garden going; all the herbs and specialty plants she grew that the coven didn't use were dried or pressed to be sold on Rowena's website. The Spell Kits To-Go were some of Rowena's most popular items, and every one of the customers who gave feedback on the products said they'd never had such success with their spells and believed the potency of Ivy's plants were what made everything come together.
Ivy believed the plants were so potent because Astrid advised her constantly on the phases of the moon and stars, which helped Ivy decide when to plant and harvest. The magical bio-dynamics were the secret to ensuring every plant that came out of Ivy's garden plot were at their peak for maximum freshness and power.
All the girls in the coven exclusively used Ivy's produce for their spell work. Kerrigan and Astrid both sold everything from teas to candles infused with Ivy's herbal recipes in their shops, and if Rowena's projections for the coming year were correct, Ivy could triple the size of her garden and still need room for more to keep up with the orders and special requests. Ivy could make a full-time business out of what she teasingly called her Blossom Shrine.
Rowena wasn't teasing. With her own empire growing leaps and bounds, Rowena was dead serious about Ivy getting her business off the ground, and she'd already made up some sample logos and business cards with The Blossom Shrine embossed in metallic green across the pale pink paper.
All Ivy had to do was say the word, and her offerings would go up on the coven website. It took some time to admit it, but as humiliating as it had been, the day Ivy got kicked out of Haggara had been the best day of her life.
Just after sunrise, when her brain finally calmed down and stopped running terrifying scenarios of how everything could go horribly wrong, how she'd be a complete failure as a business owner, thereby letting down her coven sisters, Ivy managed to fall asleep.
Only to be jolted awake, what felt like minutes later, by Juliet's bellow up the stairs. “IVY, THERE'S A BEAR WITH A HUGE PACKAGE ON THE PORCH! I THINK IT'S FOR YOU!”
A boom shook the entire house seconds later. The windows rattled, dishes fell off the shelves in the kitchen, cabinet doors flew open, and a cacophony of shrieks sounded the start of a new day.
“Dammit, Callie! I said no more unstable experiments in the basement!” Rowena screamed furiously.
“It was totally stable until Juliet broke the sound barrier!” Callie shouted back.
Ivy flopped over onto her back with a groan as bedroom doors opened and slammed shut, feet thumped along the wood floors, and she lay there, wondering if she should just go for broke and be the first one to build a house on the property.
With the money Henry had so generously given her, she could put a down payment on a tiny house and park that sucker far from any further alchemy experiments. Callie's brewing and stewing in the basement would eventually make the creaky old manor fall down around them.
As the voices of her coven sisters got louder, Ivy knew there would be no going back to sleep. She struggled out from under her heavy blankets, so tired she could barely muster up the energy to pull a sweater on over her pajamas.
Astrid passed her at the bottom of the stairs, absentmindedly staring into an empty teacup, in the zone and probably downloading some cosmic information. Juliet and Kerrigan gave Callie a hard time, and Rowena bustled around with an armful of her best-selling silk pillowcases—she would probably spend the day sewing charms onto the colorful fabric—with a dark scowl on her face.
Ivy hustled to get out of the witch's way, hurrying out through the open front door, her belly turning circles at seeing Uriah on the porch. He straightened up as soon as he saw her; those preternaturally bright eyes of his settled on her chest, his lips quirking as he read the words emblazoned on her favorite sleep shirt.
The cactus printed on the soft fabric looked somewhat like a hand extending a middle finger while proclaiming, 'don't be a prick.'
Uriah wasn't waiting for her with a box in his hands, so the only other package he could have brought for her was the one in his pants. Unerringly, Ivy's gaze dropped to the front of his jeans, and sure enough, there was quite a bulge.
“My eyes are up here,”