“I have to try. I need my magic back full force. Unless you’ve got a better idea.”
He didn’t. And the determination in her voice made something inside him twist. She was so desperate to regain control, to find some way to undo what had been forced on her. He admired it, even as it stung.
“Let me help,” he offered, surprising even himself.
She paused with her hand hovering over a jar of crushed petals. “Help? With magic?”
“Why not?”
She shot him a skeptical look. “You’re a shifter. What do you know about magic?”
“Enough to follow instructions,” he claimed as he pulled out a chair and sat across from her. “What do you need?”
She sighed and slid the jar across the table toward him. “Fine. Start with this. Two pinches. No more, no less.”
Grayson followed her directions carefully, watching as she added a pinch of powdered quartz and a drop of something that smelled faintly of citrus. The mixture in the cauldron began to bubble, and its color shifted from pale green to deep gold.
They worked in silence for a while, with the only sounds being the clink of jars and the soft hiss of the potion simmering. It was…peaceful in a way Grayson hadn’t expected. The tension between them seemed to ease with every step of the process, replaced by a quiet sense of cooperation.
“Where did you learn all this?” he asked finally, breaking the silence.
Cora glanced up. “My mom. She ran our coven back in Lythara. Potions were her specialty.”
“Lythara?” he repeated. “That’s a long way from Bellefleur.”
She shrugged. “I needed a change of scenery. The coven wasn’t exactly a great fit for me.”
“Why not?”
Cora’s hands stilled over the table. For a moment, Grayson thought she wouldn’t answer. But then she let out a long breath and leaned back in her chair.
“They had expectations. Rules. I wasn’t exactly the poster child for obedience.”
Grayson smirked. “Shocking.”
Her lips twitched, but the smile didn’t quite reach her eyes. “It wasn’t just that. My parents… They wanted me to take over someday. Be the next leader. But I wasn’t ready for that. I didn’t want it.”
“So, you left.”
“Yeah.” She toyed with the edge of her sleeve. “I thought if I came here, I could figure out who I was without them breathing down my neck. And for a while, it worked.”
Until the auction. She didn’t say it, but Grayson could hear the unspoken words in the way her voice faltered.
“It wasn’t your fault,” he assured her.
For a moment, she just stared at him. Then she shook her head. “You don’t know that.”
“I know enough. You didn’t ask for any of this, Cora. But you’re still standing. That says something.”
She looked away, returning her concentration to the concoction in the cauldron. “Yeah. Sure.”
Grayson watched as she returned to her work, noting that her movements were slower now. He didn’t press her for more, sensing that she’d given him as much as she could for the time being.
“Okay,” she declared after a while, straightening in her chair. “That should do it. For now.”
Grayson glanced at the cauldron. The potion inside was now a shimmering shade of amber. “What’s next?”
“Testing,” she said, though her tone was more cautious than confident. “But not tonight. I need to let it cool.”
