I need to put some distance between us.
Magnus headed straightto his room and got dressed to work in the kitchen. He plaited his hair back and made sure he was presentable. Today he’d planned to be in the kitchen and refine the menu for the bed-and-breakfast. He’d been looking forward to it, but now he couldn’t think about the menu at all.
All he could think about was Mercedes working here. How she felt in his arms. Her curvy body hidden under those modern clothes while pressed against him. The richness of her dark-burgundy hair, the dark hooded eyes which drew him in, her full kissable lips.
Stop thinking about her.
Once he was in the kitchen, he went through his notes until Sven came floating in.
“So, I take it you know she started,” Sven said carefully.
“I do,” Magnus replied, not looking up from his notes.
“Are you angry?”
Magnus grunted. “I tried to be, but I did say you were in charge of hiring the cleaning staff. I’ve made peace with it.”
“It’ll be fine you know.”
“I’m sure,” Magnus responded. “Just don’t expect a lot of interaction between me and her.”
“Going to take my advice about clothes?” Sven asked, with a hint of condescension.
“Yes,” Magnus replied through gritted teeth. And he wondered if Sven knew what had happened.
“Look, I know she’s a witch…”
“She’s a witch too?” Magnus asked, stunned. That was something he didn’t know. Descendant sure, but actual völva? What?
“Of course, you know who she’s descended from, but she assures me she’s not the same type of witch.”
“Why am I so bothered by it and you’re not?” Magnus asked. “You were cursed too.”
Sven smirked and shrugged his shoulders. “I’m more mature than you.”
Magnus rolled his eyes and grunted again, trying to focus on his work, but he couldn’t. Instead, he rose from the stool. “I’m going for a walk down by the lake.”
“Sure.”
Magnus floated through the back door and down the steps before becoming solid and walking quickly through all the back trails he knew so well that wound their way through Harmony Glen. Usually, he liked to take the more direct route down to the water and go through town. He liked running into friends like Gabe and Maggie or Torin and Lila, but today he just needed to work out his thoughts. And some of the back trails were covered in fallen leaves as summer was quickly fading and turning into fall. It was the start of his favorite season.
He always liked the crunching sound of the leaves under his feet.
When he got to the lake, he walked the boardwalk on the beach, passed by The Snack Hut and past Monster Catch Bait and Tackle. Finn was out on the docks, sitting on a bench next to his houseboat with a pile of nets.
As Magnus got closer, he could hear Finn muttering curse words under his breath while untangling said pile of nets.
“What happened?” Magnus asked.
Finn glared up at him. “Margaid.”
“She sabotaged you?”
Finn rolled his eyes. “No. She was helping with one of my last jobs of the summer, and I told her how to store the nets, but she tossed them in a pile in the corner and some are kind of slimy, and all of them are tangled.”
“Where is she now?” Magnus asked.
“She took one of my small boats out to check the population of something. She’s still actively working on her government research. If I had known the nets were this bad, I would’ve…” Finn trailed off and continued his untangling.
