Neither of us brings up the kiss.
Once we have everything prepared for the spell, we get ready to head back to Casa Cartagena.
Diego passes me a protective charm to keep in my pocket.
“How long have you been back?” he asks.
“Just arrived today. Had to finish up Fashion Week.”
“Me too. Well, not Fashion Week, but we debuted a new menu.”
“Menu?”
“At my restaurant. In Miami.”
“Oh. I didn’t know that’s what you were doing now.”
“You mean you haven’t been Internet stalking me?” His tone is teasing.
“No! I mean…not in a while, anyway.”
“I’m offended. What kind of nemesis are you?”
I put my hands on my hips. “Don’t tell me you’ve been keeping tabs on me all this time.”
He leans in close and tilts my chin up with one finger. “Of course I have…Salutatorian.”
As we leave the inn, I’m fuming.
Forget the demon. Tonight, I’m going to kill Diego while he sleeps.
CHAPTER FOUR
The rehearsal dinner is held in the ballroom at Casa Cartagena. Since my mother planned this part, the tablecloths are orange, and the centerpieces are outrageously tacky explosions of tropical flowers, which match the French Baroque style of the ballroom not even a little bit. The Paz De León and Cartagena Vargas families are here, along with aunts, uncles, cousins, and a catering squad. The room is positively teeming with camera operators.
Diego takes my hand and leans close to my ear. “We stick together. There’s no telling who’s bewitched or not.”
“Right. Let’s get those symbols chalked.”
But before we can start the spell, we have to say hello to everyone.
It’s hard to tell who’s affected and who isn’t. Everyone seems a little distracted, but that could just be from the open bar. Some relatives are hyper focused on procuring camera time, but that could just be vanity. They seem, for the most part, like themselves, aside from the occasional far-off look in their eyes.
They are not, however, distracted enough to miss that Diego is glued to my side the entire night.
“Ay mira, qué preciosa. Look at you two!”
“Qué guapo. Such a handsome couple you make.”
“A double wedding, huh? I’m only giving one gift!”
And so on.
It only gets worse after we manage to hide the candle under one of the unoccupied tables. Diego lights it with magic, and I say a prayer that we don’t accidentally burn the whole place down. But now we have to chalk five symbols around the room without being interrupted.
The plan is for Diego to use my body to block what he’s doing. People will think we’re necking in the corner, and hopefully leave us alone. One, two, three, four, five symbols, and then we’ll be done. Uncomplicated in theory.
Super fucking complicated in practice.
