Page 36 of Potions & Prejudice
We might have improved the appearance of the house but not its attitude.
Auggie flopped onto the couch in the middle of the room and surveyed all the flowers she’d collected that sat on the little table. She grabbed her pestle, crushing the flowers to make different powders that she used as makeup. She was always experimenting with different makeups, different dyes for our fabrics.
I gazed out the window, past Adelaide, at the forest surrounding us.
I had to admit, it was nice having a house to ourselves. We’d spent so many years traveling, living out of our cart and tent. Every once in a while, for someone’s arrival day, we might get an inn for the night, but it was rare. Even if the cottage was grumpy and aggressive, it was a place to call ours. Temporarily, at least.
After his admission last night, I’d thought about telling Draven we’d vacate immediately, but I also liked the idea of doing him a favor. Mr. High and Mighty couldn’t even get into his own cottage. It filled me with far too much satisfaction that the cottage let us live here while it wouldn’t even let him enter.
Prue came down the stairs, flipping through the pages of some book she’d found in the library.
“Prue! Watch where you’re walking,” I said right as she stumbled over a step. She caught herself before she face-planted into the floor.
“Honestly, do you ever put down your books?” Auggie dotted some red powder onto her lips.
“At least I know how to read,” Prue mumbled.
Auggie turned and made a face at her.
“Girls,” Mama said.
“You both have strengths and weaknesses,” I said to them as Prue plopped onto the couch next to Auggie. “And we should be celebrating our differences, not tearing each other down because of them.”
Both of them had the decency to look chagrined.
“Well, this stew should cheer everyone up,” Mama said, “and maybe put us all in better moods.” She gave me a pointed look over her shoulder, and now it was my turn to look chagrined.
“Yes.” Auggie straightened. “Let’s talk about how you’ve ended up with a certain Draven Darkstone on top of you three different times now.”
Even that was enough to make Prue put down her book. “You two looked very cozy together last night.”
“No, we didn’t.” I tugged at the ends of my hair. “And, for the record, I don’t want to talk about Draven.”
“Why not? He’s got the whole broody, tall, dark, and handsome thing going on.” Auggie dotted some of the blue powder over her eyelids.
“I don’t care how he looks. He’s an ass,” I said, ignoring the way his light green eyes flashed in my mind at that moment, the same way I ignored the intensity of them every time he set them on me.
Auggie scoffed. “So you’re telling me that you felt nothing when his large, hard body was on top of you? I’d eat that man up.”
Mama squeaked from where she stood at the hearth, stirring and pretending not to listen in. “Got something caught in my throat,” she said.
I rolled my eyes. “The first time he landed on me, I was about to die because of one of his spells. The second time, I had freezing water rushing down my back in the stream. It felt like shards cutting into my skin. And the third time, he tackled me and nearly knocked the air from my lungs. So no, I was not thinking about the handsome man on top of me.”
“So you do think he’s handsome.” Auggie flashed me a smug grin, and even Prue smiled.
“You’re impossible,” I said.
“Well, if you won’t make a move on him, maybe I will.” Auggie shrugged.
Prue cocked an eyebrow. “Even after everything he’s done to Elspeth?”
Auggie stood and flounced around the couch and toward the table. She leaned against it. “I’m not going to be talking to him, Prue. Just... other things.”
“Auggie,” Mama admonished.
“What?” Auggie threw out her hands. “A witch is allowed to have some fun. I’m twenty-two. I didn’t get to go to the Coven Institute like so many witches. I didn’t get to make friends and join the Thorned Rose Society or Witches of the Moon.”
Two famous groups at the Institute, both ones that witches had to apply for. If they got in, they got to be a part of a sisterhood, a group of witches who lived together, did community service, and threw theoccasional party. At twenty-three, Auggie was too old to attend the Institute. The cut-off for attending was twenty-two. All of us had to let go of our dreams in one way or another over the years.
