Page 11 of Best Hex Ever
“It was a small spell. To…to bring us back together.”
“How fuckingdareyou. Jesus Christ, Dina. It was like I was a puppet, watching myself texting you and calling you “baby” again, and jumping in that car. I didn’t want to do it. I kept trying to stop, but I wasn’t in control of my body,youwere.”
“I’m so sorry,” Dina sobbed. “It wasn’t meant to be like that.”
“Oh? And what was it meant to be like then? I could have died. All because you couldn’t let go. We were over. Whatever this was”—Rory gestured between them—“it was finished months ago, you just couldn’t see it. I was trying to let you down easy.”
“I never wanted to hurt you. I just love you so much.”
“Forcing people to do your bidding isn’t love,” Rory spat. Something had loosened inside her, Dina could feel it; a low vibration growing. Whatever magic had been dormant in Rory was now stirring. And it was angry.
“You know what, Dina? I hope one day this happens to you, so you can understand what you did to me. Everyone who loves you will be hurt, do you hear me? Everyone who loves you will be hurt, just like you hurt me.”
Like an icy shroud, Dina felt the curse settle onto her shoulders in that moment. Rory hadn’t intended it, but her raw, untrained magic and anger had combined into an unshakeable force. A hex had knotted itself to Dina’s soul, and it had remained there ever since.
When she finally arrived back home the next morning, her mother tried to ask her what had happened. Dina grumbled something about a breakup and told her parents to leave her alone. She desperately wanted to tell her mother. She wanted to say,Fix it, Mama, fix my mistake.But every time she came close, she remembered that there was no way she could tell her only part of the truth. Nour would need to know everything about the relationship, including the fact that Rory was most definitely not a man. Dina had just lost Rory; she couldn’t lose her mum too.
All these years later, and the hex’s oily shadow still clung to Dina. It showed no signs of weakening. Every single time she felt a relationship was going well, the hex would find a way to fuck it up, hurting the people around her.
Once, Dina had been dating a guy for a few months—ahead chef at a London restaurant. On the same evening that he’d told her he wanted to introduce her to his parents, his oven glove had caught fire—one that Dina had bought him—inflicting burns across his hand.
Another time, Dina had been seeing a woman called Eliza. She was one of those amazing people who never ran out of energy, and even dragged Dina on hikes every weekend. They’d been walking up Box Hill when Eliza had shared that she might be falling for Dina. A second later, Eliza had tripped, hitting her head against a rock that was nestled in the grass. The dark irony of it hadn’t been lost on Dina.
One perverse trick of the hex was that the more Dina liked someone, the more it tried to hurt them. She’d tried everything to fight it. Cleansing spells on herself, unbindings. It didn’t matter what she did, all of her romantic relationships were doomed to fail.
She’d pretty much stopped dating, only allowing herself aone-night stand here and there so that she didn’t turn into a nun. She could never let herself fall in love again; it was too dangerous.
But here were the tea leaves, and the message was clear:Romance is on the horizon.
Well, maybe it was all right if it was just romance. Romance didn’thaveto mean love, did it? And how bad could it be, really, to never let herself get close enough to love someone again?
Dina asked herself that question a lot these days. Sometimes she looked in the mirror and saw that same young girl who had fallen in love with Rory looking back at her, with her frizzy hair and plumpness that threatened to spill out of whatever clothes she was wearing. Some days it took a lot of time to find ways to love herself again.
She fell asleep that night ruminating on the tea leaves’ prediction, and spent the following day at home, preparing and packing for the weekend, throwing all kinds of outfits in her bag to change into as her mood suited her.
She fished around in her wardrobe for the bridesmaid’s dress that Immy had bought her a few months ago. A dark forest-green brushed-velvet dress that molded to Dina’s curves—what she lacked in the boob department she made up for in ass. Dina Whitlock never traveled light.
She had a train to catch. Dina gathered her bags, and tucked a soft blanket into Heebie’s travel carrier, along with the toy pumpkin filled with catnip that was theoretically meant to keep the cat calm while traveling.
She put a spell on her plants to stay watered while she was away. Dina had a lot of plants, so the spell took some time to settle onto the leaves, coating them in a glistening dew that would remain there until she returned.
Dina threw a few spell candles and herb pouches into her bag, though her mum would no doubt have enough for both ofthem—it was more of a safety blanket to have them with her. Heebie had already curled up inside the cat carrier, kneading the pumpkin, and would soon be asleep. Brewing a quick hot chocolate in a travel flask, with an added spark of comfort magic to keep her going until she was home, Dina locked up her flat.
Chapter 5
King’s Cross St. Pancras was gloriously quiet in the evenings after the rush-hour crowd had all passed through. Halloween decorations and early sparkling Christmas lights lit Dina’s way through the station, and she delighted in listening to the music a teenager was playing on the free piano in the walkway. The way his fingers moved over the keys, the song echoing around them, was its own kind of magic.
Sitting down in a four-seater, Dina laid Heebie’s carrier beside her and tried to settle. It was just under an hour to Little Hathering. Immy’s wedding was taking place in a country house nearby.
Gradually, the train began to fill, and Dina let the sound of the other passengers wash over her. She was just about to crack open a horror novel—one of Immy’s recommendations—when she heard a click. A very familiar click, followed by a scrabbling.
By the time she looked down it was too late. Heebie, by some unearthly power that only cats possess, had unlocked her carrier and zoomed off down the carriage.
“Fuck.” Dina groaned and hauled her ass up to chase the cat. This was so unlike Heebie, who had never attempted to escape her carrier. She was surprised she even knew how…well, not that surprised. Heebie was a familiar after all.
“Excuse me, sorry, excuse me,” Dina muttered as she wove around other travelers trying to find their seats. Every few seconds she caught sight of Heebie’s black tail, swishing around the passengers’ heels.
Then she couldn’t see her anymore. Dina’s heart thrummed anxiously in her chest. She could compel Heebie to her with magic, but if Heebie had run away she might not respond to it. And she didn’t want to get caught doing magic in public either. There was also the small matter that Dina’s magic never quite worked how she intended when it came to animals.
