Then came the lighter. Delilah held it like a talisman before tossing it lightly from hand to hand, as if weighing something.
“You don’t have to burn that one,” June told her dryly.
“No fun,” Delilah muttered, but she set it down and leaned in anyway. “Okay, bride. What do you want when things get weird?”
I didn’t even have to think. “Laughter.”
Flora nodded, approving. “A good choice. It keeps things tethered.”
“And what do you want,” June asked, “when love gets hard? When it’s not magic, not even comfort. Just…work?”
I looked down at the ring on my finger—the one Beau had slipped on during a moment that hadn’t been planned or official or anything close to conventional. The one I never took off.
“Home,” I said.
Flora murmured something under her breath, then stepped forward again. She passed a small bowl around the circle. Each woman dropped something in—salt, petals, a drop of oil, a torn scrap of paper.
Flora stirred it all with a bone-handled spoon, then took the bowl and held it over the candle flame just long enough for smoke to rise.
“By salt and spark,” June said, her voice like a steady drumbeat, “by root and flame?—”
“Let this love burn bright,” Willow echoed, “and never wane.”
“By blood and breath,” Flora intoned, “by word and will?—”
“Let it grow,” Delilah said, her voice softer than I’d ever heard it, “and hold us still.”
I felt it then. Just a little. A pressure in the air, like theroom had inhaled and wasn’t quite ready to exhale. Like something unseen had pressed close to listen.
The candle flared—just once. Sharp and sudden and blue at the edges.
No wind. No open windows.
Just a flicker.
Just enough.
We didn’t say anything right away. Just looked at each other and smiled like idiots. There was laughter next—of course there was. And hugs, and chips passed around, and plans made for hair and shoes, and discussion of whether Shane would hook up with Ash at the wedding.
But somewhere in the middle of it, I looked down at my palms, and I swear they were still warm.
I’d come to Willow Grove as a skeptic…but love wasn’t the only thing I’d come to believe in here.
The magic was real, too.
CHAPTER 30
Beau
Whit saidit was a sorry excuse for a bachelor party, but the nearest strip club was in Perry, and I didn’t want to be that far away from Noelle.
Not that I said it out loud.
I just shrugged and passed him another beer.
“She’d probably find a way to out-tip us anyway,” I said as we discussed if we hadalljust gone to a strip club together. “Let’s be honest—the girls would be way more popular with the strippers.”
Rhett grunted his agreement. “Noelle would end up in the VIP room, asking questions about folklore and how many of the dancers have seen somethin’.”
