Page 41 of Little Witch

Yakob leaned in, eyes narrowing as he studied the pages. "There's serious magic in this one. I can feel it from here."

I stopped flipping when one page caught my eye, words practically glowing off the paper like they wanted to be found. At the top, in heavy black lettering: The Spell of Balancing.

"Amber. Look at this."

She leaned in, reading over my shoulder, voice going tight with disbelief as she got through it. "To restore what has been lost, and make whole what has been broken. A spell to bring harmony back to the forces of nature and magic."

My heart slammed against my ribs. "This could actually be it. Which is genuinely ridiculous, given we found it because I was trying to... to um do yoga."

Cian and Yakob exchanged a long look, hope flickering behind both their expressions in a way I hadn't seen from either of them since we'd arrived.

Rowan's jaw was tight, focus entirely on the page. "What does it need?"

I scanned further. "Ingredients. Some of it's familiar — herbs, enchanted stones. Some of it's obscure as hell. There's a timing note too." I read it aloud. "Best performed under the light of a full moon, to boost the potency of the magic."

"Full moon's in three days," Amber said instantly, already halfway to her feet, checking the moon calendar tacked up near the kitchen doorway. "That's what the chart says."

Something in my chest went tight and hopeful all at once, the first genuine spark of it since we'd crossed into this place. "Then we prepare. Gather everything on that list and get ready to do this properly."

Cian grinned, eyes bright. "This could be our way out."

"Best lead we've had in years," Yakob said quietly, hope and caution warring plainly across his face.

Amber turned to me, eyes shining. "We can actually do this."

"Yeah." I squeezed her hand, felt Rowan's hand land steady on my shoulder from behind, all four of them crowding close around the one real chance we'd stumbled into by pure, ridiculous accident. "We can go home."

For the first time since crossing that treeline, the air in this place felt like it was buzzing with something other than dread.

Hope. Reckless, fragile, and entirely worth chasing.

Chapter Twenty Two

The Sanctum had a garden. I hadn't known that until Dad led me through a door off the kitchen I'd assumed was a pantry, and instead found a narrow greenhouse tucked against the back of the underground space, glass panels overhead showing that same fake mountain view instead of sky, rows of herbs and strange, glowing plants growing in beds that shouldn't have had room to exist down here at all.

"It provides what we need," Dad said, catching my expression. "Told you that already, but it still gets me every time, honestly. Ask it for something specific enough and it tends to grow overnight."

"That's deeply unsettling."

"You get used to it." He crouched by a bed of silvery leaves, checking them against the list I was holding. "Moonpetal. We need six of these, apparently."

I knelt beside him, helping pluck the leaves free, careful of the faint hum they gave off against my fingers. For a while we worked in comfortable quiet, the kind that didn't need filling, moving down the row together and checking things off the list one at a time.

"Can I ask you something?" I said eventually, not looking up from the leaves.

"Always."

"Are you actually okay? With all this? Rowan, Orias, the two of them at once." I glanced up, bracing myself a little for whatever answer came back. "It's a lot, I know. Even without the mate bond stuff, it's a lot to just casually be okay with."

He was quiet a moment, considering it properly instead of brushing the question off, which I appreciated more than I could easily say.

"I watched those two boys grow up a little, before I disappeared," he said finally. "Watched how they looked out for each other even as kids. Watched how they looked out for you, too, back when you three were still small enough that none of it meant anything more than friendship." He set down another handful of moonpetal, met my eyes properly. "I've been gone a long time, Amber. I don't get a say in who you love, or how many of them you love at once. All I care about is whether they treat you right. And from everything I've seen down here they do."

My throat went tight. "That's a very reasonable answer. I was braced for something more dramatic."

"I used up all my dramatic reactions the day you were born and screamed for six hours straight." He nudged my shoulder with his. "Nothing tops that. Everything since has been comparatively easy."

I laughed, wiping at my eyes before the moment could tip fully into tears. "I missed you making jokes like that."