I couldn’t agree more.
Back at my house, the Red Queen was lounging on the sofa.She’d traded her enormous red gown for sweatpants and one of my navy t-shirts.She had the remote in one hand—QVC again—and a package of cookies—my Chewy Chips-Ahoy—in the other.
“Red, where did you get those clothes?”I demanded.
“Tani helped,” she said, her tone accusatory.
“I raided your dresser,” Tani called from the kitchen.
“Oh, God,” I groaned.
These two were getting far too comfortable here.
Next to me, Owen chuckled, but I was already on my way to the kitchen.He was right behind me.
“You didn’t ask permission to do that,” I said.
Full-size Tani lounged against the counter, her chin in her hand, flipping through one of my fashion magazines while waiting for the kettle to boil.The second she saw Owen, she straightened.
“Oh, you brought Mr.Hottie.”She beamed.
He snickered.
“Please stop calling him that,” I said as I pulled open the fridge and placed the leftovers inside.“And stay out of those containers.”
She eyed the fridge with a curious glint in her eyes.“Why?”
“It’s my food.”
Then I took Owen’s hand and led him out of the kitchen to the basement.
“Those two are going to be the death of me,” I muttered.
He laughed.
The basement was still a terrible disaster—papers and file folders everywhere.I hadn’t bothered to clean it up after last night, and I wasn’t going to start now.I shoved stacks to one end of the worktable, then cleared off a space I could use.
Owen stopped at the edge of it.“What do you need?”
I pulled out the grimoire and placed it on the table, then flipped to the torn page—now fused back together like it had never been ripped.
He leaned over to look at it and went still.Then he reached out, his fingertip tracing the healed seam.
“This book was Alice’s,” he said.
I winced.I’d forgotten to tell him that part.“Yes.And your mother thinks she hid it in the town archives.”
“Hoping you’d find it?”he asked.
“Or it would find me,” I said with a shrug.“Either way, I have it.And now I know how to make the potion to temporarily close the Crossroads.”I tapped the page.“But we have to move fast.We need to be there before the planetary alignment.”
Owen pushed his sleeves up higher to his elbows.“Put me to work, boss.”
Together, we made the potion—adding one drop of my Guardian blood like Madeline said.
And shockingly—I didn’t mess it up.
I measured, poured, stirred, and followed Madeline’s translated instructions like my life depended on it.Because it did.When the last ingredient hit the vial, the liquid shimmered a pinkish-blue, almost luminous.
