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Rose
Iwoke up to bright morning sun streaming through my bedroom window. I’d sleptin.
No wonder, after that late, crazy night. My whole body ached, head to toe. I rubbed my forehead as I pushed back thecovers.
I’d put the books back on my shelves. The family photo Celestine’s magic had knocked from the wall lay on my bedside table. The glass had fractured with a dozen cracks, segmenting my face and my mother’s and father’s into jagged pieces. Looking at it, a deeper pain pierced through my chest. I wet mylips.
Today, Dad would be back. Today I could start to discover how true my stepmother’s words hadbeen.
Until I was sure, I had to keep pretending everything was normal. If this scheme had started with him, at least I knew she hadn’t let on to him that I’d been causing her any trouble. She’d wanted to maintain the illusion that she had everything undercontrol.
I had a month. A month until my consorting with Derek was supposed to happen, as far as Dad knew. A month to uncover the entiretruth.
But he wasn’t due home until the late afternoon, which mean I had the rest of the day to do what I wanted without worrying about what he’d see. The tug in my heart told me exactly where I needed togo.
Philomena sashayed over as I was pawing through the clothes in my closet. “Well,” she said. “Look at you, Rose. You conquered the witch and sent herfleeing.”
I restrained myself from reminding Phil that I was a witch myself. “And I have my guys,” I said with a smile I suspected looked a littlegoofy.
“Yes.” She looked down at her hands, uncharacteristically awkward. “I suppose you won’t be needing my company anymorethen.”
My head jerked around. I stared at her. “What?”
“I mean, now that you have so many fine gentlemen offering their attentions… And I can’t exactly be there the way a real friend wouldbe…”
“Phil,” I said firmly if only in my head. “You have been every bit a real friend to me. And I absolutely still need you. A girl still needs her girlfriends, no matter how many guys she’s got. Now get over here and help me figure out what I can wear that says, ‘I just got magically married’ withoutactuallysaying, ‘I just got magicallymarried.’”
Phil laughed and leaned past me. In an instant, she’d laid her hand on the perfectdress.
I practically flew down the stairs on my way out. Not quite fast enough to avoid Derek,though.
“Rose!” he called out as I reached for the front door. My shoulders stiffened at his voice. I breathed into the glow of the spark in my chest and turned to face him with an evensmile.
I was a witch now. I had more power in my body than he’d ever hold in one finger. He couldn’t hurt me. He was nothing tome.
My unknowingly former fiancé stopped and looked me up and down. The pale yellow summer dress was like a slightly fancier version of the robe I’d worn for the ceremony last night, but casual enough that it didn’t look odd for a stroll into town. “You look nice,” he said, but his expression stayed tense. “Is everything allright?”
Feeling me out. Celestine had gotten him wondering how much I might know. But from what I’d heard yesterday as I crouched in his closet, she’d kept him mostly in the dark about the details. So I just kept smiling. “As far as I know. It looks like a beautiful day, doesn’tit?”
He studied me, his mouth forming a slightly uncertain smile. “It does. Have you seen your stepmother by anychance?”
This morning? “No,” I said truthfully. “Why?”
“I just— I haven’t run into her all morning. Usually we cross paths at breakfast, at least. The staff don’t seem to know where she iseither.”
He raked a nervous hand through his ash blond hair. How long had he waited out in the darkness last night before he’d realized she wasn’t coming? That he wasn’t gaining his consort and slave quite yet, ifever?
Part of me wanted to boot him out of here like I had Celestine. But her disappearance was going to raise enough questions. I could play the long game and see him brought to justiceproperly.
“I don’t know where she might have gone,” I said, also truthfully. “I’m sure she’s fine, wherever she is. Maybe she went to arrange something for my father’s returnhome.”
“Yes, of course, that would makesense.”
He wandered back down the hall without even asking me whereIwas going. Too much on his mind, I guessed, with his co-conspirator mysteriously vanished. Let him go soothe his worries with Polly if he wantedto.
I strode out into the warm May sunlight. The wind picked up, teasing through my hair and tickling my nose with a bouquet of floral scents. I slipped past the gate and walked as fast as my feet would carry me intotown.
I’d already texted my guys to tell them I was okay and coming to meet them. No, not just my guys. My consorts. A real smile stretched across my face that even my uncertainties about my father couldn’t shake. I could spend a few hours where I was meant to be, with them all aroundme.
