myself, I can’t help but think this would be a fun place to come browse with the guys…if they are my guys at all, that is.
I marched past the dildos to where Juniper stood at the glass-topped counter, arranging a display of magically flavored condoms. I wasn’t sure if I would want pudding flavors under those conditions.
“Hi Lily!” Juniper called out.
“Hi.” I didn’t even manage to smile back. “I have a few questions for you.”
“Is this about the flower panties? There are a few options, vibrating or—”
I can’t cope with magical panties right no. “No, not that. Do you have a spell or an object I could use to take away someone’s memory?”
“Whose memory?” she asked. “Your own or someone else’s?”
I planned to erase Brad’s memory of shifters, of magic, of Silver Springs itself.
But suddenly it occurred to me that life would be easier if I didn’t remember the guys. If I could erase all that shared history that had made it so comfortable for me to tumble into bed with them, maybe those memories wouldn’t torment me during the achingly lonely nights I imagined stretching away into my future.
Magic never lasts forever. I had to find a way to break the spell and let them go free. No matter how much it hurt.
She was looking at me closely, and I shook my head to clear it. “Someone else’s.”
“There’s some tricky ethics there,” she said. “Deleting someone else’s memories.”
“It’s my ex-boyfriend, and he really doesn’t deserve magic,” I said. Thinking back to how he’d mocked me in our apartment right before we broke up, I added in a whisper, “Or me.”
“Excuse me?” Juniper’s dark eyebrows arched, and I could feel her bristle. I had a feeling she hadn’t even heard my whisper, and I frowned at how annoyed she suddenly seemed. “How do you know someone doesn’t deserve magic?”
She gestured around the shop. “Maybe the world would be a better place if everyone did have some magic!”
“You must be the only one who thinks that way, since Silver Springs is warded to keep everyone else from finding out our secrets,” I snapped.
“I can’t change that,” she said. “But maybe someday, Silver Springs shouldn’t be a secret anymore.”
I scoffed at that. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but people are terrible. They hate anything different than them.”
“Yeah, many do,” she returned. “I’m a dark witch. Supes have feared and hated me all my life because of it, but that doesn’t mean we should hide. Magic wasn’t meant to be locked up.”
We were going to find out if magic was meant to be locked up, because Brad would tell everyone about Silver Springs. He would try to ruin the last good things in my life—even this town itself. I could just imagine how this place would change if everyone knew what it really was.
“If you won’t help me, then I guess I’ll just go murder him myself,” I said. “I guess I can’t dump his body in the springs. Cause the Kelpies would totally turn me in now.”
I sounded glib and sarcastic as ever, but my eyes filled with tears at the thought of anything happening to Silver Springs. “But maybe I could drive him out to the woods? But ugh, my car is in the shop. I’d have to, like, put him on the handlebars of my old bike—”
I could never really hurt Brad. I didn’t even enjoy imagining how I’d get away with his murder.
As I fought back tears, Juniper’s face changed, her lips parting, her eyes softening sympathetically, although I could only see her through a sudden haze.
“Lily, what happened?” she asked.
“He was a terrible boyfriend,” I sniffled. “He made me feel small and stupid all the time, and you know what, I can’t even argue that I’m not, because I let him, you know? And now I don’t know how to just be normal and nice with these guys who—I mean, if they weren’t under some kind of spell, how would they even put up with me?”
“Normal is overrated,” she said, suddenly hugging me. I leaned into her hug, my arms closing around her back.
“I didn’t mean to,” I whispered. “But I shifted in front of him. I just couldn’t handle being human anymore. And now he knows about Silver Springs. Because of me.”
“Oh.” Her eyes were full of understanding. “And now you feel like you need to fix it.”
I nodded. “Yeah. I made this wreck and I need to fix it—but I do need your help.” I