Page 8 of Elora and the Crow

“Fuck Darren. You were always too good for that guy.”

“I’m not interested in being in a relationship right now,” Cece said.

“I know that. It’s why you’re on Tinder and not some love match dating app. Which, by the way, you get plenty of interested men on Tinder who would happily bang you for an evening. You need to start swiping right, girl.”

“You know what happened the last time I swiped right, Elora,” Cece said with a shudder. “Anyway, the point is, I think I’ll be okay staying here alone.”

“I don’t feel good about this plan,” Elora said.

“I need to try,” Cece said. “You can’t put your life on hold for me forever.”

Elora frowned, but before she could say anything else, Cece said, “Have you eaten dinner yet?”

“No.”

“Okay, let’s order some dinner and get caught up onThe Amazing Race. I swear if those two arrogant gorilla shifters don’t start communicating with each other instead of just freaking out and shifting every time they can’t complete a challenge, they’re gonna get kicked out.”

“I still can’t believe they tore down that gazebo on the last episode. I thought Phil was going to lose it on them.”

“Me too. Anyway, what do you think? Pizza and bad behaving gorilla brothers?” Cece asked.

“I think that sounds like a brilliant idea, Miss Cecelia.”

CHAPTER3

“Ican come over while you do the spell.” Cece’s voice coming through Elora’s phone speaker sounded exhausted.

“It’s all good.” Elora continued to grind the flowers into the paste in the mortar.

“I’m not sure it is a good idea for you to do the spell alone. Not if it’s as powerful as you think,” Cece said. “Someone needs to be there to put out the fire.”

“Ha, ha,” Elora said. “Look, honey, it was your first day back to work, and you’re exhausted. The last thing you need is to be over here watching me fail yet again at breaking the curse on Lilianna. Water your plants, have a hot bath, and watchThe Officefor the twentieth time, okay?”

“Elora…”

“It’ll be fine, honey. I promise. I’ll call you if it works. I love you.”

“I love you, too,” Cece said.

Elora ended the call and finished grinding the flower into the paste. She studied it critically before taking a deep breath. “Here goes nothing.”

She set the mortar on the altar and lit the three black candles, studying the spell book in the dim light. “Okay, Lilianna, come here.”

The crow flew from her perch atop the bookshelf and settled beside the burning candles on the altar. Elora slipped into her robe and buttoned it before pulling her hair into a loose bun at the top of her head.

“I think this is the one,” she said to Lilianna before reaching out and smoothing the crow’s midnight black feathers with her fingertips. Lilianna rubbed her beak along her fingers, and Elora smiled before dipping her fingers into the stone mortar and scooping up some of the flower paste. Lilianna cawed indignantly and backed away with wings flapping when Elora tried to smear the paste on her head.

“Look, I get that you hate being dirty, but if you don’t let me do this, the spell won’t work,” Elora said.

With a very human look of resignation, Lilianna took several steps forward, her talons clicking on the wooden altar. Elora smeared the flower paste along Lilianna’s head and down her back as Lilianna made another soft caw of disgust.

“Hang in there, Miss Prissy,” Elora said with a laugh, but the laugh sounded nervous and shrill even to her. Lilianna cocked her head, staring quietly at her with her dark eyes.

Elora sighed. “Yeah, okay, I’m nervous. This is a super old spell, and I’m not entirely certain it’s the right one. I don’t want to turn you into something else by accident.”

Lilianna made the rattling/clicking sound she did only when she and Elora were alone. While she didn’t specifically know if this was true or not, Elora had always thought that the clicking was Lilianna’s way of trying to soothe Elora when she was upset.

She wiped the paste from her fingers and stroked Lilianna’s sleek chest. “This will work, sweetie. I know it will. Are you ready?”

---