Page 43 of The Hearth Witch’s Guide to Spite & Spellwork

Avery snapped her fingers. “Aha! Then we agree it was for the best we’d been working together and that I knew where you were?”

“I…” Saga hesitated, uncertain how the argument had turned on her but unable to argue it. “Yes?”

“Good, then we can cease this idiotic debate about fault and leave blame with Osian Goff where it belongs.” Avery smiled, and her voice softened. “Though I am thankful you do not blame me.”

“I…thought you’d blame me, honestly,” said Saga.

“I don’t. I’ve missed…” Avery took her in more closely. “You’ve begun some sort of new exercise routine.”

“You can tell?”

Avery dragged the blade of her finger up and down her own neck to demonstrate. “It’s subtle, but your trapezius muscle and clavicle are more defined than last I saw you.”

Saga released something between a laugh and an exhale. “I’ve been taking a self-defense class.”

“Because of what happened?”

The woman nodded, sheepish. “I know what you’re gonna say…”

“Do you?”

Saga hesitated again, looking even more unsure of herself. “Probably something about how there was nothing I could have done to stop what happened, and this class is a waste of… Why are you looking at me like that?”

Avery could not say how she was looking at the other woman, but she could feel her eyebrows raised so high that her brow had begun to tingle. She raised a hand and manually coaxed her forehead to relax. “Clearly, Miss Trygg, we should be spending more time together, as I am afraid you do not know me at all yet. First, I cannot voice an opinion on what I do not know. I did not witness your encounter with Osian Goff. All I am aware of is that he overpowered you. It is possible that the skills you had at the time were not enough to aid you in the situation you’d found yourself in—while I know you to be charming and resourceful, even without magic he seemed to have the advantage in brute strength. Second, I am of the opinion that learning ways to defend oneself is never a waste of anything, and third, I think it is commendable that when you encountered what you saw as a failing in yourself, you chose to improve it rather than wallow.”

Saga’s lips parted to try to deny the compliment but closed into a genuine smile. “Would you like to come in?”

Avery’s heart leapt. “It would be my honor.”

Saga pushed the door open and removed her keys, gesturing for Avery to enter.

Avery scooped up the palm-strangling book bags and obliged. “How did you find the photographs?”

“My grandmother left me her town house in her will. I’ve been putting off going through her things, you know?”

“Are you moving?” Avery didn’t appreciate the sharp stab of anxiety this idea sent through her chest.

The uncertainty in Saga’s expression only agitated that feeling. “I don’t know yet. Maybe? It’s a really nice house.”

“I…” Avery stopped herself and pivoted the statement. “It would take getting used to not hearing you downstairs in the morning.”

Saga’s smile registered somewhere between bashful and conspiratorial. “I wouldn’t be far.”

“Do you mind if I remove my coat?” It was far too warm.

Saga gave her leave to do so by gesturing to the rack beside the door. “So today, I thought, we’ll start in the attic with the things she didn’t use much. And I found some of Leigh’s old clothes, and then I opened another one and found these.”

Saga opened the box she’d had tucked under her arm, plucked out a picture, and held it out to Avery insistently.

Avery took it, looking at the two smiling faces. Curious. The woman hardly resembled the severe creature who had stood next to Saga and Leigh at Saoirse’s funeral. “You were told they never married?”

Saga took a moment, possibly scrutinizing her memories. At last she nodded. “My mum rarely talks about it, but when she does, she describes it as one drunken night, not a multiyear relationship that, as far as I can tell, lasted until the day he died.”

“And your grandmother?”

“Neither Leigh nor my grandmother really talked about my dad much. They’d answer questions. And when they did talk about him, it was always like he was this separate entity from all of us? It was never about them together as a couple, it was, ‘Your dad saved lives all over the world,’ or ‘When he wasn’t with you, he’d be climbing mountains or skydiving.’”

Skydiving? Could that literally mean what it sounds like? Is now the time to ask?