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Chapter One
The invitation stared at Amelia from where it was pinned to the fridge with a novelty magnet. She hated it already, and it’d only arrived a few weeks ago. A bit late for a wedding invite, but then that was just what her older sister, Rebecca, was like. She was getting married and Mia’s gut was telling her it was a bad idea. It wasn’t even that Mia thought Robert was a bad person, though he had his moments, it was more that she didn’t think he was right for Bex.
But that wasn’t even the worst bit. The worst bit was that she didn’t have a date. And the wedding was tomorrow. She’d have to endure the entire thing while being asked when it was going to be her turn, and being told that she’d have to find a man of her own. And that didn’t sound fun. So she’d come up with a solution. Not a very good one necessarily, but a solution all the same.
Pulling her Grandma’s old potion book from the shelf, she flicked to the page she’d earmarked years ago, but promised herself she’d never use. There, in her Grandma’s elegant script, were the instructions for making a love potion. One so strong, that a single drop would have the other person head over heels in an instant. She’d had all of the ingredients ready for weeks, ever since she’d first considered using it. She even had an item that the man in question loved. Well, kind of. She had petals from one of his flowers, and as a proud gardener, her neighbour Skyler definitely loved his plants. Or at least she hoped so.
Mia chewed on her lower lip, unsure about whether or not to go ahead with her plan, but the moment an errant thought about how her cousins would react when she turned up alone again, she made up her mind. They wouldn’t be purposefully cruel, but with Luke recently mating with a tiger shifter, there was next to no chance that she’d get away unscathed.
With a glance at her cauldron, she scooped up the book and the ingredients that she needed, before making her way over to the low table she kept next to her open fireplace. Maybe it was stereotypical for her to have a cauldron in her kitchen, but she wasn’t all that good at actual magic. Potions were definitely her specialty, and for that reason, she’d required her house had an open fireplace. It wasn’t just potions she was good at either, it was anything that involved mixing things up. She worked at a chemist, making medicines from plants. She wasn’t the only paranormal to work there either, though she hadn’t let on that she knew one of the other scientists was more than just a human, it wasn’t her place to.
She concentrated on her hands, picturing the flames in the grate. She may not be good at magic, but she could at least do the basics like this. They sprung to life, licking the bottom of her cauldron as they heated the water that she’d left in it overnight. She turned her attention away, reading through the instructions again to make sure she knew what she was actually doing, and then picked up the first ingredient. She worked through the instructions one by one, double checking to make sure she was doing it right. She probably didn’t need to do that, she was a natural after all, but it reassured her knowing that she was following her Grandma’s instructions to the letter. This wasn’t something she wanted to get wrong, not when she was going to give it to someone she was pretty sure was human. There was a chance of it going really badly, Faye had once managed to turn her best friend into a toad when they were younger. Luckily Reese was a shifter, so knew about them anyway, and he’d understood in the end, but it still didn’t go down all that well.
After completing the final step, and scattering the flower petals into the potion, it turned a light glittering blue, which presented a problem that Mia hadn’t really considered, how on earth was she going to get Skyler to drink it when it didn’t look at all drinkable. Sighing, she waved her hand in the direction of her kettle, hoping that her magic would behave and just turn it on. The tell tale sound of boiling water relaxed her slightly, and she went back to her plan.
It was quarter to seven and Skyler would be out in his garden for the next half an hour or so, and with the air rapidly cooling, despite it being summer, it would be the perfect time to offer him a coffee. All she needed was a drop of the potion anyway, and it was supposed to be sweet, so slipping it in would just replace the sugar he normally had. Mia smiled to herself. The plan was foolproof, and something even she could be proud of.
She poured the water into two mugs, adding coffee to his and tea to hers, before leaving them to brew. Now all she had to
do was work out how to get the potion into the coffee without creating too much of a mess. Inspiration struck, and she pulled a shot glass out of her cupboard, almost skipping over to the cauldron in her excitement. She dipped the glass into the blue liquid, filling it to the top, and carefully walked back over the the drinks. With as steady a hand as she could manage, she tipped a few drops into the coffee, and watched as it swirled through as it mixed in.
Trying not to burn herself, she picked it up and pushed through the door that led outside, and to the fence between her and Skyler’s properties.
“Hi Mia,” he said as he spotted her. He stood up straight and wiped the sweat from his brow, making Mia salivate, he looked particularly yummy like this.
“Hi, I was making a brew, and thought you might like one. Dark and sweet, just how you like it.” Just like she was. She didn’t add that, even though she wanted to.
“Thank you,” he said. Their fingers brushed as he took the mug from her, and she made sparks ignite on her fingertips. She’d heard that that was what happened when witches met their one true love. Or mate, or whatever the hell it was called for them. For some odd reason no one ever seemed to actually know what it was called. But she wanted it to happen, and maybe if she sparked it off, then something would take. Unfortunately, all she got from Skyler was a bland smile...though that would all change once he’d drunk his coffee.
Chapter Two
Felix woke early, as he should on the day of his best friend’s wedding. It wasn’t every day that the notorious player he’d gone to school with got married. Truth be told, he felt kind of sorry for Robert’s fiancée. Rebecca seemed like a genuinely good person, and she was shackling herself to someone with questionable morals. Felix didn’t even know why the two of them were still friends really, except that he wanted to at least try and keep Robert on the straight and narrow, even if it was a lost cause.
A knock sounded on the door of Robert’s flat, where he and the other groomsmen had stayed the night before. As was customary, Rebecca, or Bex as she’d insisted he called her, had stayed at a hotel so that the two wouldn’t see each other today. Felix actually kind of hoped that she’d get cold feet and not go through with the whole thing. He felt oddly protective of the woman, almost to the extent that he felt protective over his younger sister, Autumn, who he’d always kept far far away from his friends. He didn’t trust them around her.
He moved over to his overnight bag and withdrew a bracelet made of willow bark, slipping it around his wrist. He was already risking it by spending almost two days away from his tether, he didn’t want to take the risk of not having anything of it on him. Though he realised that it could draw some interesting questions later on.
The knocking intensified, the person on the other side clearly impatient to get in. “Alright, I’m coming,” he said, just loud enough that he knew the other person could hear him. The incessant knocking stopped, and he made his way over to the door before it could start again. Robert and the other groomsmen had gotten drunk the night before, and the last thing he wanted to deal with was their grumpiness if they woke up to pounding headaches.
Oblivious to the fact he was only wearing pajama bottoms, he swung the front door open to be taken off guard by the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. She was only wearing a pair of leggings and a baggy pale yellow jumper with her dark hair tied back in a ponytail, but there was something about her that just called to him. Her dark brown eyes met his, and they held each other’s gazes as something passed between them. Neither of them spoke a word, and they didn’t need to.
“Hi,” the woman said softly ,as if not wanting to disturb the peace that had extended between them. “I’m Amelia, Mia I mean. Bex’s sister.” Her rambling was adorable. Yet another thing that took him off guard about this woman. She was nothing like the type he normally went for. Maybe he’d have to change that.
