“Don’t youdarecall me baby,” Ria cut her off, venom lacing her voice.“I’m not your baby, Lissa.I’m not your anything.And I’m definitely not your love.You can’t love someone if you don’t trust them.”
Lissa didn’t even recognize the woman standing in front of her.The sweet, kind witch who finally learned to embrace life was gone, and there was only this hard, unyielding person left.Lissa had done that.She had killed the light in Ria’s eyes.“I’m begging you, Ria, just give me another chance,” she pleaded.“I will do everything I can to fix this.I will prove to you how much I love you.”
Turning her back on Lissa, Ria said quietly, “Take me home.”
Panic seized hold of Lissa, her hands twitching at her sides, wanting so badly to take Ria into her arms.“Please, if you would just—”
“I said, Take.Me.Home,” Ria gritted out, then resumed her trek toward the car.“You know,” she called back, “I was so worried about breaking your heart when you found out about the love spell.I guess the joke was on me though.”Pausing, she glanced back at Lissa.“Because it turns out you don’t have a heart.”
Lissa dropped to the sand, tears streaming down her face like a waterfall.Ria was right; she didn’t have a heart, not anymore.She felt like it had shattered into more pieces than there were grains of sand on the beach, the remnants swept out to sea with each new wave until there was only a hollow void inside her.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Ria
“Whydoesthiskeephappening?”Ria wailed, staring down at the crumbling, dead leaves in her hand.She needed that chickweed for a potion she was working on, yet just like the last three times she’d gone to cultivate an herb from her garden, it magically shriveled up the moment she touched it.And it had to be magic of some kind because Ria had never killed a plant in her life.Well, not until last week when Lissa dropped her off at home, and she’d run into the house so fast she’d accidentally knocked over a planter of evening primrose.Ria wasn’t sure if it was her own foul mood seeping into the plants, or if they were getting revenge for a fallen friend.Either way, they were just as grumpy as she was lately.
Ria fell back onto the grass, squeezing her eyes shut to ward off the glaring summer sun beating down on her.She needed her plants.Needed to be focused on making potions.If she let her mind wander for even a second, it immediately drifted to thoughts of Lissa.She still couldn’t believe how quickly her life had gone from pathetic to perfect but then right back to pathetic.At least she had the coven as support.Nearly every day someone had stopped by with an excuse to check on her and see how she was doing.
Something soft tickled her bare foot, and Ria glanced down her body, squinting in the harsh light.
The most adorable fuzzy face stared back at her, whiskers twitching anxiously.
“Hey Nibbles, how’s it going?”Ria still hadn’t turned him back to brown yet.Every time she brought it up, he either disappeared or knocked something over that distracted her.At this point, she just assumed he liked being different from all the other squirrels, so she decided to let it go.
Pushing up onto her elbows, she watched Nibbles hop onto her leg and dash up to her stomach.Plopping his fuzzy booty right over her navel, he stared up at her, his whiskers going a mile a minute.
“What’s up, Nibbles?You here to judge me too?Tell me I was too harsh on Lissa?”Nibbles cocked his head to the side, and Ria imagined him asking, “Do you want me to judge you?”
Sighing, Ria lay back in the grass.The truth was that she was judging herself more than anyone else was.So many times she’d been tempted to reach out to Lissa, but then she remembered the sea lions and how Lissa’s deception tainted one of the best experiences of her life.Knowing the whole thing had been nothing more than a ruse to get the marketing secret killed Ria.Every time she thought about it, the wound inside her was ripped wide open again, and it felt like her heart might never be able to repair the damage.
Nibbles hopped off her stomach and nuzzled the side of her cheek.
“Thanks Nibs.At least I’ll always have you, right?You’re not going to leave me.Who needs love, anyway?Overrated is what it is.I have my plants.I have my coven.And I have you.I’m just peachy.”
Nibbles rubbed his face over her cheek again, then dashed away.
Okay, so maybe she didn’t have Nibbles.And maybe her plants were dying.But she still had her coven.When she’d first returned to Seacliff, she never imagined she would bond so strongly with a group of unique women, yet each one of them had come to mean the world to her.Even Willow with her bizarre comments and tendency to live in her own world.They weren’t just her coven; they were her friends.Her family.
But even when she was surrounded by them, she couldn’t help the ache of loneliness in her heart that said something was missing.
“Ria!”her mom called shortly before the bang of the back door shattered her peaceful moment.“Oh, there you are.What are you doing napping on the grass?”
“I’m not napping,” Ria grumbled without opening her eyes.“I’m wallowing.My plants keep dying.”
“Hecate’s disappearing panties, Ria, of course they’re dying.They’re connected to you.Your pain is their pain.”
Ria rolled onto her side and eyed her mom sitting in a cross-legged position, fingertips dancing over the grass.“So what am I supposed to do?I can’t magically make myself feel better.”
“Well, actually…”
“Please stop right there,” Ria interjected.“I’m not taking a mood-lifting potion.I want to feel the pain.I need the reminder.”
Her mom shook her head, regarding Ria with a mixture of pity and sorrow.“Oh, Ria, why would you possibly want to mope around the house all day and hole up in the shed all night?”
Ria tucked her hands under the side of her face, eye level with the bits of grass tickling her cheek.“Because if I try to hide the pain, then I might be tempted to forget about it.And then I might be tempted to forgive it.And I can’t do that.She lied to me, Mom.She used me.”
“And then she fell in love with you and told the truth,” her mom pointed out.
