Ramona’s throat closed. She nodded, not trusting her voice.
“Does it feel real to you?” Zara asked.
“Yeah,” Ramona managed. “It does.”
And she knew, in that moment, with Zara’s weight warm against her side and the tether humming steady between them — she knew that losing this would break her in a way that losing Simone, her coven, her position at Thornwood never had.
The thought should have terrified her.
Instead, she wrapped her arms around Zara’s neck and pulled her down into another kiss. Because even if they weresprinting toward a cliff’s edge, even if this all ended the moment the binding broke…
She wanted to fall without a single regret.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
The kitchen wasfull when Ramona and Zara walked in, which wasn’t unusual. What was unusual was the way everyone stopped talking the moment they appeared.
Felix was at the stove, making what looked like an ambitious breakfast involving too many pans. Kashvi sat at the table with her laptop, Gerald perched on the chair beside her. Posey was pouring coffee with that dreamy, distant expression she always had when she was thinking about plant things, and Cammie had apparently come home early from her opening shift at the café, still in her apron, looking tired but alert.
They all turned to stare.
“Good morning,” Zara said calmly, heading straight for the coffee pot.
Ramona felt her face heat. They knew. Of course they knew. Between the bed-breaking and the glowing tether that had thankfully turned invisible sometime in the night and the fox currently walking into the kitchen beside her, there was a lot to know.
The fox’s entrance caused an immediate reaction.
Gerald, perched on Kashvi’s chair, puffed up to twice his normal size and let out a warning coo that sounded distinctly aggressive.
Felix dropped his spatula. “Is that — is that a fox?”
“Yes,” Ramona said carefully.
“A fox is in our kitchen.” Felix’s eyes were wide, tracking the fox’s movement across the linoleum. “Near Gerald.”
“It’s not going to hurt Gerald,” Ramona said.
“You don’t know that.” Felix moved to position himself between Gerald and the fox, arms spread protectively. “Look at it. Look at the hungry look in its eyes.”
The fox, who had settled near Ramona’s feet and was currently licking one paw with complete disinterest in the pigeon, paused to glance up at Felix with what could only be described as mild disdain.
“It just looks bored,” Zara observed.
“That’s what it wants you to think,” Felix said. “That’s how predators work. They lull you into a false sense of security and then—” He made a violent grabbing motion. “If it touches one feather on my poor little baby’s head, I swear?—”
“Felix,” Kashvi interrupted gently. “Gerald is literally twice the fox’s size when he puffs up like that. I think he can handle himself.”
Gerald cooed again, this time with what sounded like smug agreement.
The fox yawned, showing all its teeth, then settled its head on his paws and closed its eyes. Completely unthreatening. Possibly even bored by the entire conversation.
“See?” Ramona said. “The fox is fine. Gerald’s fine. Everyone’s fine.”
Felix looked unconvinced but slowly lowered his arms. “I’m watching you,” he told the fox.
The fox’s ear flicked. It did not open its eyes.
“Oh, we should definitely talk about this,” Posey said softly, appearing with two mugs — one for Ramona, one for Zara. She set them down with gentle care. “You two finally got together — I could feel it in the energy shift, actually. And then there was all that light in the woods. My succulents all turned to face east four nights ago at exactly 11:47 p.m.” She said this like it was the most natural observation in the world. “That only happens during major magical events. And now there’s a fox.” She smiled at the fox, who was still ignoring Gerald. “Hello, fox friend.”
