She nodded as she walked past me into the kitchen. She poured herself a mug, added creamer, and walked back toward me. She sat down next to me and tilted her head. “Something on your mind?”
I was tempted to tell her what happened last night, but I couldn’t. Not until I knew how I felt about it. But that didn’t mean I couldn’t discuss the other stuff that had been on my mind.
“Do you remember when Mom brought us to see Ruth?”
Hazel paused her mug, her eyes glancing at me. I could see a hurt look cross her face. “Yes, why do you bring that up?”
“I was just thinking about it the other day. Marium had misplaced a spell book at the library, and it made me start to think about that day.”
Hazel’s throat bobbed, and she glanced down at her mug. She shook her head. “Yeah, I remember that day.”
“Do you feel anything is missing?” I asked. “I never had my magic, but you did. Did you ever feel like a part of you was missing?”
Hazel nodded, her lips forming a tight line. “I felt like someone flicked a light off inside me. I miss it.” I could see the hurt on her face, a look I hadn’t seen on her in a long time.
“You work with witches. Is there a way to ever get it back? I mean, if you miss it so much, have you asked?”
She shook her head. “I have, and there isn’t. I actually thought maybe there would be, but no. They said once it’s stripped, it’s gone.”
My heart sank. So, what I was feeling must not have been magic. If we couldn’t get our magic back, what was I feeling? It didn’t make sense.
“Why do you ask?” she asked, looking at me with narrowed eyes now.
I shrugged, “I was just wondering. I never had magic, and I was wondering about it. That’s all.”
She took a couple of sips of her mug. “How are things with the hubby?”
“Would you quit calling him that?” I asked. “It’s fake. It’s a fake marriage, so there is no need to call him that.”
She smirked. “Oh, but it makes it so much funnier this way.”
I rolled my eyes. “We are fine.”
“I thought you were better than fine. I saw you guys out for the light festival. You guys looked like you were enjoying each other.”
“We were acting, Hazel. We are supposed to look like that.”
She raised an eyebrow at me. “Hmmm, but were you? You can’t fake some things. You guys were having a fun time, whether you want to admit it or not.”
I thought about how we had laughed, how we both ended up having a good time going from shop to shop.
“You can’t lie. I know you,” Hazel added. “You had a good time.’
“Fine, we were having a good time. But that’s it. Nothing else happened.”
“Uh-huh,” she laughed as she took another sip from her mug. She glanced at her phone and frowned. “Shit, I didn’t realize how late it is.”
“It’s only eight.”
She pulled herself up. “I know, but I told the others I would meet them there early to help us restock the emergency supplies.”
I frowned, feeling like I was seeing less of her since she started helping them. I knew it was stupid to be jealous, because this is what I wanted for her, but I missed having time together. To joke and laugh about stupid things.
“When are you going to be home?” I asked. “I could order Chinese in, and we could do movie night.”
Hazel smiled. “That would actually be really fun. We haven’t done that in a while.”
“Great. Just text me when you’re going to be getting off.”
