“What was it you asked for today?” he asked.
I took a deep breath. “Guidance.”
Dom smiled. “What else do you ask for? Riches? A handsome man to come sweep you away, like in the fairy tales?”
“I’m a romantic,” I admit to him. “Not a child.”
“Really though? I know you have your family here with your coven and the community or whatever, but don’t you still think about that? Dream of it?” Dom asked. His one hand swept a piece of my hair back, away from my face. There was a small amount of hilarity in his tone as he ruminated.
“A fairy-tale life? I think it’s a little late for that.”
He shook his head. “A small house with a fence that is bound to be run into at some point by some kid learning to ride a bike. A family goes on vacations to the beach or decorates for the holidays together every year. A dog even that barks at everything that moves. The idealness of it all?”
I snorted with a small chuckle at the picture he had painted so perfectly in my head. A yellow cottage with vines running up a trellis on one side. A fluffy dog that woofed whenever someone walked by, lying lazily on the front porch, next to two painted rocking chairs.
Dom smiled at the sound I made, nose wrinkling, like it always did when I made that obnoxious sort of laugh. He somehow thought it was adorable. Or at least said so.
I wasn’t going to question it.
I lifted a shoulder, looking around my apartment. It certainly wouldn’t hold all that. “Maybe.”
“Maybe?”
“I don’t know,” I said softly, thinking of it all. A family. A real house that would be at least three times as big as my apartment. A life. Love. I bit my lip, almost afraid to go too far, even in my own head. “Maybe.”
He nodded once, and there was a new sort of understanding I couldn’t quite grasp in his eyes.
“Well, you can ask ifyouwant to,” I told him.
“Ask what?”
“The world for your cute little house and your future wife and the fluffy mutt ripping up the flower beds.”
“I think part of that was your vision.” Dom smiled with a flare of his eyebrows, as if he had caught me.
I didn’t confirm or deny. I’d become too obvious with him. “Ask the world, then take it.”
“Is that all magic takes?”
“Sometimes,” I whispered. “An altar can also be a place where you put the wishes you want to manifest into the world. Often, it’s through an offering.”
“And what have you been wishing for?”
“If I tell you, who’s to say that it won’t come true then?”
“Have you been wishing for me?” He pulled me in closer to him, lips curving upward.
I smiled against his mouth. “I’ve been wishing for you my whole life.”
12
Ishouldn’t have expected to be able to sneak in the house without it being a big deal. I had left Dom so he could finish up his work before giving him permission to nap in my bed until I came back before walking the few blocks down the river.
I paused in front of the idyllic white picket fence that squared in the front yard. The bushes were a vibrant green with the warming weather and the tassel-covered pillows were back on the porch’s periwinkle rocking chairs.
Pushing through the gate and up to the front door, I could already hear the polite high-pitched squeal of Essie’s laughter inside. I turned the ornate brass knob, already unlocked, and slipped inside.
I only made it one step.
