Clarissa smiled at that. “I suppose not.”

  * * *

  Kelsie was sitting at the table peeling potatoes when Lucifer came inside.

  “That looked difficult,” she said.

  His chest tightened as he thought about Abigail’s unwillingness to hug him or say goodbye. “Indeed. It was difficult.”

  “I’m glad I stayed inside.” Kelsie nodded to MacCoinneach. “Your patient was asking after you.”

  Lucifer crouched down on the floor beside MacCoinneach. “How are you doing?”

  “Abby didn’t even say goodbye to me. Only Hattie did. It isn’t fair.” He shifted, his limbs creaking.

  “You and me both, little buddy.”

  “I took her to a swamp and saved her friend. The least she could have done was say goodbye. It wasn’t like I expected a thank-you.”

  “I agree.” He patted the leshi’s head. “Try not to hold it against her. I told you she’s young. Sometimes people make poor choices when they’re young. Baba used to say not to trust the judgment of any young people under the age of fifty.”

  “I will endeavor to do my best.” He squirmed again. “Also, I need sunlight and water. And I need to flush waste out of my body, but I still can’t use my arms. I require assistance.”

  “Um. By ‘flush waste’ do you mean use the bathroom?” Lucifer asked. “Number one or number two?”

  “I don’t know what any of that means.”

  Kelsie snickered.

  “Of course you don’t,” Lucifer said. “Welcome to day one of being a hedge witch without any textbooks or manuals.”

  * * *

  Lucifer helped his patient create manure for their garden. He set MacCoinneach on the ground, reclining against a tree stump in the sun afterward. Lucifer felt self-conscious doing so, wondering if MacCoinneach would judge him for chopping down that tree to use as firewood.

  The young leshi only closed his eyes and tilted his face up to the sun. This was probably healthier for his healing than keeping him indoors, but he would be weak and vulnerable for a while. He was going to need assistance until he was fully recovered.

  “Just call my name if you need me,” Lucifer said.

  Lucifer returned to the cottage. Kelsie served him a healthy portion of porridge and then sat down to eat with him. He relayed Clarissa’s earlier offer that they could finish their education at Vega’s school if they wished.

  Kelsie listened until he was finished. “I would be happy if I didn’t have to make one more potion for someone’s boils again. Or deliver a baby.”

  “Do you want to go to school?” he asked.

  “I tried it once.” She shrugged. “It wasn’t my thing.”

  “So what do you want to do?”

  She glanced out the window at MacCoinneach. “I guess I’m like you. I have to figure it out.”

  His brows lifted in surprise. “So you were listening to my conversation with Abby?”

  She rolled her eyes. “Duh. Of course. How else am I going to get the juicy gossip?”

  * * *

  Freedom wasn’t that different from Lucifer and Kelsie’s previous lifestyle with Baba. Only, they both made small adjustments. Some traditions Lucifer and Kelsie kept up, like seeing patients. Other traditions they vowed to refrain from, like chopping off toes and eating children.

  Kelsie supplied Lucifer with storms, and he called down lightning. It was a good combination of powers. He did the cooking, potions, and healing. Kelsie chopped firewood, collected water, and gathered edible foods. They took turns collecting and drying herbs and tending the garden and chickens.

  MacCoinneach visited every day, like a neighborhood child. Sometimes he tended the garden with Lucifer or went on walks with him to collect herbs.

  “I like learning about all these uses for plants,” MacCoinneach said as they collected feverfew leaves. “I didn’t know so many could be used for healing.”

  Lucifer grinned. “Welcome to Lucifer Thatch’s Hedge Witch School of Learning.” Lucifer tucked a white flower into the crook of branches growing from MacCoinneach’s crown.

  “Do I look beautiful now?” MacCoinneach giggled, sounding like a child.

  Lucifer supposed he was a child. With his inhuman features, it was sometimes difficult to remember that.

  MacCoinneach tucked a flower into Lucifer’s beard. “There. Now we match.”

  “Just what I need, to look more beautiful.” Lucifer crouched to pluck leaves from another plant.

