I’m not ashamed to admit her taunt worked. Nodding, I grabbed the muffin box, read the back quickly, and ripped open the top. “We need to decide on a spell. What am I wishing for?”
“How about your heart’s desire? Getting Marc back?”
“I don’t want Marc back. Besides, I already spelled him. One worked. I’m waiting on the results from the second one.”
“Oh?”
“Let’s do this. And then when you see I’m not a liar or crazy, I’ll explain then.”
“Fair enough. Okay, um, wish for world peace.”
“My grandmother says it doesn’t work that way.”
“How exactly does it work then, Elizabeth?”
Holy cow, she was pushing all of my buttons. Clamping my mouth shut, I tried to think. “Never mind. I know what I’ll wish for.”
I dumped the contents of the box into the mixing bowl, cracked two eggs, and measured in the oil. Before I began, I focused on Maddie once more. “Are you sure about this? Sometimes it can get a little overwhelming.”
Tapping her foot, she replied, “I’m one hundred percent positive. Just do it.”
I ignored the electric mixer and picked up the wooden spoon. This way, she wouldn’t be able to blame anything on electricity. Besides, I preferred my muffins dense and rich. There was no reason for shoddy muffins, even if this was only a test.
Scraping the sides of the bowl to start, I fashioned the exact words to say. Because I wanted this to be a powerful show for Maddie, I was casting the only spell I could think of that meant anything to me at the moment. The one I still couldn’t seem to get right.
I closed my eyes and started stirring the contents together. I focused on what I wanted, poured my heart and soul into it, and whispered, “This wish is for me. I wish to be able to see my life with clarity, to know what I truly want, and to find the courage to go after it. No matter what it is, my wish is to never hide from myself again.”
The familiar energy began at my toes and climbed up my body like a vine, stronger and stronger. It reached my hands and flew out of me into the spoon. Instantly, the weighted zap of electricity sung through the air, bright colors flared from the spoon into the bowl. I kept stirring, repeating the wish over and over. Wind blew, and I heard a crash behind me, but I didn’t stop. My body pulsated with power, with magic, and I mentally grabbed hold of it and pummeled it out of me, straight into the batter.
I opened my eyes and saw the entire bowl was alight with myriad colors, shining, darting, glowing, jumping around as if someone had set off a miniature firework show. Laughing, I tipped my head back and repeated my wish one last time, with force, with all the emotion I could wring into it. I shuddered, let go of the spoon, and dropped to my knees. Slowly, very slowly, the energy faded, and Maddie’s kitchen returned to normal.
With a deep inhalation, I centered myself, ascertained I could stand without falling, and then pulled myself to my feet. Turning, I looked at Maddie. “That proof enough for you?”
“Damn, Lizzie. What the hell are you? A witch?”
I felt her then—Miranda. I knew she was there, with me, inside me, around me. My heritage. My gift. Who I truly was. “No, Maddie. Not a witch. I’m a gypsy.”
I fed Jon a bite of the new cupcakes I’d baked for him. Instead of trying to fix anything, I’d cast a spell to remove the effects of all the other spells. Maybe, just maybe, that would work.
He grinned at me and swallowed the bite I’d shoved into his mouth. Wiping crumbs off his lips, he said, “Enough. We need to focus. They’ll be here soon.”Happy he’d eaten some of the cupcake, I tossed the rest in the trash. If it worked on him, I’d bake another batch for Maddie. Just to be sure. I mean, yeah, she seemed okay, but I was still anxious about it. “We’re going to ace this. Quit flipping out.”
“Aren’t you the person who bluntly told me not to get too excited?” Jon asked, pacing the length of the lobby at A Taste of Magic. “You know we need this. Not just to pay off Marc, but to get everything back on track. I don’t want to screw it up.”