‘I want him to think I’ve given up,’ said the witch. ‘I’ve spent the last several days sending resignation and termination letters to just about every person I know. Let’s hope I didn’t use the wrong name on anything.’
‘Theodora,’ said Dot with a sigh, but the witch pressed on.
‘The debt is too large for us to solve it with packet spells.’ Belchamber groaned quietly from the corner. Theodora rose. She summoned a plate of salt and placed it beside him. Theodora nodded back at the papers on the floor.
‘This is everything I’ve collected on your affliction, Dorothy.’ She snatched up one sheet and handed it to Dot. ‘I have a list of magical professors you can contact—’
‘Theodora,’ said Dot.
At last the witch looked at her.
‘I do not need a list. I need you, and more than that:youneed you as well. Some magical professor from the continent won’t save me. We need a solve for Salamander. We’ll do it together.’
‘But I lied to you,’ said Theodora. ‘I betrayed you very badly.’
‘You did,’ said Dot. ‘You were conniving and withholding, and you hid a woman in your bedroom because you felt too guilty to turn her out. Youdidlie as easily as you breathed.’ The witch hung her head at this. ‘Yet,’ Dot went on, ‘I cannot overlook the fact that,in spite of everything, youstillsaved me from Salamander. Youstillsaved Lio from Cate. Twice in a row, you damned yourself to atone for your mistakes. Don’t misunderstand me, Theo. I am furious at you.’ Dot stepped closer. ‘However, my mistakes have also had violent consequences, which I will regret as long as I am alive. That is something we have in common.’
‘What happened with Emily wasn’t your fault, Dorothy.’
‘And what happened with Cate wasn’t yours,’ said Dot. ‘The lie, of course, but the violence? You were barely an adult. You had a moment of jealousy. Opal governed you from when you were all but an orphan. Cateshouldhave been a mother to you, and she chose not to be. You hid Opal up here not out of malice or cunning, but out of shame.’
At last Dot knew who Theodora was without the glamour and the polish and the costumes. She saw a broken woman, strange and uncommunicative and in need of help, just as she had been when Theodora had plucked her from the Lourdes and decided to teach her magic.
‘You only wanted to be loved,’ said Dot. ‘For that, I will forgive you.’
CHAPTERTHIRTY-FOUR
The tea shop sat empty. Theodora and Dot were below in the basement, testing Dot’s blood. The witch took phials of it, mashed it with ambergris, boiled it, smeared it beneath magnifying glasses, scribbled notes onto parchment. However, for all of Theodora’s skill in magic, she was no expert in this kind of scholarship; after many hours of theorising and testing, they were no closer to halting the progression of the affliction.
‘The affliction is compounding,’ said Theodora. ‘And with a steep curve.’
‘So one day the rest of the scales will just sprout at once and swallow me up?’
‘Perhaps,’ said Theodora. ‘We need to make a plan for you, in any case. Once I’m gone, you will need help.’
‘Stop,’ said Dot weakly, but Theodora ignored her. She tore her cauldron from the flame, dumped its contents in the workshop sink, and began her testing again.
‘We’re reopening the Raven’s Attic,’ Dot shouted up at Theodora. The witch peered through the trapdoor and found Dot holding a sheet of paper filled with neat calculations. ‘I do not care about your business ethos. We’ll rip off everyone in Alliaster if we have to.We’ll hold an event and we’ll charge for premium packet spells and we will pay off your debt.’
‘I respect your gumption, but there’s no point,’ said Theodora. ‘With Salamander’s obscene cut of my profits, we would need to sell twenty thousand spells. There simply are not twenty thousand people in Calléum who need or can afford what we’re selling. Heknowsit’s impossible to pay back. There is nothing to be done for me or the tea shop.’
‘There is if Iam the one being paid,’ said Dot. ‘I’ve signed no contract. I will make the spells and I will sell them and collect the money and I will owe Salamander nothing, and then if I decide to give you a very generous gift – say, when is your birthday?’
‘New Year’s Day,’ said the witch.
‘We’ve already passed it,’ said Dot. ‘Why didn’t you tell me?’
‘Dorothy.’ Theodora sighed. ‘The contract specifically precludes schemes.’
‘A gift is not a scheme.’
‘Regardless,’ said Theodora, ‘I mean you no offence but your magic isn’t—’
‘Who cares!’ said Dot. ‘Your good name will be worth nothing if Salamander rips it away from you with the conduence.’
Still, Theodora shook her head. ‘In your condition—’
‘I think I’m the one who should decide what I can or cannot do in my condition.’
