Page 60 of The Soulmate Bakery

I curled my fingers into a fist, watching his retreating back.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

When I arrived at the clearing in the Firewood Forest for the party, I saw that someone had decorated the tunnel in the ground with fairy lights, making it much less terrifying to slide down. This time, when I slid down to the grotto, I hit the warm, purple sand with a lot more grace.

A few others had volunteered to help set up. Everly Catacomb – the actual host – was nowhere to be seen though. I ambled over to Raven and Sofia.

‘OK, so we both just got here,’ Sofia began. Her wings were glowing under the blue of Mermaid’s Grotto. ‘And Silas is over there. He was asking about you.’

‘He texted me too,’ I said, eyes darting around to find him. I was ninety per cent nerves at this point, especially when it kept hitting me that this was it. It might not be the night of the autumn moon, but it was the night I was going to tell the werewolf about my feelings for him.

‘Where is he?’ I asked, when my scan of the grotto came up empty.

‘He’s gone to bring in all the dragon lights,’ Raven explained, and then said something that made my stomach clench. ‘With Orion.’

‘With Orion?’ I echoed, dumbly. ‘Please tell me you’re joking.’

‘He dropped me off,’ Raven said, wincing slightly. ‘I brought the dragon lights ’cause they’ll burn all night – Silas came out to grab them and Orion offered to help.’

‘What do you think they’re talking about?’ I asked, feeling very off-kilter.

Sofia shot me a disbelieving look. ‘Uh, I don’t know – you?’

I shut my eyes briefly. ‘If your brother ruins this for me, I will personally skin him alive.’

‘I’ve seen you wield a knife, so that’s actually kind of scary,’ Raven noted and then looked over my shoulder. ‘Oh, they’re back, and would you look at that – Celine’s with them too.’

I twisted around to see Silas standing in the entrance with a box in his arms, a sunny smile gracing his face. My gaze slipped from him to Celine and Orion, who were standing in a corner, talking. Orion was leaning against the wall of the grotto, his attention entirely focused on her. I looked away, refusing to let it bother me.

‘Maya!’ Silas called from across the grotto, and his attention on me felt like a warm ray of sunlight brushing against my skin, burning all thoughts of Orion away.

‘Go!’ Sofia hissed under her breath and prodded me in the back.

I jolted forward, before catching my footing and making my way over to him. My internal monologue went like this: Don’t mess this up, don’t mess this up, don’t mess this up.

When I reached Silas, I was a ball of nerves, my heart thundering in my chest. But his soft smile put me at ease.

‘Maya, you look beautiful,’ Silas said as I approached, his hands full of the dragon lights.

I felt my face grow warm and genuine delight course through me. ‘You don’t look so bad yourself.’

His smile broke into a grin, and I could do nothing but bask in it.

‘Are you two planning on helping, or are you just going to be making googly eyes at each other the whole time?’

Trent’s sneering voice came from behind Silas. Silas sighed and glanced over at his teammate.

‘Maya’s already helped,’ Silas shot back. ‘She’s the one who found this place.’

‘She found it?’ Trent scoffed, arms folded over his chest. ‘So, should we expect the mayor and every adult in Maple Falls to show up at some point in the night?’

I felt my cheeks flame, and I opened my mouth to retort, but Silas beat me to it.

‘I think what you mean to say is, “Thank you, Maya, for helping us find a place so last minute, and I’m sorry for being such a jerk to you my entire life”,’ Silas said, his tone harder than I’d ever heard it before.

Trent deflated, rolling his eyes before muttering some version of an apology.

I was conscious that Silas had only ever seen me as a klutz, or a disaster of a witch, or someone he needed to stick up for. Now, I needed him to see me as someone that was more than that. Someone he could see as his soulmate.