It was an admission I hadn’t intended to make, but now that the words were out, I didn’t want to take them back.His hand tightened on my waist.The way he was looking at me made my heart jolt and for a second, I stopped breathing.Like he wanted to say something but somehow kept it back.
“I’m glad.”
Then he took the containers from my hand so I could climb into his truck.When I was settled and my seatbelt on, he handed them back, shut the door and rounded the hood of the truck.
I watched him.The easy way he walked.The way his held himself with confidence—the same way he’d always held himself even in high school.That hadn’t changed.What had changed was he was older and even more attractive than I remembered from those days.
It was a good and bad thing.Good because, well, he was attractive.Bad because I didn’t want to think of him with anyone else.
Once he was in the truck, he started it and put it in reverse.
“Your mother told me how to temporarily seal the Crossroads.”
He hit the brakes hard enough to jar me and then turned to face me.“That’s what you were talking about before dinner.”
“Yes,” I said with a nod.“She’s MM but you knew that, didn’t you?”
His hands tightened on the wheel.He regarded me then finally nodded.
“I suspected, but I wasn’t sure.”
“She was helping Alice.She didn’t tell anyone.Not even your dad.”
He swallowed hard and looked away, back through the windshield at the house.Like his mind was trying to understand that his mother was helping Alice like his father.They were both entwined with Alice in different ways.He said nothing.
“We have to go to the Crossroads tonight,” I continued.“I need the Sun Disk and a flower from the shop.”
His gaze traveled back to mine.“She told you this?”
I nodded.“The torn page I found was part of the grimoire.”
He stared at me, then blew one breath out through his nose.“What else?”
“It’s a lot.”Honestly, I didn’t know where to start.
“Then you better tell me everything.”
He backed the truck, then turned and headed down the driveway toward the road.
“I will.And Owen?”
“Yeah?”
I studied his profile.“You’re right.Wearea team.”
“Good,” he said.“I wouldn’t want it any other way.”
As we drove, I told him everything his mother and I talked about—the grimoire, the potion, the planetary alignment, the fact that we had to be there to say the enchantment at exactly 10:47 pm.The sun was already burning toward the horizon and soon it would turn the sky into that pinkish-indigo of dusk.
We stopped at the antique store and picked up the Sun Disk.Watching Owen climb the ladder again and reach was not my favorite thing.Then we went to the flower shop and I picked two Moonpetal flowers.One that wasn’t open yet and another that was.In case I screwed up the potion and needed a do-over.
The second I removed them from the cooler, they started to wilt.
“Are they supposed to do that?”he asked.
I shrugged.“I think so?”
“Then we better hurry and get back to your house so you can make that potion.”