  “It’s funny,” MacCoinneach said. “I wanted Abby to like me so badly because I wanted a mother. But she really isn’t old enough to be a mother, is she?”

  “Not this Abby. Not right now.” Regret played a bittersweet song in Lucifer’s heart. He couldn’t tell how much of that melody was his own and how much radiated from the leshi.

  MacCoinneach dug his spindly fingers into the earth and uprooted a cluster of feverfew, planting it on his head. “She didn’t truly make me, did she? I wasn’t the old Abby’s sapling.”

  “You were your father’s sapling,” Lucifer explained. “Abby’s tears and my magic created a spell without our even knowing it, and that brought you forth into the world. So in a way, we’re both your parents.” Lucifer didn’t bring up the unicorns stabbing the earth where Coinneach had been buried. He didn’t want the leshi child to start looking to Clyde for guidance.

  “But now I have you, and you’re more like a father than Abby is like a mother.” MacCoinneach threw his arms around Lucifer and hugged him.

  Lucifer patted the child’s back. It warmed Lucifer’s heart that he had done at least one thing right.

  * * *

  Clarissa kept her word and returned Baba’s books to Lucifer in addition to sending other books she thought might be useful for learning Red affinity magic and healing. Abigail wrote him letters, and he wrote her back. She came to visit once a month, arriving by carriage and returning by portal.

  Lucifer stayed away from the castle.

  At the end of summer, the chicken feet under the house shifted and became restless. Lucifer knew it was time for the cottage to exit summer and go on a different kind of journey. He would see where fate took them.

  EPILOGUE

  An End and a Beginning

  The cottage settled into a new spring. The forest was abundant with chickweed, wild leeks, and thimbleberries for eating. Lucifer and Kelsie were able to renew their stores of herbs foraged in the spring. MacCoinneach went with them, settling into a new forest to be closer to them.

  Lucifer didn’t worry about Abigail being able to locate him. Anyone could find Baba’s cottage if they needed to.

  And they did. People who needed healing stumbled upon the cottage. First it was a man with a broken arm, then a woman in need of a midwife, followed by a teenage girl who said she needed her fortune told. Lucifer and Kelsie both gave it a try.

  Kelsie grumbled endlessly after each person left, but Lucifer liked helping people. This was his calling, not ruling a kingdom and attending stuffy parties.

  Months passed. Lucifer wrote Abigail. Her responses were, at first, terse but grew more mature and heartfelt. She visited twice with Clarissa. He could tell she was changing, but he refrained from evaluating her soul.

  One sweltering afternoon Lucifer decided to repair the bone that had come loose from the fence. Kelsie had gone picking berries, and she had been away for hours. Just when he considered divining to find her whereabouts, he heard her laugh. She came back along the path, arm in arm with Gertrude Periwinkle.

  From the green stains on Kelsie’s apron and the leaves in Gertrude’s hair, he could guess what they’d been up to that made them both grin so merrily.

  “Are you going to invite me in for a cup of tea, Lucy?” Gertrude purred.

  “Certainly.” He wiped his dirt-covered hands on his trousers and went inside to wash.

  Lucifer made a pot of tea and served cookies Kelsie had made the week before. Even when they’d been fresh, they’d been too hard to eat without dunking.

  “Should I read my tea leaves to you and tell you what my future holds?” Kelsie asked him, a twinkle in her eyes.

  From the way she gazed appreciatively at Gertrude, he had a suspicion about what her future held, or at least what she hoped it would. “I have a feeling you don’t need tea leaves to tell me whatever you’re about to say.”

  Gertrude leaned back in her chair, her lips twitching with mischief. “Just break the news to him.”

  Kelsie sat taller in her chair. “I’ve decided what I’m going to do with myself. Womby’s School for Wayward Witches needs an assistant librarian.”

  “Do they? And you think that would be a good fit for you?” Lucifer tried not to sound too incredulous.

  “Well, you know how I am. I’m smitten with books,” Kelsie said, waving him off.

  He forced himself not to laugh. He was pretty sure the only thing she was smitten with was Gertrude Periwinkle.

