Page 50 of The Soulmate Bakery

‘And where are you going?’ Raven asked, as she hopped off her bed and joined her brother in the doorway.

‘Dinner with friends,’ Orion replied shortly. But he glanced at me, and I knew who he was seeing. I kept my face straight, not letting him see anything. ‘You three staying in?’

‘Maybe,’ I cut in, because envy was something that always loosened my tongue. ‘We might go streaking down Golden Shell Beach.’

Orion barely missed a beat. ‘The Kraken will be delighted.’

The Kraken was a myth. No one really knew if one lived in our sea. Celine probably knew, but it’s not like I was going to ask her.

Raven cut through the tension with a roll of her eyes and tugged her brother out of the room. I could hear them arguing as they moved down the hallway. When their footsteps finally receded, I felt my phone buzz near my knee.

ORION-THORN-IN-MY-SIDE

If you three do stay out late, will you call me to pick you up, please?

I tried to feel warm at the show of his protective streak, but it was hard. The momentary lapse in judgement had me texting back before I knew it.

MAYA

I’ll call. Promise.

‘So, what happened there?’ Sofia’s voice pulled me out of my brief text exchange and back to reality. She was leaning against the headboard of Raven’s bed, while I sat on the end.

‘What do you mean?’ I asked, trying not to sound too suspicious.

‘Well, it’s pretty obvious you’re not happy about Orion going out,’ Sofia said, bluntly. I spluttered, but she didn’t wait for me to form a sentence. ‘He’s definitely not happy you’re going out. So, I’m just going to ask: do you to have a thing going on?’

‘No, no,’ I said vehemently, panicked that Raven or worse, Orion himself, would come back and hear. ‘Orion and I have never got together. Ever.’

‘But you wanted to?’

‘No.’

Sofia stared at me. Unblinking. I didn’t need to read her mind to know she didn’t believe me.

‘Yes,’ I relented, the truth slipping past. ‘But you can’t tell Raven.’

‘I promise you, I won’t,’ Sofia said, and I breathed a sigh of relief. ‘So, what happened?’

‘It was last summer,’ I began, hoping to wrap the story up briskly, so I wouldn’t have to endure too much of the walk down memory lane. ‘Raven was visiting Rose Glenn, and Orion and I were stuck in Maple Falls alone. I was over all the time, so we hung out more. And it was obviously Stockholm syndrome, because I started getting these feelings for him.’

‘Did you ever tell him?’

‘No! Do you think I’d still be sitting here if I did?’

I didn’t add that I had planned on telling him, but I’d never gotten to it. My plans that night had ended in complete disaster after all.

‘And it just fizzled out by the time Raven got back?’ Sofia asked, a crinkle forming in her brow. ‘So, why do you two have so much tension still?’

‘No, he – he caught me doing a forbidden spell at the end of summer, and he reported it to the Coven,’ I explained, a familiar hot shame crawling up my neck.

But Sofia didn’t look disapproving, only curious.

‘What forbidden spell?’ she asked, her eyebrows raised.

‘An eye-of-the-beholder spell,’ I said. ‘I was stupid. I just really wanted Ori– I mean, everyone, to like me, you know? And the spell was meant to make me look attractive in anyone’s eyes.’

‘I get that feeling of wanting to be wanted,’ Sofia said, and there was a genuine note to her voice.