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I read slowly, and my first instinct is indignation. The more I read, the more I recognize that this online witch might be correct. I don’t appreciate it at all.

“No,” I whisper.

Openness instead of fear. Compassion toward myself. New beginnings without needing to know exactly where they lead.

Dani blinks.

“No what?”

“Maybe the spell is already working,” Veronica whispers, her head so close to mine that she probably didn’t even need to make any sort of effort to expel those words.

“Immediately no.”

A horrible quiet settles around the three of us. I look at Dani. She looks at Veronica. And Veronica, who has always possessed the self-preservation instincts of a moth near a light bulb, bursts out into the loudest laughter I’ve heard all month.

“It’s possible,” she says. “The universe works in mysterious ways, babe.”

“It’s been less than twenty-four hours.”

“You paid for an attraction spell, so it’s entirely possible it’s working,” Dani replies, still sipping that stupid iced coffee.

“I selected attraction as a category. And I actually told her I was cursed. I just needed the curse broken.”

“Well,” Veronica says, standing up from her chair and tucking it back under the desk where it belongs, “someone is attracted.”

“A man,” I whine.

Dani shrugs. “The universe doesn’t believe in labels.”

“I do.”

Veronica presses her lips together, visibly trying not to laugh. “Merry⁠—”

“I’m gay.”

“We know.”

“I have been gay this entire time.”

“Consistently, yes.” Dani nods seriously. “But maybe you should be open to what the universe sends.”

“The universe sent me compulsory heterosexuality. I’m going to return it.”

Veronica snorts. I turn back to the message. The words seem harmless. Kind, even. More thoughtful than I expected from someone selling spells and candles to strangers online.

That might be the problem. Had The Third Fairy replied with instructions to bathe under the moon while chanting into a bowl of salt, I could dismiss the entire thing.

Instead, she has somehow read one drunken message and identified a habit I’ve spent years disguising as a personality trait.

“You speak to yourself much more harshly than you speak about anyone else.”

My chest presses inward.

“I’m asking for a refund.”

CHAPTER 6

FLORA