Calli got her grandmother’s recipe book out and set it on the counter, then found the right page. She started finding the ingredients and laying them on the counter, telling Malcolm how to combine them and in what proportions.
Calli turned back to the fridge to get the eggs, only for the hairs on the back of her neck to rise as she sensed magic being performed.
Curious, she turned around.
Malcolm had cast a levitating spell on the bag of flour. The bag tilted on its side toward a levitating measuring cup, but a second later she saw his mistake. He’d tightened the spell too much. The bag of flour simply exploded. White powder covered the room and every surface, like a ninja had set off a smoke bomb.
Calli coughed out a lungful of flour and blinked, then wiped her bone-white hands as she tried to get the dusting off her eyelashes.
Malcolm choked out a curse, causing flour to puff in the air like smoke, making him look like a dragon.
“Well…” Calli cleared her throat, still tasting the chalkiness of the flour. “I don’t recommend levitating flour bags until you practice more. The trick is that you have to concentrate the spell on the flour within the bag or it will collapse and lose its shape, causing it to explode like it just did.”
“Ahh.” Malcolm brushed hands over his shirt, creating more billowing clouds of flour in the air. “There’s a lot more science and logic to magic than I realized.”
A tiny ghost suddenly leapt up onto the counter and padded over to her, mewling.
“Persephone?” Calli scooped up the kitten, who sneezed and batted at her head with one paw. She rubbed the kitten’s fur to try and remove the flour, but it seemed to be settling in.
Malcolm reached over and picked the kitten out of her hands. “How about you bake the cookies? I’ll go clean Sephie up.” He glanced down at Hades, who was also as white as a ghost. “And him.”
Calli bit her lip to keep from laughing as he led the animals out of the room, leaving white footprints in the hallway. Torn between shaking her head and laughing, Calli focused on the flour-covered surface of the kitchen. She tried to avoid magic when it came to general cleaning—some things were just better with that personal touch—but this was a time when having magic was very much appreciated.
She closed her eyes and began a restoration incantation. The flour lifted into the air from every surface and came toward the remnants of the exploded bag. The flour formed into a pack shape, and the bag knit itself back together. It took only a minute, and the kitchen looked like nothing had happened.
She grinned. Perfect. Now it was time to bake those cookies.
Malcolm bent over the bathtub and scrubbed Hades’s fur with a gentle baby shampoo safe for animals until it bubbled up. Hades licked the air as a few big bubbles danced around his nose. Next, Malcolm poured a cup of warm water on the kitten, who mewled in protest. Her little pink tongue curled in disgust and her whiskers trembled with her tiny fury.
“Sorry, munchkin,” he murmured as he soaked the kitten and then scrubbed her into a little ball of lavender scented foam. Then he washed both animals clean. Hades danced around under the big towel as Malcolm dried him off. Malcolm picked up a small towel and removed the drenched, crying kitten away from the tub and wrapped her up in the cloth. He rubbed her gently with the towel until she was a dry little ball of fur again and her little body vibrated with a happy purr. Malcolm held her body against his chest.
“Do you know how much you mean to her?” he asked the kitten.
Persephone paused in her purring to lick his hand with her sandpaper-rough tongue in acknowledgement.
“You’ve got to take care of Calli, look out for her, just like she does with you.” He massaged behind the kitten’s ears. Persephone’s eyes closed in pleasure.
Hades pawed at Malcolm’s leg.
“Don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten about you, buddy.” The bond he and Hades had was as deep as his soul. In a very real way, Hades was a part of him. Even after he’d abandoned magic, he’d never felt alone because of him. Now Calli would know that feeling of having a companion for the rest of her life.
Hades stared up at him and ruffed a question.
“I do like her,” Malcolm replied. It was crazy to think that in such a short period of time, but it was true. She was beautiful, funny, kind, and confident. He chuckled at the memory of her hex breaking his arm. And strong. But he wanted her to trust him enough to let those barriers down so he could see all of her. He could never enter into a witch lock unless he was sure he knew the real her. And he knew she was still keeping a part of herself from him. She’d lost her parents when she was so young, and she seemed to be so alone. It would take time for her to trust him, just as it was taking time for him to trust his magic.
He finished cleaning up the bathroom and came down to the kitchen to find Calli removing the cookies from the oven. She looked like a Halloween dream wearing an orange colored pleated skirt and a loose fitting purple blouse with billowy sleeves.
“That was fast,” he mused as she set the tray down to cool.
“Snickerdoodles only take twelve minutes.” She used a spatula to slide the cookies onto a cooling rack. She raised a finger, showing him a faint glow in her finger. “Plus, I gave the oven a bit of help pre-heating.”
Malcolm took a moment to take in the sight of her in her element. Magic spells draped around the room like lace, touching and connecting all the blooming plants from their various pots around the kitchen.
Let me see your truth, he thought with a sudden desperation that surprised him. Let me know you.
He wanted to know everything about her, to feel as if she’d been in his life forever and not just a day.
Before he could stop it, a nearly invisible web of a spell covered the cookies. He’d just bewitched the cookies, but what was the spell?
