Page 27 of The Soulmate Bakery

‘You look shocked,’ he said, with a grimace. ‘Is it that bad that I don’t want the position, even if I’ve spent my whole life working for it?’

‘No,’ I replied, with a confidence that surprised even me. ‘I get it. You want to live for you, not your parents.’

A quiet sense of understanding settled between us. Orion relaxed beside me, and I found myself doing the same. We could’ve stayed on that roof forever, but everything had to come to an end eventually.

‘Movie then?’ Orion asked, standing and dusting off his jeans.

I gazed at him; I could see Orion needed the distraction, and maybe I did too. So, I hauled myself up, and I joined him – telling myself this meant nothing, but knowing in my heart, that I was lying.

CHAPTER TEN

Having a sister is a little like having a built-in best friend, a personal stylist, a demon who sleepwalks to your bed and steals your blanket in the night leaving you shivering in the winter. Though, that last one might be unique to me. A sister is all those things and more, so it was incredibly unfair that Rani left Maple Falls and took all those things with her.

But, despite my fears of her going off to MAC and forgetting my existence, she made sure we remained close over the last two years. Even if it was only a five-minute call after school.

‘So, the town is under a love spell?’ Rani asked, from the screen of our video call.

I had called her while I stood outside Firestones, waiting for Orion. The shop was square-shaped with four giant floors, shiny glass windows and swirly gold lettering that read FIRESTONES. It was the most popular dragon-owned bookstore in the entire magical community; there were several of them all located in different magical towns. It was Rani’s favourite place, which is why I called her while I waited.

‘Yeah, six people in town under a love spell,’ I said, trying hard not to sound the right amount of interested but distant. The last thing I needed was Rani figuring out something was wrong.

‘So, what are the love-cursed acting like?’ she asked.

‘Here, let me flip the camera.’

The camera showed Inspector Vale walking down the pavement holding the largest bouquet of flowers in his hands that I’d ever seen.

‘Maya!’ Inspector Vale called when he noticed me, and not the phone I was holding directly in front of him. ‘Is today not the loveliest day to tell someone you love them?’

I glanced up at the sky, which was turning a slightly greyish colour, promising September rain. But who was I to disagree?

‘Sure,’ I called back with a little laugh. Part of me was glad to see that all Inspector Vale wanted to do was confess his feelings for Ivy and that the mishap of the spell wasn’t ruining his entire life. Plus, it seemed to make him a lot more agreeable.

His smile widened, and then his wings unfurled from his back; he leaped into the air, most likely to go and find Ivy. I flipped the camera back so that Rani could see me, and she was holding back laughter.

‘Oh, I can’t wait for Orion to find who cast the spell,’ Rani said, a little breathless with giggles. ‘Vale will burn them to a crisp when he finds them.’

I laughed as well, but I couldn’t stop the hollowness from creeping in.

‘How is Orion, by the way?’ Rani asked, and I felt my eyebrows shoot up.

‘Why?’ I asked sharply, looking around the street slightly to see if the dragon shifter in question was approaching. We’d agreed to meet here before heading to the Treasure Trove, but he was running late. Something that was entirely unlike him.

‘Well, I didn’t think he’d be thrilled to be back in Maple Falls,’ Rani replied.

‘Why not?’ I asked, confused. He’d graduated from MAC early, where else would he have gone?

Rani shrugged. ‘I don’t know, I only heard rumours about him being unhappy. It could be a lie, but you know, where there’s smoke there’s usually fire. Especially with dragons.’

I nodded in agreement, momentarily caught up in the mystery that was Orion Hawthorne, before a recent memory popped into my head.

‘So,’ I began, unassumingly, ‘Rowan Hale told me to tell you he said hi.’

It was actually comical how fast she turned to stone on screen. It took far too many seconds for her to respond, and I cackled loudly at her face.

‘Well, you can tell him I said hello too,’ Rani said, politeness dripping from her tone.

‘Is there a reason our resident bad boy wants to say hi to you?’ I asked, eager for some details from my sister’s life.