They managed a C+ thanks to their sisters having no compunctions against chaperoning Sun to the coffee shop, which allowed our math tutoring sessions to continue. Soo-jin blabbed all about it to their parents, which is why Sun’s mom and dad actually kind of liked me and had even stated that I was a positive influence. I wouldn’t say that was true, but I would say that Sun and I complemented each other, and we made each other happy.
“Don’t worry, Fable. I will be responsible and make sure that Sun arrives home on time.”
Sun grimaced. “My sisters will destroy you.”
“I’ve heard it builds character.”
Sun huffed and rolled their eyes. “Let’s go. I don’t want to spend all my free time at dinner, if you get my drift,” they said, voice low.
A shiver went down my spine. “Okay. Message received. And absolutely no complaints here, but just, give me a moment? This is… kind of nice.” And it was. Mavis and Fable bent over my spell book on the table, flipping through and talking about the dog issue. Antonia clanged around in the employee break room, trying to make another cup of coffee. Herb sulked in the corner as always. And even the mat waited for us to try to leave, though hopefully it would not succeed in tripping either of us because I did not want a bloody nose before my date that could hinder any potential making out that was going to happen.
Mavis said something emphatically, and magic burst from her hand in a shower of sparkles. Fable flipped through the pages of the book unperturbed. Antonia cursed from the other room, and the sound of a shattered coffee mug followed. Sun squeezed my hand, and I smiled so wide my cheeks hurt.
Sometimes a family was a mischievous magical boss, her magical rival turned friend, a magical girl who used to be a babysitter and now was like an older sister, and the person you didn’t understand in the beginning but liked so much now. And sometimes it was arguments and sometimes it was hugs and sometimes it was banding together to fight a morally corrupt government body and sometimes it was just existing in the same space together as friends.
But whatever this family was right now, whatever it was going to be, and however it would turn out, it was mine.
And I knew that I belonged.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Of all of my works thus far Spell Bound feels the most personal. It addresses several insecurities I had as an adolescent and young adult, and, let’s be honest, still have to some extent. Rook has grief and loneliness etched into his soul. He has been told that he doesn’t belong, and he is desperately looking for a place to fit. Sun is hesitant and unsure when it comes to relationships because they are painfully aware of how different they are and how others perceive them. Both Rook and Sun attempt, to varying degrees, to reconfigure themselves, mold their beings, their personalities into what they think others want. It doesn’t work because, in the end, they were enough the whole time. They learn that being their authentic selves is more important and more fulfilling than being accepted by those who would have them change. And that there are people in their lives who will love and cherish them as they are.
I feel this message of self-acceptance is one many of us need to hear several times for it to sink in. And I’m very grateful to all the individuals who have supported the creation of this book and have shaped it into its best version and have been instrumental in getting it into the hands of readers who may need to hear it one more time.
I’m eternally grateful to my best friend, Kristinn, who continues to be one of my biggest supporters and who is my forever writing buddy. She encourages me in my moments of self-doubt and graciously handles my author imposter syndrome with more kindness and patience than I deserve. There were several anxiety-fueled emails this time around that were the embodiment of the scream emoji that she patiently handled. Also, many thanks to the other Christin who stepped up in a big way under a time crunch to assist. Thank you so much for all your help.
