Tiger Lily - May Dawson Page 0,54

pursed my lips to one side. “If you will. I didn’t mean—”

She waved her hand. “It’s all right. I’m sorry I yelled at you. We’ve all got our own stories, and sometimes it’s hard to hear someone else’s over the way our own yells at us.”

“Maybe you and I could talk about it over a unicorn hot cocoa sometime?” I asked.

“I’d like that,” she said. She seemed to hesitate, as if she were thinking something over, then she said, “Okay, Lily. I’ll make you something. This sounds like something you need to do.”

“Thank you.” My voice was full of relief, but I still had more questions. “One more thing…”

I pulled Love Blooms out of my purse, and her eyes went wide. Well. Definitely something going on there, then.

I lay the book on the countertop between us. “Is this book cursed?”

“Cursed?” she scoffed as if I was ridiculous. “No, it’s not cursed.”

I let out a long breath of relief. The guys’ affection for me wasn’t all a joke.

“It’s enchanted,” she went on, hovering her hands above the book as if she could feel the magic from here. “But in the best of ways, Lily.”

I closed my eyes as a lump swelled in my throat.

“Lily, are you all right?”

“How do I break the spell?” My voice came out dull.

She reached out and grabbed my hand. “Lily, just because there’s an enchantment doesn’t mean that something is a lie, either. Sometimes magic gives us the strength to see what was there all along—”

“Okay,” I agreed, because I couldn’t bear to hear anymore.

She studied my face, then heaved a sigh. “But if you believe you’ve found fated mates through the enchantment, and you need to break the spell…”

“Yes?” I expected some big quest. Go pick this flower from the mountains, get this object from the Kelpies in the spring…as if they’d ever help me.

“All you have to do is reject your mates.”

All you have to do.

I imagined their faces when I hurt them, and my own heart squeezed painfully.

But they’d get over it. Breaking up with Brad had hurt, and yet I’d already moved on.

Part of me thought, well, what did I have to lose? I could go right back to my old life in the city. I could find another job. Hell, Brad had come here for a reason—either he wanted the lowdown on magic, or he wanted me back. Maybe I could go right back to the way life used to be.

But I didn’t want that life again.

I’d have to find something new.

“Do you have any spells for a girl trying to find a new life for herself?”

She smiled at me sadly. “Do you want to change your face? Change your identity? I can print you up a fake passport if you give me ten minutes. But I suspect what you’re asking is something you’ll have to do for yourself.”

I sighed. Of course there were some things magic couldn’t fix.

She held the book out to me. “Just because something is beautiful and magical doesn’t mean it’s any less real. People get too caught up in believing that the gritty and ugly and cruel things in this world are the true ones.”

“I’ll try to think about that later,” I promised, slipping the book back into my bag.

Sometime later when it didn’t feel like my heart was breaking.

“Do you have anything for a broken heart?” I asked, with a lightness I didn’t feel.

“Memory loss, but I won’t cast that on you. Sometimes it’s better to remember even when it hurts. That makes us grow.” she said gently. “Sometimes broken hearts are telling us something.”

“You’re a lot less helpful than I expected a witch with a dildo shop to be.”

She shrugged. “If you’re having men problems, buy some dildos and vibrating panties. That’s how I solve broken hearts. Forgetting and running don’t help.”

“Maybe not, but it sure sounds easier,” I said.

The worst part of this whole thing wasn’t having my own heart broken.

It was knowing I was about to go break their hearts. Blake’s, and Archer’s, and Dylan’s.

But soon enough, they would know it was never real, and maybe they wouldn’t feel anything at all.

That thought was a hollow ache in my chest as I waved goodbye to her and walked out of the shop.

30

When I walked into Hot Wheels, Archer was sitting behind the desk, checking a customer out. When he looked up at me, his face brightened, and my heart broke a little more.

He gave them their keys, walked them to the door,