“Someone’s going to smell like toothpaste,” she commented, before turning back to the spellbook.
Ria scanned the page carefully, going line by line to see where she might have messed up.The correct words?Check.The hand gestures?Yeah, she was almost certain those were what she had done.Will?That one was the easiest.Of course her will had been focused on Lissa’s destiny.
So if she got everything right then how come…?
Her eyes drifted lower on the page to the asterisk at the bottom.
*Destiny love spell is for guidance only.To make two people fall in love, utilize the ritual on the next page.
A brief moment of vague curiosity had Ria flipping the page.She never did rituals, so that couldn’t possibly be the reason why Lissa had kissed her last night.There was no way she’d made Lissa fall in love withher.
Ritual of Love
To make two people fall in love, follow this ritual precisely.Be warned, using this spell could result in terrible consequences if done for selfish reasons.
Step 1: Conduct the ritual in a place surrounded by magic.
Step 2: Invoke Hecate’s name.
Step 3: Have both parties dine on the fruit of the earth.
Step 4: Have both parties share the milk of the land.
Step 5: Call upon your will to summon the emotion of love.
Step 6: Seal the ritual with a blood sacrifice to Gaia.
Step 7: Close with a blessing to Hecate.
A nauseous, sinking feeling kicked the guilt out of Ria’s stomach.
No.No it couldn’t be…
It all came rushing in like remembering a bad dream.
Mixie’s magic patio.Mentioning Hecate and the moonlight rituals.The huckleberry scones.The oat milk latte.Her cut finger.And of course she would never forget her awkward goodbye.“Hecate’s blessings upon you,” she’d said before racing away from Lissa.
Oh, Goddess.Ria hadn’t just screwed up.She’d fucked up so royally the stars might rearrange themselves into a new constellation to forever display her ineptitude.
Maybe it wasn’t too late though.Maybe it could be reversed…
She carefully read every word on the page, her eyes finally dropping to the asterisk at the bottom.
*Ritual love spells cannot be reversed.Love must be allowed to run its course.
Ria was really,really, starting to hate asterisks.
Chapter Twelve
Lissa
Lissadidn’tconsiderherselfa particularly negative person.The last few stressful months aside, she tended toward the more optimistic side of life.But even optimism had its limits, and apparently the limit was Mondays.
Given her ability to make her own schedule, any day of the week should be as pleasant as the next, and yet there was a certain drudgery about Mondays.There was just something in the air.Maybe it was the increased level of anxiety wafting off the new barista at Mixie’s.Maybe it was the downturned face of Penny, the studio’s normally perky receptionist.Or maybe it was because this particular Monday included a visit from the corporate asshats who were coming to check on her progress.
It might have helped if she’d prepared for the meeting better.She’d blocked out yesterday as a brainstorming day, convinced that if she locked herself in her cottage and did nothing but focus on the studio, surely she could come up with something to present to the representatives from Art, Inc.
Instead, she spent half the day thinking about that damned kiss and the other half watching old Elixir Enchantress videos on social media.Ria had made a few new posts about her potion sales, but no new video to help Lissa gauge the witch’s current state of mind after bolting from the bar.So Lissa settled for going back to the beginning and watching every reel Ria had posted in the last six months.Not something she was particularly proud of, but she simply couldn’t get the witch out of her mind.