  “That sounds like a . . . plan.” He tried not to let his doubts paint his words and ruin her ambitions. “Don’t you have to apply for the position?”

  Gertrude snickered. “I just interviewed her. She was the most qualified candidate.”

  Both women burst into giggles.

  Lucifer doubted Kelsie’s plan was like a good long-term idea. But he surmised Kelsie had no intention of listening to reason. If this was a mistake, she needed to experience it and let life be her teacher. Baba had always tried to guide him, while allowing him to make mistakes. Not that he thought he was as wise as his former mentor, but he would endeavor to learn to be.

  “I’m going to miss you,” Lucifer said. He missed her already. She’d come to be such a good friend.

  “Of course you will.” Kelsie winked at him. “I’m a wonderful housemate.”

  “We made a good team. What am I going to do without you here to call storms for me?” A lump lodged itself in his throat.

  Part of him wanted to accuse her of abandoning him. How was Kelsie any better than his brother or sisters, who had abandoned him with their abusive mother as a child? He knew his brother hadn’t known he was still alive when he’d left, but sometimes the heart wasn’t logical. Even after all these years, he still found it difficult not to blame Felix for abandoning him as a child. And yet, if it hadn’t been for that twist of fate, he wouldn’t have left home and apprenticed with Baba.

  He would never have met Abigail.

  Lucifer knew it wasn’t fair to make Kelsie feel guilty for leaving. She deserved love and happiness. If she thought Gertrude Periwinkle and a library full of books and annoying teenagers who dog-eared pages were going to make her happy, who was he to question that?

  Gertrude tapped her chin. “I think I have a book on summoning storms I could loan to you. Then you can summon your own storms.”

  Kelsie waggled her blue eyebrow. “Or maybe you can catch yourself an apprentice who has an Elementia affinity. That way you won’t become an old hermit in here alone.”

  Lucifer didn’t want to be a hermit, but he was uncertain he wanted an apprentice either. He eyed the dusty cage in the corner. If he did lure a child, he wasn’t going to be like Baba and threaten to eat the child. Nor would he use anyone for their fingers and toes in spells.

  * * *

  Two seasons had passed since Baba’s death. The house had traveled through spring twice, though Lucifer didn’t know how much time had passed in the outside world.

  Baba had allowed the glamoured façade of the house to weaken so that it no longer resembled gingerbread with candy trim. Lucifer resurrected the old mirage, spending hours enhancing the appearance of the house.

  “What are you doing?” MacCoinneach asked from behind Lucifer.

  His footfalls had been so light and silent, Lucifer hadn’t heard him come. Lucifer explained the way Baba used to catch children.

  “And now you’re going to start catching children in the same manner,” he said. “And eat them?”

  “Not to eat them. I’ll figure out what to do with them after I catch them,” he said. “If they’re orphans like I was, I can offer to make them into apprentices. If they’re wicked and have parents, I’ll take them home. And if they’re wicked and don’t have parents . . . I’ll give them to Vega Bloodmire.” He smiled at the idea of that.

  MacCoinneach snorted. “Good luck getting rid of them. You’re going to have an infestation of children.”

  MacCoinneach didn’t know anything about glamours, but he tried to help Lucifer, mostly by pointing out all the flaws in his candy construction. “I can see what you make, but I can’t do it myself. Other Fae know how to do this, but I never had anyone to teach me.”

  Lucifer supposed that was his fault. His and Abigail’s. “I can show you, little guy.” Lucifer patted the leshi on his textured head. “You can be my first apprentice.”

  The two of them continued working. Lucifer tried to show MacCoinneach how to weave a simple glamour. They worked for hours before Lucifer felt a change in the air, the intensifying of plant magic.

  Abby said from the forest behind them, “If I nibble at the house, are you going to lock me in a cage and keep me here forever?”

  “Abby!” MacCoinneach squealed like a child. He ran to her and hugged her. “Are you here for a visit? How long will you stay?” He stared at her with the adoration of a child for a mother.

  She lifted MacCoinneach off his feet to embrace him and then set him down to pick up a basket. “I suppose how long I stay depends on Lucy. I don’t want to distract him from his patients.”

