“No, but Simon is, and I was right there cheering him on, casting every spell I could to help.”
Baz holds his bag out. “I was trying tohurtSimon with this thing.” His voice is high and desperate. “Shouldn’t you be angry about this?”
Penny folds her arms. “I don’t believe you wanted to hurt Simon. I’ve never believed that.”
It’s true, she didn’t. Even when I was the one trying to convince her.
“Whynot?” Baz demands.
“Because if you wanted to hurt him, you would have! You had infinite opportunities! You’ve never cast a dangerous spell on him, Basil. At the height of the Mage’s war with the Old Families, you were tying Simon’s shoelaces together and getting in shoving matches.”
“I pushed him down thestairs!” he says.
“I always thought that was an accident,” I say softly.
Baz wheels on me. “Are you fucking serious? You never shut up about it!”
I touch his arm. “I’m sorry.”
Baz’s grey eyes are wide and shining. He looks completely miserable. “I tried to take your magic, Snow! Your voice! It was supposed to be you!”
This is the confession I always wanted from him, and now that I have it, I just want to tell him that it doesn’t matter. I lived. I lost my magic anyway. But at least now I havehim.I know it wasn’t a direct trade-off, but I still feel like I got the better end of the deal.
I touch his cheek. “I forgive you.”
He just barely shakes his head. “How could you, Snow?”
I push my lips together. I shrug. “I just do . . .” I stroke his cheek. “Do you forgive me? For everything?”
He stares down at me, his mouth twisted to one side. “Yeah. I do.”
We just look at each other for a minute.
“Itwasan accident,” he says quietly, “when I pushed you down the stairs.”
“I know,” I say. “I always kind of figured.”
“You fucking menace,” he whispers. “You literally never shut up about it.”
I rub my thumb along his cheekbone. “Let’s go help Philippa,” I say. “Yeah?”
Baz nods. He looks smaller than he did a minute ago. “Yeah.”
65
AGATHA
It’s a Saturday, so the clinic is only open for the morning. I haven’t seen Niamh, and Dad’s kept me so busy I haven’t been able to look for her. She said she was going to check on the goats again today. What if the pregnant doe went into labour last night? Niamh didn’t think the goat wasthatclose, but it could have been. Did Niamh leave for Watford without me?
“Is Niamh in today?” I ask the receptionist when I get a chance.
“James Dean?” the receptionist says. “Just showed up. Not sure why. She didn’t have any patients today.”
I walk back towards the exam rooms, poking my head in every open door.
“Agatha?”
I spin around . . .
