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So she had no choice but to mess up the entire section of classics, which he usually liked talking to customers about. Later that day, he was twitching when, for the third time, he couldn’t find a book for a classics-loving customer thanks to Lucy’s reorganization and because of the little hex she’d added just for fun. Once he did manage to find the book in question, it kept shifting just out of grasp, making him look ridiculous and inept.

His face went red, and he snapped his head back to glare at her when he realized. She smiled sweetly, waving.

Then, around five, when she went to have her second coffee of the day, she opened the oat milk carton to find it empty.

“You don’t even like oat milk!” she accused in a heated whisper, making sure the customers wouldn’t hear. He took a deliberate sip of his coffee, grimacing as he swallowed.

“Delicious.”

So of course, Lucy was in an even more horrid mood. She hexed his socks to make them damp, and he didn’t realize for a proper half hour, just looked vaguely uncomfortable as he walked around.

When he finally did realize, he trudged over, kicking his shoes off to reveal soaked socks. Perhaps the spell had gotten a bit carried away.

“Lucinda!” He pulled the socks off, waving them at her. Water droplets sprayed over her.

“Ew!” she shrieked. “Get those away from me!”

She zapped them, and they immediately incinerated.

“What is WRONG with you?” he cried, face splotchy. “Those were cashmere!”

Lucy responded by cackling, which only made him angrier. He stalked over to the fireplace mantel.

“What are you doing?” she asked, alarm rising within her as she followed him.

He grabbed the dried flower bunches from three vases and crushed them in his hands.

“No!” she cried.

“Go on,” he said, goading her, and he sprinkled the flower remains into the air. “Use your magic to fix it, you love your little spells.”

“Magic can’t fix this, you RUINED them!”

“Good!”

They were in each other’s faces, both breathing hard, furious as they glared at one another. He would pay for that.

Lucy waited for the perfect moment to retaliate. At the end of the night, when they ordered dinner in since they still had loads to do before heading home, she did a little harmless hex on his food to make it tasteless.

That would show him!

But something must have gone wrong. After a few bites, he abruptly stopped eating, setting his fork down on the table. Grayson held a hand over his mouth and stood before running to the bathroom. She heard him retching, and when he came back, he looked positively green.

Guilt pricked at her. Her magic might have gotten carried away with her emotions. Lucy quickly brought Grayson a glass of water, which he took without struggle.

“Thank you,” he said, gulping it down. He looked kind of terrible.

Lucy nibbled on her lower lip. “Are you okay?” she asked.

“Yeah, I wouldn’t eat that, though,” he said, pointing to Lucy’s take-out box. “Something is definitely wrong with the food.”

“Oh.” She blinked. “You don’t think I had something to do with it?”

He looked up at her, confused. “Of course not,” he replied, mouth soft. “I know you like to pretend to be evil, but you wouldn’t deliberately poison me.”

She looked away, heart twisting. His face was open and trusting. Even though he hated her, he didn’t think she was a bad person.

She realized then how stupid they were both being, how petty and childish with their pranks and hexes. She, in particular, was being not only mean but cruel because she had magic and he did not.