  “Yes, as you can see, I have a long line out the door today.” Lucifer waved his hand at the front of the house.

  There was no line.

  It felt like it had been forever since her last chaperoned visit. He didn’t see Clarissa with her today.

  She glided through the forest, her feet silent as they trod over the ground. She shifted around plants, not trampling them as she might have the season before. Something had changed in her since he’d seen her last. She was more mature, more aware of the life around her other than her own.

  Lucifer craned his neck, searching for the carriage she’d arrived by. He saw none.

  “Portal magic,” she said. “I’ve advanced to more complicated spells.”

  “Does that mean you can visit more often?” MacCoinneach tugged at her hand, vying for her attention.

  She glanced shyly at the ground. “Again, that depends on Lucy and whether he wants me around.”

  “I want you around,” MacCoinneach said.

  She touched the amulet at her throat. The glass was clear. It appeared to be empty. Lucifer wasn’t sure whether that meant she’d released the fragments of soul in the vial or she’d mended her own with those missing pieces.

  He wanted to project his awareness into her, but he resisted the urge. He knew she didn’t like him needlessly prodding her soul for his own curiosity.

  “I hope you don’t mind. I brought dinner.” She waved a hand at the basket.

  “That’s so thoughtful!” MacCoinneach said. “When can we eat?”

  Abigail smiled, her eyes patient, indulgent. “Whenever you’re done with your glamour. Don’t let me interrupt.”

  She seemed older, calmer than Lucifer was used to. Some of her boisterous enthusiasm was gone, replaced by composure and calm.

  Over dinner, a picnic in the trees with MacCoinneach, she handed Lucifer an envelope. “It’s an invitation to my graduation.”

  “When is it?” Lucifer asked.

  “Two weeks.” She fiddled with a green string on her dress. “You don’t have to go. I know you don’t like crowds. If it makes any difference, Vega’s School for Misfit Children—or whatever she decides to call her school—It’s smaller than Womby’s.”

  He wondered how old that made her. She was so petite, he had a hard time guessing. “Are you old enough to graduate?”

  She tilted her head back and laughed. “Clarissa doesn’t think so. She says I’m a ‘very young’ eighteen. Felix said I passed all my exams so far. Probably I’ll be ready for the ‘real world’ soon. Clarissa said I can stay at the castle as long as I want. They’ll give me whatever job I want to fill my time.”

  Lucifer took her hand. “What do you want to do after you graduate?”

  “I know!” MacCoinneach said. “You like cooking in the kitchen! But wait, you didn’t get yourself banned again, did you?”

  Abigail opened her mouth to answer.

  MacCoinneach went on before she could speak. “You also like taking care of the babies in the nursery. And working in the garden. What are you going to do?”

  “I do enjoy all of those things. And I could keep doing them if I stayed.” Her eyes searched Lucifer’s.

  He couldn’t tell if the anxiety he felt was his own or hers.

  Lucifer brushed his thumb over hers. “I imagine it would be difficult for you to leave your family and friends behind . . . if you went elsewhere.”

  “You mean if you came here? If you came to live with Lucy and me?” MacCoinneach asked.

  Lucifer patted the leshi on the head, finding his enthusiasm endearing.

  “Oh? Do you live in the cottage now?” Abigail teased.

  MacCoinneach didn’t catch the amusement in her tone. “I live in the forest nearby.”

  “I see.” Her eyes crinkled up with laughter. “It’s reassuring to know you’d be close by, but I’ll still get to have privacy with Lucy occasionally inside the cottage.”

  “Yes, of course,” MacCoinneach said earnestly. “And I give Lucy privacy at night too, even when he comes into my part of the forest. I go to bed when the sun goes down.”

  “Which will be soon,” Abigail hinted.

  “Oh no, we have hours more to go.” MacCoinneach leaned back into the curly dock, happily oblivious.

  Lucifer appreciated Abigail’s forbearance. She didn’t sigh and roll her eyes like she once would have done. But try as she might, she couldn’t completely hide her disappointment.

 

